All In by Kate Willoughby Read Free Book Online Page B

cookies—all chocolate—displayed on gold and pink patterned foil. On the opposite side she offered a rich selection of chocolate truffles, some of them extremely unusual flavors.
    When she ambled over to him, he said, “Chili Pepper Truffles?”
    She grinned and pulled one out of the refrigerated case. “Try one.”
    “Is there like a jalapeno inside it?” he said, looking at it suspiciously.
    “No, just red chili powder to give it a kick. Try it.”
    He took a bite. Chewed and blinked. Gave her a pained smile. “It’th…” He searched desperately for an appropriate adjective but couldn’t because his taste buds were staging a revolt.
    Mariah laughed and handed him a tissue, which he took gratefully. “Here. Spit it out if you want. I won’t be offended.”
    Tucker rid his mouth of the spicy mixture. “That’s what I call ‘hot chocolate’.”
    “I don’t like those either,” Heidi said. “Here, try this espresso one. It’s got ground coffee beans in it.”
    Tucker nodded in agreement as the coffee flavor gradually expunged the chili chocolate. “Now this is more my speed,” he admitted. “My tastes are pretty simple. Man, this is delicious.”
    While Mariah rifled through some paperwork, Heidi plied him with several more candies, each one more tasty than the last. As the luscious chocolate melted in his mouth, he couldn’t help but be impressed by Mariah’s setup. He remembered she hadn’t really known what she wanted to do with her life. That had been something they’d had in common when they’d met, and they’d spent a while talking about their various aspirations. He’d admitted to a longtime wish to travel the world, maybe as an airline pilot, knowing he had more chance of winning the lottery than flying planes. He’d inherited a love of travel from his jet-setting parents. Mariah had talked about enrolling in art school, or maybe working in the restaurant business.
    And now look at the two of them, both successful in their own right. He was traveling the globe, going from tournament to tournament, and she was combining her culinary interest with creativity in the form of her own gourmet shop. He admired her accomplishment, even if it made him feel a little inadequate. Once in a while he still had trouble thinking of poker as work. When he compared what he did with other people’s jobs, it seemed so inconsequential, which was why he always participated in any charity event that he was invited to.
    It didn’t help that his parents weren’t particularly proud of him. They weren’t the type of people who bragged to their friends about their son’s accomplishments, no matter what they were. When he’d earned a scholarship to Stanford they hadn’t said much about it beyond mentioning that he’d have to live in the dorm because they were moving to Chicago. That hadn’t come as a surprise. They’d never said so, but he had figured out that they had never planned on being parents and his arrival had been a surprise. Oh, they did everything that was expected of them, but not much more. They were more involved with each other as a couple, and most of his life he’d felt like the third wheel.
    Maybe that’s why Tony getting married was hitting him so hard. With Rhonda coming on the scene, Tucker was being relegated to third wheel status again. The only solution for that was to find a woman of his own, and maybe Mariah was that woman. But as much as he liked her, he certainly didn’t want to turn to her merely out of emotional reflex. Neither of them deserved that.
    But what was the alternative? Women like Lindsay and Jenn?
    Not if he could help it.
    A few years ago, when he was just becoming recognizable to people in the poker scene, he’d had relationships with women merely because they admired his skill at the table and fawned all over him, but he quickly learned that those relationships were a waste of time. Those shiny women were interested in the attention they got because they