Walk (Gentry Boys) (17 page)

STONE

Evie balanced a plate of colorful bakery cookies in her lap while she fixed her hair. 

“What do you keep fussing for?” I said as I made the turn onto Deck’s street.  “You look beautiful.” 

She threw me a look.  I was still getting to know her looks and this one was clearly in the mad-but-not-mad category. 

“I feel obnoxious showing up at a family dinner with sex hair.” 

I smiled, remembering just how that sex hair had been produced.  She’d rushed home from work so we could leave right away for Deck and Jenny’s house.  After announcing that she just needed a minute to touch up her makeup she ran to the bathroom. 

Five minutes later, when I checked to see how much longer she was planning to take I walked in just as Evie leaned over the marble vanity to apply her eyeliner.  It just so happened that when Evie leaned over like that she stuck out her ass. And when Evie stuck out her ass in that sleek gray business skirt above black heels my dick got hard.  So without a word I hiked that shit up over her waist, yanked her panties down and got to work right there in front of the mirror. 

She’d fucking loved it, messed up sex hair or not, so even though we had to rush out the door thirty seconds after we were done I knew she wasn’t really mad.  

Evie found an elastic band buried somewhere in her beach bag sized purse and pulled her light brown hair back into a neat ponytail.  “Is it just us tonight or was anyone else invited?  I know Steph and Chase won’t be there because I asked her.” 

I shrugged, mulling over Deck’s words that the two of us needed to have a conversation.  He wouldn’t have said that unless he had something particular in mind.  I just couldn’t guess what it was.    “As far as I know it’s just us.” 

Deck’s house was in a nice neighborhood, very suburban and comfortable.  There were kids riding bicycles in the shade of mature citrus trees and an SUV parked in nearly every driveway.  It was a family neighborhood, a happy neighborhood. 

Two seconds after we knocked on the door Deck appeared, barefoot and holding the pink bundle that was his baby daughter. He’d shaved off the early beard that had covered his face the other day and despite his tattoos and his imposing bulk he looked pretty tame and domestic. 

I glanced over at Evie and saw enchantment all over her face.  What was it about the combo of strong men and babies that made smart women weak in the knees? 

“Come on in,” Deck said, holding the door open so we could pass by. “I’ve got ribs smoking out back but they’re just about ready.” 

Deck’s wife, Jenny, emerged all fresh-faced and smiling in a yellow apron.  She made a fuss over the cookies Evie brought and invited us to come sit down in the backyard. 

Dinner was casual and fun. Deck and Jenny were devoted to each other and it was nice just being in their company.  Evie and Jenny really seemed to hit it off, being around the same age and cut from the same cloth of smart, beautiful women with secretly sharp senses of humor. Deck was relaxed and happy, letting baby Isabella chew on his shirt as he told a few funny stories about the unusual cross sections of humanity that he would encounter in his tattoo shop.  He didn’t give any hint that there was anything special on his mind and I was starting to think whatever he’d referred to the other day must not be important. 

The sun soon disappeared and the temperature rapidly dropped to a crisp autumn feel. When I noticed Evie hugging her arms to her body like she was cold I draped an arm around her and pulled her close.  She tipped her face up for a kiss, which I was happy to provide.

Deck sat across the table, nursing his beer and watching us.

“So how long have you guys been together?” Evie asked him.  

Jenny had gone inside a short time earlier to feed the baby once more before getting her ready for bed. 

“Seven years,” he said, glancing at the back door as if Jenny was standing there.  He smiled and shook his head.  “Been quite a ride.  We were one hell of a case of opposites attracting, that’s for sure.” 

“I heard a theory once,” said Evie as she rested her hand on my knee, “that when most people search for love they are really searching for their mirror image, someone predictable and known.  I’m calling bullshit on that.  There’s nothing exciting inside of a mirror.” 

Deck’s tapped his fingers on the table thoughtfully.  “I agree.  So what do you think people are really looking for?”

Evie didn’t shrink under his sharp gaze as she considered the question.  “I suppose it depends on who you choose to believe.  Mythology is full of stories about lovers who tossed caution aside and defied the odds.   Of course many of those same tales end tragically, which leads me to believe the creators were equal parts idealists and prudes.  Frankly, I think people search for the qualities they admire, not necessarily the ones they possess.  They want to be tested, they want to be excited.  Mirror gazing will never stir your blood.  It will never challenge your soul.” 

Deck leaned back in his chair and stared at Evie.  He nodded slowly.  “Jenny does all that and more every day.” 

Evie smiled.  “As it should be.” 

Deck decided to light the fire pit.  It was wood burning, not gas, and took a little while to really get going but once it blazed the light and the heat were comforting.   Evie snuggled against me and I pulled the elastic band out of her hair, enjoying the way she trembled ever so slightly at my touch. 

We were talking about a well known cave of bats that lived a few miles away.  Deck said there were millions of them that streamed out of the cave at twilight and scattered across the valley. 

Evie was scanning the dark sky a little apprehensively when the back door creaked open and Jenny poked her head out.

“She asleep?” Deck asked. 

“Yes.”  Jenny stepped behind him and rubbed his broad shoulders. “She was lights out after her bath.” 

Deck suddenly twisted around, and without rising to his feet managed to sweep his wife into his arms, settling her on his lap.   They launched right into a kiss that was so full of heat I had to look away.  Meanwhile, Evie’s hand rose a little higher on my thigh and I started to think about taking her home to try our earlier deeds at a slower pace. 

But Deck and Jenny abruptly ended their kiss and Jenny got to her feet.  She was looking at Deck questioningly and he gave her a vague nod. 

Jenny turned to us with a smile.  “Hey Evie, how about we go inside for a cup of coffee?   We can discuss topics not meant for delicate male ears and finish off those cookies.” 

“Sure,” Evie shrugged.  “I’d love to.”  She gave my arm a little squeeze before following Jenny indoors. 

“That’s a good one you’ve got there,” Deck said. 

“She is.” 

“You realize she’s so in love with you she can hardly see straight, right?”

I raised an eyebrow.  “Amazing how you can read so much into polite dinner conversation.” 

Deck rocked back in his chair.  “When you get to be as old as I am the mysteries of the universe start to become legible.” 

“How the hell old
are
you anyway?”

“Shut up.”

“You’ve got to be well into your thirties.” 

“Fuck you.” 

“In some parts of the world you’d be old enough to be my father.” 

He didn’t laugh.  He just stared at me for an odd, silent moment, then wordlessly walked over to the fire pit and hunched beside it, poking at the flames with a long stick.  He didn’t look up when I came over and sat on the stone bench that circled the pit. 

I cleared my throat to get his attention.  “Hey, Deck, in case I didn’t mention it enough I’m really grateful for everything you’ve done for me.  I know it was you who made sure I didn’t get my ass beat down there in the cage and I appreciate all the help you and the guys have given me since I got out.  I swear I’ll find a way to pay you back.  It might take me a while but it’ll happen.” 

Deck tossed the stick into the flames and stood, staring into the crackling fire. 

“Stone, you must have heard a thing or two growing up down there in Emblem.” 

I was confused.  “About you?”

He gave me a hard look, a serious look.   “No.  About you.  About your parents.” 

“There were rumors.  I gave up trying to figure out if there was any truth to them.”

Deck left the fire and came around to sit beside me.  I was getting a strange feeling in my chest, like some kind of internal warning that the ground was about to shift beneath my feet. 

My cousin didn’t make me wait long.  “They are true,” he said bluntly.  “You are the son of Chrome Gentry.” 

I sucked in a breath, flashing back to the memory of a man in the desert with a shotgun on his shoulder, a man with laughing blue eyes who seemed impossibly large as he touched me on the head and then walked away. 

“Are you sure?” I asked. 

“As sure as I can be.” 

“Did Chrome tell you that himself?”

“No.  I don’t remember hearing the first hint about it until I came back to Emblem after getting out of the Marines and by that time he was dead so I couldn’t ask.”  He sighed deeply.  “I would have been thirteen when you were born and if there was any noise about it back then my mother would have done her best to keep it away from my ears.  So no, I didn’t hear a thing from Chrome.  Conway was the one who told me.”

That was possibly more startling than the first revelation.  “What do you mean?  How the hell did Conway find out?  If he knew something like that he wouldn’t have kept it to himself.”  I thought about Con, about the way we were together.  Before. I swallowed. “We didn’t have secrets from each other.”

Deck seemed to be going over his words carefully, like they might hurt me.  “Right before the accident,” he said, “your mother stumbled home drunk one night.  Con was there alone and she told him things that she’d kept buried since you were babies.  There were always rumors anyway.  Everyone knew she was running around on Elijah with his cousins and then as you two grew older it became more painfully clear you were not his sons.” 

“So Con is Chrome’s son too?”

Deck crossed his arms and looked troubled.  “He said no.  He claimed your mother only talked about you that night and that Elijah was his biological father.” 

“Sounds like you didn’t believe him.”

“I believed him when he said you were Chrome’s son.  But I never believed that was the last of Tracy Gentry’s confessions.” 

I let out a low whistle, trying to process all this new information.  All the rumors and the whispers, the way my mother had looked at me with loathing as I grew to resemble a man she’d rather forget. 

I remembered something else though too, something she’d said more to Con than to me.  It was on a night barely a week before the accident when we’d gotten into some stupid trouble over a stolen car.  Our mother had glared at us across a dark room and babbled about bad blood, Gentry blood.  But then she zeroed in on Conway and said something I hadn’t thought much about until this moment. 

“There’s nothing worse than what you come from,” I said. 

Deck gave me a sharp look.  “What?”

“Words uttered by our charming mother.  She said that the night the triplets came down to bail us out when we got busted for stealing a car and crashing it into a canal.” 

“She said that to you?”

“She said other things to me but that charming little statement was mostly directed at Conway.  I just kind of wrote it off at the time as a side effect of her ugly personality.  Less than a week later everything else happened and it never seemed important enough to dwell on.  Anyway, she never came to visit me, not once, so it’s not like I could ask her about it.” 

“Well, I
did
visit her,” Deck said grimly.  “I found her down there in Miami and tried to ask the questions that only she had the answers to but she threw the money I offered back in my face and slammed the door.”

I found myself looking at him in a new light.  He was still Deck, still a barely tamed wild man full of loyalty and a fierce protective instinct toward those he loved.  He was a man I admired.  He was my brother. 

“How long have you known?” I asked quietly.   

For the first time in my memory Deck’s face was full of apology.  “He told me shortly after you were sentenced.   Maybe he just needed to get it off his chest or maybe he felt guilty about breaking off all contact with you.  Stone, these past four years I must have thought about telling you a million times.  But if you’d known while you were locked up down there it just would have opened up wounds and left you with more questions than answers.  I don’t know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I didn’t want to add to the weight on your shoulders.” He coughed.  “I’m sorry.”

It all made sense now; why my mother had shriveled into such misery under the burden of the secrets she kept, why the closer we came to manhood the more she couldn’t stand to look at us.  

“There were stories,” Deck said gravely.  “Maybe some of them you’ve heard before.  Stories about two reckless brothers who ruled the desert and owned damn near half the women in town at one time or another.   They loved each other even when they hated each other and Jesus, when they fought it was like titans clashing but they always came through.  Then somewhere along the way it went bad.  One of them started walking in the wrong direction and never turned back.  Some say he must have been born evil and the fact just showed up late.  God knows I hated him more than I’ve ever hated anyone. But no matter what he did, no matter how twisted and vicious he became, his big brother could never cut him loose.”