Run, Girl (If You Can)

Noah came and went from the Hale household so frequently over the years that he didn't even need to ask to call up anymore. The doorman recognized him on sight and turned the elevator key for him without a word.

None of the Hales batted an eyelid seeing him either. Keeley always asked him how his day was like she did for all of her other children.

He liked being at Violet's apartment. It felt as much like home as his own did.

Once dinner was announced, Kaleb plunked himself down at the table in an oversized white tee shirt and plaid pajama pants. He had an impressive amount of stubble growing in so it looked like he hadn't left the house in weeks. Maybe he hadn't.

Violet had confided in him that she thought his breakup was hitting him harder than he let on. He had been at home playing video games or clinging onto his siblings the entire time he had been back in town.

"I want to play Seven Up after dinner, who's in?" Kaleb asked loudly.

She turned to Noah to see if he was interested and he shrugged. He had come here to play cards anyway; it didn't matter if other people were playing.

"I'll play," Nathan volunteered. He had barely gotten home from school and seemed nearly as worn out as his brother.

"I'm in too. It's been a while since I've played Seven Up," Keeley said with a smile. "Aaron?"

"Sure."

Just like that, everybody was playing. But they had to eat dinner first. Keeley made wholegrain linguini for Violet's sake. Everybody else poured on liberal amounts of cheesy alfredo sauce but her portion had a very small amount of tomato sauce instead because it was less fatty.

Once the plates were cleared away, Rosie jumped up on the table to sniff all of the cards Nathan was dealing out. She did this almost every time Noah played cards at Violet's house. You'd think after a while she would know what the cards were and  lose interest.

The rules of Seven Up were fairly straightforward. It was a card game the Singleton family had played for longer than he could remember.

The goal of the game was to have no cards at the end of the round. You couldn't start the game without a seven and during each round players got to put down one card a piece. But you couldn't put down just any card; you had to put down the next one in the suit going either up or down from seven.

If a seven of diamonds was played first, the next player could only put down a six or eight of diamonds or a seven of another suit. From there it went five, four, three, two, ace on the six and nine, ten, jack, queen, king on the eight. This worked for all of the suits.

The trick to this game was strategically holding onto your cards so other people couldn't play theirs. But you weren't allowed to skip your turn unless you really didn't have any cards that were playable. At the end of each round, each card left in a person's hand counted as one point.

The closer the card was to seven, the better the holder card it was because it prevented more people from playing their other cards. There was a bit of luck involved but for the most part this was a strategy game. It was possible to win even if you had a multiple low or high cards if you planned things out right.

Noah preferred playing cards with the Hales to his own family because his dad always won. It wasn't even fun playing with him knowing you would always lose.

In fact, after a while his mother banned her husband from playing cards with either of their sons because someone always ended up crying. Noah didn't find out the truth behind his father's unnatural card skills until he was a teenager.

How was it fair for a multiple time World Champion of Poker to play cards against a couple of kids? That was around the time he started teaching the games his dad taught him to Violet, hoping for a fair game. The Hale kids got really into card games after that as a result.

Kaleb's poker face was horrible so it was easy to guess when he was the one holding onto a card everyone else needed. Not that anyone could do anything about it but complain.

He would simply snicker, grin, and hold off playing it as long as he possibly could. It didn't make him very popular but it wasn't like it was against the rules. But it was smarter to not let other people know you were holding onto certain cards so you could blindside them.

Noah felt himself relax as he heard Nathan and Kaleb bickering about the nine of clubs the latter was obviously holding onto. The last couple of weeks had thrown him off big-time but this sense of normalcy put him at ease.

He belonged here. He would always have a place in Violet's life, even if she was currently seeing someone he was certain didn't like him.

It appeared that once again, he had waited too long. It was obvious from the way that she talked that she was interested in this guy. Honestly, he didn't have a clue why. Jeremy Ward was kind of a snob.

Back when Violet got her first boyfriend Noah promised himself he wouldn't be a jerk about it and interfere. But since they weren't official yet things were fair game, right? He had a bad feeling about this one more than he did with the others.

Jeremy was a calculating person. Noah was certain he could manipulate his friend into a romantic relationship while putting in the minimum amount of effort. But that wouldn't be fair to Violet, who had such a tender sentimental heart underneath her cold exterior. She deserved better.

He doubted Jeremy even sincerely liked her. Everybody else who had ever shown interest was only interested in her looks. There was so much more to Violet than that!

If Noah had to guess, he would say Jeremy approached Violet with ulterior motives. He was already Aaron's chosen successor but he probably thought dating his boss's daughter would tie him even more closely to the company.

Why couldn't she see that? Was she completely blind to the kind of person he actually was because she liked him?

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