I wanted to groan, but I loved her, so I just smiled and said I’d see what I coulddo.
______
Benji threw a pair of Jacks on the card table, his red eyebrows waggling. “Beat that,shithead.”
I burst out laughing. “You went with a pair of Jacks?” He was an idiot, what can Isay?
His brow wrinkled. “Whatyougot,Greyson?”
I laid my cards on the table, making a slow show of fanning them out with a grin. “Three Aces and a pair ofQueens.”
Trevorhooted.
“Bullshit!” Benji yanked his ball cap off and tossed it on the table. “You’recheatin’!”
“Like hell I am!” I raked the quarters across the table, piling them in front ofme.
“You’ve had five hands like thattonight!”
“I’mlucky.”
“You’re a dick,” Benji grunted, then pushed his chair back and headed to the old fridge in the corner of the room. The beer bottles inside the door rattled when he yanked itopen.
“Oh, come on now, Benji, it’s just five bucks.” Trevorlaughed.
“It’s a pack of Camel Red cigarettes is what itis.”
I shook myhead.
Benji sat back down at the table with a beer, then snatched the deck of cards and began to shuffle them. “What do you want to play next? I Got It? Five-cardStud?”
My phone rang. When I pulled it from my pocket Hannah’s name flashed over the screen. “Hey,” I said, pulling it to my ear. “What’sup?”
“Youbusy?”
“No.”
“Hey,” Benji said. “Thattagirl?”
Glaring, I waved my hand athim.
“Tell her to come over and bring some girls with some big ole’ titties.” He pretended to palm a set of boobs while rolling his eyes back in his head like a perv. “We can play some strippoker.”
Trevor laughed. Scowling, I pushed up from the table and headed through the back door. “You okay?” I asked when the screen door banged shut behindme.
“Yeah, I’m just…” She fell silent and I felt a frown pull at my face. “I just…” She was thinking too much. I could tell. She’d probably been sitting in her room, dwelling on shit and falling down that tunnel of panic anddread.
“I’ll be there in tenminutes.”
“I’m fine, I just wanted totalk.”
“And we can. Inperson.”
There was a brief pause. “Thank you,” shewhispered.
“Just wear something you don’t mind gettingdirty.”
“What?”
