"Come here, you little hustler." Dev laughed as he pulled Nick around the table for his shot. "You beat that and I'll pay you a hundred dollars."
Nick gaped at him. "Dude! You're so on...um, do I have to pay you if I lose?"
Grinning, Dev shook his head and ruffled Nick's short hair. "Nah, but you will have to wash dishes for a week."
"That sucks."
Dev tsked at him. "You a coward?"
"Oh you're going down, Bear. Open the checkbook. Daddy's going to show you how it's done." Nick lined up the shot.
Dev danced around the table, trying to distract him. "Your mother was a hamster and she smelled of elderberries."
Nick scoffed at the Monty Python reference. "I don't know what you're talking about, Grizzly Adams. You're the one whose mom is covered in fur. My mom just wears sequins." He let fly the cue stick and the balls scattered across the table. Unbelievably, he made the shot into the upper left hand pocket like a pro.
"Ha!" he shouted triumphantly.
Dev snorted. "Lucky shot." But it hadn't been lucky. Dev had used his powers to put the ball in the correct pocket. Nick had no idea.
Feigning disgust, Dev had pulled his money out and handed it over to Nick. "Next time, kid, it's double or nothing."
"Bull. Next time I'm not taking the chance that I could miss."
Dev jerked his chin toward the money in Nick's hand. "So what are you going to do with all that?"
Nick folded it up and slid it into his pocket. "I'm going to take my mom to Brennan's to eat for Mother's Day. She's never been there before and she's always wanted to."
Dev clapped him on the back. "All right, Pool Shark. Have a good time. I better get back to work before you completely clean me out."
Nick had reset the table while Dev went back to his station at the door.
Sam swallowed at his kindness that made her ache deep inside. Dev, unlike Nick, hadn't changed a bit.
"What are you doing?"
She jumped at the sound of Nick's deep voice behind her. "I was just looking at your photos."
Nick moved forward to see the one of him and Dev. There was a sadness in his eyes that actually brought a lump to her throat. "We had a lot of good times back then. My mom used to save and frame everything she could."
And she'd put them on the wall and then rotate them out at random times--it'd been a game she'd played with Nick to remind him of the things she thought were important in his life.
Friends. Family. Smiles.
His mom had been a great lady.
Sam cleared her throat. "You and Dev look pretty tight."
"He was always a good friend to me which is why I'm glad you sent him home."
His words didn't match the feelings she got from him whenever he was near Dev. Nor did they match the emotions she was picking up from him right now. "Then why do you hate him?"
Nick stiffened. "I don't hate him. I'm just mad--basically at the entire world. Dev let my mom leave Sanctuary with a Daimon disguised as a Dark-Hunter."
"Dev would never--"
"I know, Sam." She felt his pain as he said those words in a trembling voice. "He had no idea he'd put her in harm's way and I know he'd have never done it intentionally. But I can't get over that night and I can't forgive anyone who had a hand in her death. I just can't."
She could understand that. "It's hard to live with that kind of guilt all the time."