Excerpt Wednesday – Trail of Aces, a First Look

It’s Excerpt Wednesday! And you know what that means? Time for a look at my next release. In this case, the next release is book 8 in my Hot on the Trail series, Trail of Aces. Trail of Aces is Olivia and Charlie’s story. We already know something fishy happened early on the trail journey that led to them suddenly getting married from reading Trail of Redemption and Trail of Passion. Now we get to find out what that was!

“I’m heading west to become a teacher at a school that truly needs me,” Olivia answered, focused more on her cards than the conversation. She didn’t really care to remember her other reasons for fleeing home anyhow. She had two queens, and if she drew the right cards on the next play, she could have an impressive hand.

“And you’re going by yourself? No young men following you in search of your hand?”

She peeked up over the top of her cards with a look intended to set him down. Instead, it made Charlie chuckle, the spark in his eyes bright enough to light the heavens.

“I’m dedicated to teaching,” she said.

Charlie shrugged. “Couldn’t you teach as a married woman?”

“It simply isn’t done. Two cards, please.”

“Fair enough.” Charlie dealt two cards from the top of the deck.

Olivia bit her lip in disappointment. A four and a nine. Not particularly useful. She sorted them into place, then glanced up at Charlie. He was watching her with that tricky fondness of his.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head, smile wide. “Just admiring the view. And your prowess with cards.”

Was he joking? Worse still, could he be serious?

Of course not.

“You’re trying to break my concentration,” she scolded him, sitting straighter. “My friend, Nancy, used to do the same when she had a poor hand.”

“Did she?”

“Yes. She always assumed that if she could convince me not to pay attention, she could bluff her way into a win.”

His brows flickered up with something between surprise and delight. “You know about bluffing, then?”

“Of course. I have played cards before, Mr. Garrett.”

“Charlie.” Now he was laughing. He slid a nickel into the pot to match hers. “I call.”

With a smile that was more confident than she really felt with her cards, she tipped her hand. “A pair of queens.”

“Impressive.” Charlie showed his cards, a pair of nines. “You win.”

Delighted, Olivia handed her cards back to him and raked her winnings closer. Charlie continued to stare at her, expression unreadable. His eyes narrowed, giving him an even more rakish look. More rakish and more attractive, but she wasn’t about to admit she was attracted to a gambler.

Charlie gathered the cards and began to shuffle them with such speed and dexterity that it send a tingle down Olivia’s spine. No one back home in Fairfield was even remotely like Charlie. She wondered what her mother and half the ladies in town would have said if Charlie had been the one pursuing her instead of Silas. Likely they would have fanned themselves in shock and begged her to go west to teach instead of accepting his attention. Olivia rather liked that idea. It made Charlie even handsomer.

“One more hand and then we’ll call it a day,” Charlie spoke into her thoughts, dealing the cards.

Quick as lightning, five cards skittered across the table to her. She waited until they were all dealt, then picked them up. As soon as she did, she had to hold in a gasp of excitement. One, two, three aces. Just like that. She pressed her lips together to keep herself from showing her luck, sliding a nickel into the pot as her ante. Charlie did the same, whistling as he sorted his cards.

“Any bets?” he asked.

Olivia hesitated, then slid two quarters into the center of the table. “Fifty cents.”

Charlie’s whistled song slipped into one long note. “Well I’ll be.” He matched her fifty cents with fifty of his own. “How many cards, madam?”

Something about his teasing formality, the respect with which he addressed her, tickled Olivia. “Two, please,” she answered with matching formality.

With a nod, Charlie dealt two more cards to her, then three to himself. Olivia nearly choked when she picked up the cards. Another ace and the queen of hearts. She had four aces. Her skin prickled with excitement.

“Well now, would you care to open the bet?” Charlie asked, as calm and smooth as if they were enjoying a quiet afternoon with nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course, from his point of view, nothing was out of the ordinary.

Olivia checked her coins, counting them up as fast as she could. Holding her cards close to her chest with one hand, she pushed the entire contents of her coin collection into the center of the table. “Whatever amount this is, this is what I bet.”

“Ah.” Charlie nodded. “You’re going all in.”

“Is that what it’s called?”

“It most certainly is.” His eyes flashed like balls of lightning.

“Then that’s what I’m doing. Does that mean I win?” She rushed to count his coins. “I have more money than you do, after all.”

“Not so fast.” Charlie shook a finger at her. He reached into his pocket and drew out another handful of coins, adding them to the pile he already had on the table. “I see your fifteen dollars and ninety-five cents and raise you another six dollars.”

Olivia’s jaw dropped. “That isn’t fair.” Not that much else in her life thus far had been any more fair. “You can’t bring more money to the table after bets have already been placed.”

“Indeed, I can,” Charlie answered with a shrug. “It’s done all the time.”

Olivia humphed, not sure if she believed him. She was ready to throw her cards down when Charlie said, “You could always do the same, you know.”

“Bring in more money?”

He nodded. His mischievous grin was as sharp as ever.

“I don’t have six dollars.”

“Hmm.” He tapped a finger to his lips. Something about the gesture, about the way he drew attention to those lips, sent a shiver down Olivia’s back. She wondered what it would be like to touch those lips, what it would be like if those lips touched hers. “You could always wager something else.”

It took her a few seconds to shake herself out of her staring. “Something else?” Whatever it was, it would be worth it. Her hand was unbeatable.

“Absolutely.” He leaned closer to her. “I’ll tell you what. Do you think you’re going to win?”

“I know I’m going to win,” she replied without hesitation.

His grin grew downright sly. “They why don’t you bet the most precious thing you have.”

Olivia sat back in her chair. She ran through the inventory of everything she’d brought from Ohio. She didn’t have much—her clothes, a few books, the necklace her mother had given her. The necklace was the most valuable thing she had, but she would rather die than part with it. It was the only memento she had of her mother, troublesome though she was.

“How about your hand in marriage?”

Charlie’s suggestion was so quick and made with such a casual shrug that Olivia almost didn’t hear him. Once she did, she blinked and shook her head as though she had water in her ears. “My what?”

“Your hand in marriage,” Charlie repeated as if he heard such things all the time.

“Meaning that if I lose, I’ll marry you?”

“Now you’re catching on.”

She could see that he was laughing at her, but with four aces in her hand, it was hard to care. He would be the one who looked like a fool in the end.

She sat closer, leaning into the table. “And if I win, even though I’m playing with your money, you’ll let me keep it all?” The total in the pot was almost forty dollars. That much money would go far to help her set up a new life at the end of the trail.

Charlie straightened, putting a hand over his heart. “As a gentleman of honor, I swear that I will. It would be worth the price to play with such a lovely companion.”

Olivia’s heart stood still. She didn’t dare to breath. Nearly forty dollars against a promise of marriage—a promise she would never have to keep, not with four aces. Fortune was smiling on her that day. Her life was made.

“You have a deal, Mr. Garrett.” She smiled, stretching out a hand to shake his.

“Charlie,” Charlie insisted, catching her hand and gripping it firmly. He had large, warm hands with long, graceful fingers.

“I hope you can afford to lose forty dollars, Charlie,” she said, fanning out her cards before him with a smile so broad she nearly giggled. “Four aces.”

“And a queen of hearts,” Charlie added, looking pleased as punch.

Olivia clasped her hands together in her lap, grinning from ear to ear, ready to take her winnings. Then Charlie spread his cards out on the table. His grin was so satisfied it was downright wicked. And with good reason. All five of his cards were spades—king, queen, jack, ten, and nine.

Only a few hands beat four aces. A straight flush was one of them.

Olivia had lost.

 

Uh oh. That’s how it happened, but what happens next? Can a marriage that starts as a trick ever last? Find out on November 10th when Trail of Aces releases! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be notified when this and other releases happen….