Page 37 of One Night Gamble
A part of her worried she might be fooling herself. How could she not, after a lifetime of being shown that her judgment couldn’t be trusted? But by the time they said goodbye, even Gran was joking with him.
When they got to their car Casey was smiling. “That was…one of the best workouts I’ve ever had.”
“Not even close to intense. I’ve seen your body. I know you work out harder than that,” she said.
“You like it,” he said. “But I was serious. I had no idea that seniors could be that much fun.”
“What about your grandparents?” she asked.
“I never met them. I don’t even know who they are,” he said.
And that sealed it. She loved him. She was never going to look at him and see a man who could hurt her again. In Casey, she could sense the same emptiness that she had felt all her life, magnified by a thousand. And she wanted to be the one to show him he wasn’t alone anymore.
Chapter Twelve
“Yo, Case, do you have an opinion about the high-stakes championship or not?” Dare asked. “It’s sort of your part of the company, so some response would be nice.”
Casey glanced over at his friends. They were sitting in the boardroom, just the three of them talking about plans for next month’s poker championship. He’d lobbied hard to get the event at the Jokers Wild Casino.
He gave Dare the finger and then pulled the tablet with the information on it closer to him. He’d been distracted for days by Talia. He was pretty sure that he wanted to ask her to move in with him, maybe even marry him. But what did he know of relationships? Hell, he was still feeling his way through being a boyfriend. How was he going to nail becoming a husband?
But he knew he wanted her in his life for good, not just until she had enough money and experience to move on. He knew that was still one of her goals. She’d told him the other day that she’d always dreamed of living somewhere else. That’s how she’d said it—somewhere else. Not a specific city, or state. Just not Vegas.
And his life was here. He didn’t want to be anywhere else. And he knew that the only way he’d get her to stay would be to marry her.
“Casey?”
It was Nicholas this time.
Fuck. He had to start paying attention.
“Sorry. I’m distracted.”
“Does this distraction have a bob haircut, long legs, and works in the social media department?” Darien asked sarcastically. “Listen, dude, we get it. Nick and I have been there, too, but we need to make sure that you are one hundred percent here. We don’t know the poker scene. That’s sort of what you bring to the table.”
“I like it better when Rio sits in for you,” Casey said.
“Yeah, well, too bad. You need someone to knock some sense into you. This girl is great, but we need you here,” Dare said. “Women are a dime a dozen.”
The bitterness in Darien’s voice wasn’t a surprise to Casey. Dare had been used hard by the only woman he’d ever loved and it had left him…dangerous. He knew very well how his friend felt. He even understood it, to a certain extent. “Talia is different.”
Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “She seems very nice.”
“They all do at first,” Darien said. “I’m not giving you shit just to be an ass. I’m just looking out for you. I don’t want to see you taken advantage of. You two are as close to me as Rio. We’re brothers. But the truth is, if you want to trust her, that’s up to you. Nothing we say will change your mind. That doesn’t change the fact that we need you focused on the poker championship.”
“Fair enough,” Casey said. He wanted to argue with Dare. Talia wasn’t the woman who’d used his friend and made him into the hard-ass he was today. But that wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Darien was hardheaded—nothing was ever going to change his mind.
“Plans are moving forward, and I have had the staff sent to a training class. The company that sponsors the event is coming in next week and we’re doing a walk through. Talia’s team has put together a special promotion where our loyalty club members can swipe their cards. If they get one of the participant’s logos, they get a sponsored prize. I’ve asked Talia to come to our meeting next week to talk about the promotion,” Casey said. Talia was becoming more than a community manager—she had been a sounding board for his ideas. One of the things he’d learned about her was that she had graduated with a certificate in both marketing and hotel management. She had been helping him come up with ways that would make it easier to implement his ideas.
“Great. She’s with Rio today filming the track. In a couple of weeks, we are going to be ready to sign up our first kids for the motocross camp. When you’re done with the championship, I need to run something by you both,” Dare said.
“I’m done,” Casey said. “I’ll send an email or text if anything changes.”
“Good. So, we are talking about offering the camp to anyone in Vegas, not just our guests, right?” Darien asked.
“Is there a problem with that?” Nicholas asked.
“Well, we can only accommodate at best ten kids per session, if they have no experience. Rio has suggested we alternate each session between lessons and experienced free-ride sessions,” Darien said.
