Boy Next Door (Parkside Avenue Book #2) Read Online Free PDF

tattooed guy opposite me was scratching his hand, which meant he had at
least a straight. The chain-smoking, fat guy on my left folded, leaving the
blond dude, wearing an open-necked, yellow shirt, and Snakehead, as I’d nicknamed
him, on my right. Snakehead had been the hardest to read all night. Only once
had the snake’s eye above his ear twitched, and it had happened immediately before
he folded. It wasn’t twitching now. He had something, but what? The pot had
crept up to over a grand, a great night’s work if I could pocket it. Yellow Shirt
called, then Tattooed Guy also folded, clearly not trusting his luck. Snakehead
lifted the corner of his cards to check his hand, then raised. Shit . I
had just enough to cover it, but I had to go all in, and if I lost the hand,
I’d be all out for the night, and severely pissed. I thought about my four
kings sitting on the table, and prayed they were enough. Yellow Shirt’s cheek developed
a tic as he had to go all in too, so I didn’t have to wait long for the cards
to be revealed. Being the last active player, he had to show his hand first. He
grinned as he laid his full house on the table, smugly, but stood up so quickly
that he knocked over his chair and almost tripped over it in disgust, when
Snakehead produced four queens and faced me expectantly.
    “Beginner’s luck.” I beamed, as I
turned over the kings.
    “Stiffed us, more like.” Anger
filled his cheeks with murderous blood. “No one has that much luck the first
time.”
    I scooped up the pot from the
middle of the table and patted it into a neat pile, grateful we weren’t playing
with chips. Somehow I got the feeling I wouldn’t be given the chance to cash
them in. Bravado was the only way out. “How about I come back tomorrow and give
you the chance to win it all back? I’d stay but it looks like you’ve run out of
funds.”
    Tattooed Guy thumped the table. “He’s
a fucking hustler!”
    “I’m sorry. I thought that was
the point,” I said, standing. “Don’t a bunch of you let a couple of newbies in
each night and fleece them for every penny? It’s my guess that this dude hasn’t
been in here before, either.” My eyes flicked to the left and the guy shook his
head, before I faced Tattoo again. “What’s up, mate? Things not one-sided
enough for you?”
    “Watch your mouth, and get out of
here before I paint it a brighter shade of red,” Snakehead snarled.
    “No problem. See you tomorrow,” I
said, with a finger flick to the temple.
    ***
    The next morning, I was up not
long after the sun to start work on Cora’s garden. There was so much shit to
clear, I felt like Prince Phillip hacking his way through a wall of thorns to
get to Sleeping Beauty. The wheelbarrow filled within minutes, and I wheeled it
around the side of the house to deposit the cuttings in the bin.
    Cora’s voice drifted out from the
kitchen. “I’m not interested in another relationship. My life is far too busy,
and I’m too old to start again.”
    “Nonsense. Look at me. I’m having
a great time,” said another woman’s voice.
    I inched closer to the window to
listen.
    “You’ve never been married,” Cora
said. “Your great time started in your teens and kept on going.”
    I suppressed a snigger behind my
hand. Cora had a sense of humour. Craning my head around the window frame, I
looked inside. Cora’s companion was perched at the breakfast bar running her
hand over her excessively backcombed hair.
    “Exactly. The world is too full
of gorgeous men to choose just one. It’s fun. You’re my best friend, and
without a man, you’re missing out on so much of it.”
    “I’m perfectly happy as I am.”
    “No you’re not.” The woman
laughed. “Look at you. You’ve got a face like a wet weekend, and if you take a
break from men any longer you’re going to run out of batteries. There’s only
one thing to put some colour back into those cheeks, and it comes packaged in a
tailor-made suit. Just get this