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"Deal," she says, and with a flourishing flick of her wrist, she turns the cards over one by one Three kings, two eights A full house

Standing up frorab Vale's hand, urging her to stand up too

"Got o so you can tie me up"

Garrett barks out a laugh and grabs lare at hi I will rain retribution down on him if he exposes me

Max clearly doesn't see rabs the cards from Garrett's hand before I can even pull Vale free of the table and places them face up "Four of a kind," Max says with a lohistle "Look at them ladies"

"Asshole," Iup at me, which clearly beat Vale's hand

When I look back at her, she's staring at me in sympathetic aht "I'll give that one to you, so let's get going I hope you brought more than one dress tie for this road trip"

I suppress a groan and try not to laugh over Max and Garrett standing there agog over Vale's words That was just a tiny peek at the woman I used to know, comp

letely unafraid to say how it is Sheways, but not her penchant for honest and open talk

"We're out of here," I tell Max and Garrett as I hten my hold on Vale's hand, and pull her toward the door Luckily my room is just three down fro Vale's hands and mouth to be all over me

Today has been a perfect day

Chapter 22

Vale

This is nice

Lying on th of it with hthts off, and while I'm normally a weenie about scary movies, I don't feel an ounce of anxiety as I look warily at Freddy's long ar, bad hockey player behind o and we're content to just lie here like this, his hand resting on my hip in a loose embrace

Hawke leans forward, which pushes e of the couch, reaches an arm over me, and dives his hand into the bowl of candy on the coffee table "Want another?"

"No," I groan "I'ar overload"

"Well you shouldn't have bought thirty pounds of mini Snickers"

"I didn't kno et in this apartment complex," I point out about ht short and have to hand out protein bars Plus, bonus, we get the leftovers"

Hawke chuckles and aardly unwraps the Snickers Aard becauseon his left bicep, which is tucked under s the Snickers to just in front of es to unwrap it He holds the naked little candy bar in front of my mouth and teases, "Want a bite?"

I shake my head

He waves it under es my mind "Okay, a little bite"

He feeds it tome take half of the tiny bar, and puts the rest in histhe movie

I was kind of surprised that Haanted to coeous neighborhood and would probably have a ton of visitors I didn't think he'd be into it, but it was his suggestion we hand out treats froested this, but in hindsight, I think it's because he knew his presence would mean more to the socioeconohborhood While not every person to ring the doorbell was a hockey fan, more were than not It was hilarious to see some of the kids freak out when they saw hiot really into it, although he didn't have a costue sombrero he wore on his head and where he put some of the candy He'd bend down and let the little kids take the candy frohly entertained over howthis