Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)(17)

She had a big, insane crush on a gambling musician.

And it was growing by the minute.



*



AS HE LISTENED to Reese and Marcy walk back over to their house, Rylan pulled his chair closer to Quinn’s and waited for whatever question had been patiently poised on her lips all night. She’d come over to ask him a question, he was certain of it.

“You said you don’t gamble for money,” began Quinn finally, looking him square in the eye. “So what do you gamble on?”

And there it was.

He wasn’t oblivious. Over the past few weeks, he’d seen her flinch every time he mentioned gambling. But he hadn’t wanted to push. The flashes of pain in her eyes following punched him in the gut each time.

So he’d waited, knowing that if she asked the question, then it would mean she cared enough about him not to want him doing the one thing seemingly attached to nightmares in her past.

“Chores,” he answered softly. “We bet on chores.”

Quinn shot her eyes up to meet his to see if he was kidding.

He never kidded about chores.

The slow, glorious smile that bloomed across her face. “And this is the high stakes game the town is always talking about?” she asked, amusement dancing across her features.

“You bet,” he replied in an utterly serious tone. “Everyone in my weekly game has a set of chores we absolutely hate to do. And every week, at the end of the night, whoever won the pot gets to make the first one who ran out of chips do those chores.”

A relieved, mirth-filled laugh escaped Quinn. “Are we talking take-out-my-garbage type chores or clean-my-swimming-pool-with-a-toothbrush type chores?

“A cross between the two, I’d say. For example, Sienna, surprisingly, really hates washing her car. Belly aches over having to do it. So that’s usually what she wagers every week.”

Quinn raised a brow in surprise. “That doesn’t sound all that bad.”

“That’s because you’ve never seen Sienna’s truck. The time Levi lost to her, he spent an entire NFL Sunday working on that truck, which, apparently had a month’s worth of mud, tree sap, bird poop, and what he suspected was a new species of fungus. Personally, I think she just drove through every mud puddle in the state and parked under every bird-crowded telephone line after he made her wash his two giant German Shepherds, both of whom she’s threatened to get a restraining order against whenever they’re in heat…which seems to be whenever she’s around.”

Rylan proceeded to recite the top ten worst chore bets they had on record—from the house full of dirty dishes to the one that took top honors…outlet mall shopping with Tucker’s wife.

“I love Cindy but I tell you, I make extra sure I don’t ever lose to Tucker. We all do. Sadistic woman got Aidan up at six in the morning, and made him drive three hours away to the first of seven Outlet Malls. By nine o’clock that night he was calling all of us practically crying.”

At this point, Quinn was laughing just as loudly as he was.

God, he loved watching her laugh.

“So,” he snagged her gaze and held on, “does this officially wipe the slate clean before I see you on Dani’s group date thing tomorrow night?”

The look on her face was priceless—a lip-twitching smile that had just tangled with a sour lemon, if he had to describe it.

She made a show of glancing at her watch in Oscar-worthy shock. “Oh wow, look at the time. It’s getting late, I have to get going.” She backed away toward the gate, a teasing lilt to her voice he’d never once heard before. “I had fun tonight, Rylan. You make a mean s’more.”

“Compliments aren’t going to distract me, woman. Are you going to answer my question?”

“Nope!” She pivoted and closed the gate behind her, hand stretched up in a backward wave.

He grinned. “I’m choosing to take that as a yes then,” he called out, arms draped over the gate as he watched her walk the sexiest damn walk he’d ever seen down the driveway to her car.

“There’s still thirty-six hours between now and the group date,” she tossed back. “I’m fairly certain you’ll find some other way to piss me off before then.”

And then she was gone.

Ah, hell.

Yeah, okay. He lied before.

He definitely wanted to keep her.





CHAPTER EIGHT


QUINN HADN’T KNOWN what to expect of the group date that Dani had arranged.

The surprise indoor rock climbing part of the evening had turned out to be ridiculously fun, due entirely to the fact that her wearing a skirt had limited her to just climbing high enough to torture Rylan directly below her, but not completely flash the man.

There was just something so enticing about a gruff, granite-hard man doing his damndest to be a gentleman.

Definitely a highlight of the night.

Of course, the dinner and ice cream afterward had been memorable as well. Her ice cream had looked even better splattered on the back of Luke’s shirt than it had on her cone. Four years of softball in high school, thank you very much.

Good times.

But, without a doubt, the entire evening simply paled in comparison to this moment right here on her front porch.

Rylan was at it again.