Free My Stubborn Heart by Becky Wade Page B

You don’t have anything here. Not even a pair, see?” As Morty’s voice continued on with exaggerated patience, Kate’s gaze flicked to Matt. One corner of her lips lifted knowingly and she winked.
    Shock hit Matt square in the chest.
    Just as quickly, Kate looked back to her cards, nodding seriously over Morty’s instruction.
    She knew exactly what she was doing, Matt realized, stunned. She knew good and well that she’d had nothing. She’d been bluffing. Matt thought of previous hands when he’d folded, when they’d all folded, and she’d raked in their chips with her delicate little hands without ever having to reveal her cards.
    The antique lover knew how to play poker? The antique lover? It seemed impossible. He’d never seen anyone who looked less like a poker player. She’d parted her long red hair on the side tonight, and tucked it behind her ears. Classy black turtleneck. Classy gray skirt. The odd black ballet shoes.
    Slowly, feeling sluggish, he pulled all the chips toward himself.
    Kate was an expert at Texas Hold ’Em. The whole beginner thing was an act. The confused expression, the questions, the reliance on the cheat sheet—phony. He felt like a dunce for falling for it. But one glance around the table told him that all of the other players were still falling for it. She was going to take them to the cleaners.
    He watched her, grudging admiration sifting through him. He had to hand it to her. The clever little thing knew she only had so long before they realized her charade, so she was running with her chance.
    It was William’s turn to deal. He shuffled and began sliding cards to each player. As Kate accepted her first card, she looked up at Matt and their gazes locked. She lifted one eyebrow, her hazel eyes glinting with amusement. So? she seemed to ask him.
    I’m on to you. He mouthed the words silently.
    She nodded at him, smiled. Didn’t appear the slightest bit worried.
    Now that he was wise to her, boy, he was bringing his A game. It was on like Donkey Kong. She was destined to lose.
    But, as it turned out, she didn’t lose. She won. By custom, they stopped for the night when only three players remained, then divvied up the prize money to each of those people based on their chip count. Kate had twice as many chips as anyone else, then came Morty and then Peg, which was downright embarrassing. Even Peg had beaten him. Matt had made it to the final four, then lost fair and square.
    If he did nothing else this week, he was going to study up on poker. His name wasn’t engraved on the Stanley Cup for nothing.
    After suffering through some mandatory small talk, Matt said his good-byes and let himself out the kitchen door.
    Kate slipped out beside him, sliding gracefully into her coat. “I’ll walk you out.”
    They made their way through the dark side by side, hands in their pockets, shoes crunching.
    â€œYou had me going in there,” he said.
    â€œDid I?”
    â€œYou know you did.”
    She laughed—a soft, easy sound. “Yeah. I know I did. That was terrible of me. Terrible! I shouldn’t have done it, but Morty just assumed right from the start that I didn’t know anything about poker, and you kept giving me those impatient and pitying looks—”
    â€œHey,” he protested.
    â€œThey were definitely pitying.” She glanced teasingly at him. “I couldn’t resist.”
    He snorted. “Where’d you learn to play?”
    â€œFrom my dad. He loves the game.” She bent her head a little against the fierce wind. “Most families played Scrabble or Pictionary or Uno on family vacations. We played poker.”
    â€œI’m going to work on my game before next week.”
    â€œIs that right?”
    â€œWell, yeah. I’ve got to redeem myself.” They reached his truck and stood facing each other.
    â€œI’m glad you’ll be back,” she