Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,31

four more in his hand. She smiled at him, gave him a wink, picked up a card, and weighed her own options.

Place the card that matched her trio of twos down with the others, or let him have a chance to catch up to her score? Hmm.

She looked up at him, saw the uncertainty there, and decided to let him have one more chance at it. She threw the card she’d been holding in her hand down on the discard pile, and waited to see if he’d pick it up. She’d noticed he’d collected two jacks, so he must need the one she’d held.

With a grin of triumph, Matteo picked up the card and threw another one on the discard pile, which left him with one card in his hand. They were evenly matched now, so when she took the next card and it played on his jacks, she put it down with the rest of her, along with her card that matched the twos, and grinned at him.

“Floating,” she whispered with wide eyes, a mock evil expression of triumph on her face.

“That’s not a thing, you either go out, or you don’t,” he said immediately, but he didn’t look certain.

“That’s not how I learned to play it. This is how Trina taught me to play,” she countered and dared him to question it with a playful glare.

“Hmph. She cheats anyway. Well, I guess since we’re playing by your rules, you’re floating. Does that mean I pick another card up?” His dark eyebrows were up now in question.

“It does.” She nodded. She’d been bored with the game, almost too consumed by her own worries to enjoy the moment, but the last few plays had brought her around. She would have enough points to beat him now, and it was very rare to beat Matteo at any kind of game.

“Fine.” He pretended to be offended and picked up a card with a very snooty expression. “There, I can’t go out.”

He put the card he’d picked up down on the discard pile and she picked up one of her own from the pickup pile. It matched her trio of kings, so she put it down on that pile and put down the last card in her hand. “Done.”

“It’s only because you cheated.” He mock-pouted and collected the cards to shuffle them up. “Trina has taught you some very bad rules, I have to say.”

“No, I think you’re just a sore loser!” She got up from the table to get a glass of apple juice and asked if he wanted anything.

“A bottle of water, please. Is there any more of that salsa you made, the one with cheese? That was nice.”

“There is, it’ll take a minute to reheat it.” She pulled out everything she needed, felt a tremor go through her arm as she pulled plastic from the bowl of salsa, and paused to wait it out.

“What’s wrong?” He’d noticed the way she’d stopped, but then, he was very observant.

“Nothing, just my arm going numb again.” She dismissed it all, but he got up to come over to her.

“Let me do it then. I forgot about that. Let me help, Marie.” He gently nudged her out of the way, and she was grateful he did. He might notice that her arm was shaking if he hadn’t. It wasn’t numb at all, not really, it was a tremor that she couldn’t control.

“Thanks. I’ll get a couple of bowls and a bag of nachos.”

The snow outside was only piling up, but Anton had gone into town to get more food the day before. There was plenty of firewood and the power was on. There was a generator at the back of the house, in case the power went off, so everything was great. She was just stuck inside again.

At least this time she could go outside if she wanted to. It was the weather that trapped her today, not her husband. She watched as Matteo put the salsa in the microwave, and how careful he was when he brought it back to the table. He was just as careful with her.

“Why are you always so… precise?” she stressed the word, paused, and nodded. “Yes, ‘precise’ is the right word. Why is that?”

“Celeste wasn’t an easy woman to be around,” he started. Every now and then he’d slip something about his childhood into the conversation, or he’d answer a question she had. Most of the time he’d change the subject quickly, but she understood that. “I