Page 25 of Jake

Their furniture had blended well. Not only was the couch that Jake purchased post Carol the same one Forrest had in his own home, but the lamps were a perfect match to the floor lamp that Jake had. The pictures over the mantle had been the right size to fill the massive area. Since Jake hadn’t purchased much else but a bedroom set and his living room things, Forrest’s things filled out most of the rest of the house, including the dining room and the office that they’d share.

When he thought he could stand without making a fool of himself, he went to find Jake. He was in the main hall with his cell to his ear and his head leaning against the wall. He might have thought him upset but for the bursts of laughter that came from him. Forrest touched him on the shoulder, and Jake looked at him with tears in his eyes and humor, a great deal of it, on his face.

“I have to go, Grandma. I want to tell Forrest this before anyone gets here. You’re coming early, right?” She must have said she was because Jake thanked her. “I’ll see you soon. And thank you for this. You’ve made my entire day.”

“I take it your grandma is enjoying herself with something.” Jake nodded and told him she’d been talking to her son. “I bet that went over well.”

“You have no idea. She said she called him to ask him about tonight’s dinner and he said he wasn’t coming. Last I heard he was. Anyway, she told him to get the stick out of his ass, her words, and to get over here. Because if he didn’t, she was going to cut him off, and she didn’t mean the money either.” Forrest could see her doing it too. “I think she implied that she was going to hire a hit man to come after him.”

“She knows a great many people, her relationship with Quincey notwithstanding. How did she meet him, do you know?” Jake told him. “You’re kidding? She actually put an ad in the paper for a blood sucker to come and see her? Your grandma has some big balls. I think I’ll be a little nicer to her from now on.”

“You should call her Grandma like I do. But back to my dad. He said that he had no use for her money, and who else would she leave it to but to him? I guess he had it in his head that since he was her only son that he’d just inherit it all.” Forrest knew that Jacob wasn’t getting a dime of her money, that Jake was getting it all. “So when she informed him that she was going to live a lot longer than he was, he laughed. Grandma then told him about Quincey.”

“You think that story she told before is true? That she is going to outlive us all?” Jake said he didn’t know and apparently neither did his dad. “I love that old bat. She is the best woman I’ve ever known.”

“My parents are coming but they’re not happy about it. Your dad is going to be here, and is more pissed about it than my parents are. Grandma is taking bets on who leaves first and how they do it. Also, Carol is in jail, asking me to come in and bail her out. Then to represent her in her trial for killing her mother. This could not be more fucked up if you ask me.” Forrest asked him if he was going to have fun. “You know, believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to this. I think this is just what I need. What we both need.”

“I agree. Once today is finished and we get this mess with Carol out of the way, then you and I need to figure out a nice place to go and take a long vacation. We can dust off our passports and have a nice long trip seeing other countries.” Jake said that sounded fine to him. “Great. I’ll work on that tonight, after they’re gone.”

“No, tonight you return the favor. You left me hanging.”

As Jake walked away, Forrest started laughing. While he was in the bedroom getting cleaned up for dinner, he thought of all the things he was going to do to Jake. And he was sure it wasn’t even going to come close to what he’d done to him on the couch. But he was going to try his best, even if it took him all night. Yes, sir, Forrest thought, life was going to be fucking perfect.

Chapter 11

Ranford wasn’t happy. And more than that, he knew that whatever came of tonight he was going to be more pissed than he was at the moment. The nerve of his son telling Jenna Winslow to make him come here. And since she held all the cards right now, he either had to come here or be out on his ass. Fucking bitch.

His son moved about the room as if he owned it. He’d heard rumors that he had put his house on the market and was now living with someone. Ranford hadn’t any idea what the new address was until now, and he wasn’t happy about that either. Forrest was just trying to make him look foolish, and he’d pay for that as well.

“Would you like for me to make an announcement, Ranford? Or are you going to sit there and keep your mouth shut until you go home?” He glared at Jenna. “Don’t you dare give me that look. Anyone with a bit of knowledge about the stock market and how to do a search can find out what I did in ten minutes. And I’m old. What did you think was going to happen when you started screwing with things you had no idea of?”

“I dislike you a great deal.” Her laughter only fueled his anger. “I have no idea why you think that my coming here is going to make a bit of difference in whatever is going on here, but I’ll have you know that I will not be blackmailed by you.”

“No, I would imagine that you have enough of that going on in your life. When is the girlfriend due, Ranford? I think it’s soon.” He should have known that she’d find out that little tidbit of information as well. The woman was tenacious if nothing else. “I would have thought that after the first three times, you would have kept your Johnson in your pants and not out where any fertile woman could dance on it.”

“The things you say sometimes border on obscene. What sort of people do you hang around with to learn such things?” She looked at his son and the man that he presumed to be his latest lover. “Him? He’s nothing. Less than nothing. Had I known what he’d turn out to be I would have had his mother abort the monster.”

“Are you referring to him being like her and a cat, or the fact that he’s a homosexual? Either trait, as far as I’m concerned, is a good quality in a person.” He said nothing. “I often wonder if you had any idea that Bernadine was a cat when you proposed to her. I’m thinking not. You think your blood is too pure to have mixed with her.”

“She should have told me.” Jenna only laughed. “Then when she told me that she carried my child, I worked my damnedest to get her to leave it on the floor of a doctor’s office. Even told her that I’d pay for her to have a nice long vacation, with no limit on how much she could spend.” He looked behind him when she nodded to his right. His son stood there, looking at him with as much hate as Ranford had for him. “You can’t have thought that you were welcome into my world. Your mother conspired against me, and in doing so, she was taken ill for life by giving birth to you. A monster.”

“Monster or not, I’m a better man than you’ll ever hope to be.” Ranford stood up; it was time to take his son down a few notches. But almost as soon as he did, standing a good six inches shorter than his son, Ranford realized something else. His son wasn’t the coward he’d been all those years ago. “What’s the matter, Father? Have you only come to realize how much I look like you? Or is it the fact that I’ve grown up?”

“You sicken me. Here you are with this man, and what do you expect to get from it? Do you think he’ll be friends with you when he figures out what a depraved mind you have?” He looked around the room for something else he could point out that Forrest would never have. “This place, I’m sure that it comes with a high rent. Did you come here thinking to show me how much you’ve come up in the world? I have news for you, Forrest, it was a waste of your money trying to impress me.”

“I have no desire whatsoever to impress you. Not anymore at least. This house, along with the four thousand acres, belongs to Jake. My lover, my mate.” Ranford looked at the man talking to the butler with new eyes. “In the event you missed it, Father, he’s Jenna Winslow’s grandson.”

He felt his world crashing down around him. Forrest was mated? To a Winslow. He wanted to hurt him, lash out at him that it was lies. But he knew this was just the kind of thing that would happen to him, that his son would be richer than he was.

“You’ve done well then.” Ranford wanted to go, to leave this place and never return. “I should be going.” He turned to do so; his plans to come here and humiliate his son, to make him feel less than a person, were ruined.

“I’ve bought your loans.” He turned slowly to look at Forrest as he continued. “Jake and I, we did some investigating and found that you’re broke. Not just broke, but on the verge of being put out of your home. Isn’t that about right, Father? You will be tossed out as well soon enough, when I get what I want from you. Then there is the money that you’re paying out. My goodness father, you have been a very busy man.”

“They’re not mine.” He asked him who. “Those bastards. They’re not mine. I’m paying to keep them from going to the press. A man with my connections does not need this hitting the press about women just saying that I’m the father of their child. I’ll deal with that soon enough too. However necessary. And I’m not broke…I’m in a financial bind, that’s all. I’ll be recovering before the ink dries on your next lawsuit.”

Forrest sat down hard. Ranford wasn’t sure what had happened, but was glad to see that he had felled him. But when he looked up at him, he could see contempt here, hatred like he’d never seen before.

“I was talking about the lawsuits from the vendors that you owe money to.” The other man came to him, put his hand on his shoulder as Forrest stared at him. “You’ve fathered children that you’re not acknowledging? I thought it was bad enough that you hated me, but to do that to a human child? How could you?”

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