Down for the Count (Dare Me 1)

by Christine Bell

  “Holy crap,” she said, limp with shock as her friend attempted to squeeze her guts out. “What are you doing here?”

  “I figured you had a whole week left, and my brother was probably driving you crazy by now. I finished up my project at the office and thought I’d come save you and work on my tan. Awesome, no?” She pulled back, beaming with excitement.

  She was right about one thing. Galen was driving her crazy. All night, every night. As glad as she was to see her friend, a big part of her was heartsick over the loss of alone time with Galen. She’d been banking on that week, counting and recounting the hours like a miser with his chest of gold, and now it was gone, just like that. Surely Galen wouldn’t want his sister to know what they’d been up to. That would make it too real, and this was nothing more than a fantasy.

  Her throat felt thick, and she fought to find a smile for her best friend in the world. “Awesome is right. I’m so happy you’re here.” She grabbed Cat’s suitcase and pulled her into the villa. “How was your flight?”

  “Long but super smooth, thanks. I’m starving, though. What’s with this five hours in the air and no in-flight meal crap? Is that a new thing?” She dropped onto the couch with a grateful sigh. “I was ready to give myself to the pilot for another sad little bag of nuts.”

  “Who are you kidding? You’re a sucker for a man in uniform. I think the peanuts would’ve been optional.”

  Cat snort-laughed and nodded. “You’re probably right. I didn’t get a look at him, though, so I can’t say for sure.” She held out a handful of papers. “These are for you. The chubby little guy at the front desk asked me to bring them.”

  Lacey rolled her eyes. “Awesome.”

  “What are they?”

  “Notes from my mother. Whoever is at the front desk probably didn’t get the memo that I don’t want them. Other than these? It’s been great. We don’t have phone or Internet here, and she hasn’t been able to get her paws on Galen’s cell number, so she’s taken to calling the front desk with scathing messages for me.” She tossed them, unread, onto the coffee table.

  Galen sauntered into the room in a pair of threadbare gym shorts, scrubbing his damp hair with a towel. “Hey, did you see where my camera w—” His eyes bugged out a little when his sister stood. “Holy shit, what are you doing here, runt?” Although he sounded happy to see her, there was a split second where his face dropped.

  Lacey’s heart felt a little lighter for it. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready to let go, either.

  “Came to check on my girl and make sure you weren’t boring her to tears with sports talk or driving her to drink with your terrible jokes.”

  He slung the towel over his shoulder, leaving his bare chest and eight-pack abs in plain view. “Let’s ask her. Am I boring you to tears yet, squirt?” There was no mistaking the challenge in his voice. As if he were daring her to tell Cat exactly what had been going on between them.

  She swallowed hard and shook her head. “N-not really. We’ve been…sparring.”

  He grinned and nodded slowly, still not breaking eye contact with her. “We have been doing that.”

  Cat whipped her head toward Lacey, then to Galen, and back again before she held up a hand. She made a noise that sounded either like a muffled scream or like the squeal of tires coming to a halt. “Hold up.” She wrinkled her nose as if she’d just been handed week-old fish stuffed inside the dirty tube sock of a teenage boy. “You two are… Are you? Oh, ew. Just…just fucking ew.” She speared her hands into her copper-colored hair and blew out a sigh. “When?”

  “What do you mean, when?” Galen asked, chuckling. “Last night. The night before. The night before that. This morning.” He’d ticked off each instance on his fingers and sent Lacey a broad wink at the last one. She groaned and buried her face in her hands.

  “I meant,” Cat said, enunciating crisply while treating her brother to a death stare, “when did it start, moron.”

  Galen shrugged, the picture of nonchalance as he made his way into the kitchen. “Last week. When we found out Lacey wasn’t really married.” He ignored her outraged gasp and started taking out fixings for a ham sandwich.

  Cat wheeled on Lacey. “A week? You’ve been boning my brother for a week and you didn’t think to mention it? Sisters before misters, remember, Lace? We’re supposed to tell each other everything.”

  The hurt in her voice made Lacey feel like gum on the bottom of a shoe and she scrambled to explain. “We didn’t come here with this in mind. It just sort of…happened.”

  “Oh, geez, now you sound like Marty. You don’t bang someone by accident.” Lacey opened her mouth to clarify, but Cat cut her off. “Nope. I don’t need to hear any more. It doesn’t matter. You’re both adults, and you have the right to do what you want with whom you want, no matter how much it grosses me out. I wish you had told me when it first happened, though.”

  Lacey nodded miserably. What was there to say? Cat was right. They’d never had secrets between them before. How could she explain that what she was experiencing with Galen felt so tenuous, so fragile that she was afraid even the slightest disturbance would make it disappear? That the time they had was so short and precious, she didn’t want to waste a second of it on the telephone justifying it. But she couldn’t say either of those things because Galen was in the room with them, and he didn’t deserve that kind of pressure from her.

  “We should have said something. And if we planned to continue with this in our real lives, we likely would have, but this stays in Puerto Rico. Once we’re home, everything goes back to normal,” Lacey said, trying with all her might to sound brisk and matter-of-fact. A statement, not a question, because that would be pitiful. She could almost feel the weight of Galen’s heavy gaze on her. Back to normal. Why did that sound so God awful now? Maybe because normal meant no making love on the kitchen counter. No snuggling up on the beach to watch the sunset. No boxing until the sweat stung her eyes and her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest.

  Normal meant no Galen.

  “So this is purely sexual?” Cat asked, the curl of her lip revealing her feelings on the subject.

  Galen fielded that one. “You know what it is? None of your business. Now quit grilling Lacey and get unpacked. I’ll make you a sandwich, and then we can figure out our plans for the rest of the day.”

  Cat allowed Lacey to lead her into the guest room. When Lacey closed the door behind them, Cat turned to face her. “You don’t blame me for being shocked, do you? I mean, I always knew there was some weird attraction between you two, but I never saw this coming.” She sank back on the bed with a dazed shake of her head.

  “Weird attraction? On my end, maybe, but he went out of his way to torture me.”

  “As teenage boys do when they like someone.”

  “I don’t think so, Cat.”

  “That’s okay. We do better when you let me do the thinking for you, and I’m telling you that he didn’t treat my other friends that way.”

  “Oh yeah? How did he treat them?” She busied herself straightening the pillows on the bed, as if the answer didn’t matter in the least, but her hands were shaking. If Galen liked her before, maybe there was a chance…

  “Like they were invisible, mostly. Like Becca.”

  Lacey couldn’t help the flinch.

  “I know. She’s a buddy-fucker and I’m thinking of making a voodoo doll of her. Sorry I mentioned her name. But he never gave her the time of day. He wasn’t that way with you. He teased you a lot, but it was never mean-spirited, you know? There always seemed to be affection behind it.” She tugged at Lacey’s arm to stop her fussing. “If it matters any, you have my blessing. I’m still trying to get my head around it all, but I love you guys to heaven and back, and as long as you both feel the same way about each other, I think it would be really cool. You guys being a couple.”

  She realized then that, even without Galen in the room, telling Cat about her growing feelings toward him was not an
option. Already Cat was investing too much into it, and if things didn’t work out, and she knew how Lacey felt, she’d be mad at him. That wasn’t fair to Galen at all. He’d never made any promises or given her false hope for a future together. It was better for Cat to think she felt the same way he did. “I appreciate that, truly, but we’re not… It’s not like that. We haven’t talked about anything beyond the next week. He was here when I needed someone, and he opened my eyes about a lot of things. But his goal was to help me through a tough time, and he did that. I already owe him more than you could ever imagine.”

  Cat’s eyes narrowed. “Really? You’re trying to tell me you slept with someone you have no feelings for?”

  Lacey couldn’t bring herself to lie outright, so she worded her answer carefully. “I’m trying to tell you that this was an impulse. The result of two people in an emotionally charged situation. I know what I think I feel, but I have no idea what I’m going to feel like when we leave here, and neither does he. I also have a huge mess to look forward to when I get home. I have no right to expect him to want to muck out those stalls with me. That’s not what he signed up for.”

  “I guess that remains to be seen. I’ve never known Galen to run from a little hard work.” Cat eyed Lacey for a long moment before lugging her suitcase over to the dresser and unpacking. “I was going to ask if I should get another place to stay so you two could have some privacy, but there will be two solid doors between us, so that won’t be an issue. Besides, that will give me the daytime hours to satisfy my nosiness and watch how you guys act around each other. This is too juicy to miss.”

  “We’re not going to act like anything around each other.” Now that Cat was here, everything was probably going to go right back to the way it was. He might not even want to share the bedroom with her anymore. She swallowed the bitter disappointment threatening to choke her. “I’m sure Galen and I will figure it out. No matter what, it will work out fine. Now let’s stop talking about this. You came all the way here to be with me, and I love you for it, so what are we going to do on your first night in Puerto Rico?”

  Cat seemed ready to press further, but mercifully, she let her off the hook. “Karaoke, maybe? Some dancing?”

  “Sounds fun. We can hang at the beach for the day. Then I’ll call the concierge and see where to go.”

  She was about to step out the door but Cat’s voice stopped her. “I don’t know whether it’s the Puerto Rican air or my brother, but you’ve never looked better.”

  Lacey forced a smile and closed the door. Cat had always been perceptive, and today was no different. Now that it was right in her face, she had to accept the truth. Puerto Rico, while amazing, had next to nothing to do with her current state. It was Galen. He’d made her feel special and sexy and beautiful. And if that were the case, what would she feel like when he was out of her life again?

  …

  Galen took a long swig from his beer bottle and watched his sister and her best friend on the dance floor, bopping around, singing along with an old Spice Girls tune. Lacey wore a short-sleeve blouse that hung off one newly browned shoulder and a pair of khaki shorts. Her beige high-heeled sandals made her already long legs look even longer, and he found himself wondering, not for the first time, if he’d ever get to feel those legs around him again now that Cat had shown up.

  He loved his sister and under normal circumstances enjoyed hanging out with her now that they were grown. But he couldn’t deny that when he’d walked out of the shower and saw her standing there, his stomach dropped. What a crappy brother. She’d probably thought she was doing him a favor by coming to take over aftercare for their ailing runaway bride. How could she know he was administering the antidote and enjoying every second of it?

  At least, he had been right up until Lacey sent him that panicked look. The wild-eyed, don’t say anything stare when he’d seen Cat. That shit hurt. If he’d been wondering what was going to happen between them once they left Puerto Rico, he needn’t wonder any further. Clearly she planned to move on with her life, and their fling would be exactly that. A fling. One happy footnote to mark the end of her tragedy, not even worthy of explaining to her best friend.

  He almost let her get away with it, but at the last second, he couldn’t help himself. He’d thrown down the gauntlet to see if she would try to wriggle out of it or if she would own it. Own him and this thing between them. To his relief, she had. She’d been embarrassed but more for not telling his sister about them before than anything else. She certainly didn’t seem angry at him, which was what he’d been expecting. Then she’d deflated him yet again with her insistence that this was a fling. Now he was fuck-all confused. Were they going to continue on with Cat there or were they calling it quits? He’d been banking on this week in hopes of convincing Lacey that they could have something more than just a fling. Now he might not even have that.

  The song ended and he flagged down the waitress to order them another round.

  The aging MC leaned into the mic. “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a fun one. We’ve got some new singers coming up here for you. Give it up for Cat and Lacey!”

  The pair of them climbed the stage stairs and the beginning chords of “Two Princes” by the Spin Doctors began to play. Galen couldn’t help but grin. He’d been forced to listen to this song on an endless loop when Cat and Lacey had discovered it almost two decades ago. This was going to be interesting.

  Within the first two lines, as they traded back and forth with ease, never even glancing at the screen, it became clear that this song was a karaoke favorite of theirs. They hammed it up big and broke into interpretive dance at points. Galen couldn’t keep his eyes off Lacey. Her shoulders shimmying, cheeks pink from laughing. Cat was a good influence on her. When they finished with a deep bow, the place exploded into applause. He stuck his pinkies into his mouth and whistled for good measure.

  The girls smiled and waved, then leaped off the stage. The group of guys seated at the table in front of him was hooping and howling when the two women walked by. A dark-haired gym rat went in for a move.

  “Great job, ladies.” He held up a hand for high fives, which Lacey and Cat gave with matching grins.

  A wiry blond guy from the group stood with his hand over his heart and spoke with a thick Boston accent. “If you were with me, I’d love you so hard, you wouldn’t need two princes. I’d be your king and you’d be my queen.” His line was laughably bad, but apparently the accent turning “hard” into “hahd” was enough to get their attention. He drew Cat and Lacey into a conversation about hometowns and New England.

  The waitress returned with their drinks, and Galen uttered a perfunctory thanks. Blondie and his wingman were starting to get on his nerves now, lavishing Lacey and Cat with compliments. The next song had begun, so he had to inch closer to hear them.

  “You are so beautiful, I swear. If I had a girl like you, I could die a happy man.” This aimed at Lacey from Gym Rat.

  She smiled politely, but then turned and caught Galen’s eye. Was that a plea in her eyes or was it wishful thinking on his part? At the very least, she didn’t want any PDA in front of Cat, or at least that’s what it had seemed like back at the villa. But when Gym Rat closed a meaty paw on her shoulder, nothing short of a zombie apocalypse would have stopped him. Galen picked up the beer he’d ordered her and approached, slipping a possessive arm around her trim waist. “Hey, squirt. Nice job out there.”

  Lacey turned a grateful smile his way and accepted the bottle. “Thanks.”

  Gym Rat gave him the hard eye, and for a second Galen wondered if he was going to press his luck, but he backed off. “Hey buddy, how’s it going?” he asked, releasing Lacey’s shoulder.

  “Pretty good, thanks.”

  Galen had obviously shat on their party plans because after an awkward minute of mostly silence, the Boston guys dispersed, making their way to the pool table.

  “Thanks,” Lacey said, the relief evident on her face. “I neve
r quite know what to do in those situations.”

  “Well, don’t expect me to thank you for cock-blocking me,” Cat grumbled. “You come over here to pee on your girlfriend like some sort of lone wolf and you scared my prospect away with your macho display.”

  “I’m not his girlfriend,” Lacey mumbled.

  As if he needed the reminder. “She looked uncomfortable.” He shrugged as if to say he’d do it for anybody.

  “Whatever. Did you at least get me a drink?”

  He jerked his chin toward the table where her mojito sat, and she grabbed it. “These things are too delicious, which could be a serious problem.”

  They paused to clap for the group of ladies who’d done a Sinatra song. When the applause died down, the MC bent toward the mic again. “Welcome back to the stage, Lacey, going solo this time!”

  She turned a stricken gaze to Cat. “You didn’t.”

  “Oh, but I did. Come on, I came all the way here to be with you. The least you can do is sing my song.”

  Lacey groaned. “Stop with the guilt. It’s not like you followed me to Siberia. We’re in paradise, and you’re getting a weeklong vacation. That doesn’t mean you get to boss me for the next seven days.”

  “Who are you kidding? I boss you three hundred sixty-five days a year, and you love it. Now get your cute little ass up there and sing my song.”

  She sent a nervous glance at Galen and he tapped the tip of her nose with his finger. “You’ll be great.”

  She took a long swallow of her beer, setting it down only when the MC started playfully chanting her name, which the crowd took up with glee.

  “She’s actually a fantastic singer,” Cat said as they watched Lacey climb the stage stairs again. “I always have to go up with her at first to lube her up a little, but wait till you hear what she can do.”

  The strains of a familiar song by Heart made him smile. She, Becca, and Cat had put on a show for him and the rest of the family when they were in second grade. They’d danced and lip-synced to this song with spoons for microphones. Even then, Becca and Lacey had swayed in the background, chirping up during the chorus while Cat hogged the attention, strutting her stuff. He’d acted put upon and annoyed, as was required at that age, but they’d been pretty adorable.