“Strategy? It’s poker. It’s a game of chance.”
She sighs and tuts. “Rowan. Rowan. Rowan. You don’t understand. I will have the best poker hand at the end.”
“You’re not going to cheat, are you?” I wouldn’t put it past her. “Should I have frisked you for a deck of cards before we left?”
She tips her head back to smirk at me. “You can frisk me any time, big boy. But you know the committee uses unique decks of cards for the event.”
“Isn’t your sister in charge?”
She crosses her arms over her chest and huffs. “Is she really a sister if she refuses to provide me with advance information about the decks of cards being used?”
“Maybe she’s not a cheater.”
“I say wet blanket, you say not a cheater. Tomato. Tomahto.”
“You’re trouble,” I tell her.
“I think you have the word trouble confused with fun.”
We arrive at the town square to find the entire population of Winter Falls milling around. The crowd is thick as there are loads of tourists as well.
I wave to Bryan at the Bake Me Happy booth. He notices me and scowls in my direction.
“Is this how it’s going to be now you’ve got a woman?” he shouts at me. “I’m stuck doing all the work.”
“Need I remind you of the past two years when I ran the booth because you hooked up with some tourist?”
“Worth it,” he squeals.
“Don’t worry,” Ash tells him. “Next year, I’ll have both legs at my disposal, and he can go back to manning the booth.”
Next year? My chest warms at the idea of all the years Ash and I have in our future. We may have lost one to my being a fool, but we have our entire lives to make up for the lost time.
“Five-minute warning,” Forest announces over the megaphone.
“We need to get to our starting position,” Ash urges me.
“Where do you want to begin?”
She indicates the furthest corner of the square where the crowd is thinner.
“There are seven checkpoints, and you have to visit five,” she explains. “But, here’s the rule no one knows about, you are allowed to visit seven. You can then choose your five best cards.”
Suddenly, I understand why Ash is the poker run champion. “Let me guess. No one else knows about the rule?”
She winks up at me. “Nope. Except Lilac, but she tells everyone to read the rules when they ask her questions. I can’t help it if no one else bothered to read them.”
“What about the rest of your sisters? Didn’t you tell them about this loophole?”
“It’s not a loophole,” she claims. “But it doesn’t matter. None of them participate anyway. Juniper won’t leave her precious animals at the wildlife refuge. Lilac can’t participate as it’s a conflict of interest.” She makes a face as if a conflict of interest is the most boring thing in the world. “Ellery has to man the inn and Aspen has a booth.”
“But what do you do with the all-inclusive week at the inn if you win?” I probably should say when at this point.
“I donate it,” she mumbles.
“What did you say?”
“I donate it, okay? There’s a women’s shelter near the hospital and I give it to them for one of the women to have a treat.”