Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(17)

It never escaped Vanessa’s notice that it was always Tony taking her out for her birthday dinner, Kelly always having to “work” or giving some other lame excuse for her not joining them. Even family holiday dinners were barely tolerable. The last couple of years Tony was still married to Kelly, when their parents flew in from Seattle to stay with Vanessa for the holidays, they’d all simply gone out to a restaurant to eat instead of cooking a large meal at home. Tony had suggested it to Vanessa, under the guise of “simplicity.”

He hadn’t fooled her. Vanessa knew it was because Kelly didn’t want to spend time with their family. Her family was all up in Tampa, and after they finished their family celebration, she dragged him up there for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Every. Damn. Time.

As if Kelly couldn’t wait for the moment she could dash out of there, dragging Tony in her wake and escaping them.

The first thing Vanessa’s mom had said to her when she told her Tony was filing for divorce was, “Thank god. It’s about time.”

At least Vanessa could take comfort in the fact that the last four years of his life had been good ones, happy ones, and she would always have those memories. It would have been that much more tragic had Tony died still tethered to the damn shrew and never able to be his true self.

She opened the journal and started reading again. This was her third time through it, and it was close to midnight, but she wanted to absorb every word, understand him as much as possible.

It was all she had left of him.





Chapter Seven


Thursday morning, Lyle asked his receptionist to hold his calls. He shut the door to his office before making a call of his own.

When Jenny answered the phone, he didn’t detect anything off in her tone. “Hey, Lyle. What’s up?”

“Can you talk?”

“Um, sure. Hold on.” It sounded like she moved to a quieter location. “What’s going on?”

He took a deep breath. “I need to ask you about Basco—”

“Yes,” she said, cutting him off. “And I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”

“You knew we were friends with him. Why didn’t you tell us?”

She dropped her voice even lower. “Because he’d specifically told his sister a while ago when they discussed final arrangements for each other that he only wanted immediate family and very close friends in attendance at the service. His sister didn’t even know he was kinky or bi. How was I supposed to explain to her his relationships to people she’d never even heard about, much less met before? How did you find out, anyway?”

“Facebook. She posted on his wall yesterday. Friends are going to organize a service for him. I’m assuming a vanilla service.”

“Oh.” It sounded like she breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. She said she made a post but I didn’t go look. That’s the service meant for everyone else. It didn’t mean he didn’t care about you guys. And it was killing me not to tell anyone.”

“Are you going to post something on Fet about it?”

She let out another sigh. “Vanessa called me last night. She found his Fet account.”

His stomach curled. “Oh.”

“It’s…okay. She wasn’t freaked out by it. She said it actually made sense. She found his journal first, before she even made the Facebook post and before she’d discovered his Fet account. I told her yes, I’d met him through the local BDSM community, and asked her if she wanted me to post something. She said she’d handle it herself. So please, don’t post anything. Very few people in the community even knew his vanilla name, much less were friends with him on Facebook.”

“Guess we were special,” he bitterly said.

“You guys absolutely were special to him. Listen, I’m sorry. She’s obviously upset right now.” Her voice gentled. “He was her life, her best friend, not just her older brother. I know you guys cared about him, but she knew him her entire life. He was her big brother. You know how much he loved her and worried about her. She’s working her way through her grief the best way she can, the only way she can. Cut her some slack, okay?”

That made him feel like shit. He scrubbed his face with his hand. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Yes, he knew how much Basco had adored his sister. And he also realized to honor his friend meant honoring that bond.

“No, it’s okay. I know you’re upset, too. This isn’t easy on any of us. I’m going to approach her about having a service at the club for his kinky friends. I’m sure Derrick and Kel will agree to it.”

“Will she want to be there?”

“I…don’t know. Not yet. I promise, as soon as I know anything, I will call or text you. But please don’t post this on FetLife yet. She’ll handle it how she wants to handle it. She’s going to the rope class on Friday night. I’m meeting her there.”

“She is?”

“Yeah. She saw that several friends of his had RSVPed as going, so she wants to go and tell them in person. She didn’t like having to post about it on Facebook. She wants some in-person contact.”

“Is it okay if we go and meet her, too?”

“Absolutely. I’m sure she’d love to meet you and talk to you. She’s…lost right now. She’s alone.”