Home Torn

  She stayed put.

  Dani readied herself and asked, knowing she’d regret it, “Is there anything else?”

  “Actually…” Lari bit her lip, but said brazenly, “I know who you are.”

  Her smile was smooth as Dani retorted, “So do I.”

  “Daniel told me that the two of you used to go together, when he was in those third world countries.”

  Dani knew there a few purposeful messages to be shared and she knew Lari wouldn’t leave until they were voiced.

  Dani sighed inwardly and resigned her fate.

  Lari continued, still sickeningly sweet, “Daniel got his heart broken by some slut and you were just a rebound girl. I don’t want you to start thinking that you can have him back. Daniel might not see it, but I know exactly what type of girl you are.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “You followed him here,” Lari put it simply. “And that was the wrong thing to do.”

  “And you’re out of touch with reality.” Dani smiled back. “Excuse me.”

  As she pushed through the crowd to escape the delusional sentiments, Dani realized that the poker games had actually been the excuse for the party. Probably half the town had showed for the Meadow’s Friday Night Poker Showdown.

  As she turned into the kitchen, Dani stopped short and the uneasy tingles from Lari’s delusional thoughts were pushed away as she caught sight of Aiden in complete costume.

  She wore a chimp suit with a pink bowtie on her tail.

  “Dani!” Aiden exclaimed and laughed. “I knew Shelly would be a hit with you.”

  “Yes. Yes, she is.” Dani laughed and accepted the beer that Aiden held out. “Where’s your brother?”

  “He headed downstairs.” Aiden’s smile slipped for a moment, but she brought it back with a forced attempt. “I knew it. He ditched you tonight, didn’t he?”

  “Kinda,” Dani confessed.

  “Don’t take it personally. Jonah’s a bit riled with Daddy Warbuck’s arrival. Me? I can let our father’s condescension slide off my shoulders as I lie right back to him, but it bothers Jonah. I’m sure Jonah just wants to forget his life right now in some poker game.” Aiden ducked as someone reached them for a bag of chips. “Which means that I can’t play poker tonight.”

  “How come?” Dani frowned as she took a sip.

  “Jonah always beats me at poker and if he’s playing seriously tonight—he’ll be playing all night,” Aiden remarked, wryly, “Which means that I’m going to be playing at hostess all night. No way am I going to lose money to my brother, though I love him whole-heartedly, but money is money.”

  “And sibling competition can be deadly,” Dani noted.

  “That too.” Aiden saluted her.

  “Where’s Kate?”

  “Probably wherever Robbie is not.” Aiden shook her head as she perused her guests.

  “Well, Robbie’s drying his clothes so that leaves the entire house to Kate.”

  Aiden shrugged, “Kate’s probably gotten a table downstairs too. If she doesn’t catch the first round of games, then she just rounds up enough players for her own game. Kate’s not that good at poker, but she likes to think she is. I told Jonah to be nice on her.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because Kate’s on edge. Robbie’s been avoiding her and she knows it. She knows why so she’s not going to be the best player tonight, but Jonah—if Jonah wants to forget his life, he’ll be ruthless tonight.”

  Dani held quiet, but glanced uneasily over her shoulder. Boone still had yet to make a re-appearance.

  Aiden caught the glance and asked, “Looking for someone?”

  “No,” Dani said curtly. “Just my ex-fiancé.”

  “Oh.”

  Dani grinned ruefully and remarked, “Yeah. He’s here.”

  “I’d heard.”

  “I’m guessing the whole town knows by now.”

  “For what it’s worth, I didn’t hear it from the whole town. Dad started on Jonah about it in the car.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah.” Aiden grinned faintly and the somberness from early showed again. Briefly. “Sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “You’re in a nice tight little spot right now. I don’t envy you at all.”

  “That’s not…if you’re going for sympathetic friendship, you just made me feel very ‘put out in the wind.’”

  Aiden shrugged. “I’m ducking for cover with this one. The big wheels were put out when they called in our father. There’s no way that I want to attract my father’s attention. He’s like a greyhound and I’ll be biting my tongue enough if he keeps at it with Jonah.”

  Sibling competition meant nothing compared to sibling protection.

  Dani couldn’t help but reflect how she’d never those dynamics of a normal sibling relationship.

  With her, there was just…nothing. And Dani felt cheated in that moment, but she didn’t fully know what she’d been cheated of or what had cheated her.

  She just knew there was a void.

  “Yeah…I can imagine,” Dani lied through her own teeth.

  Aiden frowned sharply and asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Let’s skip over the list and take it on credit that I don’t think this is going to be a festive festival tonight,” Dani said dryly.

  “Yeah.” Aiden surrendered and murmured, “I hear you. The storm outside’s picking up.”

  As she left, Dani said faintly, to herself as Aiden was quickly swallowed by the crowd, “The storm’s not just outside.”

  The games started slow, but steady. Dani didn’t know a thing about poker and if she’d been asked to play, she would’ve fled and not thought twice about it. As it was, Jonah had been right.

  The party was divided into two groups. The players and the watchers. Dani was one of the watchers and she watched alone from her group of friends. Kate played emotionally, even Dani noticed but Dani had gotten to know Kate a bit more and more as of late.

  With the heads up from Aiden, Dani saw the smile slip a bit further and further with each hand that Kate lost.

  She bowed out before she lost too much and stood next to Dani throughout the rest of the games.

  That had been the most level-headed move she’d made all night—or so said the watcher behind Dani.

  Aiden circulated the room, played the hostess to perfection and patted Kate and Dani reassuringly.

  Dani briefly watched Jonah play, but he seemed to be winning—which wasn’t a surprise to most of the patrons in the room.

  Jonah was almost expected to win, but he showed nothing throughout the game.

  A player unexpectedly left a table and the crowd’s reaction turned everyone’s attention to the table.

  Jake sat next to the open slot and the dealer signaled for one more to join.

  Boone stepped forward and Dani swallowed tightly as he took the open seat. Lari smiled proudly behind him and glanced up to see Dani’s eyes on them. It wasn’t an accident that Lari decided to slowly smooth a hand down Boone’s arm and rub his shoulders sensuously.

  “She’s a piece of work,” Kate remarked to Dani’s ear.

  “No.” Dani saw what no one else did. “She’s just insecure and sad.”

  “That too.”

  Julia stood next to Lari and the two seemed like perfect lovebirds as they whispered and giggled together.

  Julia wasn’t normally a giggler, but Dani caught the martini in her sister’s hands.

  “Wonder who’s holding Kathryn’s hand,” Kate said sarcastically, underneath her breath. “Isn’t that the sole purpose of Julia’s life?”

  “That and to make my life hell,” Dani murmured back.

  Kate snorted in surprise, “And the claws have come out! Nice.”

  “I’m just tired of it. That’s all really.”

  “Tired of big sis parading around with her crown?”

  “No,” Dani said truthfully. “I’m just tired of knowing that my sister’s hurting
, but she insists on setting a perfect show for everyone.” A moment of reflection was given breath and she noted, “And my own issues come up inside of me. I just—there’s a lot of anger there.”

  Kate frowned and asked, “What? You lost me around the part of ‘hurting.’”

  “Julia’s the caretaker, but she’s not going to have anyone to take care of pretty soon. She’s gotta be panicked. She might have to look inside of herself pretty soon.”

  Kate was taken aback and noted, “When did you turn psychologist?”

  “When I started figuring how my family works.” Dani shook her head and asked, “Who’s going to win? Jake or Boone?”

  “That’s the guy?”

  “That’s the guy.”

  “So no more talk about your anger?”

  “Maybe later.” Dani shrugged.

  “I’d like that,” Kate said softly.

  “We can hug later too.”

  “I’d like that too!” Kate laughed. “But back to your guys, I don’t know. Jake’s actually pretty good at poker, but your new guy looks pretty good too. He looks locked down.”

  “He is. Boone gets like that,” Dani said dryly. “He goes cold when he’s upset. He’s not a robot, but sometimes—I swear, he could be one.”

  “So he’s perfect for poker.”

  “He’s perfect for poker.”

  “I’m thinking the perfect table would be you against Jake, Boone, and Jonah. You know all their tells.”

  “I do, but they know mine too.”

  “Maybe…maybe not as much as you think,” Kate noted and at Dani’s questioning frown, she explained, “You come off as this nice girl, but you’ve got an unpredictable streak. Jake doesn’t know what you’re going to do from one day to the next and I’m guessing neither does your ex. And Jonah—you have to be unpredictable for him to stick around as much as has. Jonah likes challenges—I love the guy, but he gets bored with girls who are predictable.”

  Dani shrugged, uncomfortable, “New topic, please?”

  “Sure, sure.”

  Robbie descended the stairs at that moment and Kate glared, “Let’s talk about my screwed up life.”

  He glanced uneasily around the room until his eyes settled on Kate and Dani, but he didn’t move forward towards them.

  No one budged and the crowd clapped as Boone won his first hand.

  Jonah won at his table and Aiden stopped beside them and said disgustedly, “I could totally take some of these morons, but no—Jonah has to play tonight. It’s not fair.”

  And there’s that sibling irritation.

  Dani faintly grinned and asked, “Why don’t you play until you two have to sit together?”

  “Because I’d want to go all the way and we’d just meet at the championship table. It wouldn’t be good. Trust me.” She smiled brightly, “And I’m off, playing hostess again!”

  “Toot toot.” Kate laughed.

  Aiden smiled in delight over her shoulder and echoed her friend’s sentiment, “Toot toot!”

  Dani didn’t ask. She knew what an inside joke was when she heard it. They were never as funny when explained to a third-party outcast.

  “Look.” Kate tapped Dani’s arm. “Jake’s going all out in the next move. I bet you twenty to nothing.”

  And he did.

  The crowd ooed and awed as his risk proved successful and he won the rest of the pot.

  The loser left and it was Boone, Jake, and a bearded older guy.

  There was another three rounds before the bearded guy was forced to leave and Boone had won a third of the pot.

  Jake had the rest in front of him.

  Another table was held in suspense, but a smattering of clapping and congratulations were heard.

  Jonah had been deemed the winner and he stood to stretch a moment.

  Dani watched her two exes square off, but she saw from the corner of her eye that Jonah meandered upstairs with the same two bottles he had gotten in the first place.

  “Okay.” Kate stole Dani’s attention again. “You see this hand—Jake has to be obviously bluffing. He’s coming across as if he’s got a pair of aces, but I bet you, he’s got a pair of sixes. He has to, but your guy is cool. I don’t know what he has, but it’s got to be better than Jake’s hand and yet, Jake’s still pushing the hand.”

  “Why do you think he’s got a pair of sixes?”

  “Because when they flipped over the first two cards, Jake hand tapped the table.”

  “What’s the other card?”

  “A king.”

  “Jake’s got a full house,” Dani proclaimed.

  “How in hell do you know that?”

  “Because he’s got his full house face on. He looks like that when he’s about to burst from the inside. He’s excited right now, really excited.”

  “He’s not making a move.”

  “He’s playing Boone.”

  “What?” Kate frowned and said again, “What?”

  “Jake’s smarter than people think he is. He plays dumb sometimes and he’s thinking that Boone will make that mistake.”

  “Will he?”

  “Boone knows that I’d never stay with someone stupid. He’s not going to fall for it.”

  “Well…,” Kate’s eyebrows arched high. “Someone’s going to win because Jake just went all in.”

  “That’s a stupid move. I don’t know poker, but I know that’s a stupid move.”

  Boone looked up and found Dani among the crowd. His eyes pierced hers for a moment and a knot slowly twisted inside of her. She held her breath, but saw the decision in his eyes.

  Boone looked back and pushed all his money into the pot.

  “Oh. My. God.” Kate barely breathed. “Holy—winner takes all.”

  “He’s walking,” Dani said quietly, confused how she felt about it.

  “What?” Kate asked, distracted.

  “He knows Jake would’ve won. He’s walking away.”

  “You’re not making any sense.”

  “Yeah, I am.” Dani closed her eyes as the dealer flipped the last card and the crowd gasped in shocked approval. The clapping started a beat later, but the chair was already pushed back and its scrape against the floor was heard clearly in that one second delay.

  “Whoa…”

  Dani opened them again and saw Boone’s back as he left in the opposite direction.