“Where’s Grandma?” Jules asks her mother.
“Oh, she couldn’t make it. She said that she and the new boyfriend are skiing in the Alps for the holiday.” The way Tina says the word boyfriend has a sting to it. I’m not sure if anyone else picks up on it, but the sound of Tina’s disapproval of her mother’s new guy is pretty damn clear.
“What?! Grandma’s the whole reason I said I would come!” Jules is pouting again, so I walk over and wrap my arms around her from behind and kiss her cheek, feeling her relax into me.
Out of nowhere a little girl streaks through the cabin completely naked. She couldn’t have been any older than three or four. I help Jules remove her jacket as she chuckles at her young niece running around in her birthday suit. “Don’t mind Olivia. She’s always naked.” The sweet tone in her voice takes on an edge when she adds, “just like her mother.” Another passive aggressive comment from one of the Stone family members. I make a mental note to brace myself against these snide comments and not-so-subtle pot-shots that this family takes at one another with such malicious ease.
Lisa tries to brush off Jules’ rude comment even as the blush of embarrassment reddens her face. I can’t even lie—Lisa is also beautiful. She’s pretty skinny, but not stick-thin. Her long brown hair moves perfectly with her, and her deep blue eyes match her mother’s. She and Jules are about the same height, but if I didn’t know they were related, I would never have considered it to be true. They are opposites in almost every way. Jules has these adorable blue doe eyes, and Lisa possesses the intense, cat-shaped, sexed-up eyes that always appear in her movies.
There’s an uncomfortable silence filling the room, so I try my best to defuse it. “She’s beautiful,” I say, gesturing—but not looking—at the naked girl running around the space.
Danny laughs. “You don’t have to be nice. She looks like an alien.”
Stunned by his rude comment, I hardly know what to say. “I beg your pardon?”
“An alien,” Tina reinforces about her granddaughter. “It’s not an insult. Aliens are really the big thing in Hollywood right now. That’s what’s hot in the industry.”
“If we get her started before she’s four, she’ll be golden.” Danny chimes in.
“I think horror movies are going to be her money maker, you know, with the creepy kid look and stuff,” Lisa adds.
The three of them laugh and that’s when I see it, that’s when I notice everything that makes Jules her awkward, crying self. She came from a house of nut job Hollywood weirdos. They just called that sweet, innocent, beautiful little girl a creepy looking alien. What. The. Fuck?!
Matt, Jules’s father, is the only one who doesn’t join in on the bullying. He reaches for the naked girl and lifts her into his arms. “Don’t listen to them, Olivia. You’re a perfect princess. Now, let’s go get you into some pajamas and ready for dinner.” The little girl smiles to her grandfather and wraps her arms around his neck.
Leaning in toward Jules, I whisper against her ear, “Are they always like this?”
“You haven’t even experienced the true blue Stone family dinner yet.”
“Here, let me put your coats in your bedroom,” Danny offers, reaching for Jules’ jacket, and I toss mine off to him before watching him disappear down the hallway.
“Let me make you a drink?” I ask Jules, nodding my head toward the bar in the other room.
She turns and stares into my eyes. A smile creeps on her lips and the overwhelmed look she’s worn since we pulled into the driveway is slowly fading. “Make it a strong one.”
“Always.” Releasing her, I move toward the bar and start preparing her some fruity girl drink, because I’m almost positive that’s something she would love. Then I pull out another glass to get me some whiskey, hoping for a somewhat easy dinner and then bed. Out of nowhere, Jules’s sister Lisa appears and takes a seat at the bar, leaning forward.
I’m not a dumbass, so I know the leaning is to give me a clear shot down at her fake tits, but I only look into her eyes. “Can I get ya something?”
“I’ll just take this,” she says as she grabs Jules’s drink and starts to suck it down. “So…you’re Julie’s boyfriend, eh? I’m Lisa, the wicked sister.”
“Richard.” I extend my hand toward her, giving her my fake name, and she accepts, “Nice to meet you. I actually saw your latest film, The Forbidden Gatekeepers, a few weeks ago. Amazing work.”