Picking up the new cards that he tossed her way, she bit her lower lip in excitement. “I fold,” she heard him say as soon as she set her two new cards next to her others.
“Why?” she asked, exasperated since she finally had a hand with which she could beat him. “Pick them up and play the hand you’re dealt.”
He chuckled softly. “No way. You can definitely beat me with whatever is in your hand. You take the pot and deal the next hand.
In a huff, she tossed her cards down and pulled the ante up to her now measly pile. Shuffling the cards, she looked across the table at him. “Okay, teach me,” she demanded.
He raised one eyebrow. “Teach you what?”
She shook her head at his response. “Not what you’re thinking. Teach me to play this game so that no one will know what I’m thinking.”
“Maybe I like knowing what you’re thinking and don’t want you to be a blank slate.”
She shuffled the cards one more time, then pushed them towards him to cut the deck. “Are you afraid I’ll win?”
He considered her words for a long moment, his eyes watching, considering. “What’s in it for me?”
She dealt the cards easily, but not nearly as efficiently as he had done. “What do you want?”
“You.”
She was startled by his overt answer and her face showed it, wishing it were otherwise. Looking down, she concentrated on her task. “What would be your second place prize. Not that you’re going to win, mind you.”
He laughed softly . “What are you offering?”
“My wonderful presence at your meals?” she offered with a cheeky grin.
“I get that anyway. How about some answers?”
That startled her and she looked across the table at him. “Answers to what?” She tossed five pennies into the pot as did he, starting the bidding.
“Answers to the mystery of Darcy DiAngelo.”
She shrugged and tossed three cards onto the table. “What you see is what you get.”
“Not even close.” He took four for himself, tossing twenty cents into the pot before he’d barely glanced at the cards.
“I’m not that mysterious,” she said.
“Stop biting your lip,” he ordered. “It’s a sign that you’re unsure of what I have.”
Darcy stopped immediately, hadn’t even been aware that she was doing it, but his words were accurate. She had two pair right now, which was a relatively good hand, but weak, since she only had two fives. Anything two pair above that would beat her.
As they played cards, bantering back and forth as the pennies and cards flew back and forth, he taught her some of her ‘signs’, indications she gave out that told her opponent how good of a hand she was holding. She learned quickly and tried to become more adept at hiding her emotions, but each time she had something good, he folded immediately. And each time she had a bad hand, he slaughtered her to the point that she didn’t even dare to bluff anymore, laughing as he told her each of the ways she’d given her hand away.
“I fold,” she said, placing her cards down on the table several hours later. “I think I’d better call it a night,” she said and swept her pennies up into her hand, irritated that he’d won almost all of her gains from earlier in the evening.
“I’ll walk you to your room,” he said and stood up, leaving his pennies on the table.
She didn’t like the sound of that and said so. “No need. It’s right down the hallway. I’ve gotten myself there for the past couple of nights without your help, I can easily do it tonight.”
He walked around the table and shook his head as he looked down into her nervous eyes. “You and I both know that I’m going to kiss you good night.”
“No!” she gasped, stepping backwards. “No need.”
He smiled slightly and touched the side of her face. “There’s every need. In fact, I have a very strong need right now. Would you care to discuss it?”
“You’re needs are your own private business. I’m only here as a…an unanticipated guest,” she finished, for lack of a better description. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She started to walk out of the kitchen, but he easily followed her. “Why does our attraction for each other make you so nervous?” he asked conversationally.
She stopped and looked up at him, considering her answer carefully. “Because I don’t think we equate the culmination of that attraction in the same way. And I think you sleep with women for recreation, while I consider that kind of commitment something altogether differently.”
He looked at her, watching her features and looking for something, she wasn’t sure what.
“Just one more piece of the puzzle falling into place,” he said, pushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. “You’re not who you present to the world, are you?”
She shrugged and looked away. “I don’t think anyone is exactly who they present to the world. We all have secrets.”
“I suspect that yours are a bit more important than other peoples.”
“You’re assuming that other people are hiding something.”
“Everyone hides things. I know you’re hiding something. I just haven’t figured out what that something is.” He watched her eyes shutter before saying, “Yet. I will figure it out.”
“Don’t you have a missing future brother in law? Isn’t that enough trouble in itself?”
“He’s an annoyance.”
“And what am I?”
He considered his words carefully. “I think you’re a little hummingbird, carefully sipping nectar from place to place but never landing anywhere.”
His comment was a bit closer to home than she wanted him to know about. “That’s a lovely image, I think, but not very accurate.”
“Where do you live?” he asked.
“In a house,” she replied evasively.
He took her hand and held it in his own, leading her down the hallway. “What country does that house reside in?”
“The United States.”
“And to what state does the house owe personal property taxes?”
Darcy laughed and shook her head. “A secret state.”
“Why does it need to be a secret?”