Maisie opened her mouth to reply, but Sierra cut her off. "Hey!" She gave a stomp of her foot. "Forget the stupid bikes! We're supposed to be talking aboutme!"
A stunned silence settled over the shop until Devon said, "You meanus."
Sierra rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever." She turned back to Chad. "So about the wedding, are you gonna cover it or what?"
He took another noisy slurp of his drink. "Nah. I don't think so." But then he turned to me and Maisie. "Now ifyoutwo got married?That, I'd livestream."
I grew very still.So did Maisie. I wasn't sure what she was thinking, butIknew what I was thinking, and it wasn't half-bad – well, except the part about inviting an influencer along for the ride.
Sierra gave a loud huff. "Don't be silly.They'renot gonna get married."
"Why not?" Chad asked.
"Because he's a billionaire," Sierra said. "He could have anyone. So why would he marryher?"
64
King of Hearts, Queen of Distraction
Maisie
From the other side of the card table, Franny gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh, Maisie. Notagain."
My brow wrinkled in confusion. "What?"
She pointed toward the cards on the table. "It's diamonds, not hearts."
As our two opponents looked on, I stared at the card I'd just played.The king of hearts."Oh. Sorry." I reached out to take it back.
Beverly spoke up. "Touch that card and you're dead."
I froze. "But I've got to touch it. I need to follow suit." I let out a nervous laugh. "Thosearethe rules, right?" I knew the rules just fine, but I was looking to make a point.
Beverly's eyes narrowed. "Do youhaveany diamonds?"
I glanced down at the remaining cards in my hand. "Not really."
She gave me a no-nonsense look. "You either do or you don't."
I snuck another glance. "Okay, then I don't." I pointed vaguely toward the king. "So actually, I'm good with that one." This was a slight exaggeration. I wasn'tthatgood. I'd wasted a perfectly good king for nothing.
Beverly snorted. "You bet your ass, you are." She tossed an ace of diamonds onto the pile before sweeping all four cards into her winning stack, scoring a trick for her and Darleen.
Across from me, Franny grumbled, "Well, someone's distracted tonight."
She wasn't talking about Beverly.
With a sheepish smile, I confessed, "Yeah, maybe a little."
Or a lot.
To my right, Darleen giggled. "And we all know why."
If she meant Griff, she was absolutely right. But even aside from him, today had been one of the best days of my life – and not only because I'd sold Shark Bike for a staggering sum.
I hadn't made a profit, not technically. But Ihadmanaged to recoup every cent my dad had spent to buy the crazy thing.
And that wasn't all.
