The Scandal (Billionaire's Beach Book 4) - Christie Ridgway Page 0,34

it is breaking his heart.

The station wagon turns at the corner and passes a sign. You Are Now Leaving Crystal, Texas. Population 623.

Again, from a distance, a shot of the younger boy leaving the playground, his manner dejected, his ball under his arm.

Joaquin could gather himself and leave now, too. He almost managed it—his palms pushing against the arms of the chair, the soles of his shoes pressing against the floor—when Sara came to sit on a nearby ottoman. Joaquin felt her gaze again.

The touch of it gave him second thoughts. Sure, he could run like a coward. Or instead, he could stay. Man up and face down the twin beasts of grief and remorse. Prove that in fifteen years he’d managed to tame them some.

“What’s going on?” the butler asked, her voice low.

“Do you know this movie?” He didn’t take his eyes off the screen as the opening credits began to roll.

“I don’t think so. That basketball boy was you?”

“Yeah. My dad made them put me in the movie. The other, older kid’s my brother, Felipe Cielo.”

“An actor.” She hesitated. “Essie told me he passed away.”

“Right. This was his first feature film. It’s kind of a teen classic, though the storyline’s pretty typical. Small town tough hits the big city and has to find a way to fit in. The female factor went crazy. Moms and daughters saw it together in droves, it was said.”

Now the plot began in earnest. There was Felipe, in the wrong kind of jeans and the wrong kind of sneakers, walking into his new school.

It was his brother’s real walk, with that little bounce, like his heels had springs on the bottoms of them. Joaquin remembered being in front of the mirror in their shared bedroom, at ten years old trying to copycat that extra cocky saunter, while Felipe lounged on the nearby bed giving him shit.

Now Joaquin swallowed, trying to loosen his tight throat. He forced his shoulders down and his back to relax against the chair’s cushion. His fingers digging into the arms he commanded to loosen.

I can handle this.

In the movie, Felipe zeroed in on a busty brunette in tight jeans—the right kind—and a pair of short, red cowgirl boots. His gaze tracked from her face, to her boots, to her boobs. She batted bedroom eyes at him.

And suddenly Joaquin recognized her, his gut churning like a cement mixer. He’d forgotten that Penny Jakes had a bit part in New Kid…or he’d blocked it from his mind. But now he recalled how she’d looked that last night, older than when she’d made the movie, her mouth glossy and red, her voice a seductive purr. His emotions of that evening came back to him too—lust, irritation, rebellion.

I’m not my brother’s keeper, he told Mick as they’d left Felipe at the nightclub.

And he’d been so fucking wrong.

Pain sliced through Joaquin, but he doggedly forced himself to pull air in and out of his lungs, reminding himself that fifteen years had passed. That he could do this, at least, watch one of his brother’s iconic performances without climbing a wall or trashing the television.

He could keep his reactions under control.

On screen, the hopes of the new kid were dashed as the little brunette’s boyfriend stepped up to her, sliding one arm around her shoulder and using his other hand to shove Felipe in the chest.

He stumbled back, then looked straight at the camera, using the film’s device of breaking the fourth wall.

“It’s never as easy as you think,” Felipe’s character said, and he spoke straight to Joaquin.

It wasn’t easy at all. The walls were closing in, the roof coming down, and all the oxygen was being squeezed out of the room.

Joaquin shoved up from his chair and started for the nearest door. Then his gaze caught on Sara’s startled face, a clear indication he must look as raw as he felt inside.

But he continued on, even as the third reason to keep her out of his bed sprang up in his mind. It would be stupid to fuck a woman when his emotions weren’t nailed down and his peace of mind was so fucked up.

It could only lead to trouble.

Sara watched New Kid until the final credits, with one eye on the door to the beach through which Joaquin had disappeared. He remained absent.

With the movie finished, the kids discussed going upstairs to the guest rooms. Lulu was sharing with Essie, and RJ had the one across the hall. As they shuffled in that