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problem there.”
    Sel gave his wife a worried glance. Alice shrugged. What else was she supposed to do? It was true.
    “What am I supposed to do with it?” Burke’s baritone demanded.
    Cass made herself shrug. “I don’t know. Use it?”
    His brows crashed together hard enough to clang.
    “Give it to one of the guys at the shop. Pawn me off on a customer. Whatever you want.”
    “You’re going to let us hand you off to some stranger?” Alice asked, each word enunciated with care, eyes darting from Cass to Burke and back. Cass nodded, waiting for the sign that Burke was paying attention.
    There it was, the twitch of his eye when he thought she was doing something stupid. Reverse psychology was invented for Burke Halifax. No way would he let her go on a date with some stranger he didn’t know. Even if he had to suffer himself.
    Cass prepared herself for a hell of a game.
     
     
    He should have throttled her while she was sleeping. Should have let her get pneumonia by sleeping on his front porch in the rain. He should have done anything but let her play poker tonight. The evil gleam in those green eyes warned she was about to be more trouble than she was worth but did he listen? No, of course not. That would have made sense. Now he was stuck watching the brat try to make him wriggle like a worm on a hook.
    “Your bet, Jimmy.” Cass blinked innocently at the older man on her left. Ha! If she’s innocent, I’m the mayor of Munchkinland.
    Jimmy slipped a glance over to Burke, who knew he didn’t have to bother shaking his head. Jimmy ran the only grocery in town. He survived Korea, thirty-five years of marriage, two children, and most recently four years of marriage to May Belle. The man knew when to throw in the cards.
    May watched her husband, shrugged and tossed down her five as well. “Sorry, CB, Burke looks about ready to bust a vein. If I set you up, we have to do it discreetly.”
    May Belle’s main clientele were gamblers and gossips. If they did it, they’d be doing it over his dead body.
    CB smiled, nodding her head like a queen. Of course. She was getting what she wanted.
    Sel leaned forward to look around Alice’s abundant stomach to check with Burke like Jimmy had before him. “I do know this one guy—”
    “No, you don’t, honey.” Alice splayed her hand over Sel’s cards and laid them on the table. Hers quickly followed suit. “And neither do I.”
    God, she better not be in on whatever CB was up to. Burke would hate to get angry with a pregnant woman.
    He stared down at his own cards and wondered if he could beat her. They might only be fives, but it was hard to beat a three of a kind. He decided to risk it. All he had to do was take her bet and never call her on it. Easy as pie. “Call.”
    “You can’t call.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Showdown rules. It’s just you and me now. I get to request a favor from you.”
    If she said even one damn word about finding her femininity, he was going to kill her and let the coroner look for it. Wrap both hands around that long neck of hers and squeeze till she popped. No one could convict him, either. Through gritting teeth he made himself ask, “Fine. What do you want?”
    Cats with cream didn’t look as pleased with themselves. She licked her lips, startling a rise out of him that had no business rising. You’d think his desire to do her in might have the smallest effect on him. At least his temper should have tamped the problem. It probably would have, but his worst nightmare began right before his eyes.
    Cass leaned forward, wet lips pursed and pink, and said the words a man should never hear from his best friend. “It’s simple, Burke. I want you to make me a woman.”

Chapter Three
     
    “You…want me to… what ?”
    Cass nodded her head along with each of his barely formed words. “Make me into a woman. You know, teach me how to dress, how to attract men. You said you could see my femininity. I want you to point it out and train