Here Comes Trouble (39 page)

Her tongue darted out and touched the corner of her mouth. “I love you, Chase.”

With a smile creating shallow lines around his mouth, he leaned forward and brushed his lips along hers. Her eyes dropped closed as his large palm curved around the back of her neck and pressed her mouth harder against his. His warm tongue slipped in between in her lips, forcing them open so he could sweep inside her mouth. The kiss was delicious and torturous all at the same time. Fantastic ribbons of pleasure weaved its way through all parts of her body. Her toes curled against the cold floor. Her stomach quivered and a euphoric lightheadedness settled over her.

When Lacy expected to be dragged back to bed and ravished like a randy teenager, Chase pulled away and stood from the table. Was he really going to leave her after setting her on fire like that? The man didn’t play fair!

“I have to go home and get ready for work.” Her eyes strayed to his amazing glutes when he walked to the kitchen and put his empty cup in the dishwasher. When returning to her, he lifted her out of the chair and pulled her flush against him. His warm palm tunneled beneath the curtain of her hair and gently squeezed until her lips fell against his. She opened beneath him, because the temptation to feel his tongue swirling around hers again was too great.

“I’ll see you later,” he said when he broke contact. Without another word, he left her standing by the table with her head still spinning.

Lacy was no longer surprised by how deeply Chase always affected her. It was like he’d found that special place inside her and he knew how to stroke it
just
right. The man had an absolute impeccable talent for making her feel all...heck, there wasn’t even a name for it. She picked up her empty mug and placed it in the dishwasher next to Chase’s. There was something so endearingly domestic about seeing their two mugs side by side. The only person Lacy had shared dishwasher space with was Ray. What a trivial and simple thing to cross her mind.

When she turned, her eyes landed on the baby picture on the fridge. She removed it from under the magnet and ran her gaze over the black and white image. Lacy had a hard time making a connection between the picture and what was going on inside her body. While Chase had accepted the pregnancy and seemed to be okay with it, they still hadn’t really talked about it. How would their arrangement work? Would they share joint custody? Sure, they loved each other but neither of them mentioned marriage. Okay, so one step at a time. An admission of love was a major hurdle the two of them finally crossed. Maybe she was being a tad impatient.

She placed the picture back on the fridge and thought of Brody. The two of them had never fought like this before. And it wasn’t even really fighting. She knew he wasn’t too happy with her right now, but neither of them had done anything wrong. There was a chance he’d been hurt after he found out about her affair with Chase. Lacy fully accepted responsibility for that and admitted she needed to make amends.

A heavy cloud of fatigue settled on her shoulders. Lacy dragged herself out of the kitchen and shuffled down the hallway. She slithered back into bed, inhaled Chase’s comforting and orgasmic scent and slipped to sleep.

****

Lacy had just popped her third muffin into her mouth when Brody pushed through the double doors of the coffee shop. Her mouth automatically turned up in a grin when she saw him.

“You’re glowing,” he said with a wink as he pulled out the chair across from her.

“That’s because I just stuffed my face,” she after her last bite.

He leaned back in his chair with a chuckle. “You still look good.”

She lifted a brow as her smile fell. “Don’t be too nice to me, Brody.”

“Because you don’t deserve it?” The light in his gray eyes kept his words from being too harsh.

One of her shoulders lifted in a negligent shrug. “I wouldn’t go that far. But most likely, yes.”

A thick silence fell between the two of them as Lacy dropped her gaze down to the smooth tabletop. Brody placed one palm over hers until she looked at him again. “You deserve the world, Lace. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.”

Her heart cracked open a little at his words. Brody always knew how to lift her spirits. A single tear leaked out the corner of her eye.

He flicked her nose with his index finger. “Don’t do that.”

“I can’t help it.” She picked up a napkin from the table and dabbed her eye. “My emotions have been all over the place lately.”

“It only gets worse. Kelly was a basket-case by the time Tyler came out.”

Her lips pulled up at the corners. “I’m sorry about lying to you.”

Brody lifted one hand. “I don’t want to hear sorry. You’re allowed to get involved with whoever you want.” His head tilted to one side. “It just came as a surprise that you chose my brother.”

Lacy studied his handsome features for a moment. “Were you really that surprised?”

He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “No, I guess not. I was more shocked about the pregnancy than anything else.”

“Trust me, you weren’t the only one.”

“Have you two worked things out?”

What did that mean exactly? Lacy had yet to figure out where the two of them stood. Oh sure, she had a general idea. She was mildly sure the two of them had a future together. But guesses had never come comfortably to her. There were still a few things she and Chase needed to lay on the table.

“For now,” was all she could offer her friend. “Speaking of working things out,” she added before Brody could prod some more. “You and your brother need to have a talk.”

Brody shrugged both his shoulders. “About what?”

She gave him a droll look. “What do you mean, about what? You punched him.”

“Left a mark on him, did I?” he asked with a shit-eating grin. “That was a heat of the moment thing. Chase knows I’m not mad at him.”

Lacy pushed crumbs around the table with her index finger. “I don’t think he does.”

Brody leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “Lace, this is what brothers do. We get pissed at each other, sometimes we throw punches, and then we’re cool. Trust me, there’s no heat between us.”

“I still think you should talk to him.”

His brows lifted. “Would it make you feel better?”

“Yes.”

“Consider it done.”

Lacy leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “As long as we’re on the subject of you, how’s dating life?”

He snorted. “What dating life?”

“What happened to the summer school teacher?”

Brody’s eyes skipped around their surroundings. “She didn’t make it past the second date.”

Her stomach erupted in a low growl. Maybe she ought to shove a fourth muffin down her throat. “Big shoes to fill?” she asked Brody.

He shook his head slowly. “Don’t start that.”

She held her hands up in defense. “I’m just saying. And for the record, I wasn’t referring to Kelly specifically. I’m talking about the whole wife thing.”

His brows flattened over his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“That last time you were single was in college, right? I think you’re standards are too high.”

“You have no idea how much I’ve lowered my standard over the past two years.”

She shook her head. “Please tell me you’re not sleeping with these women, then ditching them.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “What kind of guy do you think I am?”

“You’re a guy. That’s enough.”

“Oh, Miss Twiggy. How little you know me.” His eyes dropped to her midsection. “Although I have to say you’re not as twiggy as you were a few weeks ago.”

Leave it to a man to point something like that out. No one knew more than her how tight her clothes were these days. “Thank you very much,” she said with a tight smile.

“That wasn’t an insult, Lace. Pregnancy is a beautiful thing.”

Beautiful? Lacy had yet to see that side of it. “How often did Kelly tell you that?”

“Never,” he replied with a smile. “But she had a rough pregnancy.” He held up his index finger. “What counts is that I always told her how she beautiful she was even when she all big and swollen.”

She leaned forward in her chair and drew circles on the table with her fingernail. “I bet you were one of those husbands who rubbed her feet and went to the store in the middle of the night.”

Her friend actually looked embarrassed. “There’s nothing wrong with doing stuff like that. Besides men have it easy compared to what you women have to go through.”

Her face broke into a grin. “Did you actually rub Kelly’s feet?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “When I wasn’t studying.”

She watched him a moment before responding. Brody was one of those people who would give you his last dollar if he were broke. The sacrifices he’d made for Kelly and their son was probably something he didn’t even think twice about. The good guy streak ran strong in him and was something Lacy always admired most about him. Not often did men like Brody McDermott come along. Kelly probably had no idea how lucky she was to have a husband like Brody. True, one never knew what went on behind closed doors. Maybe Brody wasn’t half the husband as he was a friend. The fact that he’d put Lacy up on a pedestal had caused her to have hero-like worship for him. It was very possible Kelly had an entirely different view of her ex-husband. Lacy had a hard time imagining any woman not being able to fall in love with Brody. Luckily for her, she’d never felt anything other than platonic for him. By the time she’d met him years ago, she’d already been head over heels in lust with his older brother. Maybe her intense attraction toward Chase prevented any such feelings for Brody. In any event, that was all moot now. The bottom line was, Brody was one of her dearest friends and she only wanted him to be happy.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked after a few moments of silence.

She ran her gaze over his face. “Just thinking about what a great guy you are.”

His eyes softened. “You think too highly of me, Lacy.”

“No, you’re definitely worthy of it.”

“Why did we never get involved?”

“Because we’re too much alike.”

“Hmm.” He tapped his fingers on the table again. “I suppose you’re right.”

“But I still love you.”

His face broke into a disarming smile. “I know.”

Twenty-Two

Fall had finally descended over Wyoming and in the process lifted the suffocating heat of summer. Crisp bursts of wind routinely swept through the town, often pulling thick white clouds in its wake. The previous day, the weather man had predicted a high of the low sixties with a possible chance of rain the following day. Lacy didn’t mind the rain. It had a way of dropping the air temperature to point where she wasn’t sweating bullets anymore. She’d read on the internet pregnant women suffered from bouts of hot flashes as early as their second trimester. Lacy was well into that particular stage and been spending as much time as she could opening the refrigerator door and allowing the cool air to brush along her heated body. So when the first cool front of the year swept through their valley, she practically wept with relief.

The only drawback was the possible negative effect on the art festival. The entire event lasted Friday through Sunday. Although the first day was beautiful, Saturday and Sunday were both question marks.

Over the past few weeks, she’d worked furiously to get as many drawings ready as she could. By last week, she’d had a substantial enough amount to last her all three days. Not too shabby considering that several months ago she couldn’t think of even one drawing worthy enough to display in public. Last night, Chase had come out to the festival grounds with her and helped her arrange her booth, dragging tables from one spot to another. A few nights ago, as they shared a dinner on his living room floor, she tried to reassure him that one little art booth wasn’t too much for her to handle. Chase, being the stubborn man that he was, practically balked at the idea of her lifting so much as a number two pencil. Because she had no will power around him, she had no choice but to agree when he started digging his thumbs into the arches of her feet.

After setting up her booth for her, he drove them back to his place where he drew her a warm bath, and then when she was warm and drowsy, settled into bed next to her. In the weeks leading up to the festival the two of them enjoyed dinners, taking rides on his motorcycle and tearing each other’s clothes off whenever they were near a bed. But in all that time neither of them mentioned marriage or any kind of long-term future. He told her he loved her every opportunity he got, but always stopped short of anything beyond that. It was almost like they’d fallen back into the honeymoon stage of dating.

He’d followed up on his promise of being involved with the pregnancy. When she had her five-month check up with her OB/GYN, Chase had been right there next to her. He’d taken her hand in his while the doctor squeezed that cold, slimy gel on Lacy’s belly. When their baby’s rapid heartbeat filled the exam room, he’d pressed his lips to her knuckles.

All these were endearing sentiments that told Lacy Chase’s feeling for her were genuine. She knew he loved her. But she needed to know she was in a relationship that had some sort of grown up future and was not just dating.