“Oat milk? Really? Won’t that make it taste funny?”
“It’s vanilla oat milk. You’ll like this, I promise.”
He plugged in the blender on the kitchen island and then threw in blackberries and raspberries, yogurt, oat milk, and orange juice. While it was blending he got down some tall glasses. When the blending was done, he poured the smoothie into the glasses and handed one to her.
She took a long sip and moaned.
“Oh my God, I didn’t think anything could beat cold Chinese food for breakfast, but I think I’m a convert.”
He shuddered.
“Seriously, Ezio, this is delicious. I don’t think I’m going to need the eggs.”
“Yes, you are, you’re going to need the protein. Keep drinking your smoothie while I whip up the eggs.”
“Is there any way I can help?”
Don’t moan anymore, unless we’re in bed together.
“Tell me how you managed to clear out the wig shop. I’m assuming that was your doing?”
He loved the huge grin on her face.
“It was one of my better moves. I was really sweating it though, let me tell you.”
As he added cheese to the eggs, he prompted her to tell him.
“It was pretty clear from the get-go that there was this one guy who was a plant. They expected him to win. He was much better than the rest of us.”
“If he was so good, how’d you spot him?” Ezio asked as he stirred the eggs.
“I played a lot of poker with Grandpa and his Chamber of Commerce buddies. A lot, a lot. Mom and dad both worked, so Grandpa was my babysitter, and he liked poker so he taught me young. So Antsy was easy to spot.”
“Antsy?”
“He played with his chips, always waiting for his turn to play. Not a good move.”
“I guess not.”
Ezio plated the food and took it to the spot on the island where the stools were. “What’d you do?”
“I won. Which I could tell was not a good thing. I think I might have been sleeping with the fishes if you know what I mean.”
Ezio almost dropped the roll of paper towels that he was bringing to the table. “You won? Christ, Samantha, that’s the worst thing that could have happened. You could have been fish food for sure.”
“Yeah, I was getting that feeling. But I told Phil during one of the breaks that I had an idea on how to get out of there, if I could create a diversion. I was going to do it with the chips on the table, but I had to change my plan.”
“Huh?” Ezio didn’t give a shit about his food now.
“Well after I won, I wanted to get my hands on Toni and Phil’s money. That was critical.”
“No, Sam. It wasn’t. Critical was getting your cute little ass out of there alive. That was critical.”
She took a dainty bite of her eggs and swallowed it down with a sip of her smoothie, then patted her lips with her paper towel. “Ezio, we were trying to get Phil back on the straight and narrow and save the money that he’d mortgaged. That was our plan right from the get-go.”
“Fuck that plan. If Toni had enough money to front you in the game, she had enough to give to his wife. End of story. This was a crap plan.”
“But he needed to see sense. He needed to see what he was doing was wrong. He needed to, well, suffer isn’t the right word, but he needed to feel the repercussions of his actions.”
“Bullshit, the boy needed to suffer. He needed to suffer, not you. You should never have been dragged into this idiotic situation.” He felt himself getting pissed. Really pissed.
“Ezio,” Samantha’s voice lowered. “I’m twenty-six years old. Nobody drags me anywhere, I decide where to go and what to do. I decided to help my friend try to knock some sense into her brother. I thought the game was at Goldy’s. It seemed reasonable to begin with. When things changed and I was supposed to go in their car, I refused. When they capitulated, I still thought I was safe. It wasn’t until they took my cell phone that I realized I had a problem, but it was too late by that time, and I had to play it out. Which I did.”
“As soon as they changed the venue you should have bowed out.”
She stood up. “You know something, Ezio, that’s a lesson I’ve learned. So, if another friend of mine ever has a brother with a drinking problem and he has mortgaged his house and she wants me to play in a poker game for her, and the venue changes, I’ll know to say no. Are you satisfied?” She threw down her paper towel. “Let me know when Eden arrives.”
He watched her ass and hair swish on up the stairs.
“Well fuck me running.”
And he still hadn’t heard how she managed to clear out the wig shop.
14
Samantha didn’t know why she was so upset. Ezio was behaving exactly as she had expected him to. It was exactly as Eden’s husband Asher would be behaving—like a Neanderthal with a toothache. Still, Eden was Asher’s fiancée while Sam had only been kissed once by Ezio; she was nothing to him. This was unacceptable.
She paced circles around the small bedroom, wishing she had her cell phone so she could call Eden, or Toni, or even her mom. Nope, scratch that, not Mom. Mom would tell Dad and he’d have an aneurysm.
Who?
Who?
“You know, you’re going to wear out the carpet.”
She looked up to see Ezio in the doorway. “You!
