49

In a hurry, I strip out of my button-down and slacks and find a pair of lounge pants and my favorite T-shirt. It's butter-soft from the number of times it's been washed, and there's a hole in the armpit, but I love it.

And she did say to dress comfortably.

I stop short at the threshold of what used to be my dining room. "What the hell?"

"Aw, man!" Bella jumps up from her chair where she was stacking quarters and cries. "How did you sneak up on me? I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I'm surprised all right. Where is my dinner table?"

She bites her lip. "I dismantled it and put it in the laundry room with all the chairs."

The room has been transformed completely. A poker table is set up with four foldout chairs, and there's a rolling cart with a nice bottle of scotch, highball glasses, and a bucket of ice in the corner. That's just the beginning.

"Where did you get all of this?"

Bella gives me an innocent smile. "The home goods store."

"When?"

"Right after you said you were coming home to relieve me of my boredom." She grins and offers me my choice of seat.

"Are those cigars?" I ask, accepting the glass of scotch she pours for me.

"Yeah ... too much?" Bella's eyes are wide with mock innocence.

"Just a little. I don't smoke."

"Me neither," she jokes. "But you can't in good conscience play poker without having one hanging out of your mouth." She goes back to stacking her quarters on the felt. "I opened the rolls so it'll be easier."

"Good idea." I take a seat.

"Easier for me to beat your ass."

I quirk a brow. "You're very cocky."

Bella sits back and makes the motions of cracking her knuckles in an effort to intimidate me. "I'm a vampire. I've got the perfect poker face. You're going down, Cullen."

"Bring it, Swan."

What Bella doesn't realize is that I've been watching her for weeks, even when she doesn't know it.

It takes me all of ten minutes to find her tells. She has two. A twitch of her nose. A slight change in her smile. When she does both, I know she's got a really shitty hand, so I go all in.

Bella is confused when she realizes that she is, in fact, the one losing her shirt.

I wish she would lose her shirt.

She starts to sweat it, and her tells only grow more obvious.

"How are you doing this?" she cries as I rake the pot toward me and start stacking quarters.

I shrug. "You're easy to read."

She huffs and offers me a drink.

"Trying to get me drunk so I can't school you at poker. Mature, Bella. Very mature." I chuckle.

"Oh, shut up."

Angela comes home and doesn't even ask before tossing her bag in the corner of the room and takes a seat next to Bella.

"Deal me in," she says, rubbing her hands together mischievously.