“How was the day at Sea Lab? Gabe get you going?” I snorted water, surprised at what my father had said.
Mills laughed too, “Daddy! Oh my gosh. Don’t you think before you speak?”
“What?” Daddy dug into the rice pilaf with a big spoon and plopped a pile on his plate.
“Get you going? Come on, Dad. Really?” Mills took the pilaf bowl from him and helped herself to a spoonful. Everybody laughed and I tried to answer Dad’s question in a way that wouldn’t show my frustration.
“Yeah…he’s hot. He’s really great. It’s definitely going to be, uhm… interesting working there.”
“Pepper, don’t go showing your ass. He’s a great guy—with morals, unlike that hoodlum you run with.” He took a bite. “What’ll you be doing, anyway?”
I really wanted to answer him with, “You didn’t bother to ask when you went looking for a job for me?” but I bit my tongue and instead I said, “Well, if today is any indication, I’ll be feeding the dolphins some stinky fish, cleaning pool decks with a broom bigger than you are, and stocking the gift shop. Thank you. Stupid job can’t pay much though.”
Dad laughed at that, “No, they don’t pay you. It’s an internship, Pepper Ann. It’s like a competition to get the job.”
“Competition? You could win that, Pepper Ann,” Mills joked with me. She knew I hated my plebian middle name. I mean, Ann? Really? Once, I’d thought about having it legally changed, but Dad wasn’t too cool with that. “Charlotte, you probably don’t know this, but my sister used to win tons of competitions. She used to have a wall of crowns and trophies until she got too grownified to show them off. She had the most beautiful gowns too. Mother used to hate it because she said pageants were demeaning. Which was kind of funny, because Evangeline didn’t mind showing her half naked body back in the day.”
“Mills!” I whispered as I tried to get her to hush. I didn’t think it was right to talk about Mom in front of Charlotte—not for Mom’s sake, but for Charlotte’s. The least she knew about our mother, the better for her.
“Yes, your mother was always a beautiful model,” she said discreetly. “So, Pepper. You were in competitions? Any I might know about?” Charlotte sipped her white wine without ever smudging her perfect coral lipstick. I wondered how she did it since I always smudged my lip gloss whenever I drank.
“Only Junior Miss, Azalea Trail and of course a bunch for the state,” Mills answered for me again.
“I had the chance to be in plenty growing up. Some were fun—some… not so much. Don’t get me wrong—anytime you get a chance to wear a tiara, it’s exciting.”
True to his focused personality, Dad drove the conversation back to the topic that interested him the most. “I did some checking and apparently, getting a position at Sea Lab is difficult. They don’t just look for degrees, they want talent as well.”
“I think it’s pretty apparent that I’m not in the running for a job there. I don’t have a degree, Dad ...and even though it’s not a requirement for internship, I’m sure it would be if I were to become a serious candidate for the permanent position. That’s kind of a prerequisite, I’d have thought.” I dug into my sea bass and took a bite, it was delicious. My dad was the best cook I knew and Charlotte wasn’t too bad, either. They must have let the cook have the night off and I was glad—my daddy was a better chef, anyway.
My phone vibrated in my dress pocket, but I knew better than to answer it at the table—that was one of Dad’s rules. I didn’t always follow it, but in this case it seemed like a good idea. I had a lot to make up for after ‘Titty-Gate’ as Church liked to call it. He was having a good deal of fun with the whole thing but then again, he was a man.
“Mills, how are the birthday plans coming along? I don’t know if Pepper told you or not, but I’m giving her a twenty thousand dollar budget. You really don’t need more than that for an eighteenth birthday party.”
I heard my sister gasp beside me. “Are you kidding me, Dad? That’s half of what you spent on Pepper’s party! That’s not fair at all. What are my friends going to think?” She looked shocked and put her fork down and wiped her face with her napkin.
“No, I mean it. That’s more than fair, Mills. Besides, it wasn’t my idea to spend that much money on Pepper’s birthday in the first place. I let your mother plan that one, remember? I’m taking the bull by the horns with this party. No more than twenty thousand.”
She slumped back in her chair, “That means we can’t take the helicopter rides then, Daddy. I might as well just buy an iPod and a six pack of wine coolers. It’d be more fun. This isn’t right, Daddy.”
My dad looked at me and back at Mills. “Wine coolers? Really?”
She threw herself back in her seat, practically throwing a fit. “No dad, I was teasing. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!” Mills was getting more upset by the minute. She still had a lot to learn about working with our father. He liked to bluster about money. Not because he was cheap, but because he liked to be involved and he wanted to feel important. I jumped in before she started crying, or worse yet, stomping her feet. She might be almost eighteen, but she was still a kid in so many ways.
“That’s really not a problem, Daddy—except I’ve already booked a party room and the catering. And…it’s almost twenty grand. How about I get the numbers together so you can look at them?” I kicked Mills softly under the table and it took her a second to get the message, but she eventually shut her mouth.
“Okay, that sounds great. Thanks, honey.” Dad seemed pleased with that solution and Charlotte smiled at us. She knew how he was, and I really hoped she was on our side.
One of the maids, Rianna, entered the room and brought one of the house phones over to Mills and said, “It’s your mother.” Mills frowned, but took the phone from her anyway. Poor Rianna. She’d already caught the brunt of Evangeline’s wrath a few times before. My mother wasn’t a supermodel anymore, but she was still a diva. No—not just a diva—a super diva. Rianna had agreed to stay on at the house after the last abusive phone call from our mother, but only after a pay raise and an agreement that she wouldn’t take phone messages anymore from Evangeline Anderson.
Mills left the dining table and walked out onto the balcony that overlooked the eternity pool. I could tell by her pacing and hand movements that she was not getting the best of that conversation. “Excuse me,” I muttered, and walked out to be with my sister. I sat in a chair nearby while she paced.
“No, mother. I think we have that under control. No, Daddy’s being great about it. He’s always been cool about things.” She lifted her hands in exasperation and looked at me like, “Help me.” I waved her down to sit next to me. I put my ear to the phone and listened to my mother rant on about how important this birthday was and how, when she was eighteen, she was on the cover of every magazine on the planet. We’d heard this story a thousand times before, but you didn’t dare interrupt Evangeline when she was in diva mode. She expected us to be little photocopies of her, but that had never been the case. We took pleasure in being more like Daddy than her in more than a hundred different ways.
“No, Mom. I don’t want him to fly down and do my hair. I’m going to do my own hair. No, I mean it. I’m doing my own hair.” Mills huffed and looked at me, I could tell she was over this conversation.
“Where did you get your dress? Did you pick one out yet?” I shook my head emphatically gesturing for her to say, “No, I haven’t.” If she told her what she was wearing, Evangeline would do her best to show up wearing the same thing, or damn near the same thing. Naturally, when Mills told her she didn’t have a dress, Evangeline volunteered to fly down and help her shop for one. “Mom! I think I can handle it!” The rest of the conversation went the way we’d expected it to. Same old conversation. Once she got over the most stressful part, I waved goodbye and went upstairs to call Church.
“Hey, how did it go today?” I filled him in, but left out the parts about Gabe’s hot body, sexy brown eyes and
husky voice. “You going back?”
“I kind of have to—I think—at least for a while. I’m hoping Daddy gets bored with this idea before my hands smell permanently like fish.”
He laughed, and probably thought he sounded sexy, I’m sure. Not as sexy as Gabe, I thought, absently. “Sounds like it sucked. Poor kid. I guess part of this is my fault.”
“To be honest, working with the dolphins was pretty cool, but yes, part of this is your fault.” I put my hand on my hip and mocked, “You’re a straight up bad influence on me, Jonathan Church.”
He chuckled again and I rolled my eyes. “What time should I pick you up tonight? Christian wants us to come over for a smoke out. His Dad bought a bunch of new glass hookahs on his trip to Burma and Chris wants to test them out.”
“I’ll pass. I’m really tired and I have to plan Mills’ party. Aven and I have a lot of details left to figure out.”
“Come on, Pep. I can’t be the only guy showing up without a date. I thought it was you and me?”
“Let me tell you what ‘you and me’ got me, Church. I’m sentenced to six weeks at StinkLab or Daddy is cutting my allowance back to a thousand dollars a month. I can’t even get my hair done for that! So yeah, tonight, I’m staying home. You’ll just have to go hookah alone.”
“Fine, if you don’t want to go, but that doesn’t mean I have to go alone.”
“Don’t be such a dick. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I looked at the phone, shook my head, and hung up. No sooner had I ended the call when Aven tapped on the open door—her big brown eyes wide.
“Bad time?” she asked.
“Nope, this is actually a good time. Come on in, I’m tired, but we can finish these party plans.” I hugged her and we sat on the floor with our notes. This is what I needed—a distraction from life. No more Church getting me in trouble. I’m breaking that bad habit—especially when there are men like Gabe Gregory in my life.
Chapter Eight — Gabe
The first week with the interns had passed and surprisingly enough, Pepper was still here. I could hardly believe it, but when I pulled into the empty parking lot on Monday, there she was, leaning against her convertible BMW, wearing shorts and a tank top. She smiled and held up a bag of pastries and coffees. That’s nice of her.
I walked over and accepted the coffee with a smile from behind my sunglasses. “Thanks, I needed breakfast this morning. How was your weekend?”
“I’m here, and I’m on time. That should give you a clue,” she laughed. I liked the sound of her pretty laugh though I didn’t hear it very often. Most of the time when I was with her, she was focused and quiet, watching and learning. Yeah, she’d surprised me since I hadn’t expected to see her curiosity and her intelligence shine through. It was true, she wasn’t a college graduate—or even in college for that matter—but she definitely had the mind for it.
“You ready for this week? It’s all week with Bobbie Jo. She’s going to be working with the animals on a few new tricks and I’ve convinced her to make you part of the show. You ready to ride a dolphin?”
“You know it! But I’m not sure Bobbie Jo is. I think she really wanted Tracee.”
“Tracee knows more, but Singh likes you. He thinks you’re his playmate,” I laughed. “Maybe that’s why Bobbie Jo is so put out by you. Singh is kind of her baby. She’s been working with him for two years and you’ve gotten more tricks out of him in just one week. ”
“Yikes, I had no idea. Well, she’s the pro, not me. I’m just here for a few more weeks.” Pepper smiled and I slid the card into the reader, the door opened and I tapped on the keypad to disarm the security door.
“So you aren’t even trying to get the spot?”
“I didn’t think I had a shot, I mean I don’t have a degree or anything. It’s not like you’d want to keep me without college papers. I know that’s not how it works and…” Pepper’s face scrunched up into a frown, “I don’t want my Dad to buy me a job, Gabriel. I don’t think I could live with that.”
“I understand, and for the record, I wouldn’t do that anyway. Like I told you last week, you earn everything you get with me. I don’t give away positions for any reason.”
She walked along beside me and said, “Thanks.”
I stopped outside the security room and looked at her. “You might not be aware of this, or even interested to know, but Sea Lab isn’t looking for a college graduate for the permanent spot. Even if you were newly-enrolled, that would only make you eligible, as long as your major was in science or marine biology.”
Her sky blue eyes widened and she smiled. I watched her walk to the locker room with her blonde ponytail swinging. What are you doing, Gabe? You know she’s not going to stick around. She hasn’t done a sensible thing in her life. Unexpectedly, I realized that a part of me wanted to see her succeed. She hadn’t been anything like the girl I’d read about in the magazines and newspapers. She was a real person. Smart, kind to the animals and of course, drop dead gorgeous. I shook my head and walked in to find Chuck writing a report.
“Sorry to tell you this, but those punks tagged the back wall again with that fuckin’ spray paint. I’m writing this report up and I’ve already called the cops. I’m supposed to meet them back there in about five minutes. I’ll keep them back there, Mr. Gregory.”
“All right, I was hoping that new security light would help, but I guess not. I’ll let maintenance know. I want those new security cameras installed first thing today, okay? I didn’t want to do it, but we have to hold somebody accountable for this. We can’t afford to repaint that stucco every week.”
“I tell you what you do—hey! Is that bag of donuts for me?” Chuck’s mustache quivered at the sight.
“Sure, here you go. What were you saying?”
“I was saying that you should put some plants down there like those prickly palms. What do they call them? Yeah, palmettos. Put some palmettos in there. You do that and those rotten little bastards will cut themselves up trying to paint that wall. Now that’s a video I’d pay to see.” He laughed as he dug into the bag, fished out a donut and stuffed it into his face.
“Hmm…that’s a great idea. I’ll take it to the facility manager to see when he can do that. In the meantime, call the security company and get those cameras installed today, okay?”
“Sure, Mr. Gregory. I’m on it.” His walkie-talkie squawked and I left him to enjoy my breakfast. I did manage to keep one donut for myself, and it was delicious.
When I got to my office, I waved at Paul who was on time for a change, but he warned me, “She’s in your office. I couldn’t keep her out.” I knew who he was talking about before I even looked.
“Good morning, Bobbie Jo. What’s up?” I tossed my gym bag on the couch and walked behind my desk.
“You know what’s up! This is total BS, Gabe. Why am I training Pepper Anderson to ride Singh when she’s not going to be here after the end of next month? That means I’ll have to train her replacement and that’s not fair to Singh, or to me. Why can’t I have Tracee? She’s a stellar student, she’s got animal knowledge, and she’s dependable…”
“Who’s to say that Tracee will be here next month? There’s no guarantee that I’ll keep her, is there? I mean what about Martin and David and, not to mention, Pepper? Any of them could make the cut.”
“Really? Pepper? Please tell me you’re kidding. How in the hell could she ever become a part of our team…unless Daddy is handing out stacks.” My face heated up at her insinuation.
“That’s not cool, Bobbie Jo, and for the record, I don’t need the money, if that’s what you meant to suggest. The bottom line is Singh likes her. He responds to her and she’s good with him. Look, even if she’s riding just for the fundraising gala, she’s riding. Imagine it—Pepper Anderson riding a dolphin on behalf of Sea Lab. We’ll raise every dollar we need. People will come just to see her.”
She looked disgusted, “Why? Because she’ll be doing it topless? Her titties are probably fake
anyway,” she cracked. She was beginning to piss me off.
“Are you jealous?” I scoffed. “You’ll have to get over it because I’ve made my decision and it’s going to be Pepper.” She didn’t like my answer but that was it. She stomped out of the office, obviously biting her tongue and I wondered why she disliked Pepper so much. From what I’d seen, the girl did everything she asked her to. An even better question? Why am I batting for the spoiled brat?
I decided I’d better make those calls to the facility manager and get out to the training area as quickly as I could. Who knows, Bobbie Jo might try to drown her and that’s all I’d need. I could see the headlines now—beautiful, rich heiress murdered by crazed dolphin trainer. I made the phone calls and walked outside. It was another beautiful day on the Gulf Coast, not a cloud in the sky, just an ocean of blue above the park. Naturally, it was hot, but I liked it. In the kid’s area, Tracee and David Turner were working with the children, letting them pet the horseshoe crabs and other marine goodies that we displayed every day. Martin was leading a tour of students through the aquariums, pointing out the jellies, the Gulf shrimp and the other unique animals in our exhibit. Everything looked fine in here. David waved and grinned and an unhappy Tracee nodded at me. I don’t think Martin even knew I was there.
“You guys doing okay?”
“Yes sir, doing fine. Just showing these guys our little friends here.”
“This is so cool!” said one of the kids. I spent some time with them, listening to the interns answer questions and then followed Martin around without trying to make the guy nervous. After a few minutes, I waved and walked out the back of the exhibits to the training area. I didn’t want them to know I was around yet, so I stood inside the doorway.
“No, that’s not right. You have to hug him with your thighs, not you calves. Keep your hands on either side like this. Try it again.” I watched Pepper nod, her sleek ponytail now a wet mess. She wiped the water from her face and handed Singh another piece of fish. She hit the water with the palm of her hand twice, a signal to the dolphin that she wanted to ride. He slid up beside her and she put her tanned leg over his muscular body. He squealed playfully at her. Pepper’s face was determined and she did exactly as she was told. They made the circle around the pool and Singh gave her an easy ride. Now she’d learn the hard part, diving with the dolphin. I don’t know why, but I wanted to teach her this so I pulled off my t-shirt and stood by the pool.
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