The Lying Season (Seasons #1) - K.A. Linde Page 0,56
laughed. “Yeah. Very easy.”
“See, English,” Court said. His eyes narrowed, and his voice sharpened when he talked to her. “Everything is fine. Just the four of us with a friendly game of poker. Some scotch and a few Cubans. You can leave now.”
She just blinked at him. “I can see that, Court.”
“You don’t have to babysit.”
“Trust me. I don’t want to do anything of the sort. But you are notorious for bad decisions. I’m just going to stay long enough to make sure this isn’t one of the many. You might think that the heat is off of you, but the public is vicious. If you turn away for one minute, you’ll be on TMZ in a heartbeat.”
Court ground his teeth and then ushered me over to the table. I took the seat between Court and Gavin.
“You’ve played before?” Gavin asked with a grin as he played with his chips.
“Once or twice back home.”
“Excellent,” Gavin said with a grin. “Blackjack is more my game. But I like a friendly game of poker every now and again.”
“You’re shit at blackjack,” Camden said. He deftly shuffled through the deck once and then twice.
“No way. Remember that time we went to Vegas in college?” Gavin asked. “I won fifty grand.”
“You never remember that trip right,” Camden said. He arched an eyebrow. “Court and I spotted you a hundred each. You came out with fifty total. Then you tried to get married to a stripper.”
I laughed at the story as Gavin waved it off.
“It would have been annulled anyway. And she was hot!”
“You were wasted,” Camden reminded him. “And you have the worst beer goggles.”
“Court, come on. Back me up!” Gavin said.
Court just shrugged. “Camden isn’t wrong.”
“Fuck you both. I’m going to clean up here, and then we’ll talk.”
Camden looked up at me with a faint grin on his face. “This should be fun.”
I smiled back, ready to see just how bad Gavin actually was. And also surprised to see that Camden was almost…normal. Here, in his own house with just his friends, he didn’t have to put on airs. It was almost like what Court had said about how Camden didn’t have to pretend for him. They had each other’s backs. And now, somehow, I’d been pulled into it.
About an hour into our game, we’d gone through half a bottle of scotch, and Camden had pulled out the cigars. English finally got up from where she’d been seated, typing away on her phone.
“Okay, boys, this is boring as shit. Court was right,” she said, stifling a yawn.
“We can make it more fun for you,” Gavin said. He patted his knee as if to tell her to sit down.
She raised one eyebrow. “I’ll have you know that I have a black belt. I’d reconsider that offer.”
Gavin guffawed. “You could probably kick my ass.”
“Yes, I could.” She turned her attention back to Court. “Let me know if you need me.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t,” he said, turning away from her and back to the cards.
She shrugged and then walked out of the room. Gavin followed her ass the whole way out.
“Phew, she’s smoking hot,” he said.
Court furrowed his brow. “Don’t even fucking think about it, dude.”
“What? Are you hot for teacher?”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Camden said.
“She’s a huge pain in the ass,” Court ground out. “It doesn’t matter if she’s hot. Also, she’s married.”
“Never stopped you before,” Gavin said with a shit-eating grin.
“Yeah, well, it’s stopping me now.”
“And what about you?” Camden asked, diverting attention away from Court. He was looking right at me.
“What about me?”
“You and Lark have it bad.”
I shrugged. “Did you tell everyone, Court?”
Court laughed and leaned forward on the table, lighting his cigar. “I didn’t tell Camden shit. It’s just that fucking obvious.”
“Wait…you and Lark?” Gavin asked with wide eyes.
“Except to the most oblivious dude on the planet,” Court added.
“So, are you going to do something about it?” Camden asked. His eyes stared pointedly into mine. Like he had his magnetism that made you want to answer. “When you want something, you take it. However you have to.”
And for a moment, it felt like he was talking about himself. Not me at all.
“Yeah…maybe I am,” I conceded.
“That’s right,” Court said, clapping me on the back. “You get your girl.”
Camden nodded. “Also”—he glanced down at the chips—“did you fucking hustle us?”
My laugh was real this time. I had three times the number of chips as anyone else. Court and Gavin had almost nothing at this point.