Her voice trailed off and he knew she was talking about the wedding. She’d mentioned that she’d paid for most of it herself, without her mother’s financial or emotional support. She’d barely let Mitch pay for anything, which seemed odd considering she had given him everything he wanted. But she hardly had any money in the first place, so she had to be broke now.
“Don’t worry about the cost. Tomorrow’s your birthday. You only turn thirty once. Consider it my birthday gift to you.”
The mention of her birthday sent a dark shadow over her face and she turned toward the gaming area again. “I need a drink.”
“What do you want? I’ll get you one.”
“I can get my own drink,” she said defensively. “You take care of getting chips.”
The memory of the asshole in the elevator was still fresh in his mind. “I think we should stick together.”
She laughed, but the sound was devoid of any humor. “I know how to handle men, Noah. Just like you know how to handle women. It’s what we do best.”
His mouth gaped open. It was the truth, but it was hard to hear it put so bluntly.
She shoved his arm. “Go on. I’m going to flag down that waitress. What do you want?”
Beer wasn’t going to cut it tonight. “Gin and tonic.”
She lifted her eyebrows, but something was still off. “Going for the big guns tonight, huh?”
She cut off his response by flagging down a departing waitress. When she noticed he was still standing there watching her, she mouthed go with an exasperated look.
After he made the reservation for the restaurant and bought a hundred dollars’ worth of chips, he found her sitting at a blackjack table. She had the rapt attention of the two men who sat to her right. They looked to be in their thirties and both were fairly good-looking and obviously interested in her. Libby was playing with a small stack of chips in front of her, picking them up and letting them drop into a stack with a rhythmic clink.
“Mississippi, you say?” she asked, her voice sultry. “I’ve never been to Mississippi. Is it as hot as they say it is?”
She was flirting with them.
He stuffed down his anger and jealousy. As far as she was concerned, they were nothing more than friends. Still, he’d never tried to pick up women when they were together. He’d told himself it was out of respect for her, but now he knew it was because he’d loved her all along. Apparently she didn’t feel the same limitation now that she wasn’t with Mitch.
Noah stood back and watched her, surprised she didn’t realize he was there. It was obvious the two guys hadn’t put it together that they knew each other. She leaned forward, batting her lashes, and put her hand on the hand of the man closest to her.
He’d never seen her this way. She’d always been real with him, even that first weekend before Josh and Megan’s wedding. Still, he’d always suspected she was an accomplished flirt. Her current performance confirmed it. This wasn’t the woman he knew, and dammit, it was hard to see her this way.
“Libby,” he said, trying to keep the tightness out of his voice. “Where’d you get the chips?” He already knew, but dammit, he wanted her to admit it.
She turned and flashed him a brilliant smile, but there was something dark in her eyes. “Craig here was kind enough to loan me a few. Wasn’t that sweet?”
The two men were now giving their full attention to Noah. He glared at the man on the end, whose reddening face identified him as Craig.
Craig slid off his stool. “We didn’t know she had a boyfriend, man. She told us she was waiting for her friend. We thought her friend was a she.”
Both men grabbed their chips and Noah said, “Hey, don’t forget this.” He tossed a twenty-five-dollar chip across the table toward them.
They scurried away and Libby looked up at him with a lazy grin that didn’t reach her eyes. She pushed a glass toward him. “Here’s your drink.”
He reacted before he had time to think it through. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” she asked innocently. “Are you going to play or not?”
The dealer’s eyes narrowed, waiting to see how this played out.
This wasn’t how he’d hoped things would go at all. “I thought you’d sworn off men for a year.”
A sheepish look covered her face.
What had made her go from welcoming his touch minutes ago to practically blowing him off for two strangers? Then it hit him.
She was terrified.
She was scared to admit she wanted something more with him. So her instinct was to prove she didn’t need him by finding some guy for a meaningless one-night stand.
He was still upset, but he forced himself to see this as progress. He smiled even if he didn’t feel like it, then reached for her chips and slid them away. “These are luckier,” he said, replacing them with part of his stack.
There was worry in her eyes when she met his gaze, but it vanished in an instant, replaced with another performance. “And what do you have for luck?”
His smile turned more genuine. “You.” Then he added, “Gram said your dress was lucky, remember?”
She nodded and turned her attention to the table.
They put some chips down and the dealer dealt them their hands. After fifteen minutes, Libby was twenty dollars richer and Noah was ahead by fifty. “I told you it was our lucky night,” Noah told her with a wink.