Poker Posse 1: Looking at Rose (16 page)

“A pleasure, Miss Whittman.”

“Uncle?” Viola’s gasped question drew everyone’s attention. What little color she’d had in her face had leached away, and she swayed on her feet. Her blue eyes went wide, and her gaze shot back and forth between Ibraham and Vladamir.

“Mama?”

“Mouse?” Vladamir’s voice overrode Rose’s. He scooped Viola off her feet and settled her onto the love seat nearby.

Viola seemed oblivious. She muttered and mumbled to herself while Rose hurried into the kitchen and brought back a glass of water.

“Oh this is bad. So bad. Oh, my poor Rose. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. But I should have known.” Viola prattled on until Rose held the glass to her lips.

“Take a sip, Mama, and calm down.”

Viola ignored the water and reached out to stroke Rose’s tumbled hair. “I’m so sorry, honey, but I can’t…you can’t be with… I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t know what had upset her mother, but the more Viola babbled, the more nervous Rose became. She set the glass on the coffee table before she dropped it, then reached out to hold her mother’s hand. “Mama, what are you saying? Who can’t I be with?”

Viola looked over her head at Ibraham and squeezed her eyes shut before returning her gaze to Rose. “Him. Ibraham. You can’t be with him. It’s not right. Not natural.”

Behind her she could feel the surprise and offended pride radiate off Ibraham like the heat of a blast furnace, but Rose forced herself to ignore it.

Vladamir glared down at her mother. “That is uncalled for, Viola. Ibraham is a good man.”

Viola lifted tear-filled eyes and whispered, “And her cousin.”

Vladamir went pale and stared at Rose. Rose swallowed and sat on the coffee table facing her mother, not sure she’d heard her correctly.

“What do you mean cousin?” Rose croaked, not wanting to believe what her mother was suggesting.

Viola focused on Rose, the hold she had on her hand growing tighter as if her mother was afraid she’d pull away. “I’m so sorry, baby. I should have told you years ago.”

“Told me what, Mama?”

“Joe wanted me to tell you, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know who Ibraham was. I didn’t know about Vladamir. You can’t be with Ibraham.” Before Rose could voice her protest, her mother continued, “Remember I told you you get your height from your daddy’s side of the family?”

Rose nodded.

“Mouse?” Vlad lowered himself onto the arm of the settee as he looked closer at Rose and Rose looked at him.

“Mama?”

“I didn’t know I was pregnant until after I came home, and Vlad was married.”

“Married?”

“Pregnant?”

Rose’s and Vladamir’s voices overlapped.

Ibraham interrupted, his tone thick with anger. “Just because you left Vlad doesn’t mean the same will happen between Rose and I. How does your affair have anything to do with us?”

Vlad gripped Viola’s arms and gave a gentle shake. “She is my daughter? You kept her from me?”

This time Rose could feel the blood seep from her face. She recognized why her mother was suddenly against her being with Ibraham. She pulled her hand from her mother’s hold and stood up. “If he’s my father, then—”

Viola’s eyes swam with tears and regret. “Ibraham is your cousin. I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

Rose’s head spun with the implications of what she’d done the night before and all the people who’d witnessed it. She could feel her heart break in her chest. When Ibraham moved to put his arm around her, Rose tried to pull away, but he stopped her.

“Enough.” His stern command halted all conversation.

“But—”

“Mouse, stop.” Vlad gently covered her mouth with his fingertips.

“It’s okay. We’re not related.” Ibraham cupped Rose’s face forcing her to meet his gaze. “Vlad is one of my father’s best friends. He isn’t my uncle by blood.”

“But you call him uncle?”

Ibraham took a deep breath and smiled at her. “And you call your father’s best friend uncle. It is the same with Vlad and I. His father came to America with my grandfather. My father and Vlad grew up together. They are as close as brothers without being kin.”

Rose could feel her heart calm and her breathing relax. “That explains some of it.” She turned to look at her mother and the man seated beside her. Now, knowing what her mother had confessed, she could see the similarities between herself and Vladamir. “But it doesn’t explain how he knows my mother.”

“I met Vladamir when I was at a librarian’s conference in California.”

“When you were both married?” Rose settled deeper into Ibraham’s arms, shocked that her mother would have been unfaithful to her father—her husband—to Joe.

“I wasn’t married to Joe then,” Viola assured her.

“And I wasn’t married either,” Vladamir snapped.

Viola turned to look up at him. “But she said—”

“Who said?”

“The woman who came to your apartment. She said you were her husband. That she tolerated your infidelity—”

Vladamir shook his head. “And you didn’t wait to speak to me? Didn’t bother to ask me?”

Ibraham cleared his throat. “I think you can settle the issue of who did what later, but right now, I think Rose would like to know how she came to have two fathers.” He looked down at her, and Rose nodded.

Viola smiled softly. “I didn’t realize I was pregnant until a few months after I returned to Magnolia.”

“And I would have been right behind you if you’d not lied about who you were,” Vladamir grumbled even as he gently caressed Viola’s hand.

“Did you trap Daddy into believing I was his?” Rose couldn’t fathom her mother doing such a thing, but considering the fact that her parents married only six months before her birth, she’d always known her presence had forced their vows.

Viola shook her head. “No, honey. I didn’t. We were friends all through school. From the first day of kindergarten through our college graduations, Joe Whittman and I always looked out for each another. When I told him I was pregnant, he stepped up and offered to marry me to give my baby a name.”

Vladamir frowned. “He did not suggest you tell the real father? That you tell me?”

Viola lifted her hand and stroked his cheek. “He wanted me to. Argued for days with me to call you, but when I told him you were married, he stopped.”

She turned to Rose and smiled. “From the day you were born, Joe loved you. Before he died, we’d talked about telling you the truth, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take you away from Joe.”

Rose nodded her understanding, but Viola wasn’t finished.

“I was married to Joe for twenty-one years, but he was never really my husband.”

“I don’t understand? How can he not have been your husband?”

Viola sighed. “We never slept together. Were never husband and wife because Joe loved someone else.”

Things began to click in Rose’s mind. “Uncle Ray?”

Viola nodded. “Your daddy never told anyone but me. He and Ray loved each other, and they spent as much time as they could together. For a long time, Ray lived with us, until you started school, then Ray thought it would be best if he moved into the apartment over the garage.”

“Those nights Daddy stayed at the garage?” Rose asked.

Viola smiled. “Alone time for Ray and Joe. They really loved each other, had since junior high, but it just wasn’t acceptable, even then, for them to come out.”

“What about after they graduated high school?”

Her mother shook her head. “They couldn’t. Joe’s parents were dead, but Ray’s daddy was so set against a man being with a man—”

Again Vladamir interrupted. “Why didn’t you come to me, Viola? You should have told me.”

She agreed. “I couldn’t come between you and your wife.” When he would have protested she held up her hand. “I know now you weren’t married, but then”—she cupped his face in her hands—“all I knew was what the woman told me when she came to your apartment. I was embarrassed, ashamed of coming between a husband and his wife. It seemed easiest for me to leave.”

Ibraham’s hand rubbed along Rose’s back, soothing the hurt and confusion swirling inside her. It sounded so crazy. Insane. Things like men who married women to hide their homosexuality and secret babies only happened in books or movies. Not in real— A picture of Mirabeth and Parker flashed through Rose’s mind. Laughter suddenly bubbled up. Rose covered her mouth to try to stifle it.

“Rose?”

Ibraham and her mother’s voices were heavily laced with worry. Rose’s laughter grew louder. “Oh, Mama, now I know why you always sided with Mirrie when the ladies down at the church would gossip and carry tales about her and Parker.”

Viola turned pink and giggled, the sound young and free as she nodded. “Of course, dear. Mirabeth is a lovely young lady. I felt terrible when her marriage ended, but I have to wonder about that baby. I find it hard to believe that Parker would let her raise that baby alone, but it’s even harder to imagine him as the daddy. Joe was never interested in having—well…relations with me.”

“Oh no!” Rose glanced at the clock and pulled away from Ibraham. “The baby shower.”

Viola gasped. “I completely forgot.”

Neither woman paid any attention to the men as they rushed toward the stairs, their words overlapping as they discussed who would do what to get the treats and gifts to the judge and Mabel Hampton’s guesthouse where Mirabeth lived.

IBRAHAM GLANCED AT his uncle, a wry grin lifting his lips. He looked pointedly at the other man’s bare feet and half-buttoned shirt. “So, the reunion with your mouse went well?”

Vladamir finished the last few buttons and tugged on his socks. “Do not think you will distract me, Ibraham. It is clear that you had…relations with my daughter.”

He laughed at his uncle’s pointed use of Miss Viola’s term. “With your blessings, if you recall, Uncle.”

Cool gray eyes narrowed as Vladamir scowled at him. “I did not know she was my daughter when I gave those blessings, pup.”

“Before this morning, you didn’t have a daughter,” Ibraham reminded him. Before his uncle could bluster and protest, he leaned forward and assured him, “Do not worry, Vlad. When the time comes, I swear I will ask your permission for her hand.”

Moments later, Rose and her mother descended the stairs in a swirl of flowery print dresses and excited chatter. Ibraham grinned at the high heels that put a sensual sway into his Rose’s hips as she walked toward him. He’d have to make sure to keep her supplied with sexy footwear.

Ibraham and Vladamir silenced their women with kisses before leading them out of the house and into their respective vehicles.

The warm weight of his hands against her back made Viola snuggle in closer. The steady thump of Vladamir’s heart beneath her ear reassured her even as the heated length of his erection began to press against her belly. Tilting her head back, she grinned up at him. “Behave yourself. People are watching.”

Vlad chuckled and pulled her closer and lowered his hands to the plump curve of her bottom. “Let them watch, Mouse.”

Viola recalled him whispering the same words to her twenty-seven years earlier when he’d swayed on the dance floor with her, ignoring the lively beat of the music in favor of simply holding her close. Just as he was doing now. Through the crowd she caught glimpses of Rose and Ibraham moving to the beat, their bodies touching, caressing, as if they were the only people in the world.

“He will marry her.” Vlad’s uncompromising tone vibrated against her cheek.

Viola looked up at him. “Of course he will. Why do you think I picked him out.”

“
You
picked him out?” The eyebrow over his left eye rose, then fell; clearly Ibraham had picked up some habits from his honorary uncle.

“Oh yes. The second I spotted him on his cage, I knew he was just the man for my Rose.”

“
Our
Rose.” Vlad’s attention moved to the barred cage across the room.

If Viola didn’t know any better, she’d bet Vlad was squirming inside at the thought of watching Rose and Ibraham perform. Not that she didn’t feel the same way. There were just some things a mama did not need to know about her baby. Hoping to change the subject, she pouted. “I don’t know what I’ll do when Rose moves out.”

Vlad harrumphed. “She’s not moving out. Not yet at least.”

He seemed almost pleased Rose had refused Ibraham’s suggestion that they move in together before they marry, but Viola didn’t think her daughter’s resolve would last the whole six months. More like a month or two. And she certainly wasn’t happy that she couldn’t have more time alone with Vlad. “True. It’s not like you’re a young man. So you won’t miss out on any fun with our daughter around to interrupt us. It’s probably a good thing that Ibraham’s family is obligated to attend the wine competitions in Europe and South America for the next six months. Gives you time to build your stamina.”

A groan sounded over her head. “Evil woman. You were the one who started things; I was merely finishing them.”

“Not quite finished,” Viola reminded him.

“Well, I would have if our daughter hadn’t come barging in. Did you not teach her to knock before entering a room?”

Viola rolled her eyes. “There’s no door to the kitchen.”

“What about the laundry room? It has a door.” Vlad began moving her from the dance floor toward the double doors leading out of the Omen.

As she followed him, Viola caught Rose’s attention and waved her good-bye. Her daughter buried her face in Ibraham’s shoulder, a blush turning her cheeks red as she recognized exactly why she and Vlad were departing. To Vlad she responded, “Yes, there’s a door, which you forgot to close.”

Outside the club, Vlad pinched her bottom and glared down at her. “I did not expect you to be so loud, my mouse. Next time I will remember to cover your mouth when we play that particular game.”

Viola giggled, feeling young and alive again and ready to see just where her Master might take her.

* * * *

A crowd, smaller than the one she’d encountered her first night in the Omen and made up of club members only, mingled and chatted around them as Rose followed Ibraham from the dance floor toward his iron-barred cage. Her nerves had eased somewhat when she’d spotted her mother and Vlad leaving. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with the embarrassing thought that her mama might be watching her.