Treacherous Secrets novel Chapter 3

"Like I said, a very good boy," Fernando said and smiled. "A good man now, I guess."

She patted Fernando on the arm. "Okay, I'm going back to the house and make sure everything is going well with the food."

When Emily got back to the kitchen, Carol was there taste testing Sonja's concoctions. "Oh my God, this is fantastic."

"Thank you, Mrs. Butler," Sonja said, smiling pleasantly.

Emily was sure that smile was either forced or Sonja had been dipping into the tequila. She leaned close to Sonja and asked, "The special tequila hidden somewhere?"

Sonja said, "Oh course, Mrs. Jenkins." She looked over Emily's shoulder. "Just let me know when you want me to start preparing the drinks.

Emily turned to see Kenton standing behind her. "Everything is coming along beautifully. I've got another case of champagne on the way. Can you think of anything else we need?"

"Not right now," Kenton said. "It all looks great so far." He moved to Carol and kissed her on the cheek. "Where's that husband of yours? He owes me on the last horse race we bet on."

Carol had just put a bite of stuffed mushroom in her mouth. She covered her full mouth with her hand and said, "He's out by the pool talking with Mr. and Mrs. Walker."

"Good, I need to talk to Walker, too," he said and slipped past Carol.

Carol picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth. "He smells fantastic. What is he wearing?"

"I'm not sure, some new fruity stuff," Emily said and gave Sonja a hand motion to let her know that she wanted a drink. Sonja nodded and headed to the pantry, where she had apparently stashed the tequila.

Emily heard the door bell and went to answer it. Sonja poked her head out of the pantry and gave Emily thumbs up, letting her know that her drink was ready. Emily was going to need a couple of tequila shots, at the very least, to get her through this night. She opened the door graciously. "Good evening," she said to Walter Chase, his son Frank, Walter's wife, Frances, and Frank's wife, Cecelia. "Welcome." She motioned them to come in. "Kenton is out by the pool. I'll send someone around with glasses of champagne momentarily."

Walter and Frank quickly headed outside where Kenton was talking with Damon and the Walkers."Thank you," Mrs. Chase said warmly. "You always have such a lovely gathering ready for us, Emily. I can't wait to see what Sonja has made for us tonight."

"Thank you, Mrs. Chase. It's always good to have you at our home."

"Please call me Frances," she said. "We've known each other long enough to do without the formalities."

Emily bowed her head. "Thank you, Frances. If you both want to follow me, let's go out to the pool and garden area and find a place to sit. Sonja and her assistants will be serving the food shortly."

Frank's wife followed them quietly. She rarely had much to say, and Emily suspected she was a stuck up bitch. There was something strange about Cecelia Chase that Emily couldn't quite put her finger on, but she was always polite to the woman.The man who was bartending for the night was on his way out with a tray of champagne. Emily grabbed two and handed them to Frances and Cecelia. "Take these and go on out. I'm going to check on things in the kitchen, and then I'll be right out. "

As Frances and Cecelia walked out toward the gardens, Emily headed to the pantry and found the shot of tequila Sonja had set out for her. She didn't like champagne and would be drinking sparkling water most of the night, but she knew Sonja would keep a shot waiting for her if she needed to sneak in and get one. She had a feeling she would be visiting the pantry often tonight.

After the dinner portion of the night was over, Emily wandered from group to group, trying to talk with everyone who had come.There were several wives here tonight so she made a point to spend a few minutes with each one. It was funny how many of them were like her. They stayed home and prepared for these parties. Most of them had children, which limited what Emily could really talk to them about. She didn't have a clue what it was like to deal with the daily struggle of having children, and the more she listened to these women, the happier she was that she didn't have any.

The night was almost half over when the mysterious Ashley, who Carol thought was having an affair with Damon, showed up. Emily was in a conversation with Sandra Andrews, who was going on and on about her two preteen sons, when Carol had rushed over to her and hissed, "She's here."

"Who's here?"

"Yes, my partner, Kim and I."

Carol choked on her drink behind Emily, where she'd stood fuming.

Emily immediately started pounding on Carol's back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Carol gasped. "It just went down the wrong pipe."

Emily chuckled. "You and I will have to talk later," she whispered to Carol.

"I'm going to go get a drink of water," Carol said and hurried off to the kitchen.

Ashley touched Emily's arm. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Oh yeah," Emily assured her. "She'll be fine, eventually." Emily wanted to laugh. Damon had told Carol Ashley was gay, and he wasn't lying. If Emily would have known the woman Carol had been talking about was Ashley Sjveck, she could have confirmed that for her. Ashley had been a major player in college. She had so many girlfriends that Emily had lost count. She and Emily had even had a drunken one-night stand, which they both swore they would never tell a soul about.

"So, how do you and Damon know each other?" Emily asked.

"I knew him in college. We had a few pre-law classes together. And then, we both worked as legal aids in Weston, Audrey, and Hinton's law firm in Atlanta. I went back home and worked for a couple of firms in Knoxville that specialized in real estate law. Last year we met up again over the land Morgan Chase is trying to buy. I was actually working for the firm who was representing the land owners. Damon convinced me to come over to the other side, plus I wanted to get out of Knoxville." Ashley looked away sadly, "My family is not happy about my sexual orientation, and they were really pissed when Kim and I went to Canada to get married. I'm an ex-patriot, according to my father."

"Oh, Hon," Emily said, squeezing Ashley's arm, "I'm so sorry. I know how much you'd hoped they would eventually accept your lifestyle."