Can’t Win ‘Em All

1. One

1

ONE

“H e’s doing what now?”

My brother Zach glared at my mother—he wasn’t really angry with her as much as the situation—and steepled his fingers in front of him. The entire Stone family, as well as a few close friends and coworkers, were gathered in one of the conference rooms at Stone Casino & Resort to talk about the next phase of our redevelopment.

It wasn’t going well. To say the least.

“Your father is going to contest all of this in court,” my mother replied. Even though she’d been publicly humiliated by her husband, Cora Stone remained unflappable. That’s how I wanted to be when I grew up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have her stoicism. I had plenty of moxie. Stoicism was another story, however.

“All of what?” Zach challenged. He sat next to his wife, Olivia, his fingers absently tracing over her palm as he held her hand in his lap, and it wasn’t hard to grasp what he was doing. He was calming himself—Olivia always had a calming effect on him—but the muscle working in his jaw told me it wasn’t going very well.

“All of it,” Mom replied. “He’s fighting the documents we had him sign. He’s fighting losing his shares in the company. He’s fighting Opal being in charge.” She shot my oldest sister an apologetic look, as if it were her fault that our father was such a jerk. “He doesn’t want to acknowledge what a great job you’re doing because that would mean that ousting him was the best thing we could’ve done.”

I considered that, then nodded. Ryder Stone—the father I had only seen sporadically for the past few months—was never going to acknowledge that the sun didn’t rise and set on him. Opal could’ve spun gold from thin air and yet my father would never acknowledge it. That’s simply not who he was.

“Sorry,” a male voice offered from the doorway, jerking my attention in that direction. Rex Carter, all dark hair and broad shoulders, was breathless as he appeared in the room. “There was an incident on the casino floor, and I had to handle it before I could come up here. I didn’t mean to be late.”

Rex was head of security. Normally, that meant placating high rollers and dealing with the local police when something popped up. Because Rex was who he was, however, he sometimes forgot he was in charge and instead pretended he was one of the drones just so he could get down and dirty with whomever happened to be causing issues at any given moment.

The truth was, Rex liked throwing punches. For some reason—and it was something my sophisticated brain couldn’t understand—that turned me on. Don’t ask me to explain it. I, Ruby Stone, was supposed to be above those sorts of things. I was thirty-five, had the world at my fingertips, and was finally out from under my father’s rigid dictatorship. The world was my oyster … and not one of the raw ones that looked like snot.

So how come I still felt like an awkward twenty-something whenever I was around Rex? It was so odd. It wasn’t as if I’d had a crush on him when I was younger. I was older than him, so that would’ve been embarrassing. When I left the house to live on my own, Rex and Zach were teenagers doing teenager things. They were embarrassing, and I wanted to be as far from them as possible. Somehow, both of them, had grown into good men. In Rex’s case, he’d grown into a smoke show on top of being charming and gregarious. He was still my little brother’s best friend, though. I mean … I couldn’t look at him like that. Or maybe it was that I shouldn’t look at him like that. I honestly couldn’t decide.

“It’s fine, Rex.” Mom gave him a welcoming smile and gestured toward the table. “Sit. We’re just doing a basic update.”

“Okay.” Rex’s smile was easy as he sat in the open chair to my left. “Hey, Booby Ruby,” he teased in a low voice, grinning at me.

Booby Ruby. He’d thought himself so clever when he came up with the name. He was twelve. I was fourteen and just going from a B-cup to a C-cup. I’d been mortified by the nickname because I’d been so self-conscious of what was happening. All the women in my family were beautiful. Long, lean, and small breasted. I was the anomaly, and I didn’t want that pointed out. Of course, that meant Rex was going to do just that. The fact that he was still doing it was grating.

“Sexy Rexy,” I replied. I’d been insistent on giving him a name when he refused to let mine drop upon reaching adulthood. Unfortunately, the only thing that rhymed with Rex was a compliment. He ate it up. Seeing his smile was the only reason I kept at it.

“Basically, your father is threatening a lawsuit,” Mom supplied, drawing everybody’s attention back to her. “He’s going to drag this out—and into a public spectacle—if we don’t kowtow to his demands.”

“I say we let him,” Zach replied, his eyes darkening. We all had reasons to dislike our father. Zach, as the only son, took those reasons to heart, especially since our father had tried to force Olivia out of his life.

Sure, Zach and Olivia had entered into a marriage of convenience at the start. She needed health insurance after being laid off. He needed our father to stop giving him a hard time about his wandering eye. Zach hadn’t been looking for forever when he and Olivia got married. He’d been looking for a temporary reprieve. Love will find a way, though, and it had with them.

Even though it had been Rex’s idea—he’d been trying to help his best friend and sister at the same time—he was ultimately the one obstacle Zach feared most when he fell in love with Olivia. Rex had taken the news that the relationship was real better than Zach expected, though. Now my brother was the only one in the family who was happily married. It was a weird reality to absorb.

I was the youngest of three sisters, although still older than Zach. Opal was the oldest. Pearl was the middle sister. Then there was me. We’d all been close in age to one another, which meant we were best friends as well as sisters. My father had wanted to use us as bargaining chips with other casino families in the area, essentially arranging marriages for us. The only form of control we could exert was to refuse his suggestions. That’s why all of us were still single. Now that my father was no longer in charge, I’d considered branching out with my dating options.

I remained nervous about what that would look like. If this had happened when I was still in my twenties, it would’ve been easier. Now I was set in my ways and had no idea what I wanted. For the longest time, the only thing I’d cared about was my father not winning. Now he’d lost—no matter what shenanigans he was up to—and I was still struggling to figure out what I wanted for my future.

“If we let him, all of our dirty laundry is going to be put out there for public consumption,” Mom argued. “That includes your father’s affairs, his pregnant mistress, his embezzlement.” She sighed. “Zach’s marrying Olivia as a business deal will probably become public fodder.”

On the other side of Rex, Zach stirred. “If everybody in Vegas wants to gossip about that, there’s nothing we can do. They’ll stop eventually when they realize Olivia and I are staying together … and it’s real.”

Olivia patted his shoulder. She wrangled Zach’s demons into submission better than anybody. “I agree with my husband.” She gave him a flirty smile that had the lines of his face softening. “Go ahead and let that information come out. He’s the one who looks bad in that scenario.”

Mom cocked her head, considering. “We could put out a statement,” she suggested after several seconds. “We could go on the offensive and say that the reorganizing at Stone Group happened because of impropriety under prior leadership. We wouldn’t have to include his name in the statement, but everybody would know.”

“That will just make him angrier,” Opal argued. “He’ll take it as an attack.”

“Maybe that’s what we need to do,” Pearl countered. “So far, we’ve done everything in our power to protect the family name. Frankly, I find it tiresome. If the real story gets out, we’ll take a hit for a short period of time. It won’t last, though. The casino’s profits are way up under Opal’s leadership. The board isn’t going to argue with results.”

Mom pressed her lips together, and I could tell she was really thinking. Technically, Opal was in charge of the casino—a job that should’ve always been hers—but Mom still wielded an incredible amount of control in the boardroom. Everybody was excelling under the new arrangement.

“How about this?” Mom started after a few seconds. “What if we bring in a crisis management team? We’ll see what they say and put together a template for a press release. Then we’ll let your father know what the plan is.”

“I say we cut him out entirely,” Zach said dourly. “Anything we can do to ruin his life, I’m all for it.”

Mom was sympathetic to Zach’s feelings, but only to a point. “Zachary, you are happily married and living your best life. How about we don’t make things more difficult for everybody else simply because you want to make your father’s life miserable?”

Zach was caught off guard. “Um … that’s not the only reason. He hurt Olivia when he tried to force her out of my life. He made her feel like garbage, like she wasn’t good enough.” There was anger practically dripping from his tongue. “He deserves a miserable life.”

Ever pragmatic, Mom raised her hand. “Yes. I understand. That doesn’t change the fact that you and Olivia are thriving. In fact, if you want to get to making grandchildren for me, I will be thriving too.” She sent my brother a knowing look.

“Oh, geez.” Zach threw up his hands, reminding me of the overreactive tween he’d been at one time. “You just had to go there, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Mom replied easily. “You need to take a breath. The hotel is doing great. The casino is doing great. The divorce is going to take some time because your father is fighting it at every turn, but that’s on schedule too. Just … calm down.” Her eyes flashed with warning. “I want to hear what your sisters have to say.”

“Yeah, Booby Ruby,” Rex drawled so only I could hear the nickname. “What do you think?” He sent me a flirty wink that did strange things to my insides.

Rather than dwell on the strange things that Rex did to my stomach—and, if I’m being truthful, my rickety girl parts—I cleared my throat and drew everybody’s attention to me. “I know nobody asked my opinion,” I started.

“I did,” Rex countered. His expression was guileless. He honestly had no idea what he did to me. That made it all the harder.

“I think Mom’s idea is a sound one,” I offered. “Those crisis management teams exist for a reason. It’s not as if Dad is suddenly going to grow a conscience and do the right thing.”

Snickers rang out around the table.

“We have to force him into the right decision,” I continued. “Those crisis teams are effective because they take the emotions out of their plans. We’re too close to this.” I darted a pointed look in Zach’s direction. “Some of us are way too close. We need an outsider to tell us what to do.”

“Or we could just go old school and drop Dad’s body in the desert,” Pearl added helpfully.

Mom extended a warning finger in her direction. “Don’t be cute.”

“Who says I was being cute?” Pearl challenged. She had Middle Child Syndrome and always pushed the boundaries on every side just to get the attention she was convinced she was due. “I’m being serious. The casino owners of old wouldn’t have put up with Dad’s crap. He would’ve been a strange hump of sand in the desert long before now.”

If Pearl had Middle Child Syndrome, I had Little Sister Syndrome. I wasn’t the youngest child, but since Zach was a boy, it sometimes felt that way. His upbringing had been vastly different from mine. My place in the pecking order meant I used my cuteness to get my way.

“I can try to talk to him,” I volunteered out of nowhere. “Dad I mean,” I added when confused looks flitted around the boardroom table. “Maybe I can make him see reason.”

Zach let loose a rude snorting noise and then immediately held up his hand in apology. “Sorry. I just didn’t realize you were serious.”

“He might listen to me,” I hedged. Even saying it, I knew that was unlikely. “Or he’ll just try to use me as a weapon against all of you. That seems far more likely.”

“It’s not the worst idea,” Opal mused. “He might tell you his plan if he thinks you’re having second thoughts on ousting him from the company.”

“He still has shares, though,” Rex interjected. He was no longer smiling. “He is a part of this company no matter how we wish it was otherwise. We can’t just ignore him and hope he goes away.”

He turned to face me. “As for you going undercover with your father, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” He looked pained. “He’ll try to use you, Ruby. You might think you can handle him, but he’ll be absolutely diabolical.”

“He will,” Mom agreed. “However, he also looks at you as his baby girl. He’s never seen you for who you truly are. Out of all your sisters, he sees you as the most malleable. As long as you can keep your head and not fall for his machinations, I don’t see why you can’t at least try to have a conversation with him.”

I beamed at her. That was as close to a ringing endorsement as I was going to get. “Thanks for believing in me.”

Mom’s smile was soft. “I see you for who you are, Ruby. You’re much smarter than your father ever gave you credit for. You have a solid head for business, especially when it comes to negotiation tactics.

“He’s not going to believe it if Opal or Zach are the ones who approach him,” she continued. “He’ll smell a double cross before they even get over the threshold. Pearl, of course, is too blunt to play undercover agent. You, however, have always been the cute one.”

“Hey!” Pearl was understandably insulted. “What the hell?”

Mom grinned at her. “I don’t mean that you’re not cute. It’s just … to get attention as a child, Ruby had to bat her eyelashes at everybody. She even talked with a lisp for three months because she saw it on a television show. Everybody fell for it too.”

“Ah, yes.” I smiled at the memory. “I saw old episodes of The Brady Bunch . They had a lot of kids too. I couldn’t be Marcia and nobody wanted to be Jan.” I shot Pearl an apologetic look. “That left Cindy.”

Mom looked genuinely amused. “Just be careful if you spend time with your father. I’m not telling you what to do—that has never worked out well for me—but either way, he’s going to try to manipulate you. That’s the last thing I want.”

“Oh, I’m not going to fall for his nonsense,” I assured her. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Just … be careful.”

Talk returned to the crisis management team. Everybody agreed that Lapidus Communications was the way to go. Mom said she would reach out to them herself and set up a meeting. We would all be included in the initial conversation.

Once the meeting broke up, I shot Rex a dirty look as he used my nickname once again. He used it more and more often now that we were interacting daily. The fact that it irritated me was only fuel for the fire. I ignored him and sidled over to Olivia.

“So … party at the Chandelier bar tonight, right?” I asked her.

Olivia smiled—that’s all she did these days because she and my brother were so giddily in love—and nodded her head. “Yes. You can make it, can’t you?”

“I can,” I confirmed. Tonight was a celebration of Olivia and Zach’s love. Since their first wedding had been a hastily slapped together affair at one of the local twenty-four-hour chapels, they were doing it up right for a second wedding. Their anniversary date wouldn’t change but this time they wanted to exchange vows with one another in front of our families. It wouldn’t be an overblown affair, but it would be classy. “I’m actually looking forward to it.”

Olivia cocked her head as she regarded me. “Is something wrong? You seem tense.” She’d become something of a third sister since marrying my brother. The dynamics weren’t exactly the same, but she fit in well with us. I liked her a great deal.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just … stressed.” I thought about my father and scowled. “I wish this was all behind us.”

“Well, you know what they say about stress, right?” Olivia prodded.

I waited without responding. I had a feeling I knew where she was going, but I wanted to be certain.

“You need someone to help you relieve that stress,” she said. “Are you dating?”

I shook my head. “I’ve been considering it. Dating seems like a lot of work given everything that’s going on now, though. I just … I don’t know.” I held out my hands. “I’m not sure I have the patience for all of that.”

“You don’t have to date them,” Olivia noted. “You can just be a man, use them for sex for a night, and then go on your merry way.” She laughed as if it were a joke, and yet I found I was intrigued.

“You know, that’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

“I was kidding.”

“Yes, well, I’m not.” I straightened. “Now I’m really looking forward to tonight.”

“Oh, geez.” Olivia closed her eyes. “It’s going to be a train wreck. I won’t be able to watch.”

“You’re going to spend the whole night watching my brother pretend he can dance. Who are you kidding?”

“You make a good point. That does do it for me.”

“You’re kind of gross.”

Olivia’s blissful smile was back. “I’m okay with that.”

And she was. I could see it. What would it take for me to be okay with something like that?