Ghost, Paranormal, Vegas, Comedy
Date Published: July 15, 2015
Publisher: Chelshire, INC.
Sometimes
life, as well as death, is about second chances. Luckless Telly Martin doesn't
have a clue. An awful gambler trying to scrape by as a professional poker
player, he becomes the protégé of world famous poker champion Clutch Henderson.
The only catch…Clutch is a ghost. Telly and Clutch must navigate the seedy
gambling underbelly of Las Vegas learning to trust each other in order to win
the elusive International Series of Poker, repair their shattered personal
relationships and find redemption in this life and the hereafter.
Excerpt
Gretchen’s shoulders
hunched. “I’m not on for another fifteen minutes,” she replied. Telly
watched her shrink
before his eyes. He reached out to take her fingers loosely within his own.
The air felt weighted;
an electric current of tension sizzled in the hot air. A cat meowed,
breaking the silence.
“You
the poker player?”
“I like to play, yes,”
Telly said defensively.
“Yeah, I bet you’re a
regular Phil Hellmuth.” Rob looked him up and down and then dismissed
him. “So I’ll see you
at the Series, right?”
“The Series?” Telly
asked.
“Yeah, doofus. The
Series. If you play, you gotta play in that.”
“Of course—but I…I
think we may have another commitment, right, Gretch?”
Gretchen nodded
mutely, her eyes wide. She did not like Rob Couts. Rob stayed longer than
he should have, even
though he saw Gretchen slide her hand inside Telly’s. He looked at their
clasped hands and said
quietly, “I think it’s time for you to leave, Radio.”
Gretchen squeezed his
hand and said loudly, “Not yet,” staring the other man down.
The couple appeared to
be having a private moment, but Rob stood watching them. He hawked
once, spitting a glob
of mucus toward the trash. “If you change your commitments, I’ll see you
at the Series.
Thirteen minutes left,” he said abruptly, pushing through them to go inside. He
had wide shoulders and
wore short-sleeved shirts so you could see the veining on his muscled
arms. Telly felt like
a gawky kid next to him. Telly straightened his shoulders, but Rob had
already dismissed him.
He looked at her, trying to catch her eyes in the moonlight. “I’m going
for the cab job first
thing tomorrow. Are you uncomfortable here?
Don’t go in.”
“It’s silly. You know
I like my job. He’s just got a crush on me this week. He’ll move on to Jana
next week.”
“I don’t like the way
he was looking at you.”
For the first time,
his mild-mannered girlfriend bristled. “You think I can’t take care of myself?
I’ve been on my own
since I was seventeen, Telly. I can take care of myself.”
“I never doubted that,
Gretch,” Telly said honestly. He loved her independence. Gretchen had
reunited with her
mother just recently, after a lifetime of foster care. Her mother had spent
Gretchen’s youth in a
haze of alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
“Go home, Tel. I’ll be
back by five.” She turned toward the door.
Telly reached into his
pocket, opening his wallet to pull out a thinly folded ten-dollar bill. It was
his emergency cash.
When he’d first gotten his license, his mother had given it to him and
insisted that he keep
it behind his ID card so he would never be without money. He had never
used it and was a
little sentimental about it. It made Gretchen’s insides melt. Telly would give
the shirt off his back
if she didn’t protect him.
“No, Telly!”
“Don’t argue with me.”
He placed it in her palm. “Call a cab. I mean it, Gretchen. Don’t walk
home.” He placed his
finger on her lip and then his heart.
Gretchen whispered,
“Thick and thin.” She kissed him good-night, waving as he left to walk the
few blocks home alone.
About The Author
Michael
Phillip Cash is an award-winning and best-selling novelist of horror,
paranormal, and science fiction novels.
He's written ten books including the best-selling “Brood X”,
“Stillwell”, “The Flip”, “The After House”, “The Hanging Tree”, “Witches
Protection Program”, “Pokergeist”, "Monsterland", "The History
Major", and “Battle for Darracia” series. Michael’s books are on the
Amazon best-seller list and have also won numerous awards. Additionally, he is
a screenwriter with 14 specs under his belt. Michael resides on the North Shore
of Long Island.
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