“Really?”
Elijah nodded. “Really,” he uttered before looking over his shoulder toward the door. “Was Viv up yet? If she sleeps in, maybe I could get in a game or two before she gets up.”
Lost on Elijah’s train of thought, Camden raised his hand before asking his question. “I know there’s probably a logical explanation why you’re concerned about Vivienne being up, but I don’t understand why you can’t play if she’s awake.”
“It’s a partners game. She and Manny team up against my parents all the time. The only time I get to play is as a substitute for one. I mean, I play with my boys on the job every now and again. But believe me, there’s nothing like a game of Spades with the Stephensons.”
Camden’s curiosity was piqued. He’d spent all of yesterday in the presence of Elijah’s family, and he could testify that most things he’d witnessed the Stephensons do was unlike any other family, certainly not Camden’s, anyway. Who else welcomed a total stranger into the fold the way Evelyn had with no proper vetting? Who else would make Camden feel so welcome without testing his worth, what he could bring to the table?
Uncertain of what he was about to encounter, Camden fell into step behind Elijah as they made their way down the stairs. He might not know what Spades with the Stephensons was like, but the idea of spending time with the Stephensons doing anything brought an unfamiliar excitement Camden didn’t quite understand, and honestly, he had no intention of trying to explore it either. For once, he would not look at the angles of the situation. He was just going to enjoy it.
Chapter Fifteen
“YOUsure you wanna do this, brother?”
Elijah was asking himself that exact question. Only, he refused to let his younger brother know it. Emmanuel was cocky enough that Elijah didn’t need to add to his ego.
Elijah leveled a concerned glance at Camden sitting across the table from him. In pure Camden fashion he sat painfully straight in his chair with perfect posture. His shoulders squared, he winked an eye at Elijah and blew him a kiss across the table. He was unconcerned, unbothered in a way that both enticed and frightened Elijah.
Spades was not a game of chance. It was skill, all skill. It was also highly competitive. Add his family to the mix, and there was a real possibility there would be spilled blood somewhere on his kitchen floor.
“Camden, are you certain about this? If you can’t play, just back away now.”
Camden let his gaze move around the expanse of the table, carefully assessing Emmanuel, Vivienne, and then Elijah. The aloofness Elijah found in his eyes made his stomach turn. He didn’t get it. Camden didn’t understand how serious this game was. Which meant one thing, Elijah would have to listen to his already annoying brother brag about his and Vivienne’s impending win.
Elijah’s chest tightened when he noticed something different about Camden. It wasn’t a noticeable change, something only a person who carefully studied the man up close would recognize. In the depths of those crystal blue eyes, there was certainty.
Elijah remembered that look. The moment Camden had arrived for their date. As soon as he locked eyes with him, Elijah could see Camden was certain in their connection. He never wavered, never relented. Until the wee hours of the morning, he showed Elijah what it meant to have a lover who could play your body like an instrument. A lover whose talent was amplified because there were no questions, no hesitations, just simple confidence and the unimaginable pleasure it brought.
Elijah nodded his head and sat back against his chair, calmer than he had been and resigned that Camden had this. He didn’t know why. Nothing about Camden said he’d spent any real time entrenched in this time-honored card game, but Camden’s sense of calm made Elijah feel at ease.
“Y’all in or you out?” Emmanuel demanded as he shuffled the cards. His lips curved into a smile as he watched Camden’s lips do the same. They were more than in, they came to play.
“Deal the cards, Manny. We got this.”
“Oh, so you think you can take Viv and me since the pretty boy showed up? Come on, big brother, let me spank that ass again. Ya man ain’t got no game for us. How many books you got?”
Elijah looked down at his cards and counted the expected hands he thought he could win. With a king of clubs, an ace of hearts, and the coveted ace of spades, he was certain he had at least four books won.
“I got four. How many books you got, Cam?”
He watched Camden study his hand. His confidence in Camden’s playing ability waned just slightly as the man slowly examined his cards.
“Books?”
That confused look Camden offered made Elijah’s stomach twist in knots. “Books are the hands won in each play.”
“Oh, you mean tricks?”
Relief spread through Elijah.Okay, maybe this was just a case of things being lost in translation.
“Tricks?” Manny’s response made Elijah cut his eyes at his brother across the table. “That might be the technical term, but when us melanated folk play, we call ’em books.”
“Ignore him, Camden. How many do you have?”
“Five.”
Elijah wasn’t a cautious bidder, but for someone he assumed wasn’t an avid player of Spades, five books in the first hand seemed a little too much.
