Use Somebody (19 page)

I leaned over the back of a chair and peered at the cards. “Texas Hold Em?”

“Yeah,” he said, tapping the ashes of his cigarette into a tray. “You wanna play? I’ll buy you in.”

That’s what I loved about Ricky. Here he was spending time with the guys, yet he didn’t mind letting me tag along. James would have never even acknowledged me in public.
No
way
would he ever invite me to play cards with his friends. Yet Ricky didn’t think twice, he just welcomed me to their table as if I belonged.

“I’ll buy myself in,” I smiled, pulling out my wallet. “You winning?”

“Course.”

He laid down his hand, ending up with three kings. The boys groaned while he began collecting the chips.

“Deal her in Farrell. Scar, this is Xavier, Otis, and Farrell. Boys, this is Scar.”

I smiled as the boys grunted their welcomes and gave a few bills to Farrell in exchange for a three piles of chips. I liked poker, but I was a terrible bluffer. I could only hope they wouldn’t catch on to this so soon.

“Here you are!”

I turned to see Vance, flanked by Summer and Kiki, expressing varying degrees of surprise. Bet they weren’t expecting to find me here. The Scar that they knew was aloof and antisocial. Who would have guessed I’d be sitting at a poker table with guys like Ricky Storm?

Determined to continue my disinterest so the girls would give me a break, I coolly muttered, “Hey,” then turned my attention back to the table. I hadn’t yet forgiven their accusations about me and Vance, and I wasn’t ready to join them.

“Did you see me sing?” Vance asked, coming to rest his elbows and lean on the back of my chair.

One of the guys snickered and the one with dreadlocks—Farrell—elbowed his ribs.

“Yes,” I replied casually, confused by his question. He had seen me in the crowd cheering him on the entire time. “You did great,” I said, placing an ante of two white chips into the pot.

Vance’s fingers drummed on the back on my chair. “You wanna shoot a game of pool?”

I sighed. He really was not helping our case, doing this in front of the girls. I just knew this was fueling their fire. I resisted the urge to look up at them. “Not now. You guys go ahead and have fun. I’ll catch up with you later.”

My inability to even turn around made my dismissal clear. After the three walked off, Ricky shot me a knowing look, then laid down a red chip.

“Raise you twenty.”

I peeked at my cards again. Hmm. I had a chance at a flush, if the last card was a diamond, but if not, I had jack squat.

Literally.

As in my cards were a jack and a deuce.

At least they were both suited in a girl’s best friend. That made me smile.

But no time to smile about that now. I tilted my head and squinted at my cards. Time to get serious. Statistics were not in my favor. Folding was more than likely my safest option, especially if Ricky had a good enough hand to be raising the bet. My natural inclination was to avoid the risk and fold. On the other hand, if I played like a chicken shit, these guys would laugh me right off their table. Might as well stay in one more round and see what happened.

However, I couldn’t just call when he had raised the pot. Oh no.

“I raise
you
twenty,” I smirked, throwing down two red chips.

“Hmm,” said my lifelong friend.

The other boys called. When it came back to Ricky’s turn, he took me by surprise by leaning right into my face. I backed up a couple inches, as far as my chair would allow, wondering what the hell he was doing. Was he trying to kiss me? Here? In front of everyone? We had certainly never done
that
before.

He was so close, I could see the little flecks of silver glinting in his gray eyes. They slanted downwards in the outer corners, revealing the tiniest hint of sadness. To the average person it could have just been the natural shape of his eyes, but I knew firsthand the depth and turmoil they hid. Ricky Storm wasn’t the town heathen everyone saw him to be. He was just a young artist afflicted by grief of his own.

Seconds ticked by. Nobody spoke. He appraised my face as I searched his, flummoxed as to what was happening between us.

“You’re bluffing,” he said.

…Oh.

Caught off guard, my blinking eyes and the blush that crept up my skin only had a few seconds head start before the choking laughter ripped its way out. I threw my head back and laughed, loud and heartily, embarrassed about what I’d assumed. Immediately the table joined me in hysterics. Thank goodness they weren’t mind readers.

“You are the worst bluffer I’ve ever played!” Ricky said with a humorous shake of his head.

“This is gonna be cake!” Farrell rubbed his palms together, while another boy pounded a fist into the table between hoots of laughter.

Once we were all able to compose ourselves, Ricky put an additional fifty chips worth into the pot. He could have gone all in, but there was no point when he had way more chips than me. Fifty would drain a good chunk of my stack, but not all of it. I paid up and stayed in the game because—what the hell—I’d come this far.

And wouldn’t you know it—the river card was a diamond.

I had a flush!

I could barely contain my mirth while we placed bets for the final round. Ricky revealed a straight, which was impressive, I supposed. When I finally flipped over my cards and revealed the winning hand, my grin was so huge, my cheek muscles were sore.

The guys exploded around the table, another round of laughing and banter followed by them bowing dramatically in worship to me. Ricky’s jaw had fallen to the table right after he saw the two diamonds in my hand, and it took a few minutes before he was able to pick it back up. Mostly he was shocked, but I could tell by his eyes that he was a little proud of me, too.

The pizza and poker chips were gone within an hour. I put up a respectable fight (mostly because the guys were no longer eager to call my bluffs), but in the end, skill won over luck and Ricky cashed out the entire pot. The guys thanked me again for the pizza and we had one more laugh about that first round before they got up and headed for the bar.

“Good game, kiddo.” Ricky crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. Dark hair fell in his grinning gray eyes.

“You too,” I smiled. “Thanks for letting me crash your table.” He had really put me at ease by welcoming me into his group of friends. This was a first for us—hanging out in public—and I wasn’t going to take it for granted.

Out slipped his smoky laugh. “The boys had fun. They may insist you join us again.”

“I’m there,” I promised, managing not to sound overly eager.

His eyes lowered. “How’s James?”

“Meh,” I shrugged. “Same as always.”

“Still an ass, then.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. “He’s joining the military.”

“That right?”

“Yep,” I said, popping the ‘p.’

“Hmm… Should be good for him.”

“I hope so.”

He glanced over my shoulder, eyes narrowing. “Those your friends?”

I turned to see three familiar faces all staring at us with rapt interest from just a few yards away. All three sat on one side of the booth, turning it into something that more accurately resembled theater seats than a dining table. The way they were gawking made it seem like they were enthralled in some kind of suspenseful drama. The only thing missing was a bowl of popcorn in front of them.

No, scratch that—actually the popcorn was there, too.

None of them showed any kind of shame when we caught them staring. Kiki looked excited, Summer looked disgusted, and Vance looked completely… blank.

Why did people have to act totally nuts around Ricky? You would think no one in this town had ever seen tattoos before.

I was too embarrassed to respond. I couldn’t even deny it. Had they been watching us the entire time? This was supposed to be Vance’s celebration night. I doubted that spying on me was high on his to-do list.

Ricky hooked an arm around my shoulders and propelled me forward. This would be interesting. He’d never made an effort to meet my friends before. He kind of lost interest after Lexi used to follow him around when we were little. I supposed I changed the stakes tonight, so it was only fair he did the same.

Once we got to the table, he unleashed a wicked smirk on the girls. I rolled my eyes playfully. Now I knew that infamous third expression. And I could see why it worked on so many women. He had perfected it.

I introduced them one at a time. Summer leered at him, Kiki giggled, and Vance did that head bob greeting in typical guy fashion, his eyes a little wary.

“Thanks for letting me borrow her tonight,” Ricky said, squeezing me to him. “Watch out for this one. She’s got one hell of a bluff.”

I smiled up at him, blush deepening. I was just glad that I hadn’t made a complete fool of myself in front of his friends.

Just then his attention shifted towards the bar, where a woman in a short red skirt was overtly eyeing him. The others didn’t notice since their backs were to the bar. But Ricky couldn’t take his eyes off her. Amused, I thought to myself,
Jumping ship in four… three… two…

“Later, kiddo.” With one last smirk, he ruffled my hair and left to head towards the bar.

Three gazes turned their focus onto me. I shifted my weight, dreading to hear all the thoughts associated with those expressions. What I hadn’t expected was to feel so abandoned the second he left.

Unable to look any of them in the eye, I took a seat in the booth across from them and picked at my fingernails. It was a tad uneven, with the three of them sitting on one side, and then just me on the other. It felt like I was on the receiving end of an interrogation.

When did socializing become this complicated?

Kiki was the one to break the silence. “Ricky. Freaking. Storm,” she breathed, fanning her face.

“You know him?” I said.

“Who doesn’t?” She shot a wink to Summer, who was not amused. “How do
you
know him?” she asked, wiggling her brows at me.

“I know him well enough to know his middle name isn’t
freaking
,” I jested.

“What is it?” she leaned towards me, bright eyed and sparkling with curiosity.

Merrick Asher Storm
. I’d always loved his full name, but he hated hearing it.

I winked conspicuously at her. “I’ll never tell.”

“So… you and the town bad boy, huh?” Summer jeered. “How long has this been going on?”

I cringed at the stereotype. Ricky’s reputation certainly preceded him, but he had never been that person to me. Although I was glad to have that little genuine piece of the real Ricky, sometimes I wished other people could see past the rumors, too.

A downside to hanging out together in public: now we had to justify our relationship.

“I’ve known him my whole life, like you and Vance. We’re just friends.”

Summer laughed off my explanation. “No need to deny it, Scar, we saw the way you two looked at each other. You guys would actually make a cute couple.”

I peered at her with a side-eye stare. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I was getting a little fed up with her attitude. What was her problem? First Vance, now Ricky? Was I not allowed to be friends with boys? The Vance thing was bad enough, but the idea that there was anything romantic going on with me and Ricky was simply ludicrous.

“Look at me,” I gestured to myself with a hand. “Do I look like Ricky Storm’s
type
to you?”

“What are you
talking
about?” Kiki blurted.

“HELLO!” I said, as if it weren’t obvious. “I could pass for age twelve. Do you think that turns him on? Because if so, that’s a little disturbing.”

“Are you not aware of how sexy you are? Vance, tell Scar how sexy she is,” she baited.

“Kiki,” I warned. “Don’t.”

“You’re being redonkulous,” she insisted. “You do
not
look twelve.”

I was right about to make a comment about being a goldilocks when I remembered that my hair was no longer blond. I took a second to consider her words. True, these days I looked a little less Old Navy and a little more Hot Topic. A part of me wondered if I had even stood out sitting at Ricky’s table, like I used to at Lexi’s parties.

But no matter. It didn’t fool me into thinking that meant attraction. Ricky went for the kind of girls that wore short skirts and hung out in bars. I shook the ridiculous thought out of my head. “I’m like a little sister to him.”

“We were sitting right here the whole time,” Summer pointed to the table top. “We saw the whole thing.”

I frowned. What exactly was she insinuating? There was nothing to see, except one innocuous game of cards. And the only reason I joined them was to get the girls off my back about the invented sparks between me and Vance!

But there was no way I could admit that in front of him. It would humiliate us both. My plan to prove them wrong had backfired. Now they just had something else to ruffle their feathers about.