Play for Keeps (The Devil's Share #6)(14)

Her smile was genuine. “Yes, you do. And we will both be just fine. I promise.”





Chapter Eleven Jacks “Are we going to stop soon?” I grabbed the back of Smith’s seat, pulling myself forward.

He turned to look at me. “Are you serious? We’ve been on the road for twenty minutes.”

“I know but we need to get snacks. We can’t go on a true road trip without snacks. And do we have a route mapped out? Any cool places we get to stop on the way? Can we go to an alligator farm? Bourbon Street? Casino? Are there any giant balls of yarn or the world’s largest—”

Smith held his hand up. “If you will stop talking, I’ll google the route and see what I can find.”

I sat back. “Okay, cool, man.” Mission accomplished. Luke held his fist out, and I bumped it without saying anything. We’d both been able to see the desperation in Smith’s eyes. He’d been staring out the damn window like a lost puppy since we pulled out of the driveway. I could understand his concern, leaving Dill like that. But the girls were all there and she had doctors and nurses coming by. We had top-of-the-line security and Chase was minutes away. Not to mention there were three pit bulls guarding the place right now. Everyone would be fine. They’d be more than fine, those girls were tough as nails. Way tougher than us.

“We can stop in Lake Charles for the night since we got such a late start. You can gamble there.” Smith closed his phone and tossed it in the cup holder beside him.

“And snacks?”

Dash rolled his eyes. “We’ll be in Bastrop soon, we can grab some stuff there.”

I grabbed my phone and texted Luke.

Me: We need to stop next to a liquor store.

Luke: Dash is gonna be pissed if he’s the only sober one in this car, bro.

Me: Smith looks like he’s ready to turn back around and go hide under Dill’s hospital bed. He’ll never make it all the way to Meraux.

Luke: What’s Meraux?

I shot him a what-the-hell look.

Me: It’s where Smith is from, where he and Jared grew up.

Luke: Well, he won’t drink alone. So one of us is going to have to stay sober with Dash and one of us is going to have to get lit with Smith.

Me: Rock, paper, scissors?

He nodded and we quietly did best two out of three. I lost.

Luke: You’re drinking.

Me: What? I lost. You’re drinking.

He looked at me and let out a deep sigh.

Luke: I won. I chose my prize. And my prize is staying sober.



I shrugged. Whatever. Apparently, we had different opinions of what winning was. It would be easy for me to get Smith to start drinking anyway. I’d been partying with the guy for over ten years now. I could get him in the right frame of mind. This road trip was about to turn into the party train.

All aboard!





Chapter Twelve





Bryan

“I think Jacks is drunk.” I looked down at my phone. Picture after picture was of blurry landscape and then he wrote a long text telling me how much he missed me and how he wished I was there with him. Then he got into some explicit sexual stuff.

Dylan held her phone up in the air. “Smith too.” She studied her screen with her eyes narrowed. “Everything he types is like autocorrected. It doesn’t really make much sense.”

Harlow mixed herself a gin and tonic at the kitchen bar. “Luke said that he and Jacks rock, paper, scissored to see who would get wasted with Smith. Apparently he was super stressed and looked close to breaking. So their brilliant idea was to get him drunk.” She took a sip of her drink and smiled to herself. “Why talk about what’s bothering you when you can just drink your worries away?”

She was being sarcastic, but Lexi held her wineglass up in a toast. “Word.”

I looked across the living room to the pallet I’d made for Landry so she could watch a movie on the iPad. Halen was lying next to her and they were both fast asleep. We’d already done moisturizing facials and watched Footloose. Girls’ week was well under way.

The medication my sister was on was making her sleepy. She napped on and off. I’d called our parents and assured them we were fine and they didn’t need to come down here. I hadn’t been able to get ahold of Mikah. Which wasn’t surprising. Our youngest sister was a bit of a wild card. A free spirit. My dad liked to joke that with each child, his sensible genes had been diluted.

“Do y’all think it’s selfish of me to not want another baby right now?” Lexi looked down into her wineglass.

Oh. So we weren’t going to drink away our issues? I glanced across the room at Dylan. Lexi was her bestie; she should be the one handling this one. But she was asleep again. I looked over at Lo and she made a panicked face. So it was on me then. Okay.

“I’ve never been pregnant, but I do know what it’s like to have a daughter. I know that your time isn’t your own. I know that Landry is on my mind, always.” I smiled when I looked at our girls sleeping side by side. “I feel like if you aren’t ready, then you aren’t ready. If you don’t feel like you can handle it, like you can give it your all, then don’t do it. Halen is so young, there is no harm waiting another year or two before you give her a sibling. I mean, two kids in diapers? That seems really hard.”