Page 24 of Denim & Diamonds

“Your legs broken or something?”

He pointed to his casted ankle.

“Shit.” I hung my head. “Sorry. I forgot.” A few weeks ago, my oldest brother had snapped his tibia when he fell off a roof at a jobsite. He hadn’t been wearing a safety harness, so the dumbass was lucky it wasn’t his neck.

Tonight was our monthly card game. All the Hawkins boys played except for Axe. I grabbed five shot glasses and lined them up on the bar before filling them with one continuous pour. Two of my brothers weren’t here yet, but they should arrive any minute.

“Tequila for everyone.” I walked over to the table and started passing out shots. “Don’t say I didn’t get you anything at Christmas.”

I had two left on the tray when the front door burst open. Trevor strutted in with a gloating smile and held up a big Tupperware container. “Sorry I’m late. My new lady, Emma, wanted me to bring the homemade seven-layer dip hot.”

Everyone groaned. Maddox cursed as he dug into his pocket and threw a fifty-dollar bill on the table. “Fucking unbelievable.”

I chuckled. “Told you. You underestimated the man and bet way too low.”

Trevor was the second youngest brother and the ladies’ man of the bunch. A little over a month ago, he’d shown up to card night with some elaborate Mexican dish a woman he’d gone out with had cooked for him to bring. By the end of the evening, we’d started a betting pool on how many weeks in a row Trevor could get a different woman to cook something Mexican for poker night. I’d picked thirteen. Maddox hadn’t been as confident and had only picked five, so he’d been hoping Trevor would show empty-handed tonight. No such luck.

Elvin grabbed the deck of cards from the middle of the table, slipped them from the case, and started shuffling. “I vote we change the rules of the bet to allow for duplicates. That carne asada what’s-her-name made last week was freaking delicious.”

Trevor set the platter in the middle of the table and flipped a chair around to sit backward. “What the hellwasher name?”

I shook my head. “It was only a week ago, you idiot. Your dick’s gonna fall off at this pace if you keep it up.”

“I’m pretty sure your dick falls off from nonuse, too,” Maddox said. “So both Trevor and Elvin are gonna look like Ken dolls from the waist down soon.”

“What are you talking about?” Elvin stopped shuffling. “Linda promised me sex a week from Tuesday if I cleaned out the garage this Saturday.”

Maddox shook his head. “I’m never getting freaking married.”

I filled two pitchers of beer behind the bar and brought them over to the table. “Where the hell is Fritz? He’s never late.”

“Oh. I almost forgot…” Trevor peeled the top off the plastic container, and a smoky smell wafted through the room. “He texted me. He got a last-minute call for a pickup, so he’s either gonna be late, or he might not make it at all, depending on how things go.”

“He still didn’t find a replacement driver for Pete?”

Our brother Fritz owned the local tow shop. He was currently down a few drivers.

“Nope. He hired some guy last week. Dude showed up Monday, worked one day, then quit because he got a better job. Fritz is working eighty hours a week.”

“Let’s get started without him then. If he shows, we can deal him in later.”

The guys all anted, and twenty minutes later I was down almost a hundred bucks. I’d lost every damn hand. So when the front door swung open, I was grateful for some new blood to mix things up. I yelledwithout looking up. “Get your ass to the table. I need you to break this shitty streak I’m stuck in.”

But the voice that answered wasn’t my brother’s. “That sounds like you’re saying I’m your lucky charm?”

February.

All heads whipped to the front door, including mine.

“Damn.”Trevor cooed. “I don’t know who you are, but you can bemylucky charm.”

I elbowed him in the ribs before jumping to my feet.

“What the fuck?” he complained.

“Watch your mouth.”

“My mouth? What the fuck for?”

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