Reese's Wild Wager

His hands tightened on her arms as he stared down at her.

Blue eyes wide and soft, she stared up at him.

Damn that mouth of hers.

Damn the torpedoes….

He started to lower his head—

The tavern door swung open wide; Gabe and Melanie came in first, with five-year-old Kevin, Melanie’s son, Callan and Abby came next, then Cara and Ian. The noise level in the tavern increased tenfold as his family spilled like a burst dam into the room.

“Hail, hail, the gang’s all here!” Gabe scooped a laughing Kevin up in his arms, and Reese saw the lift of Gabe’s brows as his gaze landed on the sight of Reese holding Sydney’s arms. Reese quickly dropped his hands. Terrific, just terrific. He could only imagine how this must look to everyone. Exactly like what it was, he realized with a silent groan. Good Lord, he’d almost kissed Sydney!

Thank God his family had rescued him from making a mistake like that. Reese knew he’d take some ribbing for it, but that was a small price to pay to be saved from insanity.

“My mom won’t let me say hell,” Kevin announced to everyone in the way only a five-year-old can. “She gets mad if I even say heck.”

“Hail—” Melanie carefully enunciated the word as she pulled a black felt hat from her head, spilling her thick auburn hair around her shoulders “—means hello,” she explained. “It also means hail as in pellets of ice, but we can talk about that later. Sydney, how nice to see you.”

“Hello, Sydney.” Abby smiled sweetly, ran an unconscious hand through the layered golden curls of a new hairdo she wasn’t quite used to yet but her husband seemed to love.

“You here for Sunday brunch?” Cara asked, shrugging out of her navy peacoat. Though she had barely begun to show in her pregnancy, her hand instinctively moved to her stomach. Ian, her husband, slipped an arm around her from behind and covered her hand while he pressed his lips to the top of his wife’s blond head.

“Sort of.” Sydney folded her arms and looked up at Reese with a smug why-don’t-you-tell-them expression on her face.

The room was once again quiet, all eyes on him.

Dammit, dammit. He’d never intended for that silly card game to go this far, let alone be standing here trying to explain to his family.

And based on that smirk on Sydney’s face, she sure as hell had no intention of making it any easier on him, either.

“Well, it’s kind of funny, actually…” He cleared his throat. “See, Sydney and I were playing poker last night—”

That certainly lifted a few eyebrows, but still, no one said anything. “Well, we sort of had a bet, and, uh, I, well, I won.” He paused, blurted it out in one quick breath. “So Sydney’s going to work here for me for a couple of weeks.”

How absolutely ridiculous it sounded to say it out loud. Eight sets of eyes bored into him.

Then all hell broke loose.

“You did what?” Cara narrowed her eyes disapprovingly.

“A couple of weeks?” Ian’s jaw went slack.

“This is a joke, right?” Gabe frowned.

“Sydney work here?” Callan started to laugh, but Abby elbowed him and shook her head in disbelief.

A pounding started in Reese’s head. “I told her I’d waive the deal and cancel all debts. In fact, I even insisted. She refused my offer.”

“A deal is a deal,” Sydney concurred. “I lost, Reese won. I’m here for two weeks, three hours a day.”

“With full pay and tips,” Reese added quickly, hoping to redeem himself even a little. It was obvious his brothers thought it was hilarious, while the women all looked at him as if he’d kicked a puppy.