Bad Things (Tristan & Danika, #1)(5)

He straightened, pulling a pack of cards out of his pocket. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed them. I’d been enjoying how he fit into his jeans rather intently…

He shuffled the cards. I could tell by the way he handled them that he practiced a lot. His hands were big, which made the deft movements of his fingers more impressive, and more distracting.

He fanned the cards out, smiling at me. “Pick a card, any card.”

I arched a brow at him sardonically. “Are we really doing this? Card tricks?”

He nodded, his smile widening. “See, skeptics are my favorite. So much more room to blow your mind.”

I rolled my eyes, but I picked a card, extracting it carefully, keeping it turned away from him. I almost rolled my eyes again when I saw that it was the Queen of Hearts.

“I want a new card,” I told him.

He just laughed, shaking his head. “Just memorize it and put it back.”

I did, making sure he couldn’t see it.

He started shuffling the cards again, not even glancing down.

“I’ve seen this trick before,” I told him.

His brow furrowed, and cards started shooting from his hands, going everywhere. “Hm. You have?” he asked.

I nodded, uncertain if throwing the cards everywhere had been part of the trick.

He whistled loudly. “Mango, bring her the card.”

I glanced down at the dogs, totally lost. “What the…?”

Mango had a card in her mouth, and I bent down to her, holding a hand out.

“Don’t eat cards, silly. That’s even worse than a stick of butter…” I trailed off as I pulled the Queen of Hearts out of her mouth.

I straightened, thrown for a loop. I raised my wide eyes to Tristan’s smug ones. “How on earth did you do that?”

He wiggled his fingers at me again. His magic hands.

“Jazz hands are hardly an answer,” I told him.

That had him doubled over laughing, and me smiling, because I already loved the sound of his laugh.

“Seriously, how did you do that? How in the world did you have Mango in on the trick?”

“Magic hands is the only answer you’ll ever get out of me. So, can you still say you’ve seen that trick before?”

I just shook my head, trying hard to figure out what all he had to have done to pull that off.

“Those are some…fun dog names.” He startled me out of my thoughts.

I shrugged. “The boys named all of them except for Mango. I thought they did a pretty good job. They’re funny kids.”

I turned my head as Bev called my name, approaching the kitchen with a smile. She turned that smile on Tristan as she got close. She was a tall, slender woman, with cornflower blue eyes and reddish blonde hair. She was forty-eight, but I didn’t think she looked it, her pale skin showing just the faintest signs of aging. Her features were attractive, her figure trim, and she was always dressed impeccably.

“I’m so sorry, Danika,” she told me. “I didn’t realize this was a friend of yours. I feel so rude, storming off without introducing myself. I thought, well, I thought he was another of Jerry’s…projects.” She swept her hand in the air, as though to wave the idea away.

I didn’t think I’d felt so shitty about myself in years as I did staring at the apologetic curve of her lips.

“But anyway,” she turned to Tristan, holding out her hand. “I’m Bev.”

Tristan didn’t hesitate to smile back, taking her hand. “Tristan.”

Bev looked at me. “Jerry tells me you met him last semester. Why is this the first I’m hearing of it?” she asked, smiling. Bev’s smile was all open charm. No one in the world would have guessed she was a lawyer by that smile.

I shrugged, feeling defensive and guilty as hell. “Nothing to tell. He’s just a buddy. He’ll only be staying for a week, I swear.”

She waved that off. “Don’t worry about it. Stay as long as you like, Tristan. Any friend of Danika’s is a friend of mine. So where and how exactly did you guys meet?”

“We had a class together,” I answered, shooting Tristan a glance.

“What class?” she asked, as persistent as you’d expect from an attorney.

“Psychology,” I threw out.

“English,” Tristan said at the same time.

I shot him a very unfriendly look for contradicting me.

He grinned at Bev, totally unfazed. “Both. We had two classes together, actually. Danika was nice enough to share her notes with me.”

Bev shot me a fond look. “She is meticulous.”

I smiled back at her, vowing to myself that I would never lie to her again, no matter the reason. Damn Jerry.

“I was just trying to get Danika to go out to a club with me tonight,” Tristan told Bev.

I blinked at him, wondering what the hell he was doing.

“She seems to think that walking the dogs is what a twenty-one year old should be doing for fun. I think she needs to get out more. Will you help me convince her?”

Bev looked at me, her brow furrowing. “You know, Danika, I can’t remember the last time you went out. Tristan has a point. You’re twenty-one. You should be having more fun.”

If looks could kill, Tristan would have dropped dead on the spot. He’d managed to get my Bev on his side in under a minute. I couldn’t quite believe it.