Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (18 page)

“Great! So there is a boyfriend?” Parry
whined, dropping his shoulders with a look of defeat as he leaned back in his
chair.

Taking a deep, dramatic breath and
straightening his polo shirt, he pivoted to face Alex. He snagged her hand from
the table and raised it to his lips, kissing her knuckles and staring deeply
into her eyes.

“Ok, I can live with that,” Parry
informed her, a new determination in his eyes. “How difficult would it be to
say,” shrugging his bony shoulders, “get rid of the guy? Accidents do happen
you know. People slip over boat railings all the time. I have that on good
authority,” he said assuredly before looking accusingly at Ridge. Turning his
full attention back to Alex with a longing gaze, he fluttered his eyelashes and
leaned over to lay his red haired head on her shoulder.

As everyone started to laugh, Alex
noticed Ty’s eyes darkening by the second, obviously not pleased by what he was
witnessing. She wondered if Parry’s flirting was the cause. Or, was it because
there was another man in her life, someone other than him?
Is he jealous of
Steven, or because other men find me attractive?
Alex contemplated the
possibilities as she returned his stare with a defiant glare of her own.

Still suspecting that she was
downplaying her looks in an attempt to hide, Ty grew angry as he realized he
was probably the cause of it. He turned back to his coffee, not wanting to dig
too deeply to find out why it hurt to watch Parry flirt. Once they had been
that close. There was a time when she had looked at him the way she was looking
at Parry, with laughter in her eyes. He couldn’t blame the two of them; he was
the one who had killed that love, he reminded himself bitterly.

“Excuse me,” she blinked her eyes at
Parry, “can I have my hand back? I’d like to finish my pancakes,” she said
flatly, her eyes twinkling with silent laughter at Parry’s escapade.

“Forget it Sport. There’s no way you
could hope to compete with this one,” Sam stated forcefully.

She raised her coffee cup to her mouth,
trying to hide her smile as she enjoyed the show. Watching Alex try to eat her
breakfast, none too successfully with Parry flirting so outrageously, was
comical. So was Ty’s attempt to look unaffected by the conversation. He was
barely able to stay in his seat. She could tell he wanted to strangle Parry and
was biting at the bit to know who Steven was. Obviously, he didn’t want Alex to
know he was curious about Steven and what role he played in her life, so he
kept silent.

“I don’t know, I’m told I’m terribly
irresistible,” Parry replied. He made a show of flexing his muscles and puffing
out his chest for Alex to examine. Laughter erupted; no one could resist the
hilarity of his latest gag, not even Ty.

“Forget it. Steven would bury you
alive,” Alex informed Parry between bites of her breakfast, laughing at the look
of total devastation that crossed his wisecracking face.

“Oh really? And what makes him so
special?” Parry let his lip quiver like he was on the verge of tears, as if his
heart was breaking.

“His face for one. Now that I think
about it, he reminds me of someone else I just met.” Martha scrutinized Ty and
raised an eyebrow at Alex before she started clearing away the plates.

Hoping to escape her irony, Alex looked
around the table. Noticing that everyone had a puzzled look on their face, she
surmised they hadn’t seen her poignant look at Ty. As Martha finished up and
went back into the kitchen, Alex was grateful to escape making an explanation
for her comparison.

“Who is this paragon of virtue?” Ty sat
appearing as if the answer was of no real importance to him; like he only asked
to be polite.

Amused by everyone’s performance,
Tennessee drawled, “Might want to take lessons boss?” He leaned toward Alex
with a wink. “Who is this beau of yours?” It wasn’t everyday he saw the boss
squirm, or be upstaged by Parry of all people. He never thought it was
possible, or that he would be around to witness it.

Sam watched the drama unfold, feeling
like she was at a tennis match; back and forth. She could see that Ty believed
Steven was someone her sister was seeing. He was obviously curious about who he
was. She took pity and decided to help him out. “Steven Parks.” Sam placed her
coffee cup down, leaned back, and waited for Parry and the others to figure it
out, ready to watch the fireworks. Alex, stricken, looked at Sam as if she
wanted to clobber her. She would have if no one was between them. Sam shot back
a look of pure innocence as if to say, “What?”

“That name sounds familiar, I know that
name?” Parry, looking quizzically at Alex, snapped his fingers as he tried to
place the name.

“You should, he’s in the tabloids every
other week,” Ridge commented, reevaluating Alex.

All the pieces suddenly clicked together
in Ridges mind. Now he knew where he had seen her before. Looking through
camouflaging lenses at her eyes, he could tell she was suspicious that he
figured her out. She was Fire and she was begging him not to say anything. Now
here was something he never thought would happen, a woman actually not wanting
to talk about herself.

Alex cringed inwardly, a worried expression
plaguing her face.

Folding his hands in front of him, Ridge
winked at her, silently conveying that her secret was just that; hers. He was
not going to be the one to inform the boss who she was exactly. It was up to
her to come clean. He watched her relax back in her chair as she pushed her
glasses further up the bridge of her nose, confident that he was going to keep
his mouth shut. He watched Ty move stiffly in his seat and suspected the boss
was fuming about who she was seeing. He leaned back in his chair, smiling at
Alex.

“Not that Steven Parks?” Parry
exclaimed. He whistled through his teeth as he shook his head, raising his
hands up to grab his temples as though in pain. “You sure don’t fool around do
you doll? When you pick ‘em you really pick ‘em!” he exclaimed in stunned
disbelief. “Hey! I thought he was involved with Fire. How do you know him?”

“I work with him, and Fire,” Alex added,
straight faced.

Alex watched Sam, and even Ridge, laugh
at her joke. The others, not catching on, were looking quizzically at them.
Ridge just sat beaming back at Alex, as if he didn’t notice the unspoken
questions floating around.

Ty noticed, and didn’t like the way
Ridge had suddenly thawed in his attitude toward her. He liked it even less
that he seemed to be sharing some private joke with her that no one else was
privy to. Ridge didn’t open up to people unless they had gained his respect. He
wondered what Alex had done to earn it.

When she was young, he had been the only
male close to her other than her grandfather, and he didn’t like having the
point driven home that now he was just another man in her life. An outsider,
and now even Ridge seemed to be counted among her friends. He could not believe
how affected he was by that knowledge, or the jealousy churning in his gut.

“I’m one of Fire’s biggest fans! I’ve
got all her c.d.’s... plus I have all of her videos! I think I even brought a
couple with me. A woman like that could make any man a devoted fan for life.
Seen any Boss?” Parry asked leaning forward to see Ty’s face, only afterward
wishing he had not.

“Not that I can recall,” he ground out.

I’ll never get off
night shift,
Parry
mused,
not until I’m in my fifties if that evil look from the boss is any
indication. Oh Hell! Might as well go for broke, couldn’t get any worse than it
already is…
he reassured himself.

“So what gives? Are the rumors true
about her? You can tell me, I’ll never spill,” he said hopefully, placing his
hand over his heart and smiling encouragingly up at Alex. She laughed along
with the others. “Are the videos about her past? Did he really break her heart
that way? And is he ever coming back?” he questioned excitedly, not waiting for
Alex to answer as he moved from one question to the next.

“No one knows for sure who the man is,
and as for breaking her heart I believe he did. But who knows, maybe he might
show up someday.” Alex told him as honestly as she could.

“But he can’t just let her go!” he said
passionately.

“I don’t have all the answers. I expect
that’s something only time will tell.”

“But…?” he stammered, chest fallen that
he didn’t have his questions answered. He could tell she was clamming up on the
subject; she just looked at him blankly, obviously done answering any
questions.

She could see that although Ty had
followed the conversation, he did not understand what they were talking about.
It made her breathe a little easier.

Ty didn’t know that much about Fire, or
this Steven character. He was still shocked that she was dating, and that she
was considering marrying the guy. Alex’s life was a mystery to him now, as was
Fire apparently, because he didn’t have a clue what Parry had been gushing
about. All he knew about Fire was what he had seen in the media about her and
her band. They were a very well known music group all across the globe with
their picture on magazine covers but he hadn’t paid that much attention. Fire
had made it big while he was in the military overseas, and he had been a bit
too distracted to notice such things at the time.

Tennessee drawled, “Don’t tell him a
thing. Last I heard the reward offered by the tabloids for information leading
to Fire’s true identity and the truth about her past was worth somewhere in the
neighborhood of a couple hundred thousand g’s. Parry would sell out his own
brother for that kind of money. So would a lot of people I suspect,” he
chuckled, and then laughed at Parry’s look of mock horror for even suggesting
such a thing.

“I’m hurt! I wouldn’t sell out my
brother for that kind of money. I would give him away for free if someone would
just take him off my hands!” he said with a straight face.

“Isn’t your brother ten?” Tennessee
asked.

“And your point?” Parry asked straight
faced.

Tennessee laughed and raised his cup to
take a swig.

“Just remember Parry, you signed a
contract that states you can’t divulge any information to the press regarding
the ranch or what transpires here,” Sam lectured around her smile.

Everyone but Alex turned to Sam, a look
of dumbfounded surprise on their faces.

“How did you know that we signed
anything like that?” Parry inquired suspiciously.

“Because my grandfather makes everyone
who steps foot on this ranch sign a similar contract, even the mailman. So,
even if you did uncover anything about Fire and tried to sell the story to the
press, Max would sue your traitorous butt and slap an injunction on you faster
than you could yell lawsuit. It is a very touchy subject with him, trust me! So
whatever money you may hope to make would end up in his pocket along with your first-born.
Besides you really don’t want Max as an enemy. He’s difficult enough to deal
with when he considers you a friend!” Sam looked down her nose at Parry for
even joking about selling out her family.

Alex was grateful her sister had
reminded her about that contract. She had been stressing about what would
happen if Ty and his men found out she was Fire.
The threat of a lawsuit
should be able to keep tongues from wagging
, she reassured herself.

“What a minute, if she’s dating the
Adonis that means there’s a chance the band could make an appearance at the
ranch. That’s why you brought that contract up! That’s it, isn’t it? They’re
coming here!” Parry shrieked, leaping to his feet in child like wonder; he
couldn’t fathom his good luck.

Ty sat frozen in his chair. He didn’t
want to have to compete with another man for Alex’s attention; it was bad
enough that Parry was constantly flirting with her. Now he would have to worry
about this Steven fellow getting too close to Alex. She belonged to him!
Stunned by that sobering thought, he realized something crucial, and slowly
started to smile to himself. Now that he thought about it, and considered all
the angles, he liked the odds. Parry was a comedic flirt and she wouldn’t take
him too seriously. And if she had such strong emotions for Steven, why hadn’t they
slept together?

“Yes. The band should be here at the end
of the week.” Sam confirmed, nodding her head. She stood up from the table,
hastily trying to escape the room before Alex murdered her. As it was, she was
giving her a vengeful look, clearly promising retaliation. She wasn’t happy
about Ty and his men knowing the band was coming.

Parry smiled as if he had just won the
lottery and quickly asked Sam, “What are the chances of meeting Fire?”

“Pretty good!” she encouraged.

Sam laughed at Alex’s worried
expression; she looked like she was going to be physically sick. Ridge was
sharing in Sam’s joke and she could see he was trying hard not to laugh.
Poor
Alex,
Sam thought, trying to feel sympathetic.

“And if you behave yourself, I might
even be able to swing an autographed picture.” Sam stated in warning as she
resumed her retreat.

“For a signed autograph and the chance
to meet Fire, I would get down on my hand and knees and kiss your feet. Can I
have two though? One’s for my kid sister. You think I’m a fan, she’s a fanatic.
She stands in lines for hours just to get nosebleed tickets to her concerts,”
he shouted at Sam’s retreating back before looking hopefully at Alex. She did
not return his smile; she really just wanted to smack him!