Page 36 of The Cinderella Secret
“With difficulty,” said Jackson. “But nope. He’s clean. Flying colors. Extremely healthy.”
“Heiskind of obsessive about fitness,” said Dominque with a nod. “Ooh!” She sat bolt upright, her hand slapping the arm of the chair. “Is he gay?”
“You sound way too excited about that possibility,” said Jackson.
“It would besogood for Grandma’s LGBTQ platform,” said Dominique, flopping back.
Jackson snorted in laughter. “I really don’t think he’s gay.”
“Are you sure?” complained Dominique, looking disappointed. “He wouldn’t be the first in the family.In retrospect, now that I’m older and understand such things, I’m fairly certain that Uncle Owen was into guys. At least partially. Maybe. No one ever talks about it. But that could be Aiden’s secret.”
“No,” said Jackson, firmly. “That’s not it.”
“He wears a lot of pink shirts,” said Dominque.
“What’s wrong with pink? Didn’t you try to convince me to buy a pink shirt?”
“Yes, you would look gorgeous in pink. I’m just saying, Aiden likes to look fashionable. Perhaps too fashionable?”
“Fashionable has nothing to do with being gay! That’s fucking gender identity and expression. How was this covered in like Prison 101 and the bougie elite can’t get it?”
Dominique chortled in laughter and he began to suspect that she was fucking with him.
“Aiden just likes to annoy people with his clothing choices,” said Jackson. “Also, stop trying to make him conveniently gay for your next list of talking points for Eleanor. You do realize that if he was gay, that being good for Grandma’s politics would be exactly why he wouldn’t want to tell us?”
Dominique chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true.” Her phone beeped and she picked it up. Her face lit up and he knew that it must be a message from Max.
“Good news?”
“Halloween costumes have been procured. I have a boyfriend who doesn’t mind dressing up.” She looked incredibly smug. “Someday I’m going to throw a Halloween party like Grandma throws a Christmas party.”
“You’ll go full bat-shit crazy,” he said. “Got it. Thanks for the warning.”
“Shut up,” she said, glaring at him. “You are just jealous because you don’t have anyone to dress up with.”
“I prefer dressing down.”
“What I have learned is that if you wear the right costume, you get to do that later and it isloadsof fun.”
Jackson considered that. “Well, OK, fine. Now I’m little jealous.”
Dominique cackled happily, but quickly returned to serious. “I’m still worried about Aiden and whatever it is that he’s up to.”
“I hear you,” said Jackson, “but I’m handling it.”
Dominique skewered him with a hard stare. “Meaning that you already know what he’s doing but you’re not telling me.”
“Meaning I want to try and talk to him again before I do anything. I have hinted several times that I would like a conversation on the topic, and he has given me the patented Aiden smile and jazz hands. Like I’m supposed to believe that. But I don’t think it’s a crisis and I want to try again before we elevate to intervention levels.”
“He’s my brother, you know. You shouldn’t be keeping secrets about him from me.”
If Aiden had delivered the line, Jackson thought it would have been filled with anger and hurt feelings, but it was Dominique, so she was about as irritated as if he was not sharing cookies.
“I don’t think he wants us to know,” said Jackson.
Dominique sighed. “He probably can’t bear the idea of actually talking about himself. He has always hated being the center of attention. Which I know sounds weird because he likes going to court.”
“He hates being vulnerable,” said Jackson. “Court is a show. He’s good at doing a show. Being real is a lot harder for him.”
