Read Online Neck & Neck by Elizabeth Bevarly - Free Book Online
Authors: Elizabeth Bevarly
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added to himself. “Specifically?” he asked.
“I really don’t know. I’m going to turn myself over to the capable hands of the driver you hired for me, since he’s a native and should know where all the best places are located.”
Right, Finn thought. Russell had specifically asked for a driver who could find all the best strip clubs in town, which meant it was going to be a late night for all concerned.
“Who’s going with you?” Finn asked.
Russell sighed in the way that indicated Finn was hovering like an overprotective mom. Too bad, Finn thought. It was his job to be responsible for Russell. And since, for the past eighteen months, Russell had been using his newfound wealth to reclaim the youth he’d been denied as a youth, that left Finn to hover like an overprotective mom. At least, that’s how he and Russell thought Finn was behaving. Neither had really had a mom who hovered over them when they were kids, which went a long way toward explaining why Russell was using his newfound wealth to reclaim the youth he’d been denied as a youth.
Finn could have done likewise, but, frankly, he had no desire to return to that time of his life, even if he could relive it differently. The man he was today was a sum of his life experiences, and he liked, for the most part, the man he was today. Had he been a happy teenager who never knew adversity, he would be someone else entirely. And he couldn’t imagine being anyone else.
Russell, on the other hand, wanted to be any one else and had wanted that, probably, since Marti’s death. During those too-short years with her, Russell had been the happiest Finn had ever seen him, and that was long before the Mulholland billions—or even the Mulholland millions—had started rolling in. He’d been wildly in love with his wife and baby son, and for a few months after Max’s birth, it had just looked like his life would be perfect forever. Then came Marti’s diagnosis, then her death, and after that . . .
Well, Russell had just started to pull away after that. From everything. And everyone. Even Max. Finn knew Russell loved his son. A lot. Which, maybe, was the very reason he kept his distance from the kid. Because he remembered how much it had hurt to lose Marti. And some part of him recognized that losing a child would hurt even more. Not that Finn was a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn’t take a degree in human behavior to figure that out. It only took watching your best friend go through the worst time in his life.
So while Finn was being a hovering mother to Russell, he did his best to be some kind of father figure to Max, too. So did the other guys who worked security. And Russell, to be fair, spent as much time with his son as he could. Or, at least as much as he dared. Their passion for gaming was the glue that bound them, and they shared as much as they could of that world.
Russell also did his best to set a decent example for Max, mostly by keeping his in decent behavior confined to after-hours. He rarely introduced his son to the women he was dating, and the low profile he did his best to keep prevented him from being the target of too many lurid tabloid stories. Anything Max might read about his father was easily dismissed as—and Finn had spent a lot of time wording this explanation—“rumor and innuendo generated by a disgruntled media.” And, hey, anything printed about Russell was often rumor and innuendo generated by a disgruntled media.
Never mind that the reality was often rumor and innuendo for a reason, not to mention lurid. As far as Max was concerned, his father was no worse behaved than anyone else’s. And really, considering the behavior of some of the fathers of the kids Max ran around with—and some of the mothers, too, for that matter—Russell was a paragon of virtue.
“Come on,” Finn cajoled that paragon now. “Out with it. Where are you going?”
Russell ticked off a list of destinations whose
“I really don’t know. I’m going to turn myself over to the capable hands of the driver you hired for me, since he’s a native and should know where all the best places are located.”
Right, Finn thought. Russell had specifically asked for a driver who could find all the best strip clubs in town, which meant it was going to be a late night for all concerned.
“Who’s going with you?” Finn asked.
Russell sighed in the way that indicated Finn was hovering like an overprotective mom. Too bad, Finn thought. It was his job to be responsible for Russell. And since, for the past eighteen months, Russell had been using his newfound wealth to reclaim the youth he’d been denied as a youth, that left Finn to hover like an overprotective mom. At least, that’s how he and Russell thought Finn was behaving. Neither had really had a mom who hovered over them when they were kids, which went a long way toward explaining why Russell was using his newfound wealth to reclaim the youth he’d been denied as a youth.
Finn could have done likewise, but, frankly, he had no desire to return to that time of his life, even if he could relive it differently. The man he was today was a sum of his life experiences, and he liked, for the most part, the man he was today. Had he been a happy teenager who never knew adversity, he would be someone else entirely. And he couldn’t imagine being anyone else.
Russell, on the other hand, wanted to be any one else and had wanted that, probably, since Marti’s death. During those too-short years with her, Russell had been the happiest Finn had ever seen him, and that was long before the Mulholland billions—or even the Mulholland millions—had started rolling in. He’d been wildly in love with his wife and baby son, and for a few months after Max’s birth, it had just looked like his life would be perfect forever. Then came Marti’s diagnosis, then her death, and after that . . .
Well, Russell had just started to pull away after that. From everything. And everyone. Even Max. Finn knew Russell loved his son. A lot. Which, maybe, was the very reason he kept his distance from the kid. Because he remembered how much it had hurt to lose Marti. And some part of him recognized that losing a child would hurt even more. Not that Finn was a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn’t take a degree in human behavior to figure that out. It only took watching your best friend go through the worst time in his life.
So while Finn was being a hovering mother to Russell, he did his best to be some kind of father figure to Max, too. So did the other guys who worked security. And Russell, to be fair, spent as much time with his son as he could. Or, at least as much as he dared. Their passion for gaming was the glue that bound them, and they shared as much as they could of that world.
Russell also did his best to set a decent example for Max, mostly by keeping his in decent behavior confined to after-hours. He rarely introduced his son to the women he was dating, and the low profile he did his best to keep prevented him from being the target of too many lurid tabloid stories. Anything Max might read about his father was easily dismissed as—and Finn had spent a lot of time wording this explanation—“rumor and innuendo generated by a disgruntled media.” And, hey, anything printed about Russell was often rumor and innuendo generated by a disgruntled media.
Never mind that the reality was often rumor and innuendo for a reason, not to mention lurid. As far as Max was concerned, his father was no worse behaved than anyone else’s. And really, considering the behavior of some of the fathers of the kids Max ran around with—and some of the mothers, too, for that matter—Russell was a paragon of virtue.
“Come on,” Finn cajoled that paragon now. “Out with it. Where are you going?”
Russell ticked off a list of destinations whose
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