A Wild Ride (Jessica Brodie Diaries #3)(13)

Seeing my attention waver, Thomas sauntered over, the master of the universe. He reached for my hand with a glimmer in his eyes.

“Lovely to meet you,” he droned with a slight east coast accent. His lips brushed against my knuckles.

“Hi,” I responded, trying my damnedest not to yank my hand back and wipe it on my dress.

Tom hid a laugh in a cough. He must’ve noticed my reaction.

Thomas sauntered over to Gladis next, doing the same thing, but following it up with a hug. She patted him like she might Elaine’s children and went to sit down.

“What’s a' matter, Tommy? West coast girls don’t like ya as much as East coast girls?” Adam poked.

“Au contre. They are just being coy,” Thomas said as he looked at me then Lump, eyes twinkling with a sultry look.

Coy?

“Oh, we are rarely coy,” Lump responded, unconcerned. “Just hard to please.”

Everyone laughed, including Thomas. It was official, he didn’t have a worry in the world. Playboy, through and through.

“Do you girls want something to drink?” Denise asked.

We put in our drink orders, which was to be a cocktail specialty of Peter’s, and sat down at the kitchen table with Gladis. Thomas joined us shortly thereafter.

“So, how do you find the ranch house?” he asked, looking between us.

We barely got to answer before he was off, talking about its creation, its decoration, their childhood here, and then making his own segue way into his current life. The man loved to talk about himself. He had a sense of humor, and was good entertainment, but when all you were doing was listening, even the most exciting got dull.

“Tommy,” Gladis interrupted as Lump stared blankly off to her right. She had always been terrible at hiding her boredom.

Thomas stopped talking about himself long enough to look up at Gladis.

“These girls are excited to get to know you, but maybe you should leave a little to the imagination. They can only sit in rapture for so long, honey.”

Everyone started laughing, and this time, Thomas got a little red in the cheeks. A second later he was rising with a flourish, self-assurance back with vengeance. “I am sorry, ladies, you must want to meet the rest of the family.”

He gave us a small bow.

William waited for my eye, then gave me a wink. Anxiety melted from his face.

Apparently Adam wasn’t the only one that had him insecure. What a boob!

“Pop. Check this out,” William said, still looking at me but holding the phone so his father could see.

“Oh my, but he is a beauty. You were right on him, son. Did you finally track down that ranch?” Tom asked.

“Behold the two sluts.” William motioned toward Lump and I.

“Willie!” Denise said indignantly.

“Sorry, mom. That’s what they--well, anyway, they went to Wyatt’s and Jessica bought the bull for me for Christmas.”

“It’s what he wanted,” I blurted into a room full of stares.

“Share the story,” Peter said with a smile.

Nervous and fidgeting, and with Lump’s help, I did, leaving out some of the more embarrassing parts. When we finished, nearly everyone, including William, had a shocked face.

“Here’s what they didn’t tell you...” Adam continued for us.

Oh God. Please don’t tell them about the ni**les and sexual misleading!

“When Jess asked me to help, I done tried to talk her out of it. You know Willie and his schemes. He usually makes enough right decisions to cover the bad ones, but she were risking it all on that dang bull.”

“Adam!” I said quietly, trying to shut him up.

“Long story short, she told me Willie was worth every penny, including the splash of degradation, so mind your own business, if you please, Adam.”

Everyone chuckled.

“She then went inta that creepy house, as the girls call it, half their br**sts exposed to an old geezer—was I not supposed to say that part, Jessie girl?—and our little Jessica danced around the best negotiator in the county. I won’t tell you what she got outta him, but it was impressive, boys! It was impressive.”

William looked at me like one would appraise an instrument they found at Goodwill.

“Those roses outside are sure nice.” Gladis covered effectively. She could steer a conversation like no one I knew.

Thank God!

After dinner all the women got up to clean as the men tried to sneak away. It wasn’t two seconds before Gladis had them scalded and sent out to the cars to get presents and make themselves useful. Either that, or watch the kids.

When we were washing or putting things in the dishwasher, Elaine said, “Jessica, how long have you known Willie?”

“Ohhhhh, seven months or so.”

“Who asked who out?”

Denise made a sound that Elaine failed to notice.

“Well, um, neither, really. I was thinking about leaving the area when William told me he had feelings for me. So...I stayed.”

“Why were you going to leave?”

“Well...things weren’t really going right. A lot of things fell into place right away, but some didn’t. And, before you ask, I stayed because William tipped the scales to make any bad things easily tolerable.”

“You aren’t from money?”