Breath of Scandal(123)
He tossed back the remainder of his drink. "You want me to bring you back a girl for tonight, Daddy?"
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Ivan's eyes twinkled. "That redhead you gave me for my uth like a Hoover."
birthday present had a mo
-ril see if she's still in town."
"Naw, not tonight. I've got too much on my mind to have my brains sucked out." He stroked his jaw ruminatively - "I keep thinking we've overlooked something. What about Otis? What'll you tell him?"
"Since y'all go back so far, I'll let you deal with Otis." Ivan cackled. "He's dumber than the dirt he farms. I'll remind him how good I've been to him all these years. I'll say if he sells his place to anybody, it ought to be to a 'friend.' " He paused, thinking. "Maybe you'd better ask the bank for six hundred thousand. It wouldn't hurt to sweeten the pot. That Sperry bitch can be mighty persuasive." "Good idea."
Neal made to leave, but Ivan detained him. "Show me the boy's picture again."
Ivan had been as shocked as Neal to hear that Jade had a teenage son. Neal had taken a Polaroid snapshot of Graham and brought it back to show Ivan. Once again, he passed the photo to his father, who had studied it for hours at a time.
Neal said, "I drove by their house again this morning and saw him mowing the grass. He's the right age." "You told me she went to Georgie.'
"She did, but she came out with a baby."
"You don't know that. And Georgie's dead. We can't ask her."
"I confronted Jade with it today. She didn't deny it. Even if she had, I know I'm right. I busted her cherry. She wasn't pregnant by Gary Parker."
"Hell, son," Ivan said, leaning forward, almost salivating, brandishing the photograph. "Think what it would mean to us if this boy is yours."
"I don't have to think. I know he's mine." Neal's expression was sly and menacing. "I want him, Daddy." "Three of you had her that night," Ivan remarked with
a frown. "He could belong to Hutch, too. Or even Lamar." "He doesn't even look like them!"
"He doesn't look like you either!" Ivan shouted back. "He's the spitting image of her. Playing devil's advocate, what makes you so goddamned sure he's yours?"
"He's mine."
"You want to believe it so bad you can taste it, don't ou, boy?" Ivan said with a nasty laugh. " 'Cause you y
know he's the only heir you'll ever have."
Neal passed the back of his hand across his damp upper lip. The accident that had robbed Ivan of his legs had robbed Neal of his ability to reproduce. The freight train had pulverized the front third of their car. Neal had been trapped in the wreckage for hours before a rescue team was able to cut through the mangled metal and free him. The blood supply to his testicles had been suspended for such a long period of time that it had resulted in irreversible sterility. He didn't like to think about it.
Thank God he hadn't been left impotent, too. He would have killed himself if that had happened. But every time the subject of an heir came up, he got queasy. From the cradle, he'd been told that the one thing required of him was to produce another Patchett male. It was expected. It was the only thing that really mattered.
He clapped Ivan on the back. "You leave everything to me, Daddy. That's my son, and I'm going to claim him. First we've got to get his mama groveling on her knees,"
On his way into town, Neal hummed beneath his breath. Now that he had a specific plan, he was feeling better. It was galling that Jade still spurned him as though he were white trash. Long ago she had rejected him in favor of Gary Parker. She still looked at him like he was something you'd track in from a barnyard. He couldn't tolerate any woman thinking she had gotten the best of him. Before he was finished with her, Jade Sperry would rue the day she'd chosen him to be her adversary.
Jade wheeled her car into the driveway. Graham was out on the front lawn, practicing his moves with a soccer ball. "Hey, Mom. "
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"Hi." "Watch." He maneuvered the ball across the yard. When
he was only a few feet away from her, he kicked the ball hard, straight into the trunk of a pine tree. "That's a score!" he shouted, raising his fists above his head in a sign of victory.
"Easy to do without any opposition."
He shoved several locks of sweaty, black curls off his forehead. "Huh?"
"Try it again with me acting as goalie."
"Okay!" He retrieved his ball and carried it back to the far side of the yard.
Jade kicked off her high heels and assumed a challenging stance in front of the tree. "Whenever you're ready." Instead of taking a direct route as he had before, Graham
weaved his way across the yard, adroitly maneuvering the ball with fancy footwork. Jade stood ready in front of the
11 goal," but he pulled her off center with a tricky maneuver, and before she could recover he kicked the ball into the tree trunk.