View Park, page 17
As soon as they were inside, he held her against the wall. He leaned in, kissing her hard as his hand slid up the inside of her thighs. She tried to stop him, but he laughed, slapping her hand away.
Kimberly didn’t want him to stop, but Janet could walk in any moment and all she needed was another lecture on decorum and proper behavior. She tried to slide away, but he kept her where she was, tilting his head a little to the side to catch a glimpse of Carter and Avery.
“Look at them,” he said. “They’re sharing a reclining chair like high school kids.”
“He’s trying to make her feel comfortable. It can’t be easy for her being here. I should know.”
“Why are you being so nice to her?”
“I like her.” He frowned and she grabbed his chin, squeezing his face. “Stop being such a baby. I’ll hate her if you want me to, but I don’t want to. She seems like a normal person and that’s a rarity in this house.”
“Avery’s not going to have anything to do with this house after tonight, so don’t get excited. And yes, I want you to hate her like I do. She’s made a mess of everything.”
“Damn her,” she mocked. “Who does she think she is standing up for herself and trying to keep her business? Doesn’t she know who deserves it more?”
Michael didn’t care for her biting wit right now. Kimberly had a way of digging into him that only made him angrier. It turned her on when he lost it because she knew there were places only she could take him. She used it to remind him that she owned him and he resented that even though he gave in to it every time.
“Don’t start with me, woman. I told you that night at the restaurant he’s after that woman, and the closer he brings her inside, the more dangerous she is.”
“You overestimate her interest in you.” Kimberly saw the real issue here.
Whenever Carter got serious about a woman, Michael got jealous. He liked being the most important person in Carter’s life. Michael wanted everything all the time. They were brothers, enemies, and best friends. The way they fought just to turn around and be a rock for each other amazed her.
“You’re not seeing the point here.” She rubbed his chest to calm him down. “The more Carter knows her, the better he’ll be able to protect the family from her. You don’t think he’d pick a woman over family, do you?”
“I do,” he said. “If she was the right woman, he might. But you wouldn’t turn on the family, would you?”
“Of course not.” Unless it meant getting rid of Janet, in which case she’d do it in a New York second. “No one comes before you, Daddy.”
“Then you get close to her,” he said. “You can pretend to be normal, can’t you?”
She socked him in the chest. “I’m the only normal person in this house.”
“Then she’ll like you. You get close to her and find out what she really wants.”
This wasn’t the first time he’d used her to get information and Kimberly didn’t like it one bit. If only she could say no to this man, but she couldn’t, so she agreed to become Avery’s new best friend, and she let Michael’s hand reach up her thigh again as his mouth took hers. Damn Janet. The world could walk in on her for all she cared. She was under this man’s spell.
Avery and Carter were both preoccupied with Michael and Kimberly going at it just inside the house near the verandah. Avery at first wondered if they knew they could be seen, but from the way they touched each other, she realized they didn’t care.
“They seem pretty fond of each other,” she said.
“That’s one way to put it,” Carter said. “They act like a couple of horny teenagers all the time. I’m surprised they only have two kids.”
“Where are Daniel and Evan?”
“How do you know…” He caught himself, remembering who he was. Everyone knew everything about his family and he didn’t like it one bit. “They’re inside. Maya is giving them their dinner in the kitchen. Trust me, the night will be wild enough without them.”
Avery couldn’t turn her eyes away from Michael and Kimberly and had to admit it was affecting her. Not sexually really, but emotionally. She saw their passion for each other and it was raw and untamed. It was something she had never experienced.
“I’m sorry about that.” Carter wished Michael and Kimberly would take it upstairs. “They forget people are around.”
“I don’t mind.” She took a sip of her wine. “It’s nice to see married people express passion for each other.”
“So you would have done something like that in public if you had married Alex?” he asked.
Avery turned to him, speaking before thinking better not to play his game. “I am marrying Alex.”
Carter leaned against the back of the chair. “I don’t know. I just don’t see it happening.”
“Stop it, Carter.”
“And I’m sure if it did, you two would be nothing like Michael and Kimberly there.”
He didn’t have time to react before she dumped the rest of her wine on him, splashing his face and soaking his white linen shirt.
He sat up straight, laughing out loud. “I was just kidding, Avery.”
“So was I,” she said. “Isn’t it more fun when we both do it?”
“Fine.” He wiped himself down. “Game over. What do you want to talk about?”
Avery smiled, grateful for any little victory she got in life these days. “What about this house. Where is your room?”
“I don’t live here.”
“I know you don’t live here, but you had a room here, didn’t you?”
He looked up at the back of the massive home, pointing to the right. “I think it’s somewhere up there toward the front.”
“You don’t know where your room is? Didn’t you grow up here?”
He was thinking of changing his shirt. The night was too damp to dry it, but he didn’t want to leave her right now. “No, I didn’t as a matter of fact. I grew up in a little middle-class home in your neck of the woods.”
“Baldwin Hills?”
“I was a junior in high school when we moved into this house. I didn’t live here because I was in New York at prep school.”
“Your parents sent you all the way to the East Coast?” Avery couldn’t imagine being that young so far away from her family. “It must have been lonely.”
He shrugged. “It was fine. My parents didn’t think any of the West Coast schools compared to New York and D.C.”
“So you were only here for the summer?”
“Not really. My parents have a house on the Vineyard. We used to spend the whole summer there. My mother’s family owns the house, actually, but we don’t really go anymore. Too inconvenient and my father would never stay because of the company. My mom hates to be away from him for long. I was home for the holidays, though.”
Avery felt for him. His voice was reticent and held regret. She took all her childhood summers and comfy nights at home with her family for granted. She wouldn’t have traded it for the best education in the world.
“So you don’t really know this house, do you?”
“I went to college and then law school in Boston. I went traveling across Europe with friends during those summers. In law school, there was this girl…”
Avery laughed at his tentative tone. “All good stories start with that phrase.”
“I thought I was in love.”
“You weren’t?”
Carter looked at her, thinking back. “No, I was in love. We got an apartment and I stayed in Boston. After that, I worked in New York and we lived together for a few years.”
“What happened to her?” Avery was more interested in the answer to that than she had a right to be.
“That we don’t need to go into,” he said. “When I came back to L.A., I got my own place.”
“You must have missed your family so much.”
“Can you keep a secret?” he asked, leaning forward. “I stayed away because my father and I fight all the time. When I came home, it was because I missed my brother. We were all each other had in prep school. He went to college in New York while I was in Boston, so we’re close.”
“What about the rest of your family?”
“I missed Leigh, and my mother, too, but I never really got close to Leigh until I was back for good. I love her to death now, though.”
“What about your dad—”
“I don’t want to talk about my father.”
Avery was struck by the serious expression he held and it made her want to know everything about his relationship with Steven. “What about Haley?”
“I don’t really know her.” He noted the look of shock she quickly tried to conceal. Someone like Avery couldn’t imagine family members being anything but deathly close. “I love her. She’s my baby sister, but she was a baby when I left and I never really got to know her that well. She’s a little hard to get close to, but that’s my fault. I’m her big brother and we should be close.”
The regretful look on his face reached deep inside of Avery. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t too late, but she couldn’t do that. It was too intimate and none of her business.
Carter felt like a fool. He’d intended to be this suave charismatic bachelor that she couldn’t resist, but that was all gone now. He had given himself up and she probably pitied him. Good luck getting her in bed now.
He stood up, looking down at her. “Will you be okay for a second? I need to go change my shirt.”
“I’m uh…I’m sorry about that.” She suddenly regretted every bad thing she had said or done to him.
“I deserved it. I’ll be back.”
Avery made her way to the bar to pour another glass of wine. It was probably dangerous, but she needed something after that. She was in trouble with a man she thought was the devil himself.
“Hello, Avery.”
Dressed in raggedy jean shorts and a pink tank top, Haley stood in front of Avery looking at her like she wanted to kick her in the face. Avery held her hand out to her, but Haley didn’t budge so she let it fall to her side.
“So what is Sean doing tonight?” Haley had already completed her survey of the woman. It only took a few seconds. She was softball and despite the glass of wine she threw on Carter, Haley figured the woman probably had no backbone.
“I’m not sure,” she stated. “I haven’t seen him today. He’s really busy on your case.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” Haley said. “Considering he’s spending all his time taking care of you. You don’t seem like the injured little bird he seems to think you are. Maybe you could tell him you don’t need him to baby you and he might remember other people exist.”
Avery was speechless. This woman couldn’t be a day over twenty-one and she was fierce. She held a boat load of anger and Avery wasn’t interested in going up against it even though she was curious to know why she seemed so interested in Sean’s time.
Nothing to say, Haley thought. That was easy. Moving on. “You’ve certainly got my brother wrapped around your little finger.”
“You’re mistaken. I—”
“I’m never mistaken,” Haley spat back. “I was watching the two of you.”
Never mistaken? So sleeping with a married congressman was the right choice? That’s what Avery wanted to say, but unlike Haley, she had manners. “There is nothing going on between me and Carter.”
“You can say that now all you want, but if he wants you, he’ll get you. No woman has ever turned him down and you certainly don’t have the guts to do it. You’re the emotional type and you’ll fall for him, but you won’t last six months before my family breaks you down. Then he’ll toss you aside.”
Haley paused to take in the bewildered look on Avery’s face. This woman had played the victim enough. It was time everyone returned their attention to the real story, her and the hell her life was becoming. Especially Sean. There was no way she was going to get him to worship her the way he should if his big sister played the emotional edge.
“So glad you could come.” She pasted on a saccharine smile before turning and walking away.
Avery wasn’t as quick as she would like to be during dinner. Janet was loading her with questions that were all flattering and light, but she was distracted by the daggers Haley and Michael were sending her way. Leigh didn’t seem to be aware that she or anyone else existed and Steven ignored her completely.
Then there was Kimberly, who was the only person at the table with a genuine smile. Avery tried not to stare at her, but it was hard. Kimberly was probably one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen.
“Where is your friend this evening?” Janet was running out of conversation topics. She was a master at hosting; making everyone feel comfortable was her gift. It wasn’t working well tonight.
“My friend?” Avery asked.
“She means Alex.” Carter wished his mother hadn’t brought the man up.
“Oh, yes.” Friend? What did that mean? “He had to work tonight. He’s very busy.”
“Doing what?” Michael ignored the pinch Kimberly gave his thigh as well as Carter’s indignant stare.
“He’s a salesman, right?” Janet asked.
“I know what he does.” Michael resented this woman being treated like a visiting queen while he was getting railed daily by his father because of her. “I was just wondering because a couple of years ago, he won best salesman, didn’t he?”
“That’s right,” Avery answered cautiously. Be ready for this one. “He actually won it twice, but you know that because you know everything about me after all your snooping.”
“It’s called business research,” Michael said. “I was just curious, because he used to be so good. From what I hear now, he couldn’t sell whiskey to an Indian.”
There were several gasps around the table and some forks scraping the plates.
“Quit it.” Carter’s lips pressed together as his brows narrowed in, matching his brother’s stare.
“Haley.” Steven frowned at his daughter who hadn’t stopped laughing. “That’s enough.”
Haley glared at him before returning to her food. “I thought it was funny.”
“It’s not funny,” Leigh said. “It’s racist.”
“It’s just a saying,” Michael said.
“I don’t care what it is,” Janet lectured. “I don’t want to hear it at my dinner table. I’m sorry, Avery.”
Avery nodded, pretending as if her food was more interesting than Michael.
Carter leaned in and apologized, still staring at Michael who stared back.
“What’s the matter?” Michael asked, finally turning away from Carter. “Am I not being appropriate? Mom, I sincerely doubt you can call me on that when you’re practically pimping your daughter.”
“What?” Janet gasped.
Kimberly had to put her napkin over her mouth to hide her laughing. Nothing amused her more than Janet being called out.
“I know what you’re doing with Leigh,” he said. “Pimping her off to Leo Bridges so she’ll hang out with you more.”
Steven slammed his fist on the table, making everyone jolt a bit. “Don’t you ever talk to your mother like that.”
Janet was doing what was best; she had to keep telling herself that. “It’s okay, Steven.”
“It’s disrespectful and Leigh would never allow herself to be treated that way anyway.” He looked at Haley. “If you don’t stop laughing, Haley, I swear—”
“You swear what?” She tossed her napkin across the table and it landed right on Avery’s plate. “If Leigh laughed, you wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“Leigh wouldn’t laugh at something like that,” he replied.
“Of course she wouldn’t.” Haley pushed away from the table, standing up.
She knew this was all about her affair with Jack. Ever since that had come out the man barely spoke to her, even though her life had been threatened and she was crying out for his attention. He was ashamed of her and she wasn’t going to let it go by anymore.
“Leigh is so perfect!” She shouted loud enough to make one of the bodyguards enter. “She would never let herself be treated like that. Not like your other daughter, the ho. The ho who’s been stuck in this damn house forever and no one seems to give a shit!”
“Haley!” Steven had had enough.
Janet swallowed hard, looking at Avery whose eyes were as wide as her open mouth. She had intended for Avery to see a civilized, refined family that would never do anything to hurt anyone. Instead this was turning into an episode of the Jerry Springer Show.
“Sit down,” Steven asserted as calmly as he could. “Right now.”
“The hell with that.” Haley kicked her chair out of the way before storming out of the dining room. She had successfully ruined the evening for everyone and that would hold her until she thought of something else.
Avery looked at Carter who simply smiled an I-warned-you smile.
“Avery.” Janet could barely speak she was so embarrassed. “I am so sorry.”
Avery smiled nervously, trying to take everything in without showing it on her face. She remembered the hell there was to pay for even saying shut up at the dinner table. “It’s okay…It’s not…”
“Isn’t anybody going to go after her?” Leigh asked, pushing away from the table.
“There’s been a lot of stress,” Janet continued. “I’m sorry for Haley and Michael.”
“Don’t apologize for me,” Michael said. “I meant everything I said.”
“Shut up,” Carter warned. It would be his last warning.
“It’s okay, Carter.” Avery knew if she let someone else stick up for her, she didn’t have a chance. “Nothing Michael says bothers me. It never has.” She leaned in, seeing the anger rise in his eyes. “Because honestly, his skills pale in comparison to yours.”
Carter leaned back in his chair, smiling. She had told him she could handle herself. She didn’t need him at all.
“Just back off,” Michael told Carter as the two of them entered the great room. Carter could warn him all he wanted to. He was on a roll now. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Keep it up and I’m gonna beat the crap out of you.”
Kimberly didn’t want him to stop, but Janet could walk in any moment and all she needed was another lecture on decorum and proper behavior. She tried to slide away, but he kept her where she was, tilting his head a little to the side to catch a glimpse of Carter and Avery.
“Look at them,” he said. “They’re sharing a reclining chair like high school kids.”
“He’s trying to make her feel comfortable. It can’t be easy for her being here. I should know.”
“Why are you being so nice to her?”
“I like her.” He frowned and she grabbed his chin, squeezing his face. “Stop being such a baby. I’ll hate her if you want me to, but I don’t want to. She seems like a normal person and that’s a rarity in this house.”
“Avery’s not going to have anything to do with this house after tonight, so don’t get excited. And yes, I want you to hate her like I do. She’s made a mess of everything.”
“Damn her,” she mocked. “Who does she think she is standing up for herself and trying to keep her business? Doesn’t she know who deserves it more?”
Michael didn’t care for her biting wit right now. Kimberly had a way of digging into him that only made him angrier. It turned her on when he lost it because she knew there were places only she could take him. She used it to remind him that she owned him and he resented that even though he gave in to it every time.
“Don’t start with me, woman. I told you that night at the restaurant he’s after that woman, and the closer he brings her inside, the more dangerous she is.”
“You overestimate her interest in you.” Kimberly saw the real issue here.
Whenever Carter got serious about a woman, Michael got jealous. He liked being the most important person in Carter’s life. Michael wanted everything all the time. They were brothers, enemies, and best friends. The way they fought just to turn around and be a rock for each other amazed her.
“You’re not seeing the point here.” She rubbed his chest to calm him down. “The more Carter knows her, the better he’ll be able to protect the family from her. You don’t think he’d pick a woman over family, do you?”
“I do,” he said. “If she was the right woman, he might. But you wouldn’t turn on the family, would you?”
“Of course not.” Unless it meant getting rid of Janet, in which case she’d do it in a New York second. “No one comes before you, Daddy.”
“Then you get close to her,” he said. “You can pretend to be normal, can’t you?”
She socked him in the chest. “I’m the only normal person in this house.”
“Then she’ll like you. You get close to her and find out what she really wants.”
This wasn’t the first time he’d used her to get information and Kimberly didn’t like it one bit. If only she could say no to this man, but she couldn’t, so she agreed to become Avery’s new best friend, and she let Michael’s hand reach up her thigh again as his mouth took hers. Damn Janet. The world could walk in on her for all she cared. She was under this man’s spell.
Avery and Carter were both preoccupied with Michael and Kimberly going at it just inside the house near the verandah. Avery at first wondered if they knew they could be seen, but from the way they touched each other, she realized they didn’t care.
“They seem pretty fond of each other,” she said.
“That’s one way to put it,” Carter said. “They act like a couple of horny teenagers all the time. I’m surprised they only have two kids.”
“Where are Daniel and Evan?”
“How do you know…” He caught himself, remembering who he was. Everyone knew everything about his family and he didn’t like it one bit. “They’re inside. Maya is giving them their dinner in the kitchen. Trust me, the night will be wild enough without them.”
Avery couldn’t turn her eyes away from Michael and Kimberly and had to admit it was affecting her. Not sexually really, but emotionally. She saw their passion for each other and it was raw and untamed. It was something she had never experienced.
“I’m sorry about that.” Carter wished Michael and Kimberly would take it upstairs. “They forget people are around.”
“I don’t mind.” She took a sip of her wine. “It’s nice to see married people express passion for each other.”
“So you would have done something like that in public if you had married Alex?” he asked.
Avery turned to him, speaking before thinking better not to play his game. “I am marrying Alex.”
Carter leaned against the back of the chair. “I don’t know. I just don’t see it happening.”
“Stop it, Carter.”
“And I’m sure if it did, you two would be nothing like Michael and Kimberly there.”
He didn’t have time to react before she dumped the rest of her wine on him, splashing his face and soaking his white linen shirt.
He sat up straight, laughing out loud. “I was just kidding, Avery.”
“So was I,” she said. “Isn’t it more fun when we both do it?”
“Fine.” He wiped himself down. “Game over. What do you want to talk about?”
Avery smiled, grateful for any little victory she got in life these days. “What about this house. Where is your room?”
“I don’t live here.”
“I know you don’t live here, but you had a room here, didn’t you?”
He looked up at the back of the massive home, pointing to the right. “I think it’s somewhere up there toward the front.”
“You don’t know where your room is? Didn’t you grow up here?”
He was thinking of changing his shirt. The night was too damp to dry it, but he didn’t want to leave her right now. “No, I didn’t as a matter of fact. I grew up in a little middle-class home in your neck of the woods.”
“Baldwin Hills?”
“I was a junior in high school when we moved into this house. I didn’t live here because I was in New York at prep school.”
“Your parents sent you all the way to the East Coast?” Avery couldn’t imagine being that young so far away from her family. “It must have been lonely.”
He shrugged. “It was fine. My parents didn’t think any of the West Coast schools compared to New York and D.C.”
“So you were only here for the summer?”
“Not really. My parents have a house on the Vineyard. We used to spend the whole summer there. My mother’s family owns the house, actually, but we don’t really go anymore. Too inconvenient and my father would never stay because of the company. My mom hates to be away from him for long. I was home for the holidays, though.”
Avery felt for him. His voice was reticent and held regret. She took all her childhood summers and comfy nights at home with her family for granted. She wouldn’t have traded it for the best education in the world.
“So you don’t really know this house, do you?”
“I went to college and then law school in Boston. I went traveling across Europe with friends during those summers. In law school, there was this girl…”
Avery laughed at his tentative tone. “All good stories start with that phrase.”
“I thought I was in love.”
“You weren’t?”
Carter looked at her, thinking back. “No, I was in love. We got an apartment and I stayed in Boston. After that, I worked in New York and we lived together for a few years.”
“What happened to her?” Avery was more interested in the answer to that than she had a right to be.
“That we don’t need to go into,” he said. “When I came back to L.A., I got my own place.”
“You must have missed your family so much.”
“Can you keep a secret?” he asked, leaning forward. “I stayed away because my father and I fight all the time. When I came home, it was because I missed my brother. We were all each other had in prep school. He went to college in New York while I was in Boston, so we’re close.”
“What about the rest of your family?”
“I missed Leigh, and my mother, too, but I never really got close to Leigh until I was back for good. I love her to death now, though.”
“What about your dad—”
“I don’t want to talk about my father.”
Avery was struck by the serious expression he held and it made her want to know everything about his relationship with Steven. “What about Haley?”
“I don’t really know her.” He noted the look of shock she quickly tried to conceal. Someone like Avery couldn’t imagine family members being anything but deathly close. “I love her. She’s my baby sister, but she was a baby when I left and I never really got to know her that well. She’s a little hard to get close to, but that’s my fault. I’m her big brother and we should be close.”
The regretful look on his face reached deep inside of Avery. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t too late, but she couldn’t do that. It was too intimate and none of her business.
Carter felt like a fool. He’d intended to be this suave charismatic bachelor that she couldn’t resist, but that was all gone now. He had given himself up and she probably pitied him. Good luck getting her in bed now.
He stood up, looking down at her. “Will you be okay for a second? I need to go change my shirt.”
“I’m uh…I’m sorry about that.” She suddenly regretted every bad thing she had said or done to him.
“I deserved it. I’ll be back.”
Avery made her way to the bar to pour another glass of wine. It was probably dangerous, but she needed something after that. She was in trouble with a man she thought was the devil himself.
“Hello, Avery.”
Dressed in raggedy jean shorts and a pink tank top, Haley stood in front of Avery looking at her like she wanted to kick her in the face. Avery held her hand out to her, but Haley didn’t budge so she let it fall to her side.
“So what is Sean doing tonight?” Haley had already completed her survey of the woman. It only took a few seconds. She was softball and despite the glass of wine she threw on Carter, Haley figured the woman probably had no backbone.
“I’m not sure,” she stated. “I haven’t seen him today. He’s really busy on your case.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” Haley said. “Considering he’s spending all his time taking care of you. You don’t seem like the injured little bird he seems to think you are. Maybe you could tell him you don’t need him to baby you and he might remember other people exist.”
Avery was speechless. This woman couldn’t be a day over twenty-one and she was fierce. She held a boat load of anger and Avery wasn’t interested in going up against it even though she was curious to know why she seemed so interested in Sean’s time.
Nothing to say, Haley thought. That was easy. Moving on. “You’ve certainly got my brother wrapped around your little finger.”
“You’re mistaken. I—”
“I’m never mistaken,” Haley spat back. “I was watching the two of you.”
Never mistaken? So sleeping with a married congressman was the right choice? That’s what Avery wanted to say, but unlike Haley, she had manners. “There is nothing going on between me and Carter.”
“You can say that now all you want, but if he wants you, he’ll get you. No woman has ever turned him down and you certainly don’t have the guts to do it. You’re the emotional type and you’ll fall for him, but you won’t last six months before my family breaks you down. Then he’ll toss you aside.”
Haley paused to take in the bewildered look on Avery’s face. This woman had played the victim enough. It was time everyone returned their attention to the real story, her and the hell her life was becoming. Especially Sean. There was no way she was going to get him to worship her the way he should if his big sister played the emotional edge.
“So glad you could come.” She pasted on a saccharine smile before turning and walking away.
Avery wasn’t as quick as she would like to be during dinner. Janet was loading her with questions that were all flattering and light, but she was distracted by the daggers Haley and Michael were sending her way. Leigh didn’t seem to be aware that she or anyone else existed and Steven ignored her completely.
Then there was Kimberly, who was the only person at the table with a genuine smile. Avery tried not to stare at her, but it was hard. Kimberly was probably one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen.
“Where is your friend this evening?” Janet was running out of conversation topics. She was a master at hosting; making everyone feel comfortable was her gift. It wasn’t working well tonight.
“My friend?” Avery asked.
“She means Alex.” Carter wished his mother hadn’t brought the man up.
“Oh, yes.” Friend? What did that mean? “He had to work tonight. He’s very busy.”
“Doing what?” Michael ignored the pinch Kimberly gave his thigh as well as Carter’s indignant stare.
“He’s a salesman, right?” Janet asked.
“I know what he does.” Michael resented this woman being treated like a visiting queen while he was getting railed daily by his father because of her. “I was just wondering because a couple of years ago, he won best salesman, didn’t he?”
“That’s right,” Avery answered cautiously. Be ready for this one. “He actually won it twice, but you know that because you know everything about me after all your snooping.”
“It’s called business research,” Michael said. “I was just curious, because he used to be so good. From what I hear now, he couldn’t sell whiskey to an Indian.”
There were several gasps around the table and some forks scraping the plates.
“Quit it.” Carter’s lips pressed together as his brows narrowed in, matching his brother’s stare.
“Haley.” Steven frowned at his daughter who hadn’t stopped laughing. “That’s enough.”
Haley glared at him before returning to her food. “I thought it was funny.”
“It’s not funny,” Leigh said. “It’s racist.”
“It’s just a saying,” Michael said.
“I don’t care what it is,” Janet lectured. “I don’t want to hear it at my dinner table. I’m sorry, Avery.”
Avery nodded, pretending as if her food was more interesting than Michael.
Carter leaned in and apologized, still staring at Michael who stared back.
“What’s the matter?” Michael asked, finally turning away from Carter. “Am I not being appropriate? Mom, I sincerely doubt you can call me on that when you’re practically pimping your daughter.”
“What?” Janet gasped.
Kimberly had to put her napkin over her mouth to hide her laughing. Nothing amused her more than Janet being called out.
“I know what you’re doing with Leigh,” he said. “Pimping her off to Leo Bridges so she’ll hang out with you more.”
Steven slammed his fist on the table, making everyone jolt a bit. “Don’t you ever talk to your mother like that.”
Janet was doing what was best; she had to keep telling herself that. “It’s okay, Steven.”
“It’s disrespectful and Leigh would never allow herself to be treated that way anyway.” He looked at Haley. “If you don’t stop laughing, Haley, I swear—”
“You swear what?” She tossed her napkin across the table and it landed right on Avery’s plate. “If Leigh laughed, you wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“Leigh wouldn’t laugh at something like that,” he replied.
“Of course she wouldn’t.” Haley pushed away from the table, standing up.
She knew this was all about her affair with Jack. Ever since that had come out the man barely spoke to her, even though her life had been threatened and she was crying out for his attention. He was ashamed of her and she wasn’t going to let it go by anymore.
“Leigh is so perfect!” She shouted loud enough to make one of the bodyguards enter. “She would never let herself be treated like that. Not like your other daughter, the ho. The ho who’s been stuck in this damn house forever and no one seems to give a shit!”
“Haley!” Steven had had enough.
Janet swallowed hard, looking at Avery whose eyes were as wide as her open mouth. She had intended for Avery to see a civilized, refined family that would never do anything to hurt anyone. Instead this was turning into an episode of the Jerry Springer Show.
“Sit down,” Steven asserted as calmly as he could. “Right now.”
“The hell with that.” Haley kicked her chair out of the way before storming out of the dining room. She had successfully ruined the evening for everyone and that would hold her until she thought of something else.
Avery looked at Carter who simply smiled an I-warned-you smile.
“Avery.” Janet could barely speak she was so embarrassed. “I am so sorry.”
Avery smiled nervously, trying to take everything in without showing it on her face. She remembered the hell there was to pay for even saying shut up at the dinner table. “It’s okay…It’s not…”
“Isn’t anybody going to go after her?” Leigh asked, pushing away from the table.
“There’s been a lot of stress,” Janet continued. “I’m sorry for Haley and Michael.”
“Don’t apologize for me,” Michael said. “I meant everything I said.”
“Shut up,” Carter warned. It would be his last warning.
“It’s okay, Carter.” Avery knew if she let someone else stick up for her, she didn’t have a chance. “Nothing Michael says bothers me. It never has.” She leaned in, seeing the anger rise in his eyes. “Because honestly, his skills pale in comparison to yours.”
Carter leaned back in his chair, smiling. She had told him she could handle herself. She didn’t need him at all.
“Just back off,” Michael told Carter as the two of them entered the great room. Carter could warn him all he wanted to. He was on a roll now. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Keep it up and I’m gonna beat the crap out of you.”
