Page 41 of One Night Gamble
“Of course. I’m the reason they are coming here,” he said.
She nodded.
“It’s a job to me, Brown Eyes,” he said. “I’m not going to go all in and lose everything.”
She nodded again, but he saw the doubt in her eyes. He didn’t know how to fix this. What she wanted—him to never play again—wasn’t something he could agree to.
But he needed her. And it had nothing to do with lust, and everything to do with wanting her by his side, day and night. He wasn’t sure if that was love or not, but it felt like it to him.
Chapter Thirteen
Talia stood there in the parking lot of the store where she’d first met him, and realized that much like that day, she was still intrigued by him. Saying goodbye was harder than she thought it would be.
But at this point, she had to ask herself if staying with him was going to bring anything other than pain in its wake.
“Darien isn’t an ass,” she said at last.
“He is. And he doesn’t trust women, in general,” Casey said. “But he doesn’t know you.”
She wasn’t sure what the difference was between her and whomever had hurt Darien. Still, she wasn’t intending to do anything bad to Casey. Love had a way of not affecting people in different ways.
Casey was with her, in her thoughts, all day—when she woke in the morning, throughout her day and before she fell asleep. She hoped that he felt the same way about her but there was no guarantee of that, no way she could ensure that they were both caught in the same snare.
That was love.
But he was a poker player. No matter what else he played, Casey was a gambler at heart. Could she walk away from him?
Talia had always prided herself on being the one who stayed. But today, when Darien was talking about the fallout of a love gone wrong, she realized that she’d been naive. It was easy to stay in a situation when nothing had been lost. When she hadn’t gambled her heart and soul on a man. Of course, she could stay in Vegas for Gran, but after Casey…would she be able to?
She always talked about going somewhere else, but deep down, she knew the truth. She wasn’t leaving. She wouldn’t go anywhere without her grandmother, and frankly, Vegas was a big part of who she was.
But if things didn’t work out with Casey, how would she stay?
She was only just realizing the cost of what she’d gambled. She’d see him everywhere.
“Darien is in a bad place and he had no right to take it out on you,” Casey said.
“But he’s right, in a way. No matter what we agreed when things end—”
“If. If things end. I don’t see this ending anytime soon,” he said.
She hadn’t, either, at least not until today. Before today, she hadn’t been able to see outside of the two of them. It was only after Darien’s comments that she’d realized that other people were going to be affected by their relationship.
Not just Gran and the Silver Sneakers, but Nicholas, Darien, and Rio. And her staff and the other people she’d reached out to on behalf of Jokers Wild. She should never have started an affair with a gambler.
It was beyond stupid.
Yet her heart had no regret. And honestly, neither did her mind.
“Casey, what are we doing together?” she asked at last. How could two people who were so broken make anything work?
“We were drawn together by chance. We can play it that it was attraction or something else, but at the end of the day it was serendipity that had me in that aisle when you powered down it. And chance that put you at the club,” he said. “And I’ve never had anyone I wanted to keep like I want to keep you. I’m used to throwing out good hands to make room for something better to come along…but I don’t think I’m going to find anyone better than you, Talia. I want you in my life. I don’t know what else to do to convince you of that,” he said.
His words were the most genuine thing she’d ever heard. She wanted to believe in him and in them. But he’d used the word chance…
She was still mulling it over when he stepped between their two cars and pulled her into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her torso and drew her close, putting his chin on top of her head as he held her. She ached to hold him back, knew that she wasn’t strong enough to push him away when he was here, holding her like he’d never let her go.
He wanted her like no one else ever had before.
