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“Oh. Um. Okay, then.” She rose from her chair slowly, as if expecting him to change his mind at any second and pounce on her. When she made it all the way up to her full height with him not moving or saying another word, she visibly relaxed.
And although the rage was boiling in his veins again, he deliberately kept his expression open and welcoming as he watched her. It wasn’t her he was angry at, and the last thing he wanted to do was make her think she’d done anything wrong.
From the game cabinet, she drew out a familiar deck of colorful cards. It came with another stab of grief, but he’d told her they would play whatever she wanted, and he intended to keep that promise. “UNO? Excellent choice.”
“It’s one of my favorites.” Grinning, MaryAnn expertly stacked and shuffled the cards, as good as any dealer in Vegas.
“Me, too. And I always win.”
“Wanna bet on it?”
There was a gleam in her eye he didn’t quite trust, but he found himself nodding in agreement anyway. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”
“I… actually don’t know,” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “I’m kind of broke at the moment, with the whole ‘not having a job’ thing.”
“Playing for money is boring anyway. How about…” He tapped a finger to his bottom lip as if contemplating the question, even though he already knew what he wanted. “Got it! If I win, you have to answer any question I ask, and vice versa.”
For the first time since she’d sat down with the cards, she looked uneasy. But just when he was about to tell her to forget about it, that they could just play without any kind of wager, she straightened her spine and gave a single, decisive nod. “All right. Let’s do it.”
Game on.
CHAPTER6
“Best three out of five.”
Shrugging, MaryAnn gathered up the cards and began the process of shuffling them together again. “Okay. But if I win, you owe me three questions. And I can ask them whenever I want. It doesn’t have to be right now.”
“Fair enough.”
To say she’d wiped the floor with him the first time around was an understatement. He’d never seen anyone quite so ruthless at a card game.
And to make matters worse, she did it again a second time. And then a third. She didn’t even give him a cursory win.
Little brat.
“This game is rigged,” he muttered, tossing down the handful of cards he’d somehow ended up with. He still wasn’t sure how he’d lost that round; at one point, he’d been down to one card and she’d had nearly a dozen in her hand. And still she’d managed to not just turn it around, but absolutely annihilate him in the process.
With one of those rare, adorable giggles of hers, she gathered up the cards and tucked them back into their box. “It is not rigged. I’m just that good.”
“Uh huh. Well, fair is fair, I guess. You can ask me any three questions you want, and I promise to answer as honestly as I can.”
With the cards in the box, she placed it on the table between them, the tip of her finger tracing the outline of the words and images on the front of the box. “I do have one question I’ve been wondering about.”
Interesting. He wouldn’t have thought they’d known each other long enough for her to wonder about much. Then again, there was plenty about her he was dying to know, so perhaps she was just as perceptive as him.
Now there was an unnerving thought.
“Ask away.”
She sat there, playing with the box for so long he thought she might have lost her nerve before she finally spoke up in a quiet voice he almost couldn’t hear. “Are you a Daddy?”
If she’d asked him if he was secretly a giant blue alien wearing a human suit for a disguise, he wasn’t sure he could have been more shocked. “What?”
His tone was sharper than he’d meant for it to be, and he could have kicked himself when her head jerked up, her eyes wide and a hint of fear creeping into the brown. “I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. It’s too personal.”
“No, it’s okay.” Forcing his tone to gentle, he gave her a reassuring smile. “I was just surprised. I don’t mind answering, but before I do, can you tell me what made you ask?” Part of him hoped he was misunderstanding the question and she just wanted to know if he had children.
She still looked a bit uncertain, but no longer fearful, which was a relief. The last thing he wanted was to further traumatize the poor thing. “Ummm. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure Bryant is Shannon’s Daddy, and you said you met him because of your store, so it makes sense you two would have that in common. Birds of a feather flock together, right?”
