Poker Posse 1: Looking at Rose by Qwillia Rain

ninety minutes, but she doubted Betty Jo and the others would take that long, especially since their girls had slipped out of the club already.
    After seeing the way Rose responded to Ibraham and the way he’d come to her daughter’s rescue by distracting her, Viola was sure the boy was perfect for her Rose. She’d been amused by his stunned reaction to her request. “Why do young people persist in believing older people have forgotten what love and passion are like?” She muttered the question with a shake of her head.
    “It’s not like those parts dry up and blow away, like they have an expiration date or some such nonsense. A person in their fifties, sixties, heck even their seventies, is just as capable of enjoying sex and romance as a person in their twenties and thirties.” She took a sip of the drink Ibraham had purchased for her. “I’m startin’ to think that saying that youth is wasted on the young isn’t too far from the truth, because from what I’ve seen”—she glanced at the milling crowd—“children tend to squander the opportunities presented to them.”
    “Still talking to yourself, eh, mouse?”
    The voice set Viola’s heart racing in her chest. She had imagined it any number of times—in daydreams and nighttime fantasies—over the last twenty-seven years, but she never thought she’d actually hear it again.
    The hand that landed on her shoulder and stopped her exiting the secluded booth sent familiar heat through her body. Something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Drawing in a deep breath, she forced her gaze up until she met the warm gray eyes she remembered so well. “Hello, Sir.”
    She watched him slide into the seat opposite with mixed emotions twisting and tangling inside her. The smile he gave her was a blend of indulgence and amusement with just a hint of menace mixed in. “Still creating a stir, my mouse?”
    The endearment did things to her body that Viola had definitely missed. The memories were enough to make her knees weak, but instinct had her glancing toward the exit, hoping against hope that Rose and the other girls didn’t decide to come back. Much as the sight of her little girl with a man thrilled her, the idea that Vladamir might spot her Rose sent a chill through her.
    Viola shook her head. “I was never the one creating the stir. It was always everyone’s surprise that you would even pay attention to me that made the tongues wag.” She didn’t wait for him to respond before forging ahead with the question she’d wanted to ask for so long. “How’s your wife?”
    Before Vladamir could respond, Betty Jo and Mabel interrupted, the heated exchange between the two women easily drowning out anything he might have said. Viola immediately slid from the booth, not wanting her friends to begin interrogating her about the man seated across from her.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked, making sure to steer the ladies away from the booth and toward the entrance to the club. Vladamir’s intent look assured her he was willing to let her go. This time.
    “Mabel allowed some cowboy to carry off her girl,” Betty Jo accused.
    Mabel harrumphed. “That girl wasn’t my Mirrie anymore than the little redhead was Ari. Our girls wouldn’t frequent a place like this.”
    Lucy joined them as the trio reached the door and the squabble continued.
    Viola ignored it and breathed a sigh of relief at her escape. The last thing she needed was to have her friends get a good look at Vladamir.

Chapter Six
    Rose paced her shop, unsure what she was doing there. She had to be insane, crazy, for following Ibraham’s instructions, but at the same time excitement sizzled through her veins at the thought of meeting him. Of actually being with him again. Exasperated at her spinning thoughts, Rose shoved them to the back of her mind and took several deep breaths to try to steady herself.
    She’d left the shop lights off. Only the muted glow from her supply room illuminated the store.