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“Don’t know yet.” Brady’s face was tight as he continued to shuffle. “Can’t get the old man to commit one way or the other. My guess is he’s checking up on the lead himself. I appreciate the tip, though, Blake. I’ve been on the hunt for months, and this horse your guy found is by far the best out there. He’s exactly what I want. If I had the means, I’d just go buy the damn thing myself, and show my father what I can do.”
“He seems like a fair man,” Blake said.
“He is. I don’t blame him for not trusting me with this. It was stupid of me to run off to Las Vegas and gamble my fortune away after the Cowboys let me go. My father’s skepticism is only part of the price I’m paying for that foolhardiness.”
“I have an idea you aren’t going to be paying all that much longer,” Blake said, eyeing the older man who, with Luke, was uncapping another beer. Tonight’s game was the first time Marshall Carrick had joined them. He’d played in the old days, but since Brady’s return, the general understanding had been that Marshall refused to join the game as a way of showing him he wasn’t going to support the thing that had been his son’s downfall.
Brady’s gaze followed Blake’s and, still tight-lipped, he nodded. “Maybe.”
“He’s here,” Blake pointed out.
“Probably to check up on me.”
“Or to see that you really are playing a mature—and cheap—game of poker with friends,” Blake finished quietly, as the others started filtering back to the table. He was feeling generous about the world tonight. Life might not be turning out as he’d envisioned some years ago, but it was a hell of a lot better than he’d dared hope during the past two years.
Annie in his life, in any capacity, was a gift.
“There’s that grin again,” Cole said, as Ron Hayward took his seat at Blake’s left, giving Harry Knutson a heads-up that he felt a win coming on. With a couple of good hands under his belt, the cocky man was just getting cockier.
Blake was glad to know him.
“I asked Annie to marry me,” Blake finally said under his breath, knowing that Cole knew damn well why he was feeling so good. Annie had called that afternoon to let him know that she’d told her mother, Cole and Becky that they were getting married.
Blake had told Colin and Marta, too, leaving out the part about the baby for now. Marta had started to cry, and Colin shook his hand for a solid minute.
“Hey, everybody! Did you hear that?” Cole jumped up before Brady could get the cards around the table. “Blake just said he’s getting married!”
Blake understood, then, that Cole had just been waiting for an opportunity to announce the news.
The ruckus that broke out almost had him running for his car. The river. Anyplace but that small, noisy room. Except that he was too darn busy deflecting the good-natured razzing to even think about getting away.
“When’s the wedding?” Harry asked, and Blake remembered what Cole had told him about the older man. Once you told Harry something, he told his hairdresser wife, and it would be all around town in the morning.
“We don’t know yet,” he said. “Soon, though.”
“Hey.” Luke grinned, tipping a bottle of beer to his lips. “We should all go to Vegas this weekend. Not only are the cards good, but they do weddings every hour on the hour. It’s all legal and quick.”
“Imagine the Wild Bunch loose on the strip,” Brady said with a noticeable dryness.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Cole piped up, and Blake, seeing the hesitant look on Brady’s face, wondered if they weren’t all being a bit insensitive. The last time Brady had played cards in Vegas, a man had committed suicide.
Marshall Carrick wasn’t saying much, just playing with his chips.
“I say let’s do it,” Luke declared. “Brady needs to go back, to face his demons, and what better way to do that than with all of us there together for a happy occasion?”
“I don’t know.” Brady finished the deal.
“I think you should go,” Harry said. “Even if there isn’t a wedding.”
Blake threw in his cards. Shuffling his chips, Cole did not. Luke pulled his hat down.
And the challenge had been issued.
“I agree with Harry, son.” Marshall’s quiet words filled the room and everyone froze. “You need to go back, show yourself what you’re made of. And if you do, if you come home, we’ll go to that sale.”
And just like that, it was settled. Blake was going to Vegas over the weekend to get married.
Assuming the bride agreed to the plan.
