Page 65 of Love is a Game
There were only three of them left. The firefighter whose name he couldn’t remember made his bet and Tyson followed. Andrew narrowed his eyes at each of them. Tyson had nothing, he was sure of it. He often raised his eyebrows slightly when he was bluffing, probably trying to look casual. The fireman, though, it was hard to say. Andrew had only played with him a couple of times before. He tossed in his chips, not ready to go out yet.
“I’ll raise,” the fireman said, sliding five more chips in front of him.
Tyson dropped his cards without hesitation. “Fold.”
Andrew didn’t give up so easily. The only way he’d win this round was if the fireman had a low pair, or if he were bluffing and held nothing. It would be a pretty bold move to bluff all the way to the end on the first round.
Andrew worked his jaw and stared at his opponent, who met his gaze with a wink.
“Show us what you’re made of, Price,” Webb teased.
He knew he should cut his losses, save those five chips for the next round. There was no way he had the winning hand.
It was worth a shot. Think how amazed you would have been if I did.
The words floated into his mind like a whisper. He smiled at the memory of Sadie watching her rock so eagerly as it skipped across the water.
“Call.” He pushed his chips into the center, sealing his fate.
“All right, let’s see them,” Tyson said.
Andrew flipped his cards over. “Pair of queens.”
The fireman’s face didn’t flinch. He took his time lifting his cards into his hand and then chuckled, dropping them in front of him. “Two sevens.”
Everyone jeered and laughed.
“I don’t remember you being such a risk-taker, Price. You really got me,” he said, sounding impressed.
Andrew looked down at his cards, thinking hard. He wasn’t going to let Sadie slip from his fingers again. The clock on the wall said seven thirty: still early.
He pushed his chair back and stood. “I have to go. I’m really sorry. You can just divvy up my chips.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Rivera called.
“Maybe he’s responding to an emergency,” Kimura teased, eliciting laughs around the table.
Andrew shook his head and grinned. “Not an emergency, just gotta go make a phone call.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sadie carefully placed the picture frames from her desk into the box beside her. She still had one more day before she left Maddox for good, but she wanted to bring all of her things home with her that night. She was planning to catch the evening ferry back to the peninsula the next day, and she didn’t want to stop at home and unload her car first. Julie had already called her twice that morning to confirm what time she’d be getting in; she couldn’t make her wait.
She’d worried that when she told her family she was quitting, she would hear their I-told-you-so’s, but they’d been so excited, there wasn’t room for anything other than their anticipation. The guest room was still set up for her, they said, and Julie and Tyson were planning a backyard barbecue that weekend to celebrate. She was excited too. She’d spent so long running from them to avoid their judgment, she hadn’t realized how much she needed them in her life.
“Hey, packing up?”
She looked up to see Archer standing in the doorway. “Yeah. There’s not a lot left to do here.”
She hadn’t told him what Genevieve revealed to her that day. There wasn’t any point. He’d done what he’d done, and there was nothing he could say to change her mind about quitting. She still appreciated the things he had done for her when she was new at the company, and she might need to use him as a reference someday, so it was better to leave on good terms.
He sat on her newly empty desk. “Sadie, Sadie, Sadie. What am I going to do without you?” he asked.
“You’ll be fine. I heard Donna from HR say all of the interviews went really well. You’ll have my replacement here in no time.”
He leaned closer, narrowing his eyes at her. “You weren’t poached by someone else, were you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head and smiling. “And I wasn’t sending out my résumé, if that’s what you think. Like I told you, it’s just time.”