Page 33 of The Recovery Coach
He glanced at his phone, and a grin spread across his face before he locked eyes with Livy, and she matched his energy.
Hazy furrowed his brow, trying to parse what they were talking about.He couldn’t help but feel excluded.
“What’s funny?”he asked Livy.
“Just a meme.”
“Can I see?”
Livy picked up her phone, but instead of showing him the joke, she stuffed it back into her pocket.
“None of your business,” Toma butted into the conversation.
Hazy’s hands balled into fists.
“Yeah, Connor.It’s none of your business,” Livy ran with Toma’s comment.She stuck her tongue out at him.
“Jeez, only wanted in on the joke.My bad.”
Daisy reached across the table and patted Hazy’s hand.
“Sweetheart, you are the joke,” she teased.
He worried that was truly the case, but he faked a smile and mimicked being stabbed in the chest, earning a laugh from the table.
Beanie elbowed Lover in the hip, and Lover swatted his elbow away.Livy slid over to make room for him.
Hazy still couldn’t figure out Lover’s game.If Connor Valentine were interested in a woman, he’d never be able to joke around with her freely.But the more time they spent together, the more their banter seemed like flirting.
Reesy shuffled the cards, but before he could deal another hand, Livy said, “Let’s play a different game.Real poker, so it’s not all luck.”
Hazy objected.“Livy, you don’t know how to play poker.”
“You don’t know everything about me,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows, skeptical.She was gambling with his money, and the boys didn’t play about poker.But he’d let her have her fun.At least for a little while.
To his surprise, Livy won the first round and poked Toma in the ribs as Reesy gathered the cards again.“Who’s bad now?”she asked him.
He rolled his eyes.“Is one hand.”He gestured to his significant pile of chips.“I’m still winning.”
When they got their next hand, Toma looked at his cards and rubbed his beard, a telltale sign that his hand was good.Sure enough, he raised the bet.
Livy and everyone else folded.
The next round, Toma had another good hand.He raised the pot until everyone but Livy had folded.
The table grew quiet as they revealed their cards.They both had straights.Livy’s was higher.She jumped from her seat and pumped a fist in the air.
Toma laughed and said, “Okay, sit down.You got lucky.”
She kept getting lucky.Every time she’d win, she whispered in Lover’s ear, and he grinned ear-to-ear.For a while, she tilted the table in her favor, but Toma eventually won his chips back.
After hours of card games and great food, everyone cleared out.He breathed a sigh of relief, even knowing all his favorite people would be gone for a week on their last road trip before Thanksgiving.Maybe he could spend some time figuring out where Livy’s head was.He waited for Livy to close the door behind the last of his guests.When she started clearing the card table of the few snacks and drinks that had been left behind, he reached out to still her hand.
Fuck, he wished he could help.Having people wait on him hand and foot was painful.Having Livy do it was a million times worse.As the only girl in her family, he’d watched her clean up after Jayden and their dad for years.She shouldn’t have to lift a finger for him.
He pulled her around the card table and to his side.She plopped onto the couch next to him, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, dragging her as close as he could without jostling his aching leg.
