Page 18 of Now & Forever
Chapter 6
James
“I fold.” James tossed his poker hand onto the table and leaned back to sip his cognac. It didn’t come close to bourbon on a scale ofIt’s acceptabletoI’d rather drink my own piss,but when a man was at a country club, he didn’t have much choice in the matter. The old guard passed out cognac. He would bloody well drink cognac.
His best friend Ian Mathers hooted in surprise when it turned out he won that round of poker with nothing but two pairs. James grumbled that the dealer had been shoddy, but he soon realized he meant himself.Me. I’m the dealer.
Cognac and poker was the flavor of the day at the monthly meeting for Beta Kappa Phi, the fraternity most of the city’s well-bred males joined once they reached undergrad at select universities. (If a man was well-bred enough, there were only a few undergrads he could attend. That went double for men like James and Ian, who were the only children of their families’ great business ventures.) The fact most of the old brothers lived in the same city only leant to them meeting up once a month to relive those so-called glory days.
Gwen was here yesterday, wasn’t she?James thanked his lucky star that his mother didn’t ask to see Gwen on a Saturday, when her husband and son would be tearing up the lounge with their old frat buddies. The cigar and cigarette smoke alone were enough to kill the sensitive lungs in the room. Luckily, that was mostly relegated to the balcony area, and James was free to breathe in the far corner of the room where the poker games were afoot.
He didn’t have time to ponder what his mother and Gwen had talked about the day before. Not when Ian demanded another round, complete with his chips piling high before him.
“You’re going to clean me out.” James didn’t gamble often, but when he did, he made sure to gamble no more than ten thousand dollars. That was enough, since that was a mid-range weekend vacation with Gwen. If he lost all his money? Oh, well. He supposed that meant they were staying in for the weekend. Whateverwouldthey do? “How am I supposed to explain to Gwen that I’m a poor man if you feel it in your heart to steal my last dime?”
Ian shuffled the cards. Probably injected an extra ace in there. “I don’t need your money, Jim. I need your soul.”
“Sothat’show you stay looking so good in your thirties?”
“Says the man as old as me.”
James stacked his chips into a wobbly tower. “You’re the one known for your ghastly good looks. I always had a different method for charming the ladies.”
“You think my looks were good enough to bed as many women as I have?” Ian clicked his tongue as he dealt the cards for another round of poker. “You have to be charming, you fool. That’s the one thing you’re probably better at than I am.”
“We all have our strengths.”
Ian downed the last of his cognac before looking at his hand. “Ah, shit.”
“I’m not falling for that.”
“Nah. It’s bad. You’ve got this one.”
“You haven’t even exchanged cards yet.”
They played through two more hands, James losing every one.My head isn’t in the game.All he could think about was Gwen, and how she joined him for dinner at home the night before with only a sullen tug of her lips.
“What’s wrong with you?” Ian pushed the cards to the side when James lost his fifth hand in a row. “You’re usually not this bad at poker.”
“I’m usually not this distracted.”
Ian opened his mouth but closed it as quickly. Probably because whatever he wanted to say was uncouth enough to get a smack across that mouth. Instead, he cleared his throat, finished stacking the cards and chips, and said, “How’s the kid?”
James shot him a look that implied he knew Ian really meant,How’s Gwen?That was the problem with knowing someone for as long as he knew Ian. The two of them had been inseparable since they rushed Beta Kappa Phi together. Ian was the first person to learn about Gwen’s existence after James left that bar with her face imprinted on his memory.“There’s this girl at that bar on the other side of town. Vermillion, I think it’s called. Ever been there? Hottest bartender I’ve ever seen.”Ian didn’t bother remembering Gwen’s face or name until James swore he had never been so in love.
That was years ago. Since then, James had seen his best friend go through a string of women until finally hooking up with Kathryn, the one woman he had wanted since he was a horny teenager.Yes, he told me all the embarrassing stories.In college, no less, when they were so drunk during midterms that James shared his homoerotic fantasies and Ian confessed he once tried to hook up with Kathryn, but prematurely… arrived.Crazy to think that back then, those were deep, dark secrets we both kept.Aging and maturity had granted them some perspective.
“He’s getting big.” James dug into his pocket before the inevitable follow-up question arrived. “Saw him on Monday, and he was as big as a preschooler.” That was an overstatement, but James couldn’t hide the bit of pride that hit him when he realized his genetics contributed to that.That doesn’t make sense. I can’t control my genetics. I didn’t even control his creation.Sometimes, the male ego didn’t have to make sense, let alone to the man in possession of such an ego. “Look at him.” James passed his phone to Ian. An album of Patrick’s pictures and videos were ready for swiping. “Looks like me, doesn’t he?”
That wasn’t surprising. First thing James did after hearing Cassandra’s confession was order a paternity test. When it came back positive, he resigned himself to this sudden fatherhood.
“Good Lord. He really does.” Ian swallowed his next observation.
“Go on. Say it. I know what you’re thinking, man.”
Ian shook his head. “He looks exactly like you and Cassandra.”
That also wasn’t surprising, since James and Cassandra both possessed dark hair and similar facial features. Those facts helped fuel the rumors that they shared the same father. Luckily for them, Patrick’s paternity test had also debunked the rumors that he was inbred, not that either the Meranges or the Welshes needed proof ofthat.
