Page 22 (1/2)

Gia shakes her head, not looking over at me “My parents were divorced whenafter my brothers were born They’re twins”

“Wow, that’s pretty cool How old are they now?”

“They’ll both turn twenty in Dece I’h”

“Do they play poker too?”

“No,” she says ee Ourtheh”

Intuitively, I know Gia is at least helping put her brothers through school, if not paying the full cost of their tuition I can hear the pride and concern in her tone My urge to blow past the Aria and take her ho out I just want to be with her

“Right here is good,” she says, pointing to an open spot

“Can’t I get you any closer?”

“Nah, this is great I’ll walk the rest of the way”

I pull into the open spot and puthoht,” I say “I didn’t think anything could get ame, but you did”

“Anytime And thanks for the ice cream”

“Can we still have breakfast Sunday?” I ask, feeling like a dipshit at the hopeful note in my voice

“Sure” She hesitates, and then says, “I like you, Maverick If I wanted to date a guy, or even just fuck, I’d want you”

I get hard, even though I know there’s a “but” co

“But I’ poker for a reason,” she says “I have to stay on track So we need to keep it just friends between us”

“I get it,” I say, not getting it at all “My coach told us no wo to be on our asses about everything after tonight, so breakfast buffets are about all I can offer you anyway”

Gia sood breakfast buffet” She opens the car door and steps out “Thanks for the ice cream”

“Text me later?”

“We’ll see,” she says, givingthe car door

We’ll see—hts exactly I’ve never knooman like Gia, and I want to be h, I’ll take what she’s willing to givein my power to make her want more, too

Chapter Ten

Gia