Elder Brother's Maze by Jan Kelly

Author:Jan Kelly [Kelly, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jan Kelly

They drank champagne in the breezeway, toasting the horses and each other, Frank with an arm draped over Lily’s bare shoulders, Manny standing back by the stalls.

“You should have heard the people sitting next to us in the stands,” Lily crowed. “Sasha did good—what am I saying—she did great! But Tristan really bowled them over. You should have heard the comments, Guy. You wouldn’t believe it.”

Frank filled Guy’s glass again, topped off Lily’s and his own: “Here’s to our success.” He tapped the plastic of Guy’s glass with his own, leaned close to wink. “That little stud is going to make us a fortune. Hear that, you?” He raised his drink to Tristan in his stall.

Guy heard Manny sitting down behind them, tapping his empty glass. The more animated Lily and Frank became—Frank missing their glasses and splashing champagne on the dirt, Lily throwing back her head to laugh—the more morose his expression became. Guy finally stopped glancing at him until they’d finished the bottle, then he turned all the way around to tell him to pack up the horses. But Manny was already a hulking silhouette at the far end of the breezeway, carrying their tack out to the trailer.

Frank clapped Guy on the shoulder and pulled him over to one side, “Listen, I gotta tell you something before we go. This party tomorrow night,” he said, “I’d be there but I’ve got this damn specialist to see, back in Chicago.” Frank stopped and tugged at his collar, loosened his tie. “We can’t afford to miss this event—there will be some people there that we need to impress.” Frank glanced over his shoulder at his wife, then went on. “Let Lily show you off a little bit—she’s always talking you up to the horsey crowd, anyway. You say and do whatever you think is gonna be good for business, understand? You’re mister expert, she’s the lovely wife, and our little stud is made of manure and diamonds, got it? Come to think of it, just focus on the diamonds—they know about the manure part.”

Guy said, “Wait a minute,” and tried to step away but Frank still had him by the shoulder and he kept talking in a low voice, his lips close to Guy’s ear. “We’re in trouble, Guy, you know? I got the chest pains to prove it, understand?” He thumbed his breastbone, and Guy noticed then, up close, the dark rings under his eyes. “Help me out a little bit—you let those people at the party see how solid Desert Arabians is, how we’ve got a lot of youth and enthusiasm in our operation.” Then he backed off with a look Guy couldn’t quite interpret. “I’ve had it, honey,” he called to Lily. “Let’s get a move on.”

Guy turned to see where Lily was; she’d been hanging around Tristan’s stall, pretending not to listen. Now she followed her husband out, pausing a moment before Guy. “You looked good out there today,” she said, giving him that familiar smile, “really good.

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