Sure, she loved the feel of satin, but it’s not like anyone was around to feel her in the satin, so she settled for the pragmatic flannel.
Flannel was nice, too. Flannel was comfortable, and warm, and very much Rachel.
“We missed you at game night,” Travis said.
“I have so much work.” She waved to the open laptop. “And I missed a bunch of emails after the flight and then the…uh…impromptu swim.”
It’d been way too long since she’d been swimming. Too long since the water had wrapped around her like that.
Until today, she hadn’t realized she’d missed that feeling of being enveloped.
Then again, there weren’t a lot of spare moments to think about extraneous things like that.
“Sorry about missing out with you guys,” she said with a smile, gesturing to the room. “I had to come run my empire.” He fidgeted with the dog leashes, not saying anything.
Still frowny. Still just…off.
She squinted at him, trying to see if she could guess what was going on. He was being weird. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Other than the fact your kids wiped me out at poker, I’m fine.” He shifted the bulk of the bedding he carried with him and set it down on the side table next to the sofa.
Wait. Poker? Her children were gambling?
That was not what she’d agreed to. When she’d left the living room, Bob said they were playing cards. She’d assumed—apparently, incorrectly—they’d be playing rummy or hearts.
“Wait. Rewind a second.” She made a roll-it-back motion with her hand. “You played poker at game night?”
He lifted a shoulder like it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s tradition.”
“With my kids?” She didn’t have any beef with teaching her kids to gamble, she just figured they should be of a certain legal age first.
“Brady’s better than the rest of us. The kid is seriously gifted at bluffing.” Travis had relaxed as they chatted, drifting toward the sofa.
Rachel, however, was not relaxing. She gripped the sides of her laptop because it was the only thing she had to hang on to.
“Dad’s teaching him to count cards, I’m pretty sure.” Travis laughed low.
The low laugh was not helpful.
“He taught Gavin, too,” Travis continued. “Dane and I never took to it. Don’t worry, he gave the whole safe-poker speech before he started.”
“Safe-poker speech?” She made a mental note never to miss game night again.
“How to do it without getting caught.”
“Huh.” She’d need to discuss that with Bob and with Gavin and, especially, with Brady. “Why didn’t you guys play poker when I came last time?”
“We did.” He dropped the leashes to let the dogs run free.
They immediately ran straight to her for a quick scratch on the head.
“Where was I when all of you were playing?” she asked, giving the dogs a good rubdown. “Last time.”
“I think you were in new-mom-of-twins land.”
“That must’ve been around the time I was delirious enough to tell Gavin I wanted twin puppies for our twin babies.” Rachel made kissy faces at the dogs, and they bounced around the edge of the sofa at the invitation to play.
Travis glanced at the dogs. “So this”—he gestured to the pups—“is your fault?”
