by Shawn Keys
Daniel inspected the poker table as he walked past it, ducking his head to check out the details. Leather sides. Yellow boxes painted on the felt to indicate where your cards should be laid down. There were storage bays along the edges for stowing chips and packs of cards, though at the moment, the chips had been stacked around the table in three different groups.
Azélie returned with a shot of expresso in a small cup. Matteo was trailing behind with his beer in hand. She offered, “I know you really need four to have a good game, but I haven’t decided who else to invite. We’ll have to make due for tonight.” She didn’t seem to be questioning if the two of them were going to stay. She was taking it for granted.
Matteo circled the table, admiring it himself. “Setup like this must have set you back a little.’
“Gift to myself. Kangaruin doubled down on Cadence, I think Atlas is going to make an offer soon, and I’m getting nibbles for MK, Irène, and Melodie. Might even be able to spin the interest in Melodie out to cover the whole team, assuming I can sell them as future stars.”
Honestly impressed, Daniel guessed, “We’re not talking business tonight.” She had always kept her dealings with the various clients scrupulously separate since the very beginning. A little information had leaked back and forth in moments of concern, not that anyone was going to blame her or hold her to task. Those slips had allowed him to link her athletic swimming team up with Matteo, which had worked out in pretty much everyone’s favor.
Azélie shrugged. “Maybe I’ve decided to make a few changes.” She picked the chair closest to the wall, settling into place.
Matteo joined her and together waited while Daniel finished preparing his drink. “Why now?”
“Part of it is because I want to play the game again. Haven’t had much time for a social life, given how work’s been going. Seemed easy enough to blend the two. Always enjoyed my conversations with you two.” Azélie trickled off as if done with her explanation.
Daniel chuckled. “Hope your poker face is better during the game, or we’re going to clean you out pretty quick. Won’t have time to finish my drink.” He dropped a small sprig of orange rind into his glass to finish his work of art, dumped in the dollop of expresso and took the last seat. “What else?”
His teasing elicited a soft laugh from her. She shrugged, “Not one word of a lie. I did want a game. You two seemed like you could use an outlet. We all work a little too hard.”
Matteo nodded gruffly. “No argument here.” He flickered a hand over at Daniel. “Doesn’t make him wrong, though.” He took a pull on his beer, then picked up the cards and scattered them over the table in a messy shuffle.
Azélie glanced back and forth between them. “Do you two trust each other?”
That took Daniel aback. Mostly because he hadn’t expected to have it called into question.
His hesitation let Matteo get his answer out first. “Sure. He’s done right by Irène. If nothing else, that’d be enough for me.”
Daniel would hardly have felt right denying the man after his kind words. Fortunately, he didn’t have to. “Right back at you. Put my trust in you when I recommended you to Azélie. I’d say you lived up to that recommendation and more.”
Azélie smiled. “So would I.” One of her eyebrows twitched upward. “In more ways than one.”
Matteo paled a little. “What… have you heard?”
Azélie leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table and peered over at him with an amused quirk on her lips. “I know I mentioned this to Daniel before, but Flora and I went to college together. We faced a lot of tough times. Trust each other implicitly. And you were my recommendation to her. Do you really think she would have given her blessing without telling me all about it right after?”
Matteo dropped his face into his palms. “Oh crap.”
Daniel swept his gaze back and forth between them. “What? What’s going on?”
“Don’t act all innocent,” Azélie pointed at him. “I swore you were the one who gave him the idea until Flora told me her girls seduced him, not the other way around.”
Oddly, Daniel felt no urge to deny anything in front of them. He hadn’t willfully included Azélie or Matteo in those who knew about his lovers. Then again, he wasn’t ashamed. Exactly the opposite. He wished with all his heart that they didn’t have to keep how they felt under wraps. Azélie was clearly amused by it, rather than judgmental. And if what she was saying was true, Matteo would be the hugest hypocrite ever if he was going to give Daniel hell.
So instead, he fired back a wry comment, “How do you think it happened to me? Gentlemen don’t tell tales, so I won’t tell you the details on how Cadence, Evelyn and I got together. But believe me, it was not a cleverly executed seduction on my part. I don’t have that kind of skill.”
Matteo’s jaw dropped open. “Really? Miss Foster?”
Daniel waited, then grew puzzled. “That’s it? You’re only shocked by Evelyn? Not Cadence?”
A bass laugh issued from Matteo. “Oh please! Anyone seeing you together other than in a public venue could tell. If you’re trying to keep it a secret, you’re going to have to try a little harder. Hell, simply saying her name makes you grin like an idiot.” He chuckled good-naturedly, taking the sting out of the jab. Dispelling the insult further, he admitted, “Though you probably could do the same thing to me if you mentioned Laura, Melodie, Daphne or Hélène to me these days.”
“Wait.” Daniel turned back to Azélie. “Is that you why asked us here?”
She shrugged. “In part. Like I said, I wanted a game. Plus, I figured the two of you would be better off knowing someone with the same…” She paused to find the right word, “… lifestyle, shall we call it? Someone who you can talk to about the women you like.” She offered a kind smile.
Daniel nodded, both acknowledging her point and adding his thanks. She’s right. Keeping this secret is one of the only bad parts about my life. “Feel like there’s something else, though.”
Azélie smirked. “That’s because there is.” She grew a little more serious, pointing across the table at the both of them. “I don’t care who met who first. Those young ladies are under my care now. After all these months, I’m starting to get pretty fond of all of them. Most of them either don’t have mothers or they’ve lost touch with them. Too few people care about them.”
Her own concern for them welled up in her eyes. “What’s going on between you two and those women is… unconventional. No arguing that. It might be exactly what they needed. Might be why they all wanted it to happen. But I’m here to tell you that you better do right by them. That’s why I asked you here tonight. I wanted you to get to know each other, and be aware that I know what’s going on. I don’t want you keeping anything locked up inside, you hear? If there’s trouble in these paradises you two have created for yourselves, talk to each other. Or me. Just don’t be all macho and force yourself into facing any problems alone until it all breaks apart. Everyone gets hurt that way.”
Daniel found it hard to believe the depths of emotion pouring out of her. All he had seen was the businesswoman. He had vastly underestimated how close she had gotten with his team. He had encouraged them to have Azélie as an agent because she seemed to care. She was more than a means to an end for making money and improving their fame. Apparently, he hadn’t realized how much she would embrace her clients.
Absorbing that, he gathered all the honest affection and love he had for the women he was helping. His love for Cadence and Evelyn. His admiration for MK and his affection for Irène. “Thank you, Azélie. Truthfully… it’s a damn fine thing to know that I have others I can talk to. You took a chance tonight, bringing us together. Don’t worry. I’m not taking this lightly.”
Matteo’s expression was thick with emotion, not quite daring to speak for fear it might lead to blubbering in a way no man was wont to do. Finally, he managed a jerky nod along with a quiet, “Yes, Ma’am. Can do.”
Hearing them both commit
, Azélie sank back in her chair. “Well, in that case… there’s really nothing else to say.” She reached out and started to sweep back the cards, bringing them into a single stack in front of her. “Figure maybe we can make this a regular game. Not sure who else might want in. Thought about Flora since she already knows about your relationship, Matteo. Probably wouldn’t judge you either, Daniel. But she isn’t fond of the game.” She shrugged. “Mind if it’s just the three of us for now?”
Matteo settled into his chair. “Sounds mighty fine to me.”
Daniel felt exactly the same. He grabbed the ‘Dealer’ chip and tossed it her way. “Why don’t you start us off.” Getting comfortable, he leaned the chair back far enough to make it creak and grinned at Azélie. “What say we make the blinds… oh, one and two to start?”
“Dollars?” she asked back.
He chuckled. “Pennies. I’m not rich yet. Besides, if we’re going to be friends… I’d like to keep you around for a while, not rob you blind.”
“Big talk,” Matteo rumbled.
“See how he’s feeling in an hour or so when we chop a couple chip stacks off him,” Azélie warned.
The banter was casual. Exactly what Daniel needed. Already, he was beginning to think this felt right. I have love. The team is finding success. Maybe this is what was missing.
Friendship.
What better place to find it than here?
With thought lingering in his mind, he said, “We’ll see. Deal me in.”
The story will continue in…
Chasing
Dreams,
Year Three