“You should play that one,” he suggested. “Nicki has a heart left and—”
“I’m not going to cheat—”
“What are you whispering?” Carver asked through a mouthful of pizza.
Alice added, tongue in cheek, “Your ghost friend helping you out?”
“No,” I rebuked.
Carver agreed. “If she had a ghost friend helping, she wouldn’t be losing so badly.”
Nicki slapped him on the arm. “Be nice!”
“I am!”
Ben bent down against my ear and said, the words a low rumble in his throat, “Annihilate them.”
I was thinking the same damn thing. It wasn’t cheating if no one knew. I pulled the queen of hearts from my hand and slammed it down in the middle of the table. And, like Ben said, Nicki had to play his hearts. I won the round.
And the next one. My family would play their hands and then Ben would advise me on what to play next, his voice tickling my ear.
When I took the fifth round in a row, Carver crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, this isn’t very fair.”
“Whatever do you mean?” I ask.
Mom recorded the score. “Florence, you’re only twenty behind.”
He threw his hands up. “That! You’re not this good.”
“What if I am?”
Mom set down her pen and gave me a level look. “Florence, is your ghost friend here?”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Mom, you know she won’t talk about it—”
“He is,” I interrupted my sister. Maybe it was the glass and a half of Maker’s in me, or maybe it was just being in proximity to Ben, feeling like I was safe. In a way I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“He?” Carver enunciated.
Alice narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re cheating. Tell your ghostie friend to stop looking at my hand!”
“It’s Ben, preferably,” the ghost said.
“He’d rather be called Ben,” I told Alice.
“Sure, sure, Ben,” she said, and—as if sensing Ben moving over behind her—snapped closed her hand and put the cards facedown on the table. “Tell him if he’s going to be sitting here looking at our cards, he can at least play with us and let me kick your ass.”
“Strong words coming from someone whose highest card is a ten of puppy-toes.”
I blinked at him. “You mean clubs?”
“Puppy-toes,” he repeated with a shrug.
Alice eyed me suspiciously. “What about clovers?”
“Clovers? It’s clubs.”
“As I said: clovers.”
I ignored her. “He said you’ve got strong words for someone whose highest card is a ten of clubs,” I told her, and her eyes widened. She jabbed a finger at me. “Oh that’s not fair! Automatic dish duty! Cheater!”
Carver pressed his cards against his chest. “Has he seen my hand, too?”
“Seriously?” I added, baffled. “Not ‘Oh my god, ghosts are real!’ Or ‘Oh my god, this house is haunted!’？”
My family shook their heads—even Nicki.
“Xavier did the same thing, sweetie,” Mom clarified.
Carver agreed. “How else do you think he always won at those poker games?”