Grant’s eyes bulged and he covered his mouth. He choked back a laugh, then straightened his face just long enough to speak. “Somebody hit you?” He laughed as soon as he finished speaking.
“You sound surprised,” I said as calmly as I could.
“I don’t know why, but the idea of someone punching you really tickles me in the right places,” Grant said. “You’re always so serious.” He turned to Andi. “What did Landon do after he got hit? Just kind of grunt and glare?”
“Grant,” I said again. “I need to have a word with you. In private.”
He raised his eyebrows, then smirked at Andi. “Didn’t I say he’d say that?”
She nodded. “Word for word.”
I wanted to groan in frustration. So Grant wasn’t making a move over here. He was meddling. “You,” I said, jabbing my finger into Grant’s chest. “Go wait over by the bar. And you,” I pointed at Andi. “Stay right there.”
Grant gave me a quick salute, then wandered off while whistling a happy tune.
Andi, on the other hand, was sticking her furry-socked foot in my face. I could now clearly see that her sock was one of those hideous toe socks with a little slot for each of her toes, which she was wiggling. “Do I look like I’m planning on going anywhere?”
I was surprised by how much I wanted to take her by the hand and drag her down to the club. I’d only had the briefest taste of her submission, and even that had come with a caveat. She’d never fully bought in to the experience. All I had was one of those ridiculous, fuzzy sock-clad toes of hers dipped into the waters. I still wanted more, even if I knew it wasn’t likely to ever happen.
She was watching me with the defiance in her eyes I’d come to crave. Her silky, almond hair was perfectly unkempt, and I didn’t even think she was wearing makeup. Her raw beauty was making it impossible to focus.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“That you had been smiling like a little boy who just found his first porno mag when you met me, but now you’re even broodier than usual since you screwed things up with me.”
I might’ve smiled. Instead, I just felt an overwhelming urge to punch Grant in the dick.
I turned to shoot him a poisonous look. He was standing on the opposite end of the lobby but smiled cheesily and waved when he saw me looking.
“And you believe him?”
“You did fly to Florida just to check on me. A normal person would’ve tried a phone first.”
“I texted you,” I said. “And I didn’t just go for you. I had business to take care of there.”
“You basically growled at me via text one time. That doesn’t really count.”
“I didn’t growl,” I said tightly. “I asked where you were.”
“Where are you,” Andi said in a mockingly deep, scratchy voice. “Also, Grant told me you’d try to claim you were there on business. But he told me that you came because of me. Curious,” she said, stroking her chin.
The whole time we’d been talking, there was a faint air of amusement in Andi’s voice. Except I could feel that it wasn’t the same light, carefree kind of way we’d talked before she knew the truth. She was reserving part of herself.
“What happened with Tommy?” I asked. I wanted to kick myself in the shin for being such an idiot. I’d told myself a hundred times not to ask. There were ways she could’ve answered the question I absolutely wasn’t prepared to hear.
“It’s not your business,” she said. Finally, the humor in her voice was all gone. I could see the coldness and anger in her eyes now, staring right back at me.
“No,” I said. “You’re right. But there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Another secret?” Andi asked. “Are you going to tell me you’re also distantly related to my cousin, Gator, too?”
Despite the gravity of the moment, I felt my lips threatening to spread into a smile. “Gator?” I asked finally.
“Yeah,” Andi said. She looked up, then bit her lip slightly. It was a relief to see that she could at least forget to hate me in small spurts. “He’s from Alabama. When Grandpa Willy died, he actually said if I needed a lap to cry on, I could come up to the cabin and if we needed some time alone, he could take the batteries out of ‘momma’s’ scooter. Apparently, she might shout and make a fuss, but she wouldn’t be able to get us.”
I winced. “Isn’t the expression a shoulder to cry on?”
“Unless you’re hoping for a little incestuous bonding session,” Andi said.
“Well, no,” I said. “I’m not related to… Gator. I came to give you this.” I held out the USB stick the lawyers had given me when I transferred the hotel and club to Andi.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Another video from William.”
“Why now?”
I smiled tightly. “Don’t know. This came from the lawyers. I haven’t watched it.”
She squinted down at it. “Both our names are on it.”
“I should go,” I said.
Andi looked like she was about to argue, but then her features hardened. She let me leave.
I took one last look over my shoulder because if everything played out the way I imagined; it’d be the last time I saw her.
Mom and I were watching a TV show together when a knock came at the door. It was getting late, and it was strange to think I didn’t need to worry about getting to the club in time for it to open.
“Expecting someone?” asked my mom.
“It’s probably Grant. Maybe James,” I said, standing to get the door. I hadn’t told either of them what I’d done, and I wouldn’t have been shocked if they had found out by now.
I opened the door and saw all five foot nothing of Andi standing in the doorway. She was wrapped up in a scarf and coat against the cold and her nose was red.
“Andi…”
“Can I come in?”
I swallowed. I had never told her that James and I shared an apartment with my mom. I also hadn’t told her about the cancer my mom was fighting. I knew how it would look if I let her in now. It’d practically demand her pity. So I slid out into the hallway and shut the door behind me, hoping my mom wouldn’t have a coughing spell for however long it took me to handle this.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Andi shot a curious look at my door, and then she seemed to think of something that made her angry. She held up the USB stick. “I decided you deserved to see this, too. Even if you are an asshole.”
“You haven’t watched it? And how did you know where to find me in the first place?”
“Grant told me. And no. I haven’t watched it, so can I come in? Or are you going to hide something else from me just to round out your profile as the least trustworthy guy on the face of the planet?”
I swallowed. “It just wouldn’t be a great idea for you to come inside right now.”
“There’s a woman in your apartment. Isn’t there?” she laughed at herself without an ounce of humor in the sound. “I’m such an idiot. You’ve given me every reason to hate you and to never trust you again, and here I am still trying to—I don’t even know what I was trying to do. But obviously I was stupid for trying, wasn’t I? Because you’ve got—”
“Andi,” I said, meeting her eyes. “My mom is very sick. My brother and I live with her to save money. I didn’t want you to see that and think… I don’t know. I didn’t want you to think you were obligated to forgive me because of it.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “What kind of sick?” she asked softly.
“Lung cancer. It’s her third time. We just found out a few weeks ago and haven’t officially started treatments yet.”
She looked down, plucking idly at the USB with her fingers. “Now I feel like an asshole. I’m sorry, Landon. I shouldn’t—”
“No,” I said. “You’re not in the wrong because I kept something from you. And you don’t owe me anything. Okay? I don’t want to win you back because you pity me.”
“Win me b
ack?” she asked. “Is that what you were trying to do?”
I blew out a long breath, then fixed my eyes on her. “No more half-truths. No more lies. Yes. I went to Florida to try to find a way to convince you to forgive me because I realized I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t. Then I saw you with that guy. Once I was done wanting to rip his head off, I realized you were better off. It felt like swallowing acid to admit it, but I left because I also wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I fucked up something good for you because I was too selfish to walk away.”
“And what is this?” she asked, holding up the USB stick. “I think you know exactly why the lawyers gave it to us now.”
I sighed. “Come inside. I have a feeling watching the video will explain everything better than I can.”
25
Andi
I followed Landon into the small apartment. He had admitted he needed the money from the club, but he hadn’t been clear about why. He had also told me his mom was sick at one point, but I had stupidly assumed it was past tense. The new information was forcing me to see everything that happened from a new perspective.
The apartment was clean and smelled fresh, but it was clearly not the home of people with abundant amounts of money. Hearing Landon admit he wasn’t really wealthy was one thing. Seeing it was another.
I smiled when his mom noticed me. She was pretty with Landon’s dark hair and eyes, but the similarities stopped there. She sat up straighter and flashed a kind smile. “You must be Andi. I’m Loraine.”
I nodded. “This is probably a little weird,” I said. After all, my “grandfather” was her ex-husband. My sisters and I were the people he had apparently replaced Landon, his brother, and his mother with. I realized I wouldn’t even blame them for hating us. How could they not?
“No. It’s good to see you. To meet you, finally. Landon has already talked so much about you.”
I shot a half smile at Landon, who was making himself busy in the cramped kitchen as he got tea ready. Tea? He didn’t strike me as a tea drinking kind of guy, so maybe it was for his mom.
“I can go back to my room and give you two some privacy,” Loraine said, starting to stand.
“You don’t have to,” I said.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m either going to take a nap right here on the couch or in my bed. I’d prefer the bed.”
Once she left, Landon stopped messing with the kettle and slowly walked back toward the couch, where I now sat. “Well, you really want to do this?”
I reached up to hand him the USB stick. “I do.”
He pulled out a laptop and set it on the coffee table in front of the couch, plugged in the USB, and then opened the video.
Once again, we saw my grandpa sitting at his desk. It looked like it could’ve been filmed the same day as the video I’d first seen in the theater of The Golden Pecker, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Well, well, well,” Grandpa said. “You know, I always loved mystery books and thrillers. There was something about the grand flourish at the end that always scratched a deep itch for me. When I realized I had a chance to leave behind a few flourishes of my own, how could I resist?”
He paused, grabbed a bag of Skittles that was already open beside him on the desk, and popped a couple in his mouth. He chewed, showing no sign of being in a hurry to resume his little speech.
“So! Unless the lawyers fucked up and gave you the wrong USB, the fact that you’re watching this means that things have played out in a very interesting way. I assume you both know by now that Landon tried to give the club and the hotel to Andi. And—”
I lunged forward, tapping the spacebar to pause the video. “Wait. They must have given us the wrong USB. He just said you gave me the club and the hotel.”
“Yeah,” Landon said. “This is the right USB.”
I blinked. “You wouldn’t do that, though. You said it yourself. Your mom is sick, and you don’t have the money to start your own club. Why would you just give everything to me?”
Landon didn’t answer right away. When he did speak, his voice was quiet. “I was angry for a long time, Andi. Angry that my dad was never that good at being a dad in the first place. Angry that he tried to pit us against our mom after the divorce. Angry that he took you and your sisters in and suddenly figured out how to be a decent human being. The club became some kind of symbol for me. Like if I could just take it over and do well, it’d somehow send a message to him. Maybe a final middle finger, or something.
“It’s going to sound ridiculous,” Landon continued. “But I actually was most angry when he died because I knew he’d robbed me of the chance to prove I didn’t need him. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to realize none of that really mattered. So I don’t want it anymore. Any of it. I’ve got the education to get another job—one that’ll help me start to pay for mom’s treatments. I’ll be fine.”
It still felt like he was going to tell me this was all a bad joke any moment, but little by little, the truth was sinking in. The club and the hotel were mine, now. A minute ago, I’d been in financial trouble and on the verge of having to move out of the city entirely if I lost my room at the hotel. Now I was the owner of millions in real estate and a club that appeared to generate vast amounts of money every month.
It should’ve felt like a victory, especially after the way Landon had betrayed my trust. I was about to speak, but Landon unpaused the video and Grandpa Willy’s voice cut across the silence.
“I know you were probably wondering how in the hell I could’ve possibly been irresponsible enough to put your fate in Landon’s hands, Andi. But there was actually a second secret set of stipulations that only my lawyers knew about. This part is probably going to make both of you a little mad, but…” Grandpa stuck his tongue out and waggled his hands by his ears. “I’m dead, so tough shit. It never actually mattered if you did the items on the list. All that mattered was what Landon tried to claim from the lawyers. If he tried to take all of your inheritance, he would’ve got nothing. The club would’ve stayed in limbo and potentially gone to James or Grant, but I never intended for you to run the club, Andi. Putting you through a little sexual deviancy is one level of screwed up but asking you to take over the management of a BDSM club would’ve been a step too far, even for me. If Landon tried to split it with you—to keep the club and give you the hotel, for example, he’d get what he wanted.
“But the fact that you’re watching this video means neither of those things happened. And, to be honest, that’s why I’m assuming you’ll never watch this video. If Landon tried to leave you the hotel and the club, then I would have to admit I underestimated him.”
Grandpa sighed, folded his hands, and looked directly into the camera. “Landon. I know I made a royal mess of things between us. By the time I was willing to admit that, our relationship was already so far gone that I knew there was never going to be any chance of repairing the damage. The best I could hope for was to help you find something meaningful to work towards. I thought that was what I gave you with the club, and it was why I never paid you more than I did. If I’d given you the easy money, I worried you would’ve never cared enough to strive for something.
“But I worried you started striving more to take over the club for the wrong reasons—to piss me off or send me some kind of message instead of for your own sake. And that’s part of why I put you two together for this little list. I had a feeling Andi was exactly the right kind of stubborn to match your obstinance, Landon. If you’re watching this video, I can only assume I was right. You two are probably holding hands right now and smiling.”
I turned my head to Landon, who was on the opposite end of the couch. I couldn’t help grinning a little. Not exactly, Grandpa.
“Oh,” Grandpa said. “I almost forgot. If Landon tries to leave you everything, he still gets the club. And he gets a personal apology from me. So, Landon. Congratulations. I may have screwed up with you at every possible turn, but somehow, you m
anaged to come out of it all as a decent human being. And you bet your ass I chewed you out in the other videos, by the way. So consider being spared that your other reward.
“Well! That’s pretty much it. Enjoy your new lives, you two. For me, it’s back to being dead.” He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, letting his mouth hang open dramatically. After a few seconds, he peeked, then gestured for someone to turn off the camera before the screen abruptly went black.
“Wow,” I said slowly. “I need some time to think.”
I got up from the couch and went for the door.
Landon started to stand, but sat back down, watching me with a solemn look on his face. “Will I see you again?”
I paused, hand on the doorknob. “I’m not sure.”
26
Landon
The club wasn’t open for the night, but I’d come after watching William’s video with Andi anyway. A few hours ago, I was resigned to the idea that it was gone from my life. All the years I spent trying to make it into what it is might as well have been dust.
I ran my fingers across the golden rooster emblem engraved into the center of the bar. It was mine. Really mine. But what had it cost me?
I laughed. Too much. It had cost me Andi. I hadn’t really expected her to forgive me on the spot for giving her the club and the hotel, but part of me had hoped. At least I’d have all the money I could ever need to help mom get better. I knew I would’ve found a way regardless, but it was still a relief to take the mystery out of the equation.
James wandered into the lobby. He was wearing all black, like usual. “Going to share?” he asked.
I thought about telling him what William had told me in the video. In all likelihood, the lawyers probably had instructions to send a video to James or another one of the Wainwright sisters now that my little mission with Andi was complete. But for some reason, I didn’t want to spoil William’s plan, whatever it might be. If he did rope James in with one of the Wainwright girls, I wanted him to have a chance to work whatever magic he’d almost worked with me and Andi.
The Golden Pecker Page 17
