Between by Tefft Cyndi

Author:Tefft, Cyndi [Tefft, Cyndi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2011-04-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

When I opened my eyes, we were back in the kitchen of the family cabin in Idaho, dressed in normal clothes again. I kissed Aiden lightly and he released me with a sad smile. While I cleared the breakfast dishes, I marveled at the ability to relive memories in such extraordinary detail, like how a video captures so much more depth than just a picture alone. Still, we couldn’t change the past, so it was a bittersweet experience.

There was a melancholy tension in the air between us as Aiden wandered into the living room, muttering to himself softly in Gaelic. He needed some space, so I occupied myself with washing the dishes while he built up the fire. I heard him rustling around in the living room, then the chair at the dining table made a loud scraping noise on the hardwoods. As I came around the corner wiping my hands on a dishtowel, he was shuffling a deck of playing cards.

“Fancy a game, lass? I promise I’ll take it easy on you.”

He winked at me and I laughed, dropping the towel on the table and accepting his challenge.

“Don’t bother. You aren’t the only one who learned to play cards as a kid, you know,” I teased.

“Just when I think I know how you’ll respond, you surprise me. All right then, we’ll see how you do.” I sat down across from him as he laid out the rules of the game. “First things first.” He blinked and a flask appeared on the table along with two small piles of gold buttons. He dealt the cards, explaining the rules for a game he called “Poque-deux” which turned out to be a version of an old French card game that his aunt had modified to make it easier to play with him and his brother.

Like poker, it involved betting and bluffing to try and intimidate your opponent into giving up before your hand was revealed, as well as an opportunity to draw and discard. The combinations of what constituted high-scoring hands were different than what I was used to, but I caught on quickly. We went through a practice round so I could learn the rules. He patiently explained which cards should be played when. Satisfied that I was sufficiently up to speed, he dealt a fresh hand and I frowned down at my cards, moving them back and forth in my hands as I sorted them.

“Hmmm… let’s see,” I mumbled to myself as I considered which cards to discard, finally choosing two that I wanted to replace. His face was stoic as he regarded his own hand and made his discard selection. I chewed on my fingernail and sighed, then pushed a good-sized handful of buttons into the center of the table between us for my wager.

“You understand that you only have to bet one button to stay in the game, aye?” he said.

I shrugged and gave him my best devil-may-care smile and he regarded me suspiciously, but matched my wager with his own.

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