“I need your help,” Toni said.
Sam considered what she had in her savings account. It wasn’t great, but if she combined that with some of her retirement account…
“No, you dufus, I’m not asking for your money. I make good coin here, I’m Sharon’s safety net when he does this. God, Sam, you’re all heart. No, I have a plan to confront Phil and shake him out of it.”
“You’re going to confront him at Greg’s house?”
“No, I haven’t been able to find him there,” Toni sighed. “But I did find out that Phil and Greg have both entered a high-stakes poker game the weekend after next. It requires a twenty-thousand-dollar entry fee. Cash.”
“My God, he’s going to squander his money like that?” Sam gasped. “Is he out of his mind? Wait, how do you know he’s going to do this?”
“Phil’s blocked my number. I went to Greg’s house every day for the last four days, but nobody was there. Yesterday I finally went through their trash. The game was circled in one of the casino brochures, then I called up to see who had entered.”
“Why not just have David confront him? Your husband should be able to put the fear of God in him, couldn’t he? He spent eight years in the Marines, I would think Phil would wet his pants if David came down hard on him.”
“If I had David confront him at the game, he’d hammer Phil and get arrested. I need to extricate him from this situation on my own, make sure he doesn’t lose the money, then get him into some kind of rehab program.”
Sam looked up as one of the architects from their firm walked by Toni’s office. She waited until he was out of hearing range.
“How can I help?”
“You play a mean game of poker. I remember all that time you spent with your grandfather and his buddies. With your looks at the table, you should be able to distract Phil away.”
“Huh?” Sam was at a loss as to what Toni was talking about. “Toni, what in the heck are you talking about?” she whispered. Sam looked around to make sure nobody else in the office was looking into Toni’s glassed-in office. “Even if I had the money to front to get into a high-stakes game—”
“It’s a twenty-thousand buy-in. I’m paying. My last bonus covers it.”
“Why don’t you just give your bonus to your sister-in-law?”
“Because giving her money doesn’t work. I’ve done it before, believe me, and it just lets my brother off the hook. He needs to see what he’s missing and be convinced that he needs to do the responsible thing and go back to his family.”
She had a point. “Fine. So I buy in. Then what?”
“I haven’t figured that part out yet,” Toni admitted as she bit at her thumbnail. “But I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to.”
Sam twirled the end of her braid.
“Sam, talk to me. Will you do this?”
“I’ve got to think about it.”
“Think about Sharon; she’s home with a three-year-old and pregnant again. This is her life. Please? You’re our last hope.”
“Until we come up with a solid plan as to what in the heck I would be doing, I’m not saying yes. Otherwise, it’s just plain stupid.”
Toni grinned. “But you’re not saying no. Thank God. Trust me, we’ll come up with something.”
Sam’s day went downhill from there. On her way out for the day, the firm’s receptionist, Zsa Zsa, told her she’d had three calls from a man named Kevin who’d only gotten more irritated each time she’d said Sam was unavailable.
“Oh, spit, that’s my ex.”
“The one who was having the affair with your maid of honor?”
God save her from the design field, no secret was sacred. If she had to guess, that little tidbit of information came from Julie back in Boise when she’d been helping with the Billingham project. No way had Toni told Zsa Zsa.
“Yep, that’s the one,” she smiled. She bent in to whisper. “Now the maid of honor is cheating on him.”
Zsa Zsa clapped. “The dick deserves it.”
“Yeah, well, I blocked his number when he wanted to cry on my shoulder, that’s why he’s calling here. I’m sorry he’s doing this to you.”
“No problem. I’m the ‘Queen of No’,” Zsa Zsa told her. Samantha wanted to hug her. At nineteen years old, Zsa Zsa already had way better boundaries than Samantha.
By the time she got home, she was a little frazzled. But, at least she had something nice in her wardrobe for her date with Ezio. It wasn’t too nice, wasn’t too casual. Since it was a warm April night in Virginia she went for a purple and green floral sleeveless sundress and a black sweater, along with a pair of black sandals. Some mascara and lip gloss and she was good to go. So why was she nervous?
Oh yeah, I like him.
She twisted her hair, then admonished herself to stop. It was always such a dead giveaway that she was nervous.
She took a deep breath and practiced a smile in front of the mirror.
“Think of Larry. Think of Larry.” She laughed.
That did the trick. No more nerves. Toni was still apologizing over that fiasco.
She frowned when she thought about Toni’s request for her to help Phil. Now that looked to be a fiasco as well, one she didn’t want to get into. Except Toni’d shown her a picture of her three-year-old nephew. What a cutie. She could see why Toni wanted to help so badly.
She jumped at the sound of knocking at her front door.
Sam turned away from the bathroom mirror and ran her hands down the front of her
