“Nora’s got a gift,” Roy said, his eyes pinned on me. “She should be using it. Instead, she’s working at a garage.”
“Oh, please don’t let her leave the garage,” Matt said, coming back from the kitchen. He dropped an open bottle of beer in front of Wyatt and retook his seat. “I finally have an appointment scheduled to get my truck fixed.”
“She likes it,” I said to Roy, feeling a bit defensive. I wasn’t forcing Nora to work at the garage. “And she’s good at it too.”
“And here is the turn card,” Mal announced.
I hadn’t been paying much attention to the game, but everyone in the hand must have checked the flop. Truth be told, I had no idea if I had anything remotely resembling a winning card.
“You know she can’t stay, though,” Roy said again, looking directly at me. “Nora’s future isn’t going to be working with you.”
“Working?” Sheriff Bobby coughed into his hand. “Maybe not.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Roy barked. “Is there something going on here I don’t know about?”
The table immediately got quiet and everyone averted their eyes. From Roy. From me. Everyone knew what happened except Roy and I felt like an asshole keeping my mouth shut.
This is what she wants, I reminded myself.
Distraction! I needed a distraction. I glared at Wyatt, who had his mouth full.
“Anyone want to try on my ring?” he said, though it was indecipherable around a mouthful of slider.
“All in!” I shouted and pushed all the chips in front of me into the pot.
“Call,” Roy said immediately. “I’ve got a full house,” he said, turning over his cards.
I looked at my hand. I officially had nothing. I tossed the cards face down into the pot and muttered, “Win some, lose some.”
“You saidyou were good at cards,” Wyatt said as we left Mal’s house and made our way back to the truck. I was down about two hundred bucks.
“I was distracted,” I admitted. “And you were zero help.”
“Sorry, man,” he said patting my back. “You know everyone at that table knows what’s happening with you and Nora except her dad right?”
Guilt stopped me in my tracks. “I know.”
“I don’t have a daughter yet, but if I did, and some guy I played poker with was fucking her, I sure as hell would want him to man up and say it to my face.”
“Then what would you do?”
“Oh, I’d fuck him up hard. But that’s a father’s right. That dude in there. Roy? Yeah, he’s going to mess you up. Probably break something. Your nose, maybe? I mean, I’m a former pro hockey player and that dude makes me nervous. So you’re going to get yours, but then, it will have been worth it.”
“Nora asked me not to say anything about us,” I said. “She’s not ready to be public. The video was an accident.”
“I don’t know, man,” he said with a shrug. “If you’re serious about a girl, you should be serious enough to tell her dad. “
We climbed inside the truck and I turned the key in the ignition. Was he right? Should I just ignore Nora’s wishes, go back inside, and tell Roy I was with Nora and let him punch me in the face?
“So?” he asked. “Are you serious about her?”
“Yeah,” I said.
It wasn’t hard to answer. That moment outside the door of her house I knew there was no going back. “But I wanted to give her time to trust me, you know. After everything that happened with that asshole and everything I did to her when she was eighteen, I wanted to show her, you know, that I was someone she could count on.”
“Seems to me lying to her dad doesn’t really do that,” Wyatt said.
“Fuck, I know, but…”
