She scanned her cards with a practiced eye, tossed two back onto the table and waited for Jenny to replace them. Harlan drew three and wound up with two pairs, but most of his attention was on the woman seated next to him. Her face was an absolutely expressionless mask, a genuine poker face.

Mule bet fifty cents. Harlan met his bet. He wouldn’t have dropped out of this hand if they’d been playing for a hundred times that amount.

“That’s fifty cents to you, darlin’.”

She nodded, not even glancing his way. “Your fifty and fifty more.”

Jenny looked from her mother to Harlan and back again. “I’ll fold,” she said.

“I’m out,” Mule concurred, tossing his cards onto the table in apparent disgust.

Janet turned an expectant look on Harlan that had his breath catching in his throat.

“Are you in?” she inquired in a lazy, seductive tone that had him conjuring up images that could have melted concrete.

“You’d better believe it, darlin’. Your fifty and I’ll raise you a buck.”

“My, my, you are confident,” she said, turning to wink at Jenny. “Shall I stay, do you think?”

Jenny grinned. “You can’t quit now, Mom. He’ll think you’re chicken.”

“True. We can’t have that, can we?” She reached over and plucked five dollars from Jenny’s pile of winnings. “I’ll repay you in a minute.”

Harlan studied her expression before matching the bet. He couldn’t tell a thing about whether or not she was bluffing. He dropped his money on the table. “Call.”

She placed her first card on the table, an ace of clubs. Her second card was a seven of clubs. Her third, a five of clubs. The fourth was a two of clubs. “Now what do you suppose I have here?” she inquired, lifting her gaze to clash with his.

“Either another club or more audacity than anyone else in Texas,” Harlan quipped.

She winked. “Want to go double or nothing on this last card?”

“That ain’t the rules,” Mule complained.

“Some rules are made to be broken,” Harlan said, his gaze never leaving Janet’s. “Not double or nothing. How about loser cooks dinner for the winner?”

The flash of uncertainty in her eyes told him she’d just realized that she’d overplayed her hand. Still, she didn’t back down.

“You sure that’s what you want? You could just quit now,” she said, clearly determined to brazen it out.

“Not on your life. Get that card on the table.”

She sighed, an expression of resignation on her face as she dropped an ace of hearts on top of the other cards.

Harlan chuckled. “Darlin’, you would have made an outstanding stripper,” he teased. “You know a heck of a lot about drawing out the suspense.”

“But you can beat a pair of aces, can’t you?”