King's Passion

by Adrianne Byrd

  “How do you do?”

  “Uh, just fine.” Eamon didn’t need Ceyla to tell him that she was Fiona’s daughter. Their kinship was more obvious in mannerisms than in looks.

  Ceyla clasped her hands together. “I’m sure that all of you are curious to know just who this young man is.”

  “I’m hoping it’s the new pool boy,” Fiona said, slathering on some lipstick.

  “Good lord,” Mondell mumbled, looking like he was disgusted by everyone’s performance.

  “Actually, no,” Ceyla said. “This is Eamon King.”

  “Hello.” Eamon stood there smiling while one by one their mouths dropped open so wide, he was able to make out that a couple of them had their tonsils removed. There was one exception—Lolita. She looked so angry that with his head turned at a certain angle it looked like there was steam rising out of her ears.

  “So this is how they grow them in Las Vegas?” Fiona finally said after picking up her jaw. “I now see why your daughter ran away from home.”

  Eamon laughed. “Actually, I was born and raised in Atlanta.”

  “I swear that girl gets everything,” Lolita complained.

  Eamon didn’t know what that meant, but suddenly he thought he preferred to be grilled by Mondell than to continue to stand there like some prize Thoroughbred.

  “Come.” Ceyla tugged his sleeve. “Get something to eat. As you see we have plenty.”

  “Thank you.” He drew another deep breath and grabbed one of the plates and started picking out what he wanted for breakfast. It was quite a spread but he kept it simple with eggs and bacon.

  “Would you like some orange juice?” Ceyla asked.

  “By God, Ceyla,” Mondell barked. “There’s no need to mother hen him to death. I think that he knows how to fix himself breakfast.”

  There was a quick pop and Eamon turned around in time to see Mondell rubbing the back of his head while Ceyla hissed another warning, “Behave.”

  The small interplay reminded Eamon of his own parents and he relaxed a little bit more. When he returned to the table, he smartly elected to sit next to Mondell rather than what looked like his instant fan club.

  “So,” Mondell said, turning to him. “Victoria said that we would meet you soon. I didn’t think it would be this soon. What was it? Were you hiding out at her apartment to see if the coast was clear for you to come and see me?”

  Eamon didn’t understand the question. “No. I decided to fly out here on my own.” He cleared his throat when he met the man’s gaze. Maybe he was a lot more nervous than he thought. “I really wanted to talk to you one on one.”

  Mondell’s left brow lifted as Ceyla perked up.

  “Do you, now?”

  Eamon nodded confidently and then glanced around. “Is Victoria here?”

  Her parents looked at each other and then turned their confused looks on him.

  “What do you mean, dear?” Ceyla asked. “Victoria flew back to Vegas last night.”

  Eamon nearly dropped his fork. “Oh. I didn’t know.”

  “I believe that she went back early because she was missing someone.”

  She gave him a telling look and it cheered him considerably. “Well, I guess we must’ve gotten our wires crossed. I came out here to surprise her and she came back home to surprise me. Classic.”

  Mondell’s smile slid wider. “That means I’ll have you all to myself.”

  Fiona spoke up. “You can always share him.” The inappropriate joke fell flat while everyone gave her a shake of their heads.

  “So what do you say that we finish our breakfast and then we can go to my study so that we can have a talk?” Mondell suggested. “Sounds good.” Let’s just hope that I survive it.

  He felt a vibration at his hip. He glanced down at his phone and read his brother’s name on the screen. “Excuse me. I need to take this call.”

  The minute the name left Xavier’s mouth he knew that he messed up. “You know what? Now that I’m really getting a good look at you, I see that I’m mistaken. Please, don’t pay any attention to me and my ramblings. I’m sure if my brother told you anything about me, I tend not to know what I’m talking about pretty much most of the time.”

  Victoria just stared at him.

  “In fact,” he continued. “I even have very, very poor eyesight from time to time. I’ve been meaning to get my eyes checked. I’ve just been busy and—”

  “Please. Stop,” she said, shaking her head. Then she closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “You mean to tell me that I look exactly like Eamon dead ex-girlfriend? The one that died the day he was going to propose to her?”

  Never in his life had Xavier wished like hell that there was such a thing as a time machine. If only he could just rewind the clock a few minutes and not have given her Karen’s name. What on earth was he thinking? Eamon was going to kill him, but damned if she didn’t look just like her. Same face, same height. How did Eamon not see the similarities? And now what was he supposed to say?

  “Look. I think that maybe I should just get my things and go.” He started toward the door. “I’m really going to be late for my flight back to Atlanta.”

  Victoria pressed her mouth closed and Xavier could see a tide of anger rising. Yeah. He definitely put his foot in his mouth big time. “Hey, it was…really nice to have met you. I really hope to see you again soon,” he offered weakly and then hurried up and got the hell out of there.

  Once he made it to the safety of his car, he quickly grabbed his cell phone and called Eamon. “C’mon, bro. Pick up,” he prayed. Just when he was convinced that he was about to be transferred to voice mail, Eamon came onto the line.

  “Hello.”

  “E, man. Thank God you picked up.”

  His brother’s voice suddenly dipped in concern. “What? What is it? Did something happen at the club, or has Quentin been arrested again?”

  Xavier sucked in a deep breath. “I wish it was something like that.”

  “This sounds really serious. What is it?”

  “First, you got to promise me that you’re going to forgive me for what I’m about to tell you.”

  “Are you serious?” Eamon huffed out a deep breath. “I’m in the middle of something here. I don’t have time to play—”

  “I’m not playing,” Xavier stressed. “Promise me.”

  There was a brief pause over the line. “All right.”

  “That’s a promise?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. It’s a promise.”

  “Good.” Xavier felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders, but not much. “Your girl came back home today.”

  “Yeah. I just found that out. I’m up here at her parents’ place.”

  “Look, man. I wasn’t prepared when I saw her. I mean… had I known then I wouldn’t have just—”

  “What did you do? You didn’t sleep with her, did you?”

  “What? No.” Xavier pulled the phone away and made a face at it for a second before putting it back up against his ear. “Give me a little more credit than that?”

  “Sorry. It’s just that you’re really acting weird and I’m feeling a little pressure with Victoria’s dad. He’s not too happy that we’ve been living in sin apparently.”

  “I told her,” Xavier spat. It was just best to put it all out there. Let it lie like roadkill.

  “You told her what?”

  Is he serious? “I blurted out that she looks like Karen. I mean, bro, the girl could pass for her twin. One minute I’m taking a shower, and the next I think I’m staring at a ghost.”

  The line went silent.

  “Hello? Can’t you hear me?” He pulled the phone away again, but this time to see that the call had been dropped. He pressed speed dial, but this time Eamon didn’t pick up.

  Omission vs. Truth

  Chapter 24

  Dr. Turner’s pen finally stopped scribbling. “So Eamon didn’t tell Victoria that she looked like his dead ex-girlfriend?”

  “Shock
ing, huh?” Quentin stretched and then shook his head. “It seemed like a move I would’ve pulled.”

  “Really? You don’t believe in being honest in a relationship?” Turner asked.

  “There’s being honest and there’s being honest,” he said, though he knew that word-barf wasn’t going to get past his therapist.

  “Explain.” Turner shifted in her chair and crossed her legs.

  From the corner of Quentin’s eyes he caught the slow movement and wished he had a pair a scissors to cut that ridiculously long skirt in half. Surely Dr. Turner was committing some kind of crime hiding those long beauties under all that material.

  Alyssa laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Q asked.

  “You,” Alyssa said, shaking her head. “You’ll never change. Here you are, going to therapy because you supposedly can’t get over me, but you’re sitting there ogling the doctor’s legs.”

  “What do you care? You’re married, remember?”

  “Mr. Hinton? Who are you talking to?” Dr. Turner asked.

  “Huh?” Quentin jerked his head back toward the doctor.

  The doctor frowned. “I asked who were you talking to.”

  Turning toward the window, he wasn’t surprised to see his mirage had vanished. “No one. Just talking to myself.”

  The scribbling returned and Quentin rolled his eyes. Great. Now she thinks I’m crazy.

  Alyssa reappeared. “You think talking to someone that’s not really here isn’t crazy?”

  “Good point.”

  Dr. Turner looked up. “What was that?”

  “Uh, nothing,” Q covered and then narrowed his eyes at Alyssa.

  She just shrugged her shoulders and mouthed “Sorry.”

  Dr. Turner cleared her throat. “Since you’re not going to explain to me the difference between being honest and being honest—how did Eamon handle that latest development with Ms. Gregory?”

  Quentin sucked in a deep breath and made himself comfortable again. “Well…the first thing he realized was that he needed to hurry and get his butt back to Las Vegas…”

  Chapter 25

  Eamon disconnected the call and then rushed back into the dining room to announce to the crowd, “I’m sorry, folks, but I have to go.”

  Everyone turned toward him with shocked faces. “What?”

  “I’m so sorry, but something major has come up that I have to go and take care of it. I hope that you all understand.” He glanced over at Mondell. He wanted to promise the man that they would definitely have that talk when and if he came back. But something told him that it was one promise he didn’t know whether he would be able to keep. Instead, he just nodded to the older gentleman and prayed that they would indeed have that talk.

  However, Mondell wasn’t a man who liked to be put off. He hopped up from the table and followed Eamon out. “Is there something wrong? Does it involve my daughter?”

  “Ah. No. I—I just need to get back,” he said, meeting the man’s eyes. He needed to be alone so that he could think. This whole mess probably could have been avoided, if he had just mentioned—

  “You seem stressed,” Mondell noted. “Tell you what. We can have that talk while my driver takes us to the airport.”

  It was on the tip of Eamon’s tongue to refuse the offer, but unfortunately, he did need a ride to the airport. “Sure. Sounds good.”

  Mondell smiled. “Aaron, tell the driver that we need to go to the airport pronto.”

  “Yes, sir.” Aaron turned and quickly strode off.

  Then it was just the two men in the foyer.

  “So. What’s the emergency?” Mondell asked.

  Think. Think. Think. But Eamon was drawing a blank and Mondell’s eyes were following him like a hawk. This seemed like the perfect time for the truth. Turning, he looked Mondell straight in the eye. “There was something that I should’ve told your daughter that I didn’t. Now she’s found out and I have to go talk to her before she decides to leave me.”

  Mondell didn’t blink. “Is this something…illegal?”

  Offended, Eamon barked. “No. Of course not.”

  “Hey, I have to ask,” he said, shrugging. “We are just getting to know each other, right?”

  The man was right. He didn’t know Eamon from the man in the moon. “Yeah. You’re right.”

  Mondell nodded, but continued with his direct interrogation. “Is it another woman?”

  Eamon paused not because of guilt but because of the absurdity of the situation. “Yes and no.”

  “I see,” Mondell said, with enough sarcasm to make it clear that Eamon had just confirmed his long-held suspicions.

  Eamon faced him. “No, sir. I don’t think that you can possibly see. The woman in question was an old high-school sweetheart. My first love—”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass if—”

  “And she’s dead.”

  Mondell’s mouth remained open in midsentence. His eyes rounded Eamon like he was confessing to be a murderer.

  “She was killed by a drunk driver on her graduation day in Chicago. I was in Atlanta because my graduation was on the same day. I was hoping to propose to her the next day, but unfortunately I never got that chance.”

  Mondell’s face finally softened.

  “The problem right now between me and your daughter is that I did tell her about her. It’s just that I never told her that she looked a lot like her. Really a lot like her. My brother just called to tell me that he let that little bit of information slip. I’m hoping to be able to repair the damage so that when I give her this ring that’s in my pocket that she will know and believe that I’m giving it to her. Not Karen.”

  “How can you be sure, son? I mean, within your own heart?”

  “Because she’s not Karen and because I’m smart enough to know the difference. I’m not with your daughter for who she looks like. I’m with her for who she is. How she makes me feel.”

  “Still. There’s a part of you that has to be comparing—”

  Eamon shook his head. “When I first met your daughter, I was physically attracted to her, yes.”

  Mondell shifted uncomfortably.

  “But it had more to do with her presence. She’s a hurricane when she’s angry. I was blown away more by that than anything. And it’s true still. I want nothing more than your daughter’s happiness and I’m praying to God that she gives me that chance.”

  Their gazes remained locked for a long time and then Mondell slowly started nodding his head. “I sure hope that you’re telling me the truth because I sure in the hell don’t like being lied to.”

  “I am. Now I just have to get your daughter to believe me.” Mondell’s expression didn’t give him any hope.

  “All I can do is wish you luck, son.” He patted Eamon on the shoulder. “You’re going to need it.”

  Victoria cried the entire time she was packing her things. It got so bad at times that she couldn’t see and would have to sit down. Then it would keep happening. After Xavier left, she was just numb all over. She didn’t know how to process news like that. At the same time, she couldn’t understand how Eamon never told her that she was a dead-ringer for a woman he once thought that he would spend the rest of his life with. Did that mean that every time they were together, he was making love to Karen and not her? Was the initial spark in his office the day they met more about another woman?

  Did it matter?

  She wanted to pick up the phone and call him, but she wasn’t sure what to say, either. Hello, I’m leaving you because you might be two-timing me with a dead woman?

  “I should’ve known that all of this was just too good to be true. He was too good to be true.” She collapsed on the edge of the bed and waited for the stabbing pain to pass. This is what she got for leaping off cliffs and flying with her eyes closed. Didn’t she know that she was going to crash at some point?

  She heard the front door of the house slam closed and she hopped back up and tried to dry her eyes before
she headed back downstairs. She had listened to enough of the voice messages that Eamon had left her on her cell phone to know that he was due any minute. One thing that Victoria didn’t want to do was to just run out of here without telling Eamon to his face why.

  “Victoria!”

  Another tear fell just because she was going to miss the sound of his voice.

  “Victoria, are you here?”

  “I’m coming,” she said and then cleared her throat before leaving their bedroom for the last time. By the time she walked down the staircase, she had pulled herself together…well, as much as she could anyway. The moment that she saw his face, she paused. She had to fight everything that was in her not to just go running down the stairs and leap into his arms like one of those black-and-white movies that duped generations of women into believing that’s how true love worked.

  “Victoria, we need to talk,” Eamon said. His eyes pleaded with hers.

  “I think the time for talking has passed,” she said, sounding stronger than she felt.

  “It’s never too late.” He took a step up the staircase. “I love you.”

  A sad laugh fell from her lips as a whole new wave of tears washed over her. “Now? You want to tell me that you love me now? The truth was too inconvenient before?”

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  “No?” She shook her head and settled her hands on her hips. “Are you going to tell me that you never noticed that I looked like Karen?”

  “Of course I noticed. It just wasn’t a big deal.”

  “Not a big deal? You were in love with her!”

  “Yes! And now I’m in love with you! Doesn’t that count for anything?”

  “I don’t believe you.” She shook her head and then continued her way down the stairs.

  “Why not? I’ve never lied to you!” He reached for her hand as she tried to pass him on the staircase, but she pulled away.

  “It’s a lie of omission,” she reasoned. “You kept something that important from me.”

  “Please,” Eamon said, following her. “What good would it have done to tell you? Answer me that. If I’d told you the day we met that you looked just like my old girlfriend, how many times do you think you would’ve been obsessing over whether I was in love with you or a woman that’s been dead for over a decade? Besides, when we initially got together it was just a casual relationship. Just sex I believe were your words. As it grew into something more, you would have done exactly what you’re doing now. Leaving.”