Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(28)

Ridge waved a hand at his younger brother. "Since you're the card shark, round everyone up, and we'll play."

Two minutes later, the nine men were sitting around the poker table, Ranger gleefully dealing cards for Texas Hold 'Em. Poker was the only thing that interested Ranger beyond astrobiology.

At first glance, the two topics seemed incongruous, but both disciplines required cunning and cool objectivity. Something Ranger possessed in spades.

After Ranger's mother, Sabrina, divorced Duke over Ridge coming to live with them, she'd taken off with another man who didn't want kids, so she'd left her son behind. That was before Duke had married Lucy, and he and Ranger were cared for by a string of underqualified nannies, who didn't notice Ranger had contracted scarlet fever.

It was only when Bridgette Alzate intervened that Ranger got the treatment he needed, but by then the fever had caused complications with his heart. Ranger spent a big chunk of his childhood on the sidelines, unable to do much else except read. But all that reading had given him a whip-sharp mind.

Lively bachelor party conversation flew around the poker table. Food eaten. Alcohol consumed. Ice broken. Things warmed up.

It felt odd.

Sitting in the dim room, filling with cigar smoke from Duke's stogie, looking around at the familiar faces that had changed more than he'd expected over the ten years. He was here and he was interacting, but he didn't fit. He didn't belong. He was the outsider who'd gone away. Brooks & Dunn played on the Wurlitzer, "Rock My World Little Country Girl." Ridge listened to the lyrics. Thought of Kaia. She was one little country girl who'd rocked his world. Felt his stomach draw up tight. Wondered how the bachelorette party was going. Wished he could see her. 

"Nervous about tomorrow?" Ned asked Archer, and bit into a fanny-shaped cookie.

Archer grinned. "Nope. Looking forward to starting my life with Casey."

"Don't expect too much from the wedding night," Ned said. "It's not what it's cracked up to be. You'll both be exhausted."

"I know where you can get some Viagra. Keep you up all night." Zeke snickered. He was a tall, stringy guy with rounded shoulders and a pockmarked face. His hair was the color of Oklahoma clay, and he'd been married three times because he had a tendency to fall hard and fast for the wrong type of woman. No one took him seriously about anything except ranching.

"Hey, hey!" protested Herb, a squat, tax accountant with square-framed black glasses, a baldpate, and a trustworthy voice. "You're talking about my daughter!"

"Plug your ears, pardner," Zeke advised. "It is a bachelor party."

Archer glowered. "Herb's right. We're not discussing Casey."

"Duke," Kip said, sloshing beer when he raised his mug. Freckled-faced, big-eared, and bucktoothed, Kip looked like MAD magazine's Alfred E. Neuman. He was a former bull riding champion and wore the big belt buckle to prove it. "Give Archer some of your boner pills. He's too shy to ask for himself."

"Kip, shut up," Archer snapped.

Duke chomped on his cigar, switching it from one corner of his mouth to the other. "I don't need no damn Viagra. I keep Vivi plenty pleased all on my own."

"You expect us to believe that?" Ned asked. "When you're married to a gorgeous younger woman."

"How 'bout those Rangers?" Ridge said, steering the conversation to safer shores. "Think they'll make it to the pennant race?"

Archer jumped on the new direction, talking about the latest pitcher the Texas Rangers had recently acquired as bets were made and chips added to the ante. Conversation lagged as everyone concentrated on what was turning out to be a sprightly hand.

Ridge had a pair of Jacks, so he confidently stayed in past the flop even though he could play off none of the three flop cards.

Ned dealt the turn card and another round of bidding followed. No one folded.

The river card. Another Jack. Giving Ridge three of a kind. He grinned and upped the bet. It was Zeke's turn to call or raise.

"Hmm." Zeke studied his two cards as if they would magically change to a winning hand. He drummed his fingers on the table, scratched his jaw, and shifted in his seat.

"Make a move." Duke's voice was a cheese grater, rough and irritating. "Before I take those cards away and smack you with them."

Ridge tensed. Ah, just like old times. Tensions high. Duke growling some threat or the other. But on the bright side, this time he was not the target.

"On my salary, I can't afford to lose," Zeke said.

"Then fold," Duke grunted.

"I've already got sixty bucks in the pot." Zeke shoved a hand through his hair.

"Fish or cut bait," Duke said.