Josie Day Is Coming Home by Lisa Plumley Page B

second
thoughts about these. Playing cards might make this whole kidnapping thing too
much fun for you. You’ll never leave.”
    “Only if you’re lucky.” Josie smiled. “Come
on. I need some distraction and you’re all that’s available. You owe me.”
    He hesitated, then ran a hand through his hair. Was it her
imagination, or was he reluctant to leave?
    “What do you have in mind?”
    “Seven-card stud.” Her favorite card game.
“Aces high, no limit, minimum bet…one Ding Dong.”
    With her good toe, she pushed a cellophane-wrapped chocolate
cake into the kitty. Then she looked at Luke.
    He put his hands on his hips. He arched his eyebrow.
“Poker? With a Las Vegas showgirl? I’d have to be crazy.”
    “Showgirl?” That was the second time he’d
mentioned that tonight. “I never told you that.”
    “You didn’t have to.” Hunkering down again, he picked up the cards and plucked them from the box. He executed a perfect two-handed riffle shuffle. “After getting all the gossip in town and listening to your mom jabber about you, I figured it out. Just because I work with my hands doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
    He dragged over an ottoman and sat on it, settling in. Josie
watched his hands as he shuffled.
    “I like that you work with your hands.” To her,
doing the kind of work he did suggested trustworthiness. Plus, it positively
demonstrated studliness.
    “I like that you work with your body.” He waggled
his eyebrows teasingly.
    “Yeah. Most men do. But just for the record, that makes
me a dancer, not a stripper.” Reminded again of the day’s events,
Josie frowned. “I wish people in this town would get that through their
thick heads.”
    “They might if you stuck around to show them.”
Luke dealt the cards. “But you’re leaving once you’re healed, right?”
    “Damned straight, I am. Of course. Sure.”
    He gazed at her, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“Add in a ‘definitely’ and I might believe you.”
    She snorted. “Shows what you know. I’m not staying
here. I’ve already been through all that. For a minute, Tallulah’s offer made
me forget. But Donovan’s Corner doesn’t like me and I don’t like it. End of
story.”
    “You must come back here pretty often,” he said.
“To visit your folks.”
    Josie squinted at her cards. She gestured for another one,
then wagered a second Ding Dong. Maybe if she pretended he wasn’t going all Barbara
Walters Special on her, he’d quit it.
    Luke didn’t even glance at his hand. “Or do they come
to see you in Vegas instead?”
    “Look, are you going to play cards or not?”
    “Do they think you’re a stripper, too?”
    Exasperated, Josie met his gaze. “You’re awfully
inquisitive. For a guy, I mean. Most men would rather gnaw off their own
toenails than have a conversation. Especially on purpose.”
    He wagered a Ding Dong, unbothered by her dig at his
manhood. “Most women never shut up.”
    She pursed her lips demonstratively.
    “Women are the ones who invented talking to
plants.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    “You must have something to hide.”
    “Fine.” Josie raised her chin. She rattled off the
facts. “I haven’t seen my dad for a few years. He’s happier that way. My
mom sneaks off to Las Vegas every six months or so for a visit. She sees a few
shows, throws a few quarters in the slots, and commandeers my bed for a few
days while I sleep on the couch. Then she goes back to her life and I go back
to mine. Sometimes my sister comes with her.”
    “What’s she like?”
    “My sister? Three years older than me and twice as
perfect. So that’s it in a nutshell. My life, from Donovan’s Corner until
today. Happy now?”
    Luke examined the kitty, then spread out his cards.
“Yeah. I’m happy. Full house, king high.”
    Josie gawked. It was going to be a very long night.
    Usually she excelled at poker—a perk of spending so much
time in casinos and of having accidentally dated a compulsive gambler