Facing West (Forever Wilde 1)

Her grin was downright shit-eating, and I reached out a hand to Nico’s back before realizing what I was doing. He leaned his weight back into me slightly before responding.

“I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I hope Curt finds a nice man one day who’s not actually married. How about that?” Nico gave her a polite smile, and I wondered if I was the only person who realized how deliberately he’d snuck in the fact that Curt would wind up with another man one day. If only his and Daniel’s coupling hadn’t been so destructive to poor Jenn’s life as well as that of their young son. Lucky for Pippa, my brother Cal had told me about the affair the minute he’d realized the man he’d seen on the boat was the same man trying to adopt Pippa.

Mrs. Parnell continued, barely taking a breath. “Well, I also heard the new police officer hired to take Curt’s place is a nice homosexual man like yourself. So what do you think about that?”

Nico snuck me a look of incredulity, and I shrugged. I wished I could tell Nico her rudeness came from too much drink, but she was this way stone cold sober too.

“Well, Mrs. Parnell,” he said, reaching for my hand. “I believe I have my hands full with Dr. Wilde right now, but I’ll see if maybe Stevie wants to take our new officer some of his special nut clusters.”

I choked on my beer and yanked my hand out of his grip to cover my dripping face.

Nico gave her a serene smile until she tittered and tottered away to find someone else to gossip with. Meanwhile, I noticed my cousin Felix standing nearby, swaying precariously on his feet. I reached out a hand to steady him, and he turned a drunken grin on me.

“Hey there, Westerley,” he said with a giggle. “Having fun?”

“I am indeed. Looks like you are too. What’s gotten into you? You normally don’t drink. Just feeling the holiday spirit?” I teased.

“Nope,” he said, popping the end of the word with his lips. “Mommie Dearest is at it again. The big movie, you know? The one about that woman… that woman… the woman with the thing?”

His eyebrows came together as his brain fought to find the right words.

“Doesn’t she play the head of the CIA in that big spy thriller coming out Christmas Day?”

“That’s the one,” he said miserably. “It’s going to kill at the box office.”

“Sorry,” I said, unsure of what would make him feel better. “Are you going to do your usual and just try to lie low until the media dies down?”

His face lit up, and he swayed again, reaching for my elbow to right himself. “Nope. Not this time. Doc and Grandpa are sending me on a sebat… sebat… a research trip,” he said with a hiccup.

“It’s probably a good idea to get out of Dodge. Although I’ll miss you if you’re not here for Christmas, Felix. What are you researching for?”

“Thesis stuff. Going to a castle-type place. They have good stained glass there for me to do. I mean study. I mean write about. Research, you know? Overseas. In Europe.”

He emphasized Europe, pronouncing it like your rope, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sounds good, buddy. You ever been there?”

“Barely been out of Texas. What about you, Westlake? You gonna take Nicopotamus somewhere sometime? You should come see me at the cattle… The cattle… The castle.” His tongue seemed too big for his mouth and he stuck it out a little to make room.

I bit my own tongue to keep from laughing. I had seriously never seen my shy little cousin this chatty. It was adorable.

Nico leaned in from the other side to whisper in my ear. “What’s wrong with him?”

I turned and put my mouth against Nico’s ear, running my tongue across the array of earrings there before answering him. He shivered. “He’s adorably shit-faced. Gonna be feeling it tomorrow.”

Nico leaned around me to smile at my cousin. “Hey Felix, buddy. How ya feeling?”

“Your hair used to be purple,” he said.

I thought Nico was going to bust something from holding back his laugh.

“Yes. Indeed it did,” he said through a smile.

“And now it’s like… rainbowy more. Or something.” His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Exactly. All the colors of the rainbow,” Nico said, running his slender fingers through his mane and letting the colors peek out in the firelight. I fixated on those fingers, thinking back a few hours to where they’d last been. We’d played a rousing game of Doctor, and I’d been the lucky recipient of the prostate exam.

My dick stirred in my jeans, and I swore under my breath when Nico gave me a knowing look.

“West, are you feeling okay?” he asked all fake innocence. “Did you need a doctor?”