The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark entered the funeral home and felt her footsteps faltering.

Coming deep from somewhere within the rooms beyond her, there were muffled sounds of talking, crying and even laughter. Her parents and sister were already here. The place was packed to the brim with people, and she was going to have to plot a course to get to the room where her grandmother was laid

out.

Her mother appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her, hissing quietly, "where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for you for nearly an hour.'

"Sorry." She wasn't really as her mother dragged her though the crowd not even aware of how the people were nearly hopping out of Everly's path.

"Get it together, Lark. Your dad needs you."

"I know," she swallowed a bitter taste on her tongue. "I needed a minute to myself."

"Lark, you left the house without us."

"Actually," she scoffed, "you left without me."

"What?" her mother frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

"I was there, and you left. I lost track of time. I," she took a breath, "I was in the treehouse. By the way, it needs to be torn down. I know Bobbie and Olivier keep their side up for their weird s*x adventures, but our side needs to come down. It's a death trap.'

"What?" Everly was thoroughly confused by her rambling.

"I mean, even if I have kids, they need a new one. I'm not letting them up there."

"You were in the treehouse?"

"Yeah."

"We left you at the house?"

"Yup. Felt very much like sixth grade again when you thought I went with Max and Ollie to the fair and they thought I went with you and Dad. I got left home alone."

"We called you Kevin McAllister for a year." Her mother grinned at the memory and then hugged her. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were still in the house."

"It's fine. I called a ride share."

"It's not fine. I was pissed at you and it's my own fault."

"Mom, take a breath," Lark grabbed her hands and squeezed them. "Today is chaos. We're trying to do everything all at once and it's a lot and it's too much even and frankly Nana Prue would kick us all in the

ass."

"f**k I'm missing her." Everly's eyes started to water.

"Me too. Heriberto was telling me on the plane about how he shared drinks with her the other night." "Is that why you were all cozied up with him?" Everly asked as she inhaled before stepping into the room. Per Nana Prue's wishes, the casket was closed, and a big photo sat atop it. The woman had made them all promise ages ago when she went, they wouldn't let anyone stand over her in ugly make-up talking about how good she looks dead. Photos only. It made Lark smile to remember the woman's words. "Yes. He was saying how Grandpa allegedly, after their sexy little romp," she tried not to gag, "tried to commandeer Nana Prue to stay in Houston and move back in with him and she left him panting in bed and walked away."

"She told me that too," Everly grinned. "Said the s*x was good but not good enough she was going to give up her autonomy and freedom for it."

"I wish she'd told me more." Lark pouted.

"She also made a comment about whether he likely put Botox in his ball sack so count yourself lucky," Everly snorted." Bobbie and I were trying to figure out how to bleach our eardrums."

"I wanted the inspirational stuff, not the disgusting stuff," Lark gagged at the mental image now rolling through her psyche of her grandfather who was standing nearby talking to a distant relative. She shuddered and Everly caught it and chuckled.

"Your grandmother was a wonderful mix of inspirational and revolting." Everly hugged her to her side. She kissed her temple. "For example, if you look around the funeral home, the vast majority of the mourners are men over the age of fifty. There is a very handsome man your father's age here who called your grandmother a special friend he met on a cruise. She was getting it on with men nearly thirty years younger than her!"

"Dear god." Lark made wide eyes at her mother.

"Right? Inspirational yet revolting."

She giggled in spite of herself and found herself pushed into her father's side.

"Found her. We actually left without her. She was in the treehouse taking a moment to herself because

our house was chaos with everyone coming in and out." Everly summarized for Grady.

"Oh s**t, Lark, I am so sorry," her father wrapped her in his arms and hugged her tight. "We thought you went with the first batch of cars."

"Nope. It's fine, Dad." She kissed his cheek. "How are you holding up?"

He patted his chest, "I have less than a quarter left in my flask so doing okay."

"Dad!" she looked into his eyes and noted they were indeed looking a little glassy. "You're drunk?"

"I may have saluted my mother a few times too many already."

"I've refilled his flask twice," Everly whispered. "The bottle of bourbon is hidden behind the casket when his flask empties. If I'm not here, refill it for him."

"Mom, you can't encourage him to be drunk on her funeral day."

"Uh, yes, I can because it's what she wanted. Do you not remember? No open casket. Do not bury her in a bra. No cucumber sandwiches at the wake. No burying her with an ex-husband, lover or man who will try to steal her precious prime real estate spot she hand-selected at the cemetery. Make sure her precious Grady stays drunk from sunup to sundown because he's going to be a wreck and he rarely cries when he's drunk because he's a happy drunk." Everly counted off on her fingers, "oh and no black dresses in sight."

Lark slipped her hand inside her father's lapel and then pulled out the flask, keeping her back to the crowd, she uncapped it, took a swig, and met his laughing eyes. "She told me when I sipped my first drink with her many years ago to never let a sad man drink alone. I mean, she did also say it was the best time to get them to pay for drinks and pass you their credit card but -" she giggled as her father threw his head back and gave a shout of laughter which startled many people in the room.

"Holy cow," Fallon popped up under Grady's arm, "there are two cruise ship captains here and they are hot as hell. I might become a sugar baby in Nana Prue's name." Her eyes zeroed in on the flask, "are you guys drinking?"

"You're underage," Everly hissed when Fallon's fingers reached for the flask.

"It's a wake," Grady argued as Lark tipped the metal cannister into Fallon's mouth, "besides we've put her to bed more than once after a bender with LJ, Mori and Ronnie."

"Want to hear something funny about LJ?" Fallon grinned wickedly. "Ronnie swears he has Veronique's powers and he's been practicing weird voodoo type magic s**t under her tutelage." Lark blinked in horror, "what?"

Everly snorted, "you need to get Bobbie to tell you the story about the chicken sacrifice which caused her to get pregnant with triplets. Veronique is a priestess, and she swears since Ronnie was born, he is who she is passing her powers onto. Did you know too, Mori was first identified in ultrasound as a boy, and she came out as a girl. True story. It was the way one of the umbilical cords were laying or a shadow. LJ and Ronnie are identical as you know, and Mori was the odd one out. We all thought Veronique would single out Mori, but she did some weird ritualistic dance over their bassinette and named Ronnie her successor. I told Bobbie it was bad luck to name the boy after her."

"Anyway," Fallon frowned at her mother for taking over the story telling, "Ronnie is so pissed off at LJ for how he's been treating his mom and Max he made a doll and he's been practicing on it."

"He made a voodoo doll of LJ. His own brother?"

"Yup. Said he's cleansing his spirit through the doll."

"Cleansing his spirit?"

"Yeah," Fallon giggled as the flask passed around the four of them in their little circle. "He's been doing all this healing prayer and ritualistic s**t. Anyway, he did some kind of prayer which is supposed to cleanse him and then Mori overheard Olivier get a call from Levi. For the last half a day, LJ has been shitting and puking so much he's dehydrated. They were discussing whether to remove him from the bayou to get medical care but then Veronique piped in and said to leave it in the bayou. Bobbie was questioning if maybe he got bitten by something there, but Veronique insists it's poison from his soul being spewed and it's best to leave it to drown in the tangled roots of the bayou water."

Lark snickered, "they're not taking him for medical care?"

"Veronique said no.'

"You don't refuse Veronique. The woman is on the money most of the time. She's a witch. Nobody can convince me otherwise." Grady provided cover for Everly as she slunk off behind the casket to refill the flask. "The kid deserves it in my opinion. He's been a d**k far too long." He shot a look at Fallon, "you put up with too much from the three of them but him the most."

"He's my friend." Fallon whispered in a frown.

"Heriberto said you should have gone to college out of state to get away from them like I did the twins." "What does he know?" Fallon grumbled.

"Apparently, he had an enjoyable conversation with Nana Prue the other night and Olivier made him do a history on the triplets to sort out what to do with them and your name came up a lot. Heriberto called you their lifeline they use to pull themselves out of the quicksand. He also said if you keep allowing them to use you to drag them out of the sludge, you're the one left coated in what they leave behind. He told me loving someone doesn't mean giving them absolute power over you."

"He gives you this kind of advice?" Grady quirked an eyebrow, "how close are you with Santiago's lead henchman?"

She snorted, "he apparently gave the same advice to Santiago. I think he's worried about how Ollie and Santiago are." "His concern for his brother I get. His concern for you, not so much." Grady pushed. She shrugged, "I don't know. I feel comfortable with him, and he teases me a lot. I love Max and I would never betray him, but Heriberto sees me differently and he gives me unique perspective. I pulled a gun on him. I think he likes my chutzpa.

Her father's eyes rounded, "you pulled a gun on him?"

"Yeah," the alcohol was warming her blood. "The day Ollie went to meet Santiago. We snuck out of the hotel, confronted Santiago in a bar and I went in armed. Ollie wanted to leave so I got her out." Grady boldly grabbed the flask Everly handed back and looked at his wife, "it might be time to send our girls out of the country and away from our neighbors. I don't know how much more a father can take."