Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)(26)

He remembered an old movie, Witness, where an Amish community had gotten together to build a barn. The structure had been needed, but more than that, it stood as a testament to tradition, to acceptance and caring from the community. The shower was like that.

Later, he and Shelby walked home together. He carried the large centerpiece he’d won from the clothespin game.

“You survived,” she told him. “Congratulations.”

“It was fun. Different. There’s no competition with your girlfriends.”

“Is there competition with men?”

“Mostly. We want to know our place in the hierarchy. Sometimes we have to jockey for position. Or walk away when there’s a game we can’t win.”

“Like you and Del with your dad.”

“Just like that.”

“What about the rest of the party?” she asked.

“I liked it. The food was good. A little pink, but good.”

They reached her place. He walked her up to her porch and handed her the centerpiece.

She grinned. “You don’t want to take it home?”

“No. I can handle our gender events, but I have to draw the line at flowers.”

Her blue eyes were bright with humor. “A man with standards. I’m so impressed.”

“You should be.”

She giggled. “Speaking of gender events, what’s next?”

“You know how to play Texas hold ’em?”

“That’s a card game, right?”

“I take that as a no.”

She took the flowers. “Yes, that’s a no. Texas hold ’em, it is. Should I practice?”

“At least read up on the basic rules.”

“Yes, sir. I guess there’s not going to be any talking.”

“Very little.”

“And nothing pink.”

“We’ll be playing at The Man Cave. There’s a bar. You can order a cosmo if you want.”

She laughed again. “I’ll be the only one drinking that.”

“Yes, you will.”

Without thinking, he leaned forward. To kiss her. Because he wanted to. Because he liked her. Because when he was around her, he felt need and belonging. Because...

But at the last second, he remembered she was his friend and they couldn’t kiss, so he shifted and lightly touched his lips to her cheek. Then he felt like a fool and didn’t know what to say.

“I’ll, ah, text you the date and time,” he muttered before stepping off her porch and turning away.

“Okay. Bye, Aidan.”

He waved without turning around. He was an idiot. Worse, he was a horny idiot with nothing but a long line of cold showers between now and June.

*

SHELBY KNEW SHE was the second player to the left of the button, which meant she would be betting second. At least she was pretty sure. Despite having spent a couple of hours online learning the rules to Texas hold ’em, she was still figuring it out as she went.

The “no talking” rule of the game helped her to concentrate, and she found the relative silence kind of soothing. There was the piped-in music from the premium sound system at The Man Cave and the sound of conversation in the bar beyond the open door. But here, in the back, there was only the thud of glasses and beer bottles settling back on the table and the occasional male grunts.

She knew all the players, at least to say hi to. She was friends with most of their wives and significant others and had been to most of their houses. But this was new territory, at least from her perspective.

She wanted to ask how often the guys got together to play cards, but kept her lips carefully pressed together. Aidan had been clear. Just like she’d had to get permission to bring him to Destiny’s baby shower, he’d had to ask if she could join the game. The guys had agreed, as long as she followed the rules. Apparently rule number one was no conversation.

So here she was, at a big table with eight burly guys, each one better looking than the last. Under other circumstances, she might be intimidated. But they were all in committed relationships and none of them especially appealed to her. Except for Aidan, of course. He appealed to her a lot. But in a friendship kind of way.

She thought briefly of the almost kiss they’d shared. For one heart-pounding second, she’d been so sure he was going to do it. Kiss her. Lips on lips. Anticipation quivered ever so slightly at the memory. But of course he hadn’t. Because they weren’t involved. It was for the best. But still...a kiss would have been pretty darned nice.

She returned her attention to the game, placed her bet and resisted the urge to check her hole cards. She knew what they were and looking at them over and over again didn’t change that. She had two kings. And the object was to get the best five cards possible using any combination of hole and community cards. If one of the community cards was a king, she would have a great shot at the pot. She mentally crossed her fingers.

“How’s Isabel?” Justice asked.

Ford Hendrix, Isabel’s husband, grimaced. “She’s okay. It’s still relatively early in her pregnancy and she’s bigger every day. I don’t know how her body’s going to stand it. I know my mom went through the same thing and was okay, but shit. It’s tough to watch.”

Shelby wasn’t sure what shocked her most. That there was conversation, or the fear and concern in Ford’s voice. She’d seen him with his wife and knew they had a loving marriage. In her head she got that of course he would worry about her. But hearing it articulated was very different.