When Pretty Boys Lie

By Raven Gray

My grandmother used to say lies were like potato chips in that you couldn't tell just one. One led to two, then three, and before you knew it; your life was a twisted mess you couldn't get out of.My mess started with an omission rather than a lie after Cane Baxter broke my heart and then married the prettiest and richest girl in Sugar Haven. I left town devastated and pregnant and didn't tell him about the baby-for five years.Now I was back for my grandmother's funeral and here was Cane offering me a shoulder to cry on even though his dark eyes were filled with pain. I had no right to ask about his secrets when I had so many of my own. However, Cane's secrets were deadly and the lies surrounding him were worse than anything I had to hide. Whoever said what you didn't know couldn't hurt you was wrong, because what Cane didn't know could destroy him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Midnight Books
• Release date: Aug 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201475574

Raven Gray

Raven Gray writes romance books about curvy women and the hot men who love them. She became hooked on the genre from the first Mills & Boon she read from her mom's collection when she was far too young to know anything about love. Through the decades and innumerable stories, there was a very narrow view of what was considered beautiful. The romance landscape has made progress over the years but there is still a need for more amazing stories featuring diverse characters and standards of beauty.

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When Pretty Boys Lie

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HALO

CANE

HALO

CANE

HALO

CANE

HALO

HALO

My heart plummeted to my stomach as the small plane descended in preparation for landing. I wasn’t afraid of flying, in fact, I wished the flight from Boston to Sugar Haven, Louisiana, had taken longer than three and a half hours. There was never enough time to prepare my nerves for going back home, and over the last five years, I’d only endured the ordeal when necessary, which had been to see my grandmother after she’d become too sick to travel.

I gripped the armrest when the wheels screeched down onto the hot tarmac. This wouldn’t be a happy visit, and I felt guilty that I hadn’t had more of them over the last two years as my grandmother’s health had further declined. She’d asked to see Zaiden one last time, and I’d promised her I would bring him. I hadn’t, and now it was too late. We would bury her in three days.

I pushed my guilt away as the plane came to a stop and then stood and pulled my duffel bag from the overhead compartment. I threw my handbag over my left shoulder and waited my turn to exit the plane. The first kiss of the Louisiana sun made me squint, and I fumbled in my bag for my sunglasses and then looked at Sugar Haven International Airport through pink-tinted lens.

The two-story wooden structure looked more like a grand summer cottage than an airport, but it was sufficient for the town’s ten-thousand residents. The loudest and most vibrant of them was my cousin, Sabrina. She came to the airport in a lime-green jumpsuit and a blonde wig. There wasn’t anything subtle about Sabrina, and we’d always been complete opposites.

She squealed when she saw me and held out her hands which sported long lime-green nails. Hey, cousin! She threw her arms around me and I embraced her warmly. Girl, it’s been too long!

My face crumbled as another stab of guilt shot through me. I’d composed my face somewhat by the time we pulled apart.

Sabrina scrutinized me from head to toe. You look good. I see you still have your curves. She patted her generous hips and laughed and swayed them from side to side as we walked to her baby pink truck.

Unlike Sabrina, I wasn’t as comfortable with my curves. I’d never been skinny, though, during middle and high school, I’d been athletic. After high school, the stress of medical school, a job, and raising my son, along with little exercise and plenty of good Greek food, had led to weight gain. At twenty-three, I was now in residency and life was still very stressful. Food was a comfort, and I was looking forward to my mom’s cooking as much as to our deep conversations.

How’s everyone? I asked after we left the airport and joined ongoing traffic.

Well, you know our mothers. They’re always pillars of strength. I suppose it’s easier because we had time to prepare for it. She just sort of faded over the years until she died in her sleep. Just like Grandpa. At least they’re together again.

Everyone could’ve seen what was happening, and yet I’d stayed away. I gazed out of the window as the town slid by. Sugar Haven had gotten its name from two large sugar plantations in the mid-eighteen-hundreds. In the early nineteen-hundreds, Malcolm Black’s family had bought out the other family and now they owned one of the largest plantations and mills in the country. The Blacks employed a lot of the town through various businesses. In this town, Malcolm was God, and I supposed I had to bow like the rest of them since his charity foundation had paid for three years of medical school.

The town was mostly middle-class, poor, and dirt poor, all living in a twenty-one-by-seven spit of land at the tip of Louisiana. I’d grown up poor and my family had worked up to middle class mostly because of the hair salon my mother and aunt had opened when Sabrina and I started first grade, and my father’s barbershop. Sabrina had joined them in the business, and I’d fulfilled my lifelong dream of being a doctor. Sugar Haven was lined with pretty French-style homes, although many of them, which had been passed down from one generation to the next, desperately needed repairs. For some, money constraints had led to cheaper repair jobs, and a lot of the homes had lost their original charm over the years.

The town had always seemed sad to me and other young people felt the same way because more of them left every year. Malcolm Black had supplemented three and four generations of local workers for cheaper immigrant labor, mostly from the Caribbean and South America. The only thing that kept me coming back was my family.

Sabrina filled me in on the drama surrounding grandmother’s wake, funeral, and repast, all of which our mothers had decided to have despite the tense history between them and their older sister, Victoria. Our grandparents had three daughters; Victoria, Violet, Sabrina’s mother, and my mom, Vivian. Victoria had moved away as soon as she turned eighteen and hadn’t stayed close with Grandma and Grandpa. She’d started drama at Grandpa’s funeral six years earlier, so it wasn’t a surprise that she was butting heads with her sisters again.

Aunt Vicky thinks she should make all the decisions because she’s older, but Grandma left Aunt Viv in charge. She gave me a side glance. Pretend like you don’t know about this when they read the will, but Grandma left her house to you.

I stared at her in shock. Are you sure? Who told you that?

Mom and Aunt Viv were there when she made the will. Seems strange when she knew you didn’t want to live here, but then, we all knew you were her favorite.

I closed my eyes. Please don’t talk like that, Sabrina.

Why? I’m not mad at it, and it’s the truth.

I will give you the house. I don’t want it.

I took care of her while you were living our fabulous life in Boston.

I glared at her. You have no idea what my life is like in Boston.

Well, that’s because you never invite me and you don’t share anything about it on the rare occasions we talk. You could’ve moved closer to home and helped take care of Grandma since you’re a doctor.

Let me out, I told her through clenched teeth.

She stared at me.

I’m not arguing with you, Sabrina. Let me out and take my bag to the salon. I’ll find my way there.

Jesus, Halo, I’m simply telling you how I feel and I think you need to hear it. It’s time you stop running away from your problems.

Did Grandma feel like this?

"If she did, she kept it to herself. You know she never said anything bad about you. You were her angel, and that’s why she named you Halo."

She spat out my name like it was the most disgusting thing in the world. I closed my eyes. I carried secrets that were not mine to tell, and I, more than anyone, knew the importance of keeping them.

Can we please talk about something else?

Sabrina sighed. "I’m sorry. The past week has been stressful and