“No, it wasn’t their last name. Their names were Wanda Gail, Nora Gail, and Peggy Gail.”
“Is this a joke?”
He drew an x across his chest. “Cross my heart. Reede had already initiated them, so to speak, before I arrived on the scene. He introduced me to them.” He snickered, as though recalling a particularly sordid incident of his youth. “In short, the Gail sisters put out. They liked putting out. Every guy in Purcell High School must have had them at least once.”
“Okay, I get the picture. But when they were unavailable, you called on Stacey Wallace, because she put out, too.”
He looked at her levelly. “I’ve never coerced a woman. She was willing, Alex.”
“Only for you.”
He shrugged an admission.
“And you took advantage of that.”
“Name me one guy who wouldn’t.”
“You’ve got a point,” she said dryly. “I would venture to say that you’re the only man Stacey’s ever been with.”
He had the grace to look a little ashamed. “Yeah, I’d say so, too.”
“I felt sorry for her tonight, Junior. She was hateful to me, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.”
“I never understood why she latched onto me, but she shadowed me from the day I enrolled into Purcell High School. She was a brainy kid, you know. Always the teachers’ favorite because she was so conscientious and never got into trouble.” He chuckled. “They’d never believe what she was willing to do in the backseat of my Chevy.”
Alex gazed distractedly into space, not really listening. “Stacey despised Celina.”
“She was jealous of her.”
“Mainly because when you made love to Stacey, she knew it was my mother you were wishing for.”
“Jesus,” he swore softly, his smile collapsing.
“That’s what she said. Is that true?”
“Celina was always with Reede. That’s just the way it was. It was a fact of life.”
“But you did want her, even though she belonged to your best friend?”
After a lengthy pause, he admitted, “I’d be lying if I said otherwise.”
Very softly, Alex said, “Stacey told me something else. It was an offhanded comment, not a revelation. She said it as though it was common knowledge—something I should already know.”
“What?”
“That you wanted to marry my mother.” She refocused on him and asked huskily, “Did you?”
He averted his head for a second, then said, “Yes.”
“Before or after she got married and had me?”
“Both.” When he saw her apparent confusion, he said, “I don’t think a man could look at Celina and not want her for his own. She was beautiful and funny and had this way of making you think you were special to her. She had…” He groped for the adequate word. “Something,” he said, closing his fist around the elusive noun, “something that made you want to possess her.”
“Did you ever possess her?”
“Physically?”
“Did you ever sleep with my mother?”