Magnus gave an amiable nod. “Let’s do it.”
The match was ridiculous. Magnus was clearly throwing the game. Liam knew all the rules in the hustler’s handbook. Magnus’s score was always one or negative one when he busted out, but Liam wasn’t fooled. He could tell Magnus had considerable skill and was holding back. So Liam went along for the ride, enjoying every second as Magnus played poorly on purpose. Liam matched him with terrible moves of his own, and they continued to bust out over and over until, finally, Liam made a “lucky” toss and won the game.
Magnus shook his head in defeat. “Told you I wasn’t any good.”
“I’m sure you’ll do better next time,” Liam said, playing his part.
Magnus started to hand over a twenty then stopped, as if a thought had just occurred to him. “How about one more game?”
And there it was. The hook. Liam’s grin was genuine. People never changed, no matter the century. “Nah, I’m good.”
“You sure?” Magnus asked. “We could make it more interesting. Say, one hundred dollars to the winner this time?”
Liam chuckled. This was the part where a clueless man would eagerly accept, then get fleeced for all his money. He hadn’t had this much fun since he’d arrived in Providence Falls. As tempting as it would be to swindle Magnus out of a hundred dollars, Liam wasn’t sure he’d actually win. Magnus was the kind of guy who always had a few tricks up his sleeve. He reminded Liam of his thieving friends back in Ireland. Liam suddenly felt a strange sense of camaraderie toward Magnus, and a sharp twinge of nostalgia for those times long gone.
“It was pure luck I won,” Liam announced, slapping Magnus on the back. “I don’t want to tempt fate.”
“Come on, man,” Magnus cajoled. “Live on the edge.”
Been there, done that, already paying the price. “Some other time.”
Magnus seemed disappointed for a split second, then let it go as a tall, curvy brunette breezed by on a cloud of cotton candy perfume.
She peeked over her shoulder at Magnus, gave a haughty toss of her hair and kept walking.
“Ah, Lola,” he murmured with appreciation. “I think she’s still mad at me for standing her up the other night.”
“That’s too bad,” Liam said, watching her go. The woman’s spiked red heels could double as lethal weapons in a street fight, but the deliberate sway of her hips suggested more enjoyable activities.
“Nah. I’ll just buy her a drink, tell her what she wants to hear and she’ll get over herself.” Magnus gave Liam a knowing smile. “It’s all how you play the game, right, man?”
“Not everything’s a game,” Finn said in irritation. He’d been so quiet throughout the match that Liam had almost forgotten he was there. Not surprising. If only Liam could forget the man forever. Cora deserved so much better.
Magnus narrowed his eyes and stared down his nose at Finn. “All of life’s a game. Anyone who says otherwise is just no good at playing.” With a nod to Liam, Magnus followed the woman into the crowd.
Finn looked pissed. What had Magnus done to get on Finn’s bad side? Liam didn’t even know Finn had a bad side. Mostly, he just made calf eyes at Cora, smiled too much and bent over backward to do any little thing for her. He was a complete pushover. Magnus must’ve somehow pushed him all the way over.
Ever one to poke a hornet’s nest, Liam leaned against the bar and said brightly, “Well, Magnus seems like a great guy. How long have you two been friends?”
“We’re just business associates,” Finn corrected. His jaw was set, and his mouth was pressed into a hard line. “We work at the same firm, but we don’t work the same cases. Not unless there are special circumstances.”
Liam watched Magnus across the bar as he sweet-talked the brunette. She’d gone from giving Magnus the cold shoulder to giving him a warm one. She was now pressed into his side, toying with the zipper on his leather jacket as he whispered in her ear. Impressive. The man worked fast. Maybe Finn was just jealous because Magnus knew how to have fun. He seemed like the type of man who took what he wanted from life, consequences be damned. An admirable trait, to be sure. He reminded Liam of... Well, himself.
Later that evening Liam discovered a new form of modern-day torture called karaoke. Cora and Suzette were flipping through a songbook while someone in the corner of the bar wailed into a microphone about a devil in a blue dress, or some such nonsense. Sweet Christ, at least in the past when a drunkard sang at the top of his lungs, there were no machines to amplify the noise. The singer’s voice sounded like two cats fighting in a burlap sack, but even that was preferable to talking to Finn, so Liam couldn’t complain too much.
Finishing the last of his beer, Liam noticed Magnus leaving arm in arm with the brunette and another woman who appeared to be her friend. Magnus gave Liam a cocky wink on his way out the door. All how you play the game, indeed.
Liam raised his glass to Magnus, then turned back to Cora, who was now in a playful argument with Suzette over their song choices.
“Let’s let Liam decide.” Cora pushed the book toward him. “Which one?”
He looked over the list of titles, choosing the first one that resonated. “‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’”
Suzette groaned and dragged the book back. “That’s it. Your roommate is officially trashed, Cora. It’s the only explanation for such a lapse in judgment.”
Cora grinned at Liam, her blue eyes sparkling with laughter. Her smile was as bright and carefree as the Cora he remembered from another lifetime ago. His Cora. The girl who’d welcomed him with honest kindness the night he’d climbed into her bedroom window to rob her house. She’d been open and inquisitive and genuinely happy to meet him, and she’d never looked at him like the filthy, thieving peasant he was. Cora McLeod, daughter of the village squire, had made Liam believe he could someday be worthy of a woman like her.
His heart beat with that familiar sense of desperate, reckless hope. The kind of hope that promised impossible things. He remembered it so clearly, he could practically taste it like ambrosia on his tongue, their sweet dream of a future together, in spite of all the odds stacked against them. But according to the angels, he’d messed up Cora’s destiny by crawling through her window that night so long ago. Getting her to fall in love with Finn, now, was the only way he could save himself from eternal damnation.
And yet... He glanced at Cora, warm and beautiful as sunlight, with her golden head tipped back, laughing at something her friend said. What if Magnus was right, and it was all how you played the game?
Liam’s mind began to spin with dangerous possibilities. Maybe he just needed to find a way to bend the rules.