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Another container,he realized, exhaling tiredly.
“Well, go on!” Avril said, grinning. “Pop her open.”
“My Christmas gift is a fortune?” he said, ignoring her order.
“You’ll see if you open it up.”
“So long as you promise that this is thelastthing that I have to open tonight.”
“It is, it is,” she said, waving a dismissive hand at his complaints. “Now open it up!”
Clicking his teeth and inwardly promising that he’d throw the halves of the cookie at her if she were lying, he cracked it open. Inside, he finally found something that made sense to see inside its container. Pulling off one of the broken halves, a paper tassel jutted from the remaining half. Tugging it out carefully, he straightened the bent paper and let his eyes do the rest.
There weren’t many words on it, but they were enough. Yesterday, she’d promised to reveal her New Year’s Eve plans to him at their party. And here they were.
Tess cleared her throat, and Liam remembered he wasn’t the only curious individual in the room. He quickly shared its contents by reading the few words on it out loud.
“Ashgrove Casino is open for business December 31st, 9:00 pm. Formal attire is required.”
Anna was the first to respond.
“I didn’t realize our apartment complex had a casino somewhere,” she said, casting a look at her exultant roommate.
“You just don’t get out as much as you ought to. It’s been there all along.”
“Mmm.”
All four members of Avril’s audience waited for further elucidation. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of jumping through hoops to arrive here, she provided the necessary details.
“This is my final present for all of you,” she said, sweeping her hands out theatrically. “I said I wanted anactualnight where we got dressed up, had nice drinks, played cards—like Vegas. And here it is. You’re all welcome!”
“It sounds more like a gift to yourself,” Victoria noted.
“Little of Column A, little of Column B,” she replied, smirking. “But it’s really for you, Liam. You can thank me later.”
Wisely, he didn’t bother to ask why she’d singled him out as the gift’s primary beneficiary. They both knew the answer, and he didn’t need her announcing in front of everyone else that it was because he’d get to be “surrounded by four sexy, dressed-up women the whole night.” Hedidask a secondary question, however.
“Am I going to be the dealer again?”
“Nope, I am.”
That raised a few eyebrows.
“So, we can expect even more cheating than last time,” Victoria drolly stated.
Avril gasped, affronted. “I run a respectable casino, Miss Moreno. There shall be no chicanery in my establishment.”
Liam wondered how many people believed her. Personally, he was on the fence. He could absolutely see all this as an attempt at a bit of vengeance against him. After all, she’d been as shocked as the rest when he’d revealed how he’d manipulated things last week. While she’d seemed impressed by it all, everyone who knew Avril Knight knew that she liked to be the one pulling off the schemes, not the victim of one. This could be just such an opportunity.
Or maybe she just didn’t wanthimto have another chance at deciding who won or lost, not that he would have dealt a false game if given another shot at it. He’d gotten to show off what he could do last week. There really wasn’t any merit in him doing it again. Once was enough. He didn’t want them to think of him as duplicitous.
“When you sayformal attire,how formal do you mean, Avril?” Tess asked.
“If you don’t think you could play the role of a Bond girl at a high-class casino, then you haven’t gone formal enough.”
Somewhat surprisingly, none of the women objected to her stipulation. Not even Victoria. Based on some slight shifting of her mouth, Tess even seemed to have a few ideas ruminating about in her mind. Liam, however, had a question of his own.
“Seeing as how I don’t think I could pass as a ‘Bond girl,’ does that mean I’m supposed to wear a tuxedo?”
