Mac lifted both hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I served my time in the doghouse. Don’t think I’ll ever be fully paroled.”
Penny just grinned and took a sip of wine, nodding as if to say,damn right.
Laughter rolled around us, easy and familiar. Yet a quiet ache settled in my chest as I looked around the fire. They’d all found something. Someone. I was happy for them, but that didn’t stop the part of me that longed for it too.
I might’ve been the youngest of the group, but I’d always known what I wanted. A wife. Kids. A house full of love and noise and everyday chaos. I wanted the kind of life I didn’t grow up with. The kind I only ever got glimpses of.
My parents loved each other, sure, but they never settled down. My mom was a barrel racing champion, my dad her manager. Always on the road, always chasing something. Trophies, wins, adrenaline. So, I’d grown up mostly at the Cassidy Ranch, taken in like one of their own.
Still, I wanted my own. I wanted holidays that didn’t feel borrowed. Family vacations, messy traditions, movie nights with popcorn on the couch and kids falling asleep in my lap.
I glanced to the side quickly to see Ellie, the flames dancing in her eyes. And for the briefest moment, I let myself wonder if maybe, just maybe, that kind of life could still be mine.
“What do you say, why don’t we play Blackjack?” Aspen suggested, producing a deck of cards from seemingly nowhere, her eyes glinting with mischief.
Boone groaned and took a swig from his beer. “No way. Ellie always wins. It’s totally unfair,” he said, chuckling as he leaned back in his chair.
Ellie shot me a glance, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth to hide the growing grin. I met her eyes and laughed with her—just the two of us sharing a silent joke wrapped in history.
Shedidalways win, but not because she was lucky.
That’s why I gave her the nickname.
Ace.
Because she always had one up her sleeve.
Boone, Ellie, and I sat around their dining room table while the storm outside boomed so loudly we could barely hear each other talk. Thunder cracked, and the lightning lit up the windows like fireworks. I wasn’t scared, though, not when I was here with them.
I was spending the night at the Cassidys’ house again. My parents were gone on another trip, which was typical. I didn’t mind. I loved being here. They had the best snacks. My favorite were those brownies wrapped in plastic. The kind with the little white squiggle on top. My parents never bought that stuff. They said it was junk, but I thought it tasted like magic.
I took a big sip of birch beer from my can. It was cold and sweet and made my nose tingle.
I looked down at my cards, holding them tight in my hands. My tongue poked out the side of my mouth. Should I ask for another card? Or keep what I had and hope no one beat me?
“I’ll stay,” I said, laying my cards face up on the table. A ten and an eight. Eighteen! That was pretty close to the big two-one. But I had a funny feeling Ellie had me beat. She always did.
“Ha!” Boone shouted, throwing his head back with a giant grin that almost made his cowboy hat fall off.
Boone was thirteen now—a teenager. That made him basically a grown-up in my eyes. He had given me his old cowboy hat when he got a new one for his birthday. He told me it was mine now, that he was a man, he needed a man’s hat. I didn’t care. I liked mine better. It was darker brown, and I thought Ellie might think it looked cool on me.
Boone slapped his cards on the table—two tens. “Gotcha!” He pointed right at me before stuffing a fistful of Skittles into his mouth.
I turned to Ellie, who was trying hard not to smile, but I could see it creeping up her cheeks. Her hair was in two braids Mrs. Cassidy had done after we came inside, all soaked from playing in the rain. Ellie’s hair had been wild, sticking to her face, and I laughed because she looked so silly. I liked her hair crazy, but I didn’t mind it in braids either because now I could see her face.
“Twenty-one,” she said, her whole face lighting up. She laid down a ten and an ace with a proud grin.
“No way!” Boone yelled. “You got twenty-one again?”
Ellie just shrugged, like it was no big deal. She reached forward and scooped up her prize—a pile of Goldfish crackers. We didn’t bet money. We bet snacks. Ellie’s pile was huge. Mine was medium. Boone’s was mostly gone ’cause he kept eating his.
But I didn’t care that Ellie kept winning. I liked when she was happy.
“Boone,” Ellie said sweetly, “can you get me another soda? All these Goldfish are making me thirsty.”
Boone groaned but stood anyway, hopping down from his chair with a big sigh. I watched him head toward the fridge. That’s when Ellie leaned toward me and raised a finger to her lips, telling me to shhh.
Then—sneaky as a fox—she reached across the table, grabbed the ace she’d just played, and slid it into her sleeve before collecting all the cards to start another round.
