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“Not really,” Rhys said, displaying his cards.
Everyone groaned and Jameson and Jasper threw their hands in.
Oliver gaped at the ace and six of hearts Rhys had revealed that joined the three, seven, and queen of hearts on the table. “A fucking flush?”
Dani clapped. “Juju.”
Rhys laughed and pulled the pot to his side of the table. “Now, tell us about spades.”
She looked around the table. “Y’all sure?”
“Here, let me get you a chair,” Jameson said, snagging an extra one from the corner of the room. “Would you like a drink?”
“A glass of champagne, babe, if you don’t mind.”
Her favorite. “Does anyone need a refill?”
All hands shot up.
He dropped a kiss on Dani’s lips and strolled over to the bar cart.
“Spades,” Dani began, a smile in her voice. She shuffled the deck. “When I was growing up, there wasn’t a get-together, picnic, orbarbecue that didn’t somehow end up with grown folks around a table playing cards. Even as kids we played, but we stuck to war, gin rummy, and crazy eights.”
“Look at that fancy shuffling. Jameson, you brought in a ringer.”
She smiled slyly. “The sound of cards being shuffled always signifies a good time to me. I’d watch them playing and I’d want to be like them so bad. I remember the first time one of my cousins decided to teach me how to play. It was like I was being let into this secret world.”
He could imagine a young Dani, being so excited to learn a card game.
Adorable.
“I also remember the first time I was brave enough to call ‘next’ on a game. I promptly got my feelings hurt.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, immediately protective.
“You gotta have a thick skin. When you sit down to a spades table, age or relationships don’t matter. It took years to get to the point where I could play without shedding tears.”
“That sounds hard-core,” Oliver said.
“It is. You gotta come correct or don’t come at all. I’ve seen husbands and wives run the table during a spades tournament. But if they end up on separate teams, I’ve seen that same wife call her husband out his name. People in my family still talk about the time Cousin Edward and his wife ran a boston on Uncle Sammy and Aunt Myra... in 2008.”
“Run the table?”
“What’s run a boston?”
His friends were all staring at her in rapt attention. It appeared he wasn’t the only British gentleman susceptible to her charm.
“Let’s start with the basics. The object of the game is to win the number of books you bid before a hand starts. You can playsolo or in teams, but if you have four players, you typically play in teams.”
“What’s a book?”
Jameson opened his mouth to quip and Oliver shook his head. “Not you.”
“Books are the cards of any play. Now, the person who goes first leads with a card. Whatever suit that card is—heart, club, et cetera—is the suit everyone has to play. If you have it in your hand, you have to play it. Highest card wins the book.”
As Dani further explained the rules of the game, including cutting, reneging, and bidding, Jameson marveled at the turn his life had taken. And there were more changes to come. A time when he could do the work he wanted and live his life outside of the royal spotlight, with the woman he loved, was in his future.
“—The more you play, the more you’ll get into the strategy of bidding. But we don’t have to worry about that right now,” Dani concluded.
