Whisper Privileges by Dianne Venetta Read Free Book Online Page A

charge to the athletes. She thought
it was an extraordinary venture in size, scope and generosity.
    “It’s a very big deal for him,” Clay said.
“He’s so excited he can hardly stand it. These events are all about
the team, the competition, and as one of the better swimmers, he’s
feeling center stage right now.”
    “You didn’t want to fly down with him?”
    “When it comes to the national games,
families are welcome, but sidelined. We don’t get VIP treatment
like the athletes do.”
    Sydney couldn’t tell if Clay viewed this as a
positive or negative.
    “Actually, Q wants to hang out with his team
this week.”
    “Q?”
    “That’s my boy’s name—Q.”
    “That’s an odd name,” she said, more thinking
aloud than anything.
    He chuckled, unaffected. “I come from one of
those families that hands down names like most people hand down the
family jewels—or china—depending on where you come from. In our
family, every first born son is a Charles and I’m the third.”
    “I didn’t know Clay was short for
Charles.”
    “It’s not. I’m Charles Clayton Rutledge the
Third,” he said with an imperious flair, thickening his southern
drawl, exaggerating the importance of his title. “But as you’ve
already seen, we have quite a few ‘Charlies’ running around South
Carolina. No need for another.”
    Her sentiments exactly, Sydney thought with
more than a touch of disdain. Yet she found this tradition curious.
“So you chose to go by your middle name?”
    “Yes, ma’am. And my son is the fourth, so we
call him Q—short for quad.”
    “Interesting.” Odd, but interesting at the
same time.
    “Anyway, when my parents suggested I head
down early for a few days on my own to catch up with Charlie, Q
seemed happy about it. He’s staying with them this week and once
they see him off at the airport, they’ll drive down.”
    “No wife?” she asked the obvious.
    Melancholy deepened the blue of his eyes to
near navy and Sydney regretted asking.
    “No.” He sipped from his beer. “She and I
divorced when Q was three. It was shortly after we received his
diagnosis of autism.”
    His wife left after the diagnosis ?
Instinctively, she reached over but stopped short. She hardly knew
the man. “I’m sorry,” she murmured and closed her fingers into her
palm. He looked at her hand. Slowly, she pulled it back adding,
“That must be so hard on you.”
    Clay drew his beer closer and stared at the
bottle as he seemed to consider her comment, turning it about in
his mind as if evaluating its validity.
    A man leaned over the bar to her right, his
body so close they nearly touched. Catching a rise of his cologne,
the musky scent reminded her of Javier. Sydney turned her shoulder
away as the bartender clicked into service. “What’ll it be?”
    “Two Coronas,” he ordered.
    The bartender nodded. “Coming right up.”
    “It can be tough,” Clay said, drawing her
back to him. “But I have family back home. They help out a
lot.”
    “Sure, but they can only do so much.” Unless
they lived together. She sharpened her gaze on the blond stranger. Did Clay and his son live with his parents ?
    “That’s true,” he agreed. “But for me, it
always comes back to how hard it must be on him. Everything
requires more effort for Q than most.”
    “I can imagine .”
    “It’s not that hard,” he remarked.
    “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that ,” she
said, the tips of her ears flushing hot. “I only meant that it must
be hard to deal with, you know, with his special needs and all...”
Sydney hated that she stumbled, but she had no sense of how to
respond. This was not her department! Kids were not her
department!
    “It’s okay,” he replied quietly. “Unless
you’ve rolled out from my side of the bed you can’t possibly know.”
He brandished a smile.
    “I guess,” she stammered. Sydney slid her
drink closer. Was he flirting with her?
    Clay assumed a playful tone and said, “Sorry.
Couldn’t