I look down when he says that and realize I bluffed my way into winning my money back. I didn’t mean to. When I went all in, I felt pretty good about the jacks. Didn’t think they’d be all I needed.
“Thanks, boys. It’s been a pleasure,” I say, cashing out and putting the forty bucks back in my wallet.
“Yeah, yeah,” Nate says, sweeping the cards into a pile and shuffling as I head to the door.
“Oh hey, and Houston…Nate’s game with the scouts is next week. Cass is coming, and I think she’d like it if Paige came. Just…if you can help that out a little,” Ty says. We exchange an understanding stare.
“Yeah, I’ll work on it,” I say.
“Good. Thanks. Oh, and just a tip…that bluffing shit—” he pauses, holding the door open as I step outside onto the pavement, “it won’t work with her. She’ll see right through it all—trust me. Just give it to her straight. Ya know, if you wanna get anywhere.”
I hold up my hand with my keys, eyes wide, and nod. I don’t think I can really bluff Ty either. I won’t pretend to.
The trip in my car is silent. I don’t even bother with the radio; I’m too consumed with her. I pulled my phone out at the first stoplight, wanting to send Paige a text that I was on my way, but then I wasn’t sure what to type. I turned the lights out before I drove into the driveway. I know it’s barely ten at night, but they both might be asleep.
I can see the light from Leah’s room spilling into the hallway upstairs, so I slip my shoes from my feet and glide up as quietly as I can. She usually stays awake waiting for me on late work nights. She says she just likes to say goodnight, but I kind of think she worries I won’t come home at all.
“But what about the princess?” I hear Leah ask. I’m about to step into her room when I pause, not wanting to interrupt. I turn the corner so my back is flush against the wall outside her door.
“Right. The princess,” Paige says. She’s quiet for a few seconds, and I can hear the pages of the book turning. Leah loves princesses—anything in a big dress with hair and glitter. “How does this story usually go?”
“The mean witch locks Delilah up in the tower, and then the prince gets his friends together so they can save her, but when he gets there, the tower is scary, so all his friends leave, and he has to fight the witch and her dragon alone. He kills them, and then saves the princess and they run away and get married.”
Leah is out of breath when she finishes retelling Paige the entire princess book. I smile at her voice, doing my best not to laugh at her enthusiasm over a story she’s heard no less than a hundred times.
Then Paige begins to talk, and my chest grows heavy.
“I’d like to tell you a different version, if that’s okay,” she says.
“What’s a version?” Leah asks. I cover my mouth with my knuckle, smiling against it.
“It’s sort of like, hmmmm…it’s kind of a different way the story could go. You know how you get up in the morning and decide what you’re going to wear? And maybe if you wear a dress, that means you can’t do cartwheels or swing on the swings. But what if you wore shorts instead?”
“I’d swing,” Leah says excitedly, then whispers, “sometimes I swing in the dress. Grandma yells that I’m showing my underwear.”
She giggles and Paige laughs with her.
“Right, but most of the time, what you decide in the morning might mean you do different things later. Well what would happen if Delilah decided not to wait for the prince?” Paige asks.
“Oh no!” Leah’s genuinely worried by this. I’m…fascinated. I slide down slowly so I’m sitting against the wall now, my legs bent up under my arms, careful not to be seen. I don’t want to distract either of them.
“Well maybe…oh no. Or…maybe what Delilah decides—when the evil witch locks her up—is that she’s tired of being pushed around,” Paige says. I lay my face flat against my hands, so desperate for her version now.
“Delilah is scared at first. She’s never really been good at fighting. Her dad always led the army. And her mom only decorates for balls and picks flowers in the garden and things like that. So Delilah spends the first night alone, in the dark room, locked away in the tower, hoping someone will save her. But when she wakes up the next morning, she realizes that nothing bad happened to her. The dark was scary, but nothing happened. She’s okay. So she finds a slender piece of wood along the floor and uses it to pick the lock.”