Ignoring my brother’s gibe, Ellie swirled her wine glass with one hand and cut the deck with the other. Luke shuffled the cards back together and handed me the pack. I spent the next few minutes dealing them so that each of us got thirteen. I turned up my final card and placed it in the center of the table. It was the five of spades. “Spades are trump,” I explained.
“Great. How do we play?” Jeremy asked.
“The player to the dealer’s left leads.” I nodded at Luke. “We play clockwise. You have to follow suit. That means whatever suit Luke plays, you have to play the same. The player who plays the highest card wins the trick.”
“What if we don’t have a card that matches the suit?” Ellie asked, frowning at her hand.
“Then you can play any card. That’s where your trumps come in handy. A trump beats any other card unless someone plays a higher trump. But you can only play one if you don’t have the suit that’s been led.”
Luke had already tossed down the ten of spades. “How do you win the overall game?”
“The winner of the trick leads the next,” I said. “When all thirteen tricks have been played, the team that won more tricks scores one point for each trick in excess of six. The team that first reaches five points wins the game.”
“This is going to take a while, isn’t it?” Ellie asked.
“It depends,” I replied, shrugging. “Sometimes you can make a slam and win all the tricks in one hand. Then you win automatically.”
“I’m going to need more wine.” She stood and made her way to the counter near the refrigerator to retrieve the wine bottle while Jeremy tossed down the ace of spades.
I raised my brows. “Ooh, good play.”
Jeremy half-bowed over the table. “My lady.”
“Oh, don’t start that stuff yet,” Luke said, making a gagging sound. “I don’t think I can take it.”
“Can’t take someone speaking in a gentlemanly manner?” Ellie asked snidely as she returned to the table with the wine bottle in one hand and her refilled glass in the other. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Don’t drink too much, Nurse Betty, I want to win,” Luke replied.
“Only drinking enough to drown out the sound of your voice, Rockabilly.” Ellie lifted her wine glass in the air.
“What else do we need to know, Meg?” Jeremy asked.
I was thankful for his interruption. “During the Regency, the game would have been played with honors.”
Luke scrunched up his nose. “What are honors?”
“The top four trumps,” I replied. “The ace, king, queen, and jack. If you and your partner hold all four between you, you score an extra four points, which you can’t claim until the game is over, obviously. If you and your partner hold three of the four honors, you score two points.”
Luke waved his hand in the air impatiently. “Okay, got it. Enough explanation. Your play, Nurse Hoffman.”
“Hmm, using my actual last name? I could nearly swoon from the gentlemanliness,” Ellie snorted.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I ran out of insults,” Luke said.
“So soon?” She batted her eyes at him, but tossed the two of spades onto the pile.
“Do we need to know anything else, Meg?” Jeremy asked earnestly.
“Just a couple more things. A team that already has four points toward the total five can’t score honors on that deal, and if on the same deal, one team scores for tricks and the other scores for honors, the tricks are scored first. That’s about it. We’ll play a rubber.”
Luke nearly spit his beer. “Excuse me?”
I rolled my eyes. “A rubber, you dolt. It means the best of three games.”
“If you say so,” Luke replied.
We collected the trick that Jeremy and I had won due to his ace, and Jeremy played the next card.
After several rounds in which Jeremy and I dominated, I was fairly certain he understood the game.
“I don’t like whist. Poker’s way better,” Luke said, groaning after losing the first game.
“Poker has less chance involved,” I pointed out. “Whist is a much more easy-going game.”
“If we lose, I’m blaming Nurse Wino over there,” Luke replied.
“Oh, no you’re not,” Ellie said. “You were all bragging earlier about what a card sharp you are. You’re not about to pin a loss on me. Where’s your genius math mind now?”
“Poker should’ve existed in the Regency,” Luke said in a semi-pouty tone.
“Just be glad I didn’t have to teach you Faro,” I chimed in.
“Hear that, Remington? We’re lucky to be playing whist,” Luke said with a laugh.
“It’s not so bad,” Jeremy replied, winking at me. “I think I got the hang of it. Finally, a game I came beat you in, Knightley.”
My insides did a little flip due to the wink. Harrison wasn’t a winker. I found it endearing.
In the end, we won two games to one. I had just begun collecting the cards to put them away when Ellie grabbed her purse. “I gotta go. I need to be in the ER tomorrow morning by seven. Thanks for the game and the wine, Megs. Too bad your brother is a big loser.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Luke said, batting his eyelashes at her.
Ellie left and Jeremy helped me finish cleaning up the cards. When he handed his stack to me, our hands touched and warmth spread up my arm. “I’ve got these,” I said.
“I’ll put the wine back in the fridge then,” he offered.
“Oh, great, be all gentlemanly and stuff and make me look bad,” Luke moaned. He nodded toward the door where Ellie had disappeared. “Why do you think Hoffman is such a tight-ass?”
I blinked. “You’re asking me, the ultimate tight-ass, why my best friend is a tight-ass?”
“You’re not a tight-ass,” Jeremy chimed in from the kitchen.
“You don’t know her well enough,” Luke called. “Or you’d know she’s totally a tight-ass.”
“Ellie didn’t seem like a tight-ass either,” Jeremy said.
“Look, Remington, I know my sister’s your boss and all for the next couple of weeks, but there’s no reason to get all brown-nosey,” Luke said grumpily.
Jeremy came strolling back in from the kitchen. “I threw away the pizza box and wiped off the counter tops.”
I put the back of one hand against my forehead. “Be still my heart.”
Luke scowled at both of us. “Okay, I’ve had enough of this Regency gentleman act for one night. I’m going to bed. Let’s just say whist isn’t my game.” He took the stairs up to the guest bedroom two at a time.
I was left alone in the darkened living room with Jeremy with my apple-scented candle flickering on the coffee table. “Thanks for cleaning up,” I said hesitantly, trying to remember a time when Harrison had ever helped clean up at my place. He’d cleaned up his own, of course, but I couldn’t remember him ever pitching in to help me. It was part of our relationship-of-equals thing. But I had to admit it was nice to have a man pitch in without being asked.
“Thanks for the beer and pizza and the whist.” Jeremy gestured toward the door. “I’d better get going.”