Page 18 of Not a Friend (Crescent Light #1)

“Martinez is cheating,” Nate accused a few minutes later, after my teammate won three hands in a row. “Are you printing aces over there?”

“You wish, pretty boy,” Martinez retorted with swaggering confidence. He leaned back, taking up a little more space for his ego. “I’m just that good.”

Kieran’s scoff at Martinez’s use of pretty boy directed at Nate wasn’t lost on me.

“We just need to focus,” Jared commanded from across the table.

He pointed two fingers at his eyes, flipped them to point at Nate, then to Miles, and back to his own.

They were losing, but not by much. The twinkle in Jared’s eye reminded me of the same steady, determined look he always got while drumming. “Dial it in. We got this.”

Nate and Miles mirrored Jared’s movements, flicking their first two fingers from their own eyes to the eyes of their teammates—becoming one with the cards.

They lost the next round. Bad .

When it was my turn to shuffle again, Nate instantly offered a silent palm out. I dropped the deck into his hand without hesitation, the ease of the motion surprising me.

It was like riding a bike. Even if it’s been years, the initial shock of your body and mind getting used to the motion wears off swiftly, leaving only muscle memory. Before you know it, it’s like you never stopped riding to begin with. Being around him was like that.

He shuffled the deck into an impressive bridge once, twice, thrice before handing it back.

Kieran, who had been mostly distracted by his phone while we played, grabbed my elbow gently, throwing a glance at Nate. “I could’ve done it for you.”

I paused. “Oh.” I hadn’t even considered asking him. “Sorry, I didn’t think about it.”

“How much longer do you think you’ll be playing?”

“It just depends.” I could’ve asked Grant to take my place at the table if Kieran was sick of watching and wanted us to go, but I didn’t want to. “Could be a while.”

He nodded and leaned back in his seat.

The game went on, round after round, both teams going forward and back in score.

Even though he was sitting on the sidelines with Kieran, Grant remained immersed in the game.

Kieran, on the other hand, got progressively more impatient.

He changed positions in my periphery, one leg crossing and uncrossing over the other, hands fidgeting with his hair, his scruff, his phone.

“If you want to go back to the suite, you can,” I told him quietly after his third audible sigh.

The game had gone on longer than it usually did, but I was enjoying everyone’s company and finally felt somewhat at ease.

Part of me wished he would go to bed without me so I wouldn’t have to be distracted by his growing annoyance.

Everyone at the table had noticed, and although none of them said anything, I still felt the weighted awkwardness that Kieran’s energy gave.

“No. I’ll wait.”

Eventually, the other team pulled ahead, and the game came down to one final round. Everyone at the table sat a little straighter, knowing the stakes.

As soon as Nate dealt, Jared started shifting in his seat—a tell that he had a killer hand. I studied my own—a split hand between diamonds and clubs. Depending on which suit was the strongest, it would either be a really great hand or a really bad one.

“Three diamonds,” I said.

“Four spades!” Miles called.

Martinez grumbled under his breath. “Pass,” he sighed. “Sorry, team.”

Jared could barely hold back his face-splitting grin when it was his turn to bid. “Gemma, I swear if you up my bid, I’m going to object at the wedding on Saturday.”

Grant shot his brother a glare from where he leaned his chin on Gemma’s shoulder. “I fucking dare you.”

Jared just giggled like a little boy. “Six clubs.”

It was a high bid, though not impossible. But looking at my hand again, I had the perfect cards to screw him over. All it would take was Gemma or Martinez winning one hand, and I could do the rest of the work to ultimately win the game.

Jared shifted his eyes to Nate and Miles, a glint of nervous anticipation in his eye as he led the first hand with a king. My eyes widened, but I did my best to keep a stony expression. He doesn’t have the ace. That means—

Gemma threw down the ace. So far, her point. As long as nobody threw a club, the point was ours .

Nate laid down a heart, and I followed with one of my diamonds. The rest of the table laid hearts, and we won the point.

The next few rounds went as expected. Jared swooped the following three hands. Nate won the next, but his eyebrows pulled together as he leaned over to look at Jared.

They’re searching for the missing clubs.

In the next round—Nate’s lead—he forced me to reveal one of them.

“A-ha!” Jared said. “There’s one.”

Two points were secured, two hands remained, and it was my lead now. Thank the card gods for my luck. I could’ve ended it right then, making the last hand a moot point, but I decided to draw out my victory by leading with my last remaining diamond.

Jared gave Miles and Nate a pleading look as if to say, Please, for the love of god, one of you has to have the last club.

Gemma scanned everyone’s faces. “Who has it?”

“I think he has it,” Miles said, pointing a thumb at Martinez.

“Believe me, I wish I did.” He tossed a diamond. Useless. “You mean to tell me you don’t have it, Mr. Six Clubs?” Martinez teased Jared, folding his hands over the table.

Jared narrowed his eyes.

“Oli has it,” Nate retorted, not looking up from his hand.

My head shot up.

He slid his eyes to mine, holding my gaze as he leaned back.

“She’s flared her nostrils, like, three times this round.

Plus, she’s picking at her thumbnail.” He nodded to where my nail scraped against the cuticle of my left thumb.

I tucked my hand into my lap. “She only does that when she’s trying to have a poker face.

” He tossed his last card on the table, not breaking eye contact. “We’re fucked. She has it. ”

A grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. It didn’t matter what anyone else had. I had the strongest card left in play.

Victory was mine. The game was over.

“Aw, come on!” Jared whined.

“Yes!” Martinez fisted the air in triumph. “Let’s fucking go—that’s my girl!”

Gemma high-fived me over the table when I revealed the last club. “Nice job, partner! Suck it, Jared.”

I threw my head back and laughed, reveling in our sweet victory and the sounds of defeat from Jared and Miles. As I leaned in to gather the cards strewn about the table, my cheeks straining from smiling so wide, Nate smiled back at me.

Time slowed.

His bottom lip pulled between his teeth as his grin spread wider, with that dimple on full display.

My breath hitched.

For the briefest moment, only one thought flashed through my mind. He is so pretty. Then, all brain function came to a screeching halt when his cocky smile faded, and his eyes dipped to my mouth.

Like ice-cold water dumping over my head, I came back to my senses.

I can’t do this. Not again.