Page 54 of Play For Me

He chuckles, leaning down at my side to see into the drawer. Damn, he smells good. I really should not be standing this close to him, close enough to feel the soft brush of his cotton sleeve on my bare arm.

“The IPA is pretty good,” I say, trying to keep my mind off his proximity and how it makes me feel.

“Your cousin won’t be pissed that I’m stealing his beer?”

I scoff. “Pretty sure I actually bought most of these. Cade is horrible at remembering his wallet when we go to the grocery store.”

“Jay is exactly the same way,” he says as I reach in to pull out two bottles. I decide to show off a little and pop the caps usingthe countertop edge. Solomon’s eyebrows go up. “Impressive. I guess that’s the kind of thing you learn when you’re a rock star’s daughter.”

“Yup,” I agree, handing him his beer. “I can also sleep through a sound check, swear at paparazzi in two languages, and suss out a wannabe groupie from fifty yards.”

He’s laughing when Ash enters the kitchen. “Hey, man,” my cousin says. His face lights up when he sees the beers we’re holding. “Excellent, now Cade can’t say shit when he sees me with one.”

Since I haven’t had a sip yet, I hand mine over and reach back into the veggie drawer for another. I open it the same way and Ash rolls his eyes. “Such a showoff.”

I make a kissy face at him. It kind of sounds like Sol’s breath catches again, but I very deliberately ignore that.

“You wanna play cards?” Ash asks. “I’m trying to convince Cade to switch to Seven-Card Stud.”

“He never wants to play that,” I say.

“Yeah,” Ash agrees. “Because he sucks at it.”

I look up at Solomon to find his eyes already on my face. “Do you play poker?”

He clears his throat. “Um, yeah. I’m pretty decent.”

I waggle my eyebrows. “What do you say? Cade is totally going to lose if we make him switch from Texas Hold’em.”

“And I want to take all his money,” Ash adds. “We went to lunch yesterday and guess who forgot his wallet?”

I smack Solomon’s arm. “See? Didn’t I just tell you he always does that?”

He chuckles. “I wouldn’t mind playing poker.”

So the three of us go out to join the handful of people at the dining table. Vi is there too and she joins us in bullying Cade into switching games.

When we finally get him to agree, he insists on dealing, which should’ve been our first warning. His grin is already too wide, and he has that overly innocent tone he uses right before he does something obnoxious.

“Game is Seven-Card Stud,” Cade announces to the table as he begins to deal the cards.

“Figured we’d switch things up since Hold’em was getting boring,” Ash says to the girl sitting next to him—some chick from his art history class I’m pretty sure he’s into.

“Translation,” Cade says, eyebrow raised. “Ash got tired of losing.”

“I don’t lose,” Ash says. “I simply recalibrate my strategy.”

“Sure,” Cade murmurs, leaning back in his chair. “Recalibrate. Like how you recalibrated your entire academic trajectory after failing three classes our freshman year?”

A round of laughter goes up. Ash flips Cade off. Solomon, next to me, leans slightly closer so he can whisper, “Did you guys bully each other like this growing up?”

“Please,” I whisper back. “Westillbully each other.”

He smiles, and that alone distracts me long enough that I almost miss my face-up card being dealt in front of me.

A nine. Solid but not exciting.

Cade gets a queen showing. Great. He’ll be insufferable.