Page 21 of Shameless
The women looked at me and I stared at Sarah. “Are you sure you want to go all in?”
“Yeah, why?” She averted her gaze, looking down at the cards in her hand.
“Because if you lose, you’re out.”
“I’m not going to lose.” She stuck out her tongue.
I grinned and pushed my coins in. “All right. I call.”
We both turned our cards over. She had a pair of sevens in her hand which gave her a three-of-a-kind.
“Wow, I thought you were bluffing,” I teased.
She wrinkled her brow. “What? No.”
I grunted a laugh. “All right.” Since I was the dealer, I turned over the turn card. It was an ace of spades which did nothing for either of us. I needed a king, which I got when I flipped over the river card.
Sarah’s mouth fell open. “Wow. Seriously?”
I lifted a shoulder and bit my lower lip. “Sorry, sweet thing. That’s how the cards fall.”
“I’m going to go watch the sunset. Hopefully the food gets here soon.” She stood and made her way out to the balcony, closing the sliding glass door behind her.
“Is she okay?” I asked her friends. After I’d made the cocktail, it seemed as though Sarah had a lot on her mind.
They each looked toward the door and Josie said, “It’s not for us to say.”
I blinked, not expecting something to be wrong. We’d been having a great time. Or so I’d thought. “Is it about her ex?”
Josie shook her head.
I watched Sarah as she leaned on the railing, the sun setting in the distance. Before I knew it, I was pushing all of my coins to the center of the table before the next hand was dealt. “All in.” Not waiting to see if I’d won or if any of them called me, I stood and made my way outside. Without a word, I slid the door closed behind me and then leaned on the railing next to her.
“Sunset is my favorite color,” she whispered.
“Really?”
“I know a lot of people say blue or green or purple, but I’d always thought the mix of orange, red, and yellow was beautiful. Sometimes there’s even pinks or purples. By saying sunset is my favorite color, I’m not limited to just one.”
“Wow, I’ve never thought of it that way,” I admitted.
“And here”—she gestured at the water—“you can stare out at the ocean and watch the sun set into the horizon and it’s truly magical. You can just watch the sun until you can’t see it anymore. I love it.”
“Yeah,” I breathed, watching the sunset reflect in her green eyes. “It truly is magical.”
We gazed out at the ocean, both of us watching the sun as it went down. It looked as though it was going into the water when really it was moving to the other side of the world.
“She’s sick,” Sarah stated but didn’t elaborate.
“Who?” I asked.
“Aunt Deb.”
“Like, the flu sick?”
“No.” She shook her head. “She was diagnosed about a year ago with Parkinson’s.”
My breath caught. How had my mother not told me? They were best friends and spoke often. Or maybe, my mom didn’t know. Was that a possibility? I tried to rack my brain for anything I knew about the disease but it wasn’t much. “But people don’t die from it, right?”
