“I love this song!” Pete grabbed my hands and started to dance with me. We shuffled our feet for a few moments until he spun me under his arm in the direction of my usual poker seat.

“You two are crazy,” Tammy squealed.

Ryan sat down next to me; he nudged me with his elbow before flashing me a smile.

“You know how to play Texas Hold-em? We play for money,” I whispered to him.

He nodded at me and stuffed his hand in his front pocket, pulling out a wrinkled wad of mixed bills. I grinned at him. His casual disorganization amused me for some reason.

“Well, since you’ve made me extremely wealthy tonight, Taryn, give me two hundred in chips.” Pete tossed his money across the table. “I’m feeling lucky!” he said, rubbing his hands together briskly.

While I was counting out Pete’s chips, Ryan was trying to straighten out his cash pile mess. He must have had almost a thousand on him; I saw several hundred-dollar bills when he organized them. Good thing those obsessed fans didn’t reach into his pockets!

Pete was singing along with the song that was playing; he made me laugh with the way he bobbed his head back and forth.

“Hey Pete,” Gary called across the table, “who sings this song?”

“Michael Bublé!” Pete answered proudly, knowing that he had the right answer.

“Well maybe you should let him sing it instead? What do you say to that?”

“Wait for it… here comes the horns.” As soon as the trumpets started playing in the song, Pete chucked his two middle fingers at Gary with each beat.

I could see Tammy and Marie itching in their seats. Both of them kept gazing over at Cal and Ryan, like they were dying to ask them questions.

Tammy started to open her mouth, looking at me for my approval. I hoped my displeased expression would be enough to deter her. Oh please don’t ask them anything.

Tammy held up her finger. “Just one?” she mouthed at me. “One tiny one?”

I let out a deep sigh and rolled my eyes to the ceiling.

Ryan looked at me, concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“My girlfriends are dying to ask you questions… no doubt about your movie, but I wish that they would just leave you be,” I said with humor while trying to let them know that I was a little annoyed.

“Can I ask you just one question about Sea…?” Tammy started.

“I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist!” Pete laughed. “What is it about this freakin’ movie that’s like crack for you women?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that one out myself,” Ryan admitted. He looked at me and smiled.

“Don’t look at me! I have no idea,” I defended.

“Yeah, you didn’t even know who Charles was!” Tammy laughed as she pointed at me.

Ryan was still grinning as his eyes locked on mine.

“I still don’t know who Charles is,” I admitted.

“I’ll tell you what it is - all women love dangerous bad boys and that’s what the movie is about,” Tammy stated.

“Yeah, I guess there’s something sexy about some guy who wants to kill you,” Ryan muttered.

I gathered that was not the first time he said those words out loud just by his body language.

“Hey Marie, get me another beer or I’ll kill you,” Gary muttered. Marie smacked him hard in the arm.

“What? I’m just trying to be sexy for you!” he pointed out, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“What’s your question, Tammy?” Ryan asked, still laughing from Gary’s remark.

“I was wondering if the one scene from book two, where Charles finds Gwen bleeding in the cave, is going to be in the movie?”

Marie moved to the edge of her chair. She obviously wanted to know the answer to that one too.

“Yes. It’s a pretty significant scene. We’ve already filmed it,” Ryan answered.

Marie and Tammy looked like they were going to explode from excitement. Pete was shaking his head; he thought the whole conversation was absurd.

“Oh Pete, you don’t understand. Charles finds Gwen barely alive in a cave after she’d been shot. And he’s supposed to kill her too, but instead he takes his shirt off and wraps it around her to stop the bleeding. And then she looks at him and begs him to kill her so the pain would stop, but he says he loves her too much to let her die…” Tammy gushed like she was going to cry.

“And?” Pete asked. “Does she die?”

“Of course not! He,” she pointed at Ryan, “saves her.”

I glanced at Ryan; he was sitting forward in his chair with his head bowed. He appeared to be slightly uncomfortable with the conversation.

I leaned over to him, wrapped my arm around the back of his chair, and whispered in my worst British accent, “I see you’ve managed to get your shirt off.”

Ryan looked over at me and laughed lightly. “It’s a rock monster; it doesn’t have any vulnerable spots,” he replied. He grinned widely and leaned even closer to me, bumping his arm into mine.

Everyone else in the room was oblivious to our movie line references. It was like we had our own secret language.

“And what about…” Tammy started again but I cut her off with a wave of my hand.

“Please, Tammy,” I pleaded while Ryan and I were still leaned close to each other. “Don’t bug him.”

Ryan quickly ran his finger under my chin, apparently pleased that I defended him. It felt like my skin burst into flames when he touched me.

“How long until you guys are finished here?” Pete interjected quickly.

“We’ll be here for another six weeks and then we have a break around Thanksgiving,” Ryan replied as he playfully kicked the back of my foot.

His little tap made me smile.

“Cal, I understand you’re married to KellyAnn Gael, is that right?” Tammy asked.

“Yes. We just had our sixth wedding anniversary.” Cal nodded proudly.

“Is your wife here in Rhode Island with you?” Tammy continued.

“Not yet, but she’s flying in on Saturday with our daughter, Cami. I just found a house for us to rent nearby.”

“I remember watching your wife when she was on Just Neighbors. I loved that show! How old is your daughter?” Tammy asked.

“She’s almost four - and quite a handful,” Cal said. “I miss them.”

“It must be hard when you’re away from your family. But it’s nice that she’s coming out here to see you,” Tammy said.