Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (22 page)

“Stay out of it, Steven.”

He watched the play of emotions that crossed
her face before she stood and glided toward the window to avoid his scrutiny.
As she stood there examining the view, Steven thought back to what he had seen
when she and the guy that wanted to break his face had first walked in. He had
been holding her close to him, protectively. He remembered the look she had on
her face when she realized he had arrived.

“It’s him isn’t it?”

Alex swiveled her head around, and from her
expression, he was right. A look as though she had just lost her only friend
flashed across her face a split second before she swung away from his probing
eyes.

“Talk to me Red,” he said softly, coming up
behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“I can’t!” she wailed softly.

“We’re friends. I’ve know you for six years. I
don’t like thinking I was a substitute, but you never promised me anything more
then you could give. You’re in love with him aren’t you?”

“Yes! I’m sorry Steven.” She turned haunting
eyes up to his, pleading with him to understand that she’d never set out to
hurt him.

“Hey, I knew remember? You never made any
secret of it. Hell, half of the planet knows!” He chuckled at his own expense.
Through the years, not knowing when or how, Steven had just come to some kind
of assumption about Alex; that when their careers settled down, and they were a
bit older, they would one day take their friendship to the next level like the
press and all their fans hoped, and marry. But, the hype surrounding their
relationship was just that, hype. Both of them had dated different people over
the years, and he didn’t believe in love and happily ever after. He was too
busy enjoying life to throw it away for the expected wife, house, car, and two
point five kids. But if he ever did want to get married, he figured it would be
to her.

“He doesn’t know that I’m Fire! I haven’t told
him!” She burst into a new onslaught of tears. “Please, Steven! You can’t tell
him!” She grabbed his shirt to make him promise to keep silent. Steven could
see how distressed she was at the thought of him spilling the beans. Her eyes
looked twice their normal size.

“Dude, relax. I promise not to tell the dark
avenger a thing,” he assured her quickly, trying to get her to loosen her death
grip on his silk shirt. He had just spent a fortune on this sucker in Milan!
“But if I’m going to help I need more information than your supplying, Red,” he
stated looking knowingly into her eyes. “I can’t help if I don’t know what’s
going on and you know how my Alzheimer’s tends to act up. Something might just
slip out accidently,” he said, deadpan. He saw her take a long breath before
blowing it out slowly, looking as if she wanted to throttle him.

“You’re too young to have Alzheimer’s you
idiot.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you want to know?”

“I’ll inform my doctor of your diagnosis.
What’s the story? All of it.” he asked mischievously, and impatiently. He
watched the color leave her face.

“And if I don’t tell you, what? You’ll
enlighten Ty as to who Fire is?” She shoved Steven away from her and slid onto
the sofa, putting some distance between them before she gave into the craving
to kill him; slowly, painfully.

“Really Red, all jokes aside, your secret is
safe with me. Hell, after everything we’ve been through, that you don’t already
know that hurts,” he said honestly, plopping down, none to gently, beside her
on the sofa. He knew she had to make up her own mind whether or not she wanted
to fill him in.

“Besides, if I did slip up, you’d just beat the
crap out of me!” he added truthfully, trying to cheer her up by making her
laugh.

“Okay, you win,” she said apprehensively. She
needed to talk to someone, and Sam was already in bed, so that left him.

“Goody! I love bed time stories!” Jumping up
from the couch and rubbing his hands together, he instructed. “Meet me back
here in an hour. I’m going to take a shower and get changed. I’ll grab a
blanket, and you can order a pizza. We’ll spend the night gossiping.” He moved
giddily toward the door, looking as if she had promised him a night with the
playmate of the year.

“You can’t be serious!” she hollered at his
retreating back. Here she was, all prepared to bare her soul and he wanted her
to order pizza? Steven drove her nuts. She knew that was why nothing had ever
happened between them, because he refused to take anything seriously.

“Sure I can, Red. You’re not going to be able
to sleep tonight anyway, we both know it. Why fight it? Besides I just flew in
from Monty Carlo and my body still thinks it’s the middle of the day!”
Chuckling at his thought process, Alex watched him leave. She was glad Steven
was still her friend and he hadn’t turned away from her when he found out about
Ty. She would have missed their friendship.

Going up to her room, Alex ordered the pizza.
After paying with her credit card, she told the delivery driver to leave it on
the front porch. She pulled on a pair of old blue sweats and a long t-shirt
that reached her knees. Placing a pair of old, white, men’s socks on her feet,
she grabbed her sheet music. Heading back downstairs to wait for the pizza, she
perched on the bottom step, and worked out some of the kinks from the music she
had written earlier.

When she heard a car out front pull up then
leave she snagged the pizza and headed for the den. Steven sat on the couch,
complete with a blue blanket he had snagged from one of the beds upstairs,
waiting patiently. She smiled at the picture he made as she turned to lock the
door. Placing the pizza, plates, and a couple of sodas she had gotten from the
kitchen on the coffee table, she sat down on the sofa. With her back against
the arm, she pulled her knees up to her chest and waited.

“Okay, tell me a story,” he directed, gazing
hopefully at her. A childlike quality in his posture, he pulled the blanket
around his shoulders, and laid his head on the back of the sofa. She wouldn’t
have been surprised if Steven placed his thumb in his mouth and started to suck
on it like and infant.

Shaking her head in amusement at his antics,
she decided to tell Steven about Ty, but only to a point. There were some
things Alex found too private to discuss, even with him.

Taking a deep breath she started to explain
their history leading up to their parting. She told him about the argument
which led to them going their separate ways, skipping over the confrontation in
the kitchen years before because she had written a song about it and had
released a video that had basically been a reenactment of it. She revealed why
Ty claimed to have pushed her away, and talked about the rustlers, to explain
why her Grandfather had hired him to take care of them. She shared everything
about their day, and how they had tried to get to know one another again.

By the time she finished there was nothing left
of their pizza and the tissue box was empty. Glancing at her watch, she saw
that it was getting very late, and was amazed at how long the two of them had
talked about her past. But there was no quick solution for them. They were back
at square one.

“So, that’s it,” she said finishing the story
and leaning forward to place her plate on the coffee table.

“‘That’s it’, the woman says,” Steven
exclaimed, throwing up his hands, “and leaves me hanging here waiting for the
happy ending and what does she do? Just stops.” Dropping his hands into his
lap, he asked, “Red work with me here, how are you going to fix this?” Watching
her drawn face, he wanted to help her but didn’t know how he could.

“I can’t fix it!” she said, sounding defeated
and lost. “You don’t know Ty like I do. If I tell him I lied about you, he’ll
wonder why you’re here. I can’t let him find out about Fire. He would just use
it against me, to humiliate me!” she said with conviction in her voice.

She didn’t know if she could bring herself to trust
Ty that much again. They had a past that she was trying to understand and deal
with. She didn’t trust people as a rule because of him, and to blindly trust
the enemy again was pure terror to her. She feared she could not be that
courageous.

“You have to tell him about us, and about
Fire,” Steven stated steadily, trying to convince her he was right.

“If I tell him I’m Fire he’ll blow a fuse, and
he’ll know how I truly feel about him. I’m in a no win situation here. I can’t
tell!” she stated, appearing to Steven as if she was going to break down again.

“Red, the guy’s obviously interested in you.
Talk to him, try to clear the air,” he encouraged.

What’s the point in patching things up? He’s
not in love with me, he just desires me. We have no future. Ty doesn’t want a
commitment; he likes his freedom too much. He’s just like Steven.
Alex refused to have
an affair with him; she had been kidding herself earlier that she could let
herself take it that far. She was just not strong enough to watch him walk away
again.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t, or won’t? Seems to me they’re one and
the same.”

Changing the subject to get her mind off Ty,
Steven asked, “Did you work on the new album? I’ll take that guilty look as a
yes. Red, you’re on vacation, remember? Vacation means a time of rest,” he
lectured, watching her move restlessly under his gaze. “Take a break. Get to
know Ty again. Work can wait. Who knows, the fans just might get the happy
ending they want. You cannot keep living through your music, there is a whole
big world out there just waiting for you to find it. You needed to start living
for the moment,” Steven said poignantly.

“And what’s the story with the Hulk? He was
sizing me up for a cage match before you and Ty got back.” He shuddered
dramatically under his blanket at Alex as she laughed.

“You mean Ridge. He knows I’m Fire,” she
answered truthfully.

“And he hasn’t told Ty?” he asked, his look
speaking volumes.

“No, he would have questioned me about it if he
had enlightened him.”

Steven stood up to stretch his tired muscles as
Alex’s mind was mulling over all they had discussed.

“And you trust this guy to keep quiet?” he
asked, looking skeptical.

“Yes,” she said confidently.

“Good enough for me,” he said, watching her
face to see if she felt any better.
She looks calmer than earlier at least,
he thought.

“I’m going to head to bed,” Steven said,
leaning down to kiss her forehead like the big brother he was learning he had
always been to her.

Looking up at Steven as he straightened, Alex
decided to head up also. Sliding off the couch, she moved towards the door,
shadowing Steven. Exhausted by everything that had taken place today, Alex
hoped she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She longed for
the reprieve sleep would give her from her racing mind.

Swinging the door open, Alex watched as Parry
fell through it, landing on his face in front of her. Parry had a water glass
in his right hand that they knew had been up against the closed door moments
before.

“What were you thinking? The door is sound proof,
you idiot!” Alex asked hotly.

Not wanting to believe that Parry would have
been trying to spy on her and Steven, she was incensed that he would sink so
low.

“I have my orders, and I refuse to talk! It’s
okay, you can torture me. I can take it.” Parry closed his mouth with a snap
and stood up in front of them.

“Is he for real?” Steven questioned, laughing
at the picture he made.

Alex looked at both of them, threw up her
hands, and marched from the room, exasperated that Ty had sent him to stalk
her. He could care less who she entertained, or slept with, and he implied as
much last night. He had made his intentions known. All he wanted from her was
an affair.

Parry moved further into the room, stopping
about a yard away from Steven.

“So are you going to tell me why the Boss and
you look so much alike? Lost relative, right?” Parry invited hopefully, placing
his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels.

“Nope.” Steven moved back to the chair he had
occupied earlier in the evening. Sitting back down, he stretched his legs in
front of him as if he had all the time in the world, and regarded Parry through
lazy, bored eyes.

“That’s it?” Parry exclaimed, throwing up his
hands and looking accusingly at Steven.

“Yep.” he examined his watch on his wrist, finding
it fascinating all of a sudden.

“You don’t talk much, do ya?” he said,
exasperated.

“Nope,” he answered as he looked back at him,
folded his arms across his chest and waited, not saying any more.

“Great, Boss sends me back to the house to
chaperone and she…” Parry waved his hands towards the door Alex had just
stormed through, “hightails it to bed, and you close up like the proverbial
clam!” he howled.

“Ty sent you back to the house?” Steven sat up
on the couch to watch him closely.

“Who else? What’s going on? Take pity on me,
please!” He looked pleadingly at Steven.