Here Comes Trouble (8 page)

So she could ease her guilt for leaving? Did she even feel guilty? What the hell was Lacy supposed to think about this? Yes, this money would solve all her financial problems. How could she take such a gift from someone who didn’t give a rip about her? She wanted to tear it up and shove it down the disposal.

Megan must have read her mind. “I understand if you don’t want to take it. I’m just trying to fulfill her wishes.”

Poor girl. None of this was her fault. She didn’t ask to be the one child her mother wanted. Here she was, still grieving and learning the mother she loved more than anyone left behind a child that was Megan’s sister. “I’m sorry if I seem standoffish with you.” Lacy pushed down her need to resent her half-sister. “I don’t understand any of this,” she announced, shaking her head. “Why would she abandon me, then want me to have this money?”

Megan lifted her petite shoulders in a helpless shrug. “I wish I knew. She doesn’t explain any of it in the letter she left for me or her will. Maybe it’s something she only wanted you to know.” Her last word came out on a slight hitch. She took a sip from her water. Her chin trembled while she drank and her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Lacy felt sorry for her. It was clear the girl had been having a difficult time dealing with everything. She lost both her parents in a short amount of time and learned she had a half-sister. Lacy could sympathize.

Neither one of them said anything for a moment. Heck, Lacy couldn’t talk even if she had something to say. She didn’t trust her voice to come out strong enough to say something intelligible. In the matter of an hour, her world had been flipped upside down. Nothing made sense, her chest felt tight, and unwanted tears threatened to blur her vision. Why her? Why did the bad shit always surround her?

“I’ve decided to stay in the area for a few more days. I could really use a break from Southern California, or maybe reality altogether. It’s so quaint here. People aren’t in a rush and they smile at you.” She pulled out a little silver pen and a slip of paper from her purse. “Here’s my cell phone number in case you need–” She lifted her shoulders as she stood. “I don’t know, to talk about anything. Or, if there’s anything you want to know about Mom.”

Lacy stood and walked Megan to the door. The girl was tall for a nineteen-year-old. Lacy was only five-seven and Megan looked like she had to be at least five-ten. She smelled good, too. The scent of expensive perfume, like maybe Elizabeth Arden, made a trail from the table to the front door. Lacy took the piece of paper with the cell phone number when Megan handed it to her. “Thanks for listening. I’m really sorry about…everything. I’d be happy to tell you anything you want to know about Mom.”

Still not trusting her voice, Lacy nodded and offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Megan slid a giant pair of dark sunglasses over eyes and walked out the door. Lacy shut the door behind Megan without waiting for her to drive away. For some reason, she didn’t want to see what kind of expensive, luxury car her half-sister drove.

****

The gorgeous female sitting next to him blinked her big, beautiful eyes. Dark, spiky lashes lined her eyelids and her cute, pouty mouth smiled when he brought the spoon to her mouth. She loved to be fed, and Chase loved nothing more than to indulge her. Her downy soft hair felt like feathers beneath his fingertips when he ran his hand through her curls. He could touch her all night long, and she loved to be played with. She had the softest, sweetest giggle Chase had ever heard. He’d spent the better part of his night off making her laugh and holding her. She was one of the few females on the planet he looked forward to spending time with.

She accepted the spoon when he put it in her mouth.
 
Her lips moved as she worked the food around then swallowed. A satisfied smile tugged the corners of his lips when she swallowed all of the green beans. The last time he fed her green beans, she spit them all out and some of the green gunk had ended up on his cheek.

A high pitch squeal bellowed out of her and she slapped her hands on the tray of her highchair. Yes, she really did love being fed. And Chase loved feeding her when she didn’t blow out his eardrums.

“You’ve got a set of lungs on you, sweetie.” He dipped the tiny spoon in the jar of baby food and shoveled more greens in her mouth. “At least you’re not spitting it out this time.” Her answer was another scream. Little Lily was starting to become acquainted with her lungs. He’d never paid attention to how loud babies could get when they were excited.

Every once in a while, when he looked at his niece, he thought of his college girlfriend. Chase couldn’t picture himself with a kid right now. He liked his single life just the way it was. Sometimes, looking at Lily, he couldn’t help but wonder how different his life would be right now if the girl he’d been dating at the time had made a different decision. He knew her decision had been for the best. No way could he have handled that kind of responsibility as a college student. But her deception had hurt. The fact that he’d had to find out from a friend of hers…

Eleven years was more than enough time to put the whole thing behind him. And he had. He’d walked away from the situation losing his ability to commit to a long-term relationship. Now, he simply stuck to the occasional date and one-night-stands. That was all he needed.

Lily sucked down the rest of her dinner with minimal spit-up and lots of grins. He cleaned her up, all the while talking to her and tickling her little chin. His niece was extremely ticklish. As soon as her hands and knees hit the floor, she took off, crawling as fast as her pudgy legs could carry her. She was quite the mover. Chase watched with amusement as she tried to pull herself up to the coffee table but didn’t succeed. Her grin turned to a whine when she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor.

“I can’t help you there, kiddo.” He picked her up and settled her on his hip. The child weighed about as much as a bag of feathers. Her miniature, sticky hands reached out and tried to grab his face. Noah had said Lily had this thing for grabbing faces. One time she’d grabbed Noah’s face so hard she’d actually left a welt on his cheek. “No way am I going to let you scar my face.” He pulled her hand away right before it reached his cheek. “Let’s see what mommy packed for you.” A bag full of toys, a few stuffed animals and toys with all kinds of lights and buttons, sat by the door where Avery had dropped it. Chase took out a contraption that had steering wheel and a gear shift. He shook his head, thinking how elaborate children’s toys were these days. What happened to being content with a few wooden blocks and Lincoln Logs? He set the baby down and the toy in front of her. She kicked her legs and let out another ear-piercing shriek. The toy lit up and sang to life when she fumbled around with the wheel and banged on the buttons. Her dexterity was practically non-existent. Her fingers tried desperately to hit each button but she missed almost every time. Didn’t matter though. No matter where she touched the thing it sang some silly ABC song. That seemed to please her.

Chase cleaned up the baby mess of jars and snacks and had just started to much on cold pizza when his doorbell rang. The clock above his stove said six-fifteen, way too early for Noah and Avery to pick up their daughter. He set the pizza down and scooped up Lily.

Golden hair illuminated by the soft glow of the porch light fell far beyond Lacy’s shoulders. The strands looked like they were in need of a good combing and her freckles stood out on her makeup-free face. Slight bags sat under her grass-green eyes as if she hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before, or she’d been crying. As much as he tried, Chase had a hard time picturing Lacy crying.

Against his wishes, his certain parts responded to the sight of her in a plain T-shirt and denim shorts. The familiar stirring below his belt had him taking a deep breath and shifting his legs. The only time he ever saw her in anything other than denim was at work. He had a feeling if his father didn’t have a dress code, she’d show up in ripped jeans.

“Feeling lonely tonight?” Lily squirmed on his hip. Chase adjusted her while waiting for Lacy to say something.

She blinked her round, bedroom eyes and shifted her attention to the baby on his hip. Lacy’s full, unpainted mouth curved upward when Lily let out a string of baby-blabber. “Hello, little sweetie.” One of Lacy’s slender fingers tickled the bottom of Lily’s bare, chubby foot. Lily swung her leg back and forth and shoved her whole fist in her mouth, drool pouring down her hand.

Chase stood back and decided to let Lacy enter. Her hypnotic, orangey-vanilla scent swirled around his head when she walked past him. No woman he’d known ever smelled like Lacy. Most women sprayed on some atrocious flower perfume that lingered for twenty minutes after she left. Lacy’s scent was sweet and subtle; something only to be smelled when a person got close enough. When he
did
get close enough, her essence clouded his vision and made his dick stand to attention.

“You’re babysitting tonight?” She walked ahead of him through his foyer, giving a view of her excellent, toned ass.

“Uh,” he cleared his throat and tore his attention away from the backs of her creamy thighs. “Noah and Avery haven’t had a night out in a few months so I offered to watch the munchkin.” Now he wished he was alone.

Lacy eyed the baby paraphernalia. “If they ever need a hand, I’d love to watch her.”

Chase set Lily down and she crawled over to her pile of toys. “She’s quite the handful. And noisy.” To prove his point, Lily let out another baby-sized shriek when one of her toys vibrated.

Lacy squatted next to the six-month old. “I think she’s sweet. And totally gorgeous.”

“She’s quite the looker, isn’t she?” Chase sprawled himself down on the leather couch and stretched his long legs in front of him.

“She looks like your mother.”

His mother? He gave his niece some scrutiny, taking in her brown curls, gray eyes and heart-shaped lips. Most people saw Avery and few saw Noah. Personally, Chase thought the girl was an equal mixture of both her parents.

Chase shook his head. “She doesn’t look anything like my mother.”

Lacy eyed the picture of Julianne McDermott on his wall and shifted her gaze back to Lily. “She looks a lot more like your mom than you realize. They have the same hair and same eyes.”

“She has Noah’s eyes.”

Lacy tilted her head to one side, her waterfall of blonde hair falling over one shoulder. “The color, maybe but not the shape. That she got from your mother.”

Chase narrowed his eyes at his guest and tried to ignore how long and smooth her bare legs were. “You didn’t come here to talk about my niece’s genetics.”

A nervous giggle curved her mouth upward. “You always were observant.”

As cute as they were, nervous giggles hardly ever left Lacy’s lips, nor did she ever just show up at his house. Something was up with her.

“What were you doing? Sitting around thinking, ‘I’ll stop by to see my old friend Chase?’”

“You got any red wine?” she asked, completely out of the blue, ignoring his question.

“What am I, a woman?” He grinned when she rolled her eyes in a teenage fashion. “There’s some Sam Adams in the fridge.”

She pushed herself to her feet. “That’s good enough.”

His eyes stayed to her backside when she walked through the archway leading to the kitchen. The fridge door, opened then closed. A nanosecond later, she returned with a dark, cold bottle of beer. He should have asked her to bring one for him. Only the power of alcohol could tame the sexually charged atoms swirling through his body. How sick of was it of him to be fending off a twelve-inch hard-on with his six-month old niece five-feet away? Pretty sick, indeed.

“Take it easy, Lace,” he warned her after she’d chugged for a good fifteen seconds. “Everything okay?”

She lowered the bottle and licked a bead of liquid from her lower lip. Lily crawled into Lacy’s lap, begging to be held. After setting the bottle on the coffee table, Lacy picked the baby up and turned her green, saucer-sized eyes to his. “My mother’s dead.”

Five

There were always those people in life who walked around with the proverbial black cloud over their heads. No matter how sunny or warm the weather that black cloud lingered, promising nothing but gloomy, rainy days. Lacy, bless her beautiful heart, was one of those unfortunate people. The woman just couldn’t catch a damn break.

For the past hour, while downing two full beers, she’d told the story of the half-sister she’d never known existed and the death of her mother. She spoke with composure, Chase was sure, held on by a very thin thread. The way her brows pulled together or her teeth continually stabbing into her lower lip showed him she was a hair away from cracking. That was little Twiggy. She had a tougher exterior than most men. How many times in the past few days had he wondered how soft she’d be underneath her shield of armor? More than the entire time he’d known her.

During her revelation, he’d said little, letting her talk as much as she wanted. And, man, could the lady talk. Under normal circumstances, Lacy wasn’t a chatterer. Her smart-ass retorts had always been precise and to the point.

Then she dropped the bombshell.

“Ten
million
dollars?” Holy shit. Chase had no idea what he’d do with that much money. “Where in the world did your mother get that kind of money?”

“Weren’t you listening? She married a wealthy producer.” She lifted her shoulders beneath her teeny-tiny shirt. “I guess she got struck with a guilty conscience.”