The Girl I Was Before (Falling #3)(60)

“Yeah, but I work crazy hours, so my clock’s sort of messed up,” I say, glancing at my hand and trying to hide two poker faces now. I have a pair of jacks. I also have more than just a messed-up work schedule. This table doesn’t need to know either.

“I feel ya. I guess that’s why you can live with Paige. I bet you hardly see her,” Ty says, looking up at me as he takes a long sip from his beer. He’s studying me, waiting for my tell.

“I guess so,” I say, moving my attention back to my cards. They’re still two jacks, just like they were when I first got them dealt to me. I’m staring at the heart and the club, pretending to be thinking about odds and possibilities, but I’m really wondering if Ty’s still watching me, waiting for me to break about Paige. I risk it and look back up, and his eyes are waiting for me. Everyone else is into their own hands, but Ty’s got me figured out. He smiles, then slowly chuckles to himself. This has nothing to do with poker, and everything to do with what he’s just figured out—Paige is mine. More accurately, I’m hers.

“All right, Texas,” Ty says to me. “Bet’s to you.”

I glance at my cards again, a move that’s only for show, then lay them face down and sit back with my hands behind my neck, chewing at the inside of my cheek, looking at the cards on the table.

“I’m all in,” I say, pushing my stack, which isn’t much, to the center of the table.

Ty’s eyes are waiting for me when I look up, and he raises a brow, glances at his own cards, and tosses them on the table.

“I’m out,” he says, sitting back and folding his arms.

“I don’t know, I think dude’s bluffin’. I call,” Nate says.

“Get ready to lose your shirt, bro. This dude’s the real deal,” Ty says, laughing to himself as he moves away from the table and pushes into a small kitchen area. I think the apartment belongs to one of the other guys—who follows Ty’s lead and folds. The other one has most of the chips on the table, so he tosses in the few it takes to see my bet through.

With every flip of the cards, nothing comes up, and even though I can’t bet, the others raise their own. I’m probably screwed; when I make eye contact with Ty, I realize I’m probably screwed in more ways than one. I’m ruined because I’m falling for a girl who’s a tremendous pain in the ass. That’s where Ty thinks the line is—little does he know that the baggage I drag over that line makes things a whole hell of a lot more complicated.

But I’m all in, falling for her anyway. There’s no taking that bet back now.

With the last cards tipped on the table, I flip mine over first, expecting to watch my final chips get swept away.

“You’re kidding me—a pair of jacks? You went all in with a pair of jacks?” Nate says, rubbing his face and leaning back in his chair, tipping it so the front legs lift from the floor.

“Go big or go home,” I say.

“Hell yeah, bro,” Ty says, reaching his beer over the table to tap it into mine. I drank two beers tonight, slowly, over two hours. I wanted to be able to drive if I had to, but I also didn’t want to seem like a pansy-ass in front of Ty. I’m pretty sure he’s the kind of guy who can really give someone shit when he feels like it. “Take your chips.”

I look down when he says that and realize I bluffed my way into winning my money back. I didn’t mean to. When I went all in, I felt pretty good about the jacks. Didn’t think they’d be all I needed.

“Thanks, boys. It’s been a pleasure,” I say, cashing out and putting the forty bucks back in my wallet.

“Yeah, yeah,” Nate says, sweeping the cards into a pile and shuffling as I head to the door.

“Oh hey, and Houston…Nate’s game with the scouts is next week. Cass is coming, and I think she’d like it if Paige came. Just…if you can help that out a little,” Ty says. We exchange an understanding stare.

“Yeah, I’ll work on it,” I say.

“Good. Thanks. Oh, and just a tip…that bluffing shit—” he pauses, holding the door open as I step outside onto the pavement, “it won’t work with her. She’ll see right through it all—trust me. Just give it to her straight. Ya know, if you wanna get anywhere.”

I hold up my hand with my keys, eyes wide, and nod. I don’t think I can really bluff Ty either. I won’t pretend to.

The trip in my car is silent. I don’t even bother with the radio; I’m too consumed with her. I pulled my phone out at the first stoplight, wanting to send Paige a text that I was on my way, but then I wasn’t sure what to type. I turned the lights out before I drove into the driveway. I know it’s barely ten at night, but they both might be asleep.

I can see the light from Leah’s room spilling into the hallway upstairs, so I slip my shoes from my feet and glide up as quietly as I can. She usually stays awake waiting for me on late work nights. She says she just likes to say goodnight, but I kind of think she worries I won’t come home at all.

“But what about the princess?” I hear Leah ask. I’m about to step into her room when I pause, not wanting to interrupt. I turn the corner so my back is flush against the wall outside her door.

“Right. The princess,” Paige says. She’s quiet for a few seconds, and I can hear the pages of the book turning. Leah loves princesses—anything in a big dress with hair and glitter. “How does this story usually go?”