Best She Ever Had (9781617733963) (23 page)

“Black seventeen!” the dealer shouted before placing the marker on the winning number.

Korey's face fell. The crowd groaned.

That couldn't be right. He blinked in shock. His stomach plummeted.

“So I guess that's the end of your winning streak,” a voice in his head mocked. “Let's hope you have better luck with Cindy than you have at the tables.”

“Let's go,” she whispered, making him turn to her.

“Let's go back home now, Korey. I think we're done with Vegas and Vegas is done with us.”

He slowly nodded.

Korey and Cynthia stepped off the elevator with bags in hand. They had both packed and already booked their flight back home. They were in a somber mood not only because they had finally given up their quixotic quest of finding the kids, but also because of the beating Korey had taken at the casino.

He still couldn't believe it. How had a cheapskate like him, who usually debated whether to supersize his meal because he wasn't sure if the larger size was worth the extra fifty cents, lost two thousand dollars and blown almost twenty thousand dollars in just a matter of hours? What had gotten into him?

“Cynthia Gibbons,” the voice in his head said. “Or better yet, you got into her . . . and it made you stupid—as usual.”

Well, maybe the euphoria of being in love again had made him dumb with his money, but it didn't mean he was also being dumb with his heart. He still believed they stood a good chance of making this work.

“Ready to check out?” he asked her.

“After I use the bathroom. You go ahead. I'll meet you at the desk.”

Korey nodded and watched her disappear into the ladies' room. He then tiredly walked to the reservation desk, distracted as he dug through his wallet looking for the key card to his room so that he could return it.

“Where did I put that thing,” he muttered as he flipped through the wallet folds.

“Mr. Walker?”

Korey looked up to see a familiar face smiling at him. The woman behind the reservation desk waved.

“I thought it was you! How are you, Mr. Walker? It's good to see you again.”

“Judy,” he said, remembering the name of the hotel staffer who had checked him in the first night he arrived in Vegas. “It's good to see you again too.”

“How can I help you?” she asked eagerly.

“Well, I was planning to check out.”

She frowned. “You're leaving us already? That was such a brief stay!” She started to type into her touch screen.

“Not brief enough. I just lost my shirt down in the casino.”

“Oh, I'm sure it wasn't
that
bad! You can make it back!”

“I doubt it. I blew almost twenty grand down there.”

Her fingers paused over the glass screen. She breathed in audibly, then bit her pouty lower lip. “Twenty . . .
twenty thousand?
”

“Yeah, I don't think I'm willing to keep betting to try to make it back. Better just to quit now or you guys will own my house.”

“I'm so sorry, Mr. Walker.”

“Why are you apologizing? It's fine,” he said, waving her condolence away. “It was my stupidity.”

She hesitated, then leaned across the counter toward him. “Did you at least find your son?”

Korey shook his head. “Nope, no luck with that either. . . which is why I figured at this point, I'm pretty much done with Vegas. Better just to head home.”

Her frown deepened. She looked down at her touch screen again, then looked over her shoulder. A white-haired gentleman Korey presumed was the hotel manager had been hovering nearby. One of the other staffers tapped him on his shoulder. He nodded then walked off. When he did, Judy turned back to Korey.

“Give me his name,” she whispered.

“Huh? Whose name?”

“Your son . . . and the name of his guest. I can try to find him that way too.”

Korey grinned. “Really? I thought you couldn't—”

“Shsssh!”
She raised a finger to her lips. She took another furtive glance over her shoulder. “Just don't tell anyone I did this. Okay? I could lose my job!”

He eagerly nodded. “Don't worry. Believe me, I won't tell.”

C
ynthia stepped through the bathroom door and watched as Korey went from a swift gate to a near run as he crossed the lobby and headed to her. He was grinning from ear to ear.

He seemed awfully jubilant for a man who had just blown twenty-thousand dollars with the turn of a roulette wheel. Just thinking about it made Cynthia inwardly cringe. The thought of him blowing away that much money at the casino downstairs still made her sick to her stomach.

“Why?” a voice in her head chided. “You've never cared about a rich man's money before—unless he was spending it on
you!
”

But this was different. This was Korey. She didn't care how rich he was, though finding out he had that much money had been quite a surprise.

I told him I loved him, damn it, and I meant it,
she thought.

And God help her, she did!

“Why are you smiling?” she asked him.

He swept her up in his arms, lifted her about a foot off the ground, and spun her around, catching her off guard. When he finally stopped, she stared at him, even more confused.

“Korey,
what
are you doing?”

“Kissing you,” he whispered before bringing his mouth to hers.

Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she draped her arms around his neck, sinking into him as they kissed. Every limb of her body seemed to transform from hard bone and taut muscle to almost liquid. All thoughts momentarily left her.

Then, after what seemed like forever, he pulled his mouth away and slowly lowered her back to the floor. She gazed up at him dazedly.

“I found them,” he whispered after licking his lips. “I found the kids!”

She suddenly stood ramrod straight. Her eyes bulged as she gaped at him.

“
You found them?
Are you serious?” she asked frantically, grabbing his shirt collar. “Where are they? How'd you find them? What—”

He gently tugged her hands away. “The woman at the check-in desk who I tried to butter up the first night we came here decided to show me some mercy. She gave me their room number.”

Cynthia grinned and looked across the lobby at the receptionist, who was now handing key cards to a family of four.

“Remind me to send her a fruit basket and flowers in thanks!” Cynthia said.

“Hell, before you say thanks, we've got to get the kids first. Come on!” Korey steered her toward the elevator doors and pressed the UP button. “They're in Room 1276.” He glanced down at his wristwatch. “It's getting late. Maybe they're still upstairs. If we're lucky, we can catch them.”

The elevator doors slowly opened, and Korey stepped forward, tugging her along with him.

“Wait! Wait! We're going up there
now?
” she asked, pulling back.

He stepped inside the elevator. “Of course we're going up there now. We don't want to miss them!”

“B-b-but what . . . what are we going to say if we find them?” She pulled him back into the hallway again. “We need to have some kind of a game plan. We can't just barge up there!”

“
Game plan?
What do you mean ‘game plan?' What the hell are you talking about?”

“I mean we need to come up with a plan on how to do this? W-w-we need to, umm . . . we need to figure out how to, umm, how to . . .” She struggled to find the right words, and as she did, Korey narrowed his eyes at her.

“Cindy, what's wrong?”

“Nothing's wrong! I just . . . I just—”

“You're just what?” He looked exasperated. “We finally found the kids after all this time and after all this running around! This is what you wanted!” He paused to step aside as a formally dressed, older couple walked onto the elevator. “Or at least I thought it was. Now you want to stand here and talk about what to do next? Come up with a game plan? What sense does that make? Why are you stalling?”

Why was she stalling? Maybe because she had finally settled into the idea of giving up stopping the wedding and heading home, and now she had to suddenly shift gears again. Or maybe it was because she knew that if they went to the twelfth floor and managed to find the children, things would change between her and Korey. She'd have to confront not only Clarissa and Jared, but also her biggest fear—that Korey was Clarissa's father. Korey would have to finally know the secret Cynthia had been harboring all this time.

No, he doesn't! I don't have to say a damn thing about any of that,
she thought.

“You can't keep this secret forever, girl,” the voice in her head argued. “It's not fair to him or Clarissa.”

“Pardon me, but are you getting on?” asked an older gentleman, making Cynthia blink in surprise. The gentleman leaned out of the elevator car, held open the door, and gazed at Cynthia and Korey expectantly.

Korey turned to him and nodded. “Uh, yeah . . . yeah, we are. Thanks for waiting.” He turned back to Cynthia and inclined his head toward the elevator. “Come on.”

Cynthia sighed, then stepped in front of him, easing into the space beside the couple, who waited patiently. Korey followed her.

The four rode in silence. With each ascending floor, Cynthia felt a growing sense of dread. She glanced anxiously at Korey's profile as he stared up at the digital screen that ticked away the numbers.

When all of this is over,
she thought,
please don't hate me, baby.

The doors slowly opened and Korey stepped out. Cynthia slowly followed him, feeling a lump form in her throat.

He glanced up at the plaques on the wall, looking at the arrows and the lists of room numbers. “This way,” he said, pointing to his right.

They walked down the hall, passing a man in uniform who was pushing a room service cart laden with trays and dirty linen. He nodded at them in greeting.

As they drew close to Room 1276, Cynthia grabbed Korey's arm, making him halt and turn to her in puzzlement.

“What?” He frowned. “What now?”

She had to tell him! She couldn't let him find out this way.

“Korey, I . . . I have . . . I want to . . .”

But she couldn't say the words. No matter how hard she tried, they wouldn't come out.

“Cindy, seriously, what is wrong? You're starting to worry me.”

“I . . . I love you, Korey,” she whispered. “I always have. But I have to te—”

“And I love you too,” he said, cutting her off. He leaned down and lightly brushed her lips. “Now let's go get the kids so we can finally fly the hell home.” He abruptly turned and knocked on the door, standing back from the peephole.

“Room service!” he said in a high-pitched, nasal voice that was almost comical.

Cynthia would have laughed if she didn't feel as if she was going to vomit at any moment. Why hadn't he let her finish saying what she needed to say?

“Oh, man, right on time!” someone on the other side of the door shouted. “I hope you brought more towels!”

Cynthia heard a lock click. The door opened. A young man stood in the doorway in a white terrycloth bathrobe, smiling. He was pulling a ten-dollar bill out of the bathrobe's pocket, presumably a tip that he had intended to hand to room service. But when the young man saw who was standing in front of him, his smile instantly disappeared. He gaped, and the ten-dollar bill fell from his hand and fluttered to the carpeted floor.

“Pops?”
he squeaked.

Korey's jaw clenched as he glared at his son. “Jared.”

Jared blinked. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. “What are you . . . I-I mean . . . How did you . . . I-I-I mean . . . What—”

“Did they bring more towels?” Clarissa called.

At the sound of her daughter's voice, Cynthia snapped out of her malaise.

“Get out of my way!” Cynthia shouted, stopping Jared mid-stutter. She shoved the young man aside and rushed into the hotel room, with Korey trailing behind her.

“Clarissa, baby, where are you?” Cynthia yelled.

Cynthia followed the sound of her daughter's voice. She rounded a corner into the hotel suite's small living room. When she walked through another door and saw Clarissa sitting on the satin bedspread, which was covered with red rose petals, and that the young woman was also wearing a bathrobe, Cynthia almost fainted.

Oh, my God,
she thought frantically.
I'm too late! I'm too late!

She then made the mistake of turning to look at what Clarissa had been watching on the bedroom's television. When she saw the leather-clad male and female trio going at it on the television screen, her eyes almost bulged out of her head.

“Oh, my God!” Cynthia cried.

“What?” Korey shouted, running into the bedroom.

“What's wrong?” When he stood beside her, he followed Cynthia's gaze and almost choked with laughter at the movie Clarissa was watching. When Cynthia turned her glare on him, he stopped laughing, then shrugged.

“Sorry, but I warned you,” he whispered.

“Ma? Mr. Walker? What . . . what are you guys doing here?” Clarissa asked, quickly turning off the television. She set her half-filled champagne glass on the night table and rose from the bed. She held the lapels of her bathrobe together and tightened the belt around her waist. “How . . . how did you find us?”

“How did I find you?”
Cynthia yelled. “How did I find you? You run away like a thief in the night and I don't know if you're dead or alive and that's all you have to say is, ‘How did I find you?' What the hell were you thinking, Clarissa, running away to Las Vegas with this boy?”

“I'm not a boy,” Jared said indignantly. He stepped into the bedroom and walked toward Clarissa. He then wrapped an arm protectively around Clarissa's shoulder and puffed out his chest. “I'm a man.”

“A man?”
Korey snorted. “Jared, I can barely get you to take out the trash most days, and doesn't your mama still pack your lunch for you at home?”

“None of that matters!” Jared argued. “I'm a man and . . . and Clarissa and I are in love. We came here to get married!”

Cynthia was starting to feel faint again. She grabbed the bedroom door handle to steady herself. “Did you get married?” she asked quietly, terrified to hear the answer.

Clarissa slowly shook her head. She stared down at the floor. “No, I chickened out at the last minute.”

“But we're going to try again tomorrow!” Jared said. “We said we'd give it a few days and try again. And you can't stop us!” He glared at both parents. “Legally, we can get married. We don't need your permission.”

Cynthia fought down the bile that was rising in her throat. She took another step toward her daughter. “Baby, just answer one question . . . did you or did you not have sex with Jared?”

“
Ugh,
Ma!” Clarissa exclaimed in disgust, with a curl in her lip. She rolled her eyes again.

Korey loudly released a breath. “Cindy, come on . . .”

“Just answer the question, Clarissa!” Cynthia screamed.

Clarissa stomped her foot. “Why do you care if Jared and I had sex? It's not like I'm a virgin!”

Jared frowned. He dropped his hand from Clarissa's shoulder. “Wait, you weren't a virgin? I thought you said you were! Damn it, I knew you were lying!”

“Honey, can we not talk about this right now?” Clarissa asked.

Jared crossed his arms over his chest and silently fumed.

“Ma, you're just going to have to get over it, okay?” Clarissa said, putting her hands on her hips. “Stop trying to run my life! I know what I'm doing! What difference does it make if Jared and I have sex? We're getting married. . . at the same age that you got married, I might add! I know how to—”

“It makes a big damn difference!” Cynthia screeched tearfully. “It makes a big damn difference because you can't have sex with your brother! You can't marry your brother!”

The room fell silent. Korey, Clarissa, and Jared stared at Cynthia, absolutely speechless.

“What?”
Korey asked. His voice was barely above a whisper. “What did you just say?”

Cynthia couldn't answer him. She was sobbing too much. She raised her fist to her mouth and bit down on her knuckle to stifle the sobs, but it didn't matter. They were coming out anyway. He grabbed her shoulders and whipped her around to face him. His grip around her arms tightened as he gazed into her watery eyes.

“Cindy, did you just say Jared was Clarissa's
brother?
”

She continued to weep helplessly.

“Nod yes or no, damn it!” he ordered, shaking her like a rag doll.

“I don't know!” she cried. Her mascara ran in muddy streaks down her cheeks and over her chin. “I don't know! He might be!”

“
He might be?
What the hell does that mean?”

“Oh, God, I think I'm going to throw up!” Clarissa garbled as she rushed to the hotel's bathroom. While she retched over the bathroom toilet, Jared slowly sat down on the edge of the hotel bed, looking more than just a little dazed.

“I don't know if he's her brother . . . I mean her half brother,” Cynthia said as Korey finally released her. “The last time you and I slept together was . . . was about a week before the first time I slept with Bill. When I found out a month later that I was pregnant, I didn't know which one of you was the father!”