Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(70)
Truly knew better though. She simply laughed at him and batted her southern belle eyelashes. “I already posted it, sugar so you just hush and keep being as cute as can be.”
He rolled his eyes and then tickled his son under his chubby chin.
I cleared my throat and waved to get everyone’s attention.
“Has anyone noticed a mislaid bouquet?” I asked the room.
The reception was small and being held in a party room at a local sports restaurant called Dutch. Giant screens depicting various live sporting events were everywhere. It might be considered a puzzling and perhaps unromantic spot for a wedding reception but Chase and Stephanie were huge sports fans and tended to be disinterested in what was typical.
“Shh,” Cami scolded loudly, her face still pressed to Stephanie’s stomach. “I can hear him.”
Saylor had been talking to Jenny over by the door and now she floated over, looking ethereal and sexy in a royal blue bridesmaid gown. My eyes couldn’t help but sweep reflexively over her body.
“Cassie, baby,” she said breathlessly, passing over the lost bouquet, “I found your flowers.”
Cassie grabbed at the flowers and then started pushing her way out of my arms so she could go hug her mother, the hero. I didn’t mind. She was my hero too.
Cami tenderly patted Stephanie’s belly and agreed to allow Cassie to listen too. The two of them had been endlessly curious about the new cousin they’d be getting this winter. Saylor and I hadn’t yet told them that there was an even bigger surprise on the horizon.
I held my arm out to my wife and she joined me with a smile. Her smile faded when her gaze landed on Conway, who sat at a table by himself, rolling a fork between his fingers. In the four months since that night we drove him out of Emblem he hadn’t returned there at all as far as we knew, not even for Erin’s funeral. Over the summer Jenny and Deck bought a house in an orderly suburban neighborhood and Con lived with them now as he finished his last year of high school. Something had been lost to him since that awful night last summer and he had yet to find it again. Call it youthful confidence or arrogant optimism or whatever. The jaunty kid who cracked jokes and ran riot all over town with his brother was gone. He’d cut his hair short, stayed out all hours, screwed whatever girls flung themselves at him and ignored his own future. Deck had confided in me that he didn’t know how the hell he was going to force the kid to finish out high school but he was damn well making a project out of it.
As for Stone, he’d pled guilty to one of the lesser manslaughter charges in the death of Erin Rielo and was incarcerated at the state prison in Emblem. At least Deck had enough contacts on the inside to make sure he’d be left alone in the prison yard, but that didn’t change the fact that he wouldn’t be eligible for parole for at least four years. I knew Chase wrote him letters regularly. From what I’d heard, Stone had yet to write back.
Cami and Cassie were holding hands and tearing around the room like little hurricanes. I thought about stopping them but everyone was getting such a kick out of their exuberance that I just let them be. Even Stephanie’s brooding wraith of a brother cracked a small smile at their antics when he managed to look up from the busty blonde who was crawling all over him. Michael Bransky was a puzzle and honestly I was glad he didn’t come around often because he didn’t seem like the kind of guy you’d want to get too close to. He reminded me of a muscular Don Corleone, quietly charismatic in a dangerous kind of way. Chase said he only dropped into his sister’s life once a year or so and that was just fine with Chase, even though Stephanie was always happy to see him.
Aside from family the other guests were a mix of friends and coworkers. I noticed Aspen and Brick were cozied up in a corner, sucking face and laughing at their own private jokes. Aspen was a whimsical fairy with her blue hair hanging out of a giant orange bow and Brick, uncomfortably buttoned up in a gray suit, resembled a bible salesman. At first glance they looked as mismatched as plaid with paisley. But that didn’t mean anything.
Speaking of unlikely couples, I’d never quite gotten used to the sight of my bad boy biker cousin with a wholesome girl like Jenny Smith. She was sitting in his lap now, elegantly dressed in a modest black gown that was at odds with his perpetual leather. She fed him a forkful of cake, which he devoured before he started devouring her neck. Jenny blushed and shoved him away with a giggle. She was good for him. They were planning on being married this Christmas.
Deck caught me looking and raised an eyebrow. I smiled to let him know all was well. I hadn’t returned to Emblem either. When more news came out of there Deck had been the one to deliver it.
About six weeks ago Benton Gentry had wandered out of his house, shit-faced and dressed only in his underwear. No one knew what time of day it was when he left because no one was around. When he hadn’t put in an appearance at one of his favorite local dives in over a week the owner took a ride out to his place to see what was up. There was no answer at the door but a flock of buzzards nearby gave out a crucial hint. Gaps told Deck that Benton had likely been so wasted he’d gotten confused and wandered around in circles on his own property until he finally collapsed beneath the broiling sun, not a hundred yards from his own front door. By the time he was found, buzzards had already pecked out his eyes and his tongue and were starting to work on the rest of him. There was no funeral. Nobody would have come if there was.
I would never mourn my father but I did wonder what he thought of at the very end. I wondered if he was afraid. I wondered if he was sorry at all.