CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
AFTER REMOVING THE metal frames and backfilling around the footer, Jem called a couple of employees, who brought in a truck and poured the concrete for Lacey’s floor on Sunday afternoon while Lacey and Kacey took Levi back to the beach to play in the sand.
For a good bit of the time they were gone, he was jealous of a four-year-old kid. And happier than he’d been in...maybe ever...as his son came skipping back up the walk just before dinnertime, a sister on either side of him holding his hands.
“I’m the luckiest guy on the beach, Dad!” Levi said, letting go of their hands to run up to the front door of the house. “Can I put my hand in the cement?”
It was their ritual. Anytime Levi was around when cement was poured, he got to leave his mark. In a place that would be built upon. He was leaving little parts of his son all over Santa Raquel, but in a way that was not a bother to anyone.
“Hold on, buddy,” he called. “You know the rules.” If Levi didn’t wait for Jem, if he even touched wet cement without his father’s say-so, he lost the privilege. “Why is he the luckiest guy on the beach?” he asked the sisters.
Lacey was back in baggy cotton shorts and a blouse. Kacey in short shorts with a T-shirt that showed her figure to perfection.
“Some guy told him so,” Kacey said. “I think he thought Levi was his way in, but that kid of yours set him straight.”
Not at all happy with the surge of real jealousy that sparked through him at the thought of someone hitting on Lacey at the beach, Jem looked her way, his brow raised in question.
“Levi told him to please go away because we weren’t supposed to talk to strangers.”
Jem burst out laughing. Gotta love that boy!
* * *
SHE DIDN’T REGRET making love with Jem Bridges. Not even a little bit. She’d thought of him during her first seconds of consciousness Sunday and had taken him with her through all of the moments of her day.
And the more she thought of him, the more vulnerable she became. Because this wasn’t just a trial—a maybe—for her. She’d given him far more than her body for a night. If he walked out of her life, she was going to be damaged.
She’d spent her entire adult life preventing herself from being in that position.
“Let’s play the game,” she said to Kacey as the sisters left Jem to change Levi out of his sandy, wet beach clothes in the spare bathroom and headed to the other side of the house, to their rooms, to clean up before they all had a quick dinner together.
Kacey glanced her way and frowned.
“What?” Lacey forced a big grin. “Come on. It’ll be a hoot.”
“Lacey...”
“What?” she asked again. “You’re the one who always wants to play. Now one time I do and...”
“I’m up for the game, Lace. I’m just not sure why you are.”
Of course she was. Kacey knew, just as Lacey did. She was being an immature, self-absorbed little kid.
Paranoid and frightened, too. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“Please, Kacey? I know it’s stupid, but I have to know. Too much is at stake here.” Possibly her heart. Maybe even the rest of her life.
Maybe she’d let go of a lot of the residual feelings she had about having always been second best and often passed over for her more radiant twin. Maybe someday she’d even be able to laugh at how much she’d taken it all to heart.
But she wasn’t there yet. Intellectually she was. But emotions...they were a bit trickier.
“You think it’s going to help you relax?” Kacey asked her. She didn’t seem to even consider the fact that Jem might go for the wrong sister. That he might not “know” Lacey as well as he thought he did. Or said he did.
It could just be that, until now, every single time he’d seen the sisters together they’d been easy to tell apart just by their clothes.
“That’s my plan.” Or at least to know if she was believing in something that didn’t exist, making more of it than it was. “I hate being so damned insecure.”
“The game isn’t going to change that, Lacey. Only you can. By believing in your own worthiness.”
She did think she was worthy. Very worthy. She also believed that most people found her sister worth a little bit more.
“Please?”
“Okay, fine, but I get to pick out the outfit,” Kacey said, heading into Lacey’s room and going straight for her closet. “Seriously, Lace, you need to quit hiding behind this stuff.”
She turned, a look of shock on her face as she looked at Lacey. “No, you don’t,” she whispered, looking stricken. “God, Lacey, I’m so sorry. I’m as guilty as everyone. This is your look because it’s who you are. And, oh, God, I’m so sorry. I do it to you, too, with all my nagging, trying to make you look more like me, as if you don’t look as good as I do... I didn’t even know...”
Lacey’s eyes filled with tears as she stood there accepting her sister’s hug. Drying Kacey’s tears. Telling her it was okay. That they were okay.
And hoped to God that Jem was as good as his word. That he didn’t just see the clothes and shape and skin, but could really see the woman inside the body just by looking into her eyes.
Ashamed of her weakness, feeling sick to her stomach for needing reassurance, she let Kacey make her into an off-work television star.
* * *
SHE SENT KACEY in first. Jem was in the kitchen, heating up the pulled pork the girls had brought home from a stand on the beach. After dinner, he and Levi were going home because Levi needed a bath before bed, Jem had said.
Lacey hated that she wasn’t going to have his hands on her body again, but figured he was probably right to take things slow until they knew where they were going.
Neither of them could afford a big crash.
“Hey, Kacey, is Lacey almost ready? We got a hungry boy here.” She heard Jem’s voice and figured he hadn’t turned around yet, hadn’t seen her sister.
But...if he’d smelled her, her scent would have been Lacey’s. They’d played this game before. Hundreds of times.
Knew how to do it down to every detail, including toenail polish.
“She’ll be along in a second,” Kacey said, unnerving even Lacey with the toned-down note in her voice.
And suddenly she didn’t want to go in, didn’t want to play the game. She wasn’t being fair to Jem.
And maybe not to herself, either.
“You can come in now,” Jem called just as she was turning around to go change. “I just heard you take a step in the hall.”
She froze. Didn’t move. And didn’t have to as Jem came into the hallway to join her. She heard Kacey say, “Hey, little man, let’s get some of this yummy food in our bellies and leave those two sillies to settle for our leftovers.”
Jem wasn’t saying anything. He didn’t look angry, or even disappointed. If anything, he looked...like he had a hell of a lot more compassion than she deserved.
“I feel like a ten-year-old playing dress-up on Halloween.”
“You look...great.”
Her heart sank. “I do?”
“Of course you do. You and Kacey, you’re both gorgeous. A guy would have to be blind not to notice.”
“How did you know?” She asked the most pertinent question. “Kace even took off her nail polish. I did her hair. She’s wearing my jewelry and even borrowed my underthings.”
He pulled her up against him, rubbing his groin against her pelvis. He moved closer until their lips were almost touching and stared into her eyes.
“I’ve already told you, Lacey. It’s all in your eyes.”
She wanted so badly to believe him. To know that, at least with one person, the only one who was probably going to matter from there on out, she came first.
&nb
sp; “You looked into Kacey’s eyes when she walked into the kitchen?”
“I always look for the eyes when you two are around. Especially since you’ve been leaving your hair down more and wearing her dresses. It’d be damned embarrassing if I grabbed the wrong woman, now, wouldn’t it?”
She felt like an idiot. On several levels. “I’ll make sure I don’t ever dress like her again,” she told him, grinning, but completely serious, too. “It’s up to me to protect you from ever making such a blunder.”
“You could both be naked and I’d know,” he said. And then shook his head. “Please,” he said, looking her straight in the eye. “Do not ever test me on that one. I don’t think I could survive it,” he said softly.
And then took a small nip of the lobe of her ear. “I’m still recovering... How about you?”
“I’ve been starving all day.”
“Too bad all we get to eat tonight is dinner...”
She kissed him then, long and hard. A reminder of what they’d shared, what they could be starting. An invitation for more meals to come. If all went well...
* * *
JEM GAVE LEVI his bath.
While Levi landed a plastic airplane in the bubbles with his good arm, his casted arm wrapped in plastic resting on the side of the tub, Jem stood in the hallway just outside the open door and returned Tressa’s call from half an hour ago. She’d had a great weekend, but didn’t want to go to work the next day. She planned to quit her job and really wanted Jem’s approval before she did so.
She wasn’t threatening, or crying, or screaming. She just didn’t feel comfortable at the bank anymore. Her outburst had embarrassed her, and she didn’t feel like the people who answered to her respected her anymore.
Because she was probably right, he reluctantly gave his agreement, but told her that she was going to have to find another job. Immediately.
She agreed.
He also told her she was not coming to work for him. His gut was knotted while he waited for her response. Tantrum or no, he couldn’t let her force him into something that he knew was not right. But if she went off again, so soon after the last time, if Lacey found out...
“I know, Jem. It would be like going backward, huh? I’d go crazy seeing where you are every minute of every day, wondering if your new client is cute, if she makes you laugh like I used to...”
So there was a God. He relaxed against the wall, keeping an eye on the arms he could see above the bubbles in the tub just beyond the door across from him.
“But...could you ask around for me?”
His first thought was of Mick, of the position she’d put him in.
“You know so many more people than I do,” she told him. “You’re so much more outgoing, and with your job, you deal with small businesses every day. I think that’s where I need to be, Jem. Running the finances of a small business. Look what I did with yours. It’s what I’m good at. Besides, then I don’t have to work with so many people and there’s less of a chance I’d piss anyone off or offend somebody.”
This was the woman he’d known in the early years. The one who was rational and honest and thought of others. He knew this woman wouldn’t be around to stay; he’d been through the upheavals enough times to know they’d always be back. But he’d also learned to be grateful for the good times.
“I’ll ask around,” he told her and then used their son in the tub as an excuse to end the conversation.
* * *
JEM DIDN’T TAKE Levi into bed to read stories. Or even out to sit on the couch and watch a video. He sat his son down in his booster seat at the kitchen table and poured milk in a sippy cup, pushing on the lid to make certain it was secure.
He wanted no chances of spilled-milk interruptions.
Grabbing himself a cup of coffee from the one-cup-at-a-time maker, he took his seat.
“We having a man-to-man talk, Dad?” Levi asked, his brow slightly furrowed.
He wanted to laugh. To get the moment on video.
“Yeah, we are,” Jem said instead. They’d had them a time or two in the past, these man-to-mans—when Tressa had moved out, again when Levi had moved from the day care class to preschool to discuss the new rules and expectations. And before he’d taken the boy to a work site without a trailer present. The trip had been unavoidable and Tressa had been in the city.
“What’s the trouble?” Levi asked, his rounded r’s making him sound so adorable Jem wanted to haul him up and hug him. Levi’s good arm was crossed with his casted one on the table in front of him.
God, how he loved that kid and saw how careful he had to be, too. He’d noticed Levi mimicking him more and more lately. How many times had he asked his son “What’s the trouble?” in just that tone over the years? Pretty much every time he’d come to him crying.
It was what his own father used to say to him...
He took a sip of coffee. Motioned toward Levi’s cup with the back of his hand and waited while his son sipped.
“You know about man-to-mans,” he said, bringing his head down enough that he could meet Levi’s gaze almost head-on.
Levi nodded.
“We talk about hard things and we might not like them and we always tell the...”
“Truth.” Levi emphasized the word with a nod of his head.
“Right.”
He didn’t feel good about this. Would have given up his savings account if he could have bought a way out of the conversation.
But Lacey wasn’t going to let Levi go back to Tressa’s without making Sydney aware of the incident she’d witnessed. She hadn’t said so. But, like he’d been telling her, he knew her.
Knew her conscience. Knew how seriously she took her work and how much she cared. Even after all of his introspection over the past days he remained fairly certain Lacey was wrong to worry about Levi, too. There was no way on earth Tressa would hurt Levi, or that the boy wouldn’t tell him if she had.
If the hospital hadn’t called—due to red tape because of the number of hospital visits, he remained certain of that, too—there’d be no one even looking into their lives.
“Am I in trouble?”
Four-year-olds didn’t have much of an attention span. Or patience, either.
“Of course not.”
He was off on the wrong foot already. No way could he get through Levi’s defenses if he thought he’d done something wrong. And he had to get through to him.
To assure himself once and for all that Lacey Hamilton was wrong and no one was hurting Levi.
Because she’d managed to instill that one bit of doubt.
“I want to talk to you about your mom.” One parent should not berate another in front of the children. He knew the rule.
“Did she get in trouble?” Levi sounded mildly curious. And nothing more.
“I don’t know.” He took the opening. “Do you think she should be?”
He shrugged and Jem’s stomach knotted into physical pain. Not mere discomfort, like that caused by Tressa’s shenanigans, but bend-over physical pain.
“What about Kacey?” he asked, the words coming to him slowly. “Should she be in trouble?
“’Course not!” Levi said. “Kacey’s fun.”
The knot tightened another notch.
“How about Lacey?”
“No...” The word was accompanied by a vigorous shake of the head. “She’s nice, Dad, huh?”
“Yes, she is. I like her a lot.”
“I like her, too.” He took another sip of milk. Jem sipped his coffee.
“So how come you don’t know about Mommy?”
Levi shrugged again.
Jem’s certainty dissipated.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
HE WAS IN over his head. Had no training
in dealing with possible victims of abuse. But he knew how to be a dad.
“Son, remember, this is a man-to-man. Rules are you have to talk,” he said. He didn’t want to be like Tressa and create drama where there wasn’t any. Didn’t want his son overreacting like his mother every time something didn’t go exactly as he wanted it to.
But Lacey’s reaction to Tressa’s outburst the other night... She hadn’t said a lot, but it had been enough to tell Jem that she’d found the behavior outside the bounds of acceptable.
He’d found it pretty tame.
The disparity in their reactions to the same situation had prompted this conversation. If he was wrong...if Tressa was abusing their son in any way...
“Why do you think Mommy should be in trouble?”
“I don’t,” Levi said, his chin to his chest.
“Levi, look at me.”
The boy did.
“This is really important, son. More important than anything that has ever happened before in your whole life.”
How was that for scaling down the drama? He hated hearing the words coming out of his mouth.
Levi’s eyes were wide, his mouth open as he nodded.
And Jem’s gaze fell to the cast his son had been lugging around for weeks.
“Tell me about that cast,” he said, zoning in, as though guided by an instinct he hadn’t known he’d had.
“I fell.”
No mention of Tressa.
If you don’t, Jem, I’ll...
He heard her voice.
“Do you remember having a bad dream the last time you spent the night at your mom’s house?”
Levi nodded. And then, as though remembering he had to speak, he said, “Yes.”
“Can you tell me what it was about?”
He shook his head.
“Levi?” He put enough warning in his voice to let the little boy know he was serious.
“I don’t remember it all.” The boy was looking right at him.
From the odd place of calm he’d sunk into, Jem asked, “What do you remember about that bad dream?”
“I can’t tell you.”
He barely stopped himself from flying out of his chair. To pace the room. Breathe. But he couldn’t leave the moment.
Harlequin Superromance May 2016 Box Set Page 73
