AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Long weekend ahead?” asked the man seated next to him.
Stephen barely lifted his head from his tumbler and nodded. “Didn’t we meet?”
The man slowly nodded, recognizing Stephen from his drunken fog. “Yeah, you’re with Lexi Pendergrass. Ernest,” he said, extending his hand, “Ernest Laing.”
“Yeah,” Stephen said.
Ernest took in a deep breath of the cooling air and shook his head. “Man, you don’t gotta tell me nothin’. I recognize that look in your eyes. Biggest mistake of my life was not picking her. Lexi is some hellcat in bed. Am I right or am I right?”
“What in the hell did you just say to me?”
Drunkenly, Ernest shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong, my wife is smoking hot, but damn, what a bitch. Lexi, she sure did know how to heat up a man’s bed.”
Stephen took several deep breaths of air. “Man, if you do not shut your mouth right now, you’re going over the side of the building.” Stephen pushed away from the bar. He and Lexi needed to talk—now.
At the door, a security guard held his arms out, keeping someone who looked exactly like Marvin from entering the rooftop. Stephen did a double take.
“Mr. Reyes!” Marvin’s voice cracked when called out to Stephen.
“What’s going on?” Stephen asked the maître d.
“Mr. Reyes—” the maître d’s face reddened “—I am sorry to interrupt your dinner, but these gentlemen say they’re here with you and your family.”
Stephen nodded his head and the guard let Marvin in but held his hands up again. He recognized the little Marvin fellow, but he had no idea who the grown man-child was standing next to him. The boy was close to Stephen’s height and had the nerve to sport a trimmed goatee like a grown man. His white shirt was a size too small to cover his overdeveloped chest and with his sleeves rolled up, Stephen figured the dark sky prohibited him seeing the boy’s tattoos. “I don’t know who this guy is.”
“Uncle Stephen!” Kimber skidded to a stop at his side. “This is what I wanted to talk to you about. I want you to meet my boyfriend.”
“I met your boyfriend, Kimber. Marvin. This is who has been coming to see you and pick you up to go study.” Stephen poked his finger against Marvin’s bird chest. The push was hard, not enough to crack the boy’s rib cage but enough to knock him into the man-child standing behind him.
Kimber wedged herself between the boys and her uncle. “No, Marvin’s not my boyfriend. This is Philip.” Kimber reached for the giant. “Lexi said...”
“Lexi?” Stephen snarled and blinked in disbelief. He turned his angry glare at her. She’d come to stand by Kimber’s side. “You knew about this.”
Wide-eyed and in shock, Lexi slowly nodded. “Yes, but...”
“Gonna throw this into the bucket of secrets you keep from me?”
“It’s not what you think,” Lexi tried to say.
What else was he supposed to think? She’d hidden everything about herself. Stephen brought his nose to hers and gritted his teeth. “How many different ways are you planning on trying to ruin my family?”
“Uncle Stephen!” Kimber cried.
“Stephen!” Nate barked, snatching him by the arm and pulling him away. In the instant it took Stephen to glare at the spot on his arm where his brother touched him, Lexi had stormed off.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marvin and his friend back out of the door.
Kimber dramatically sobbed and took off out the door, crying, “Philip is my boyfriend. And I love him!”
* * *
When Stephen had made the phone call to arrange for the Southern Style Glitz Pageant to take place at this hotel back in the beginning of the summer, he had no idea it would triple the number of entries. Stephen had received a text from Gianni Brutti this morning, thanking him and cursing him—a running theme for him in the past twenty-four hours.
Stephen knew the funk he was in had spoiled everything today. Any other time, he would have cracked up at the outrageous dance routines mothers would do behind the judges’ table while their daughters performed. Maybe the little two-foot-tall zombie girls would have made him laugh if he had someone next to him. It took Stephen a few minutes to decide if he wanted to come to the pageant show at all. He’d been too afraid to see what Kimber and Philly planned to wear. No amount of Torres rum could keep the horrific images out of his mind, but he tried. Now he paid the price.
Thank God it wasn’t the talent part. He didn’t think he’d be able to sit through the noise. Maybe in an hour or two the medicine he took would kick in. Stephen sat in his seat, arms folded; everyone had lost their damn minds. A snarl on his upper lip only reminded him of his hangover. Why, for God’s sake, was everyone so perky at eight in the morning?
To make matters worse, they were only in the beauty portion of the show. The pageant world needed to call this the world’s longest and slowest walk. Stephen stifled a triggered yawn, not meaning to mock the boy resting his head on his mother’s shoulder in the seat in front of him.
