Love and Chaos: A Growing Pains Novel (12 page)

“All the time, actually.” Nick guffawed.

Cassie lost track of the merriment as Jace straightened up, so close. His eyes delved  into her, an expression within them she couldn’t read. His brow slowly furrowed before he turned away without a word.

A burst of warmth flooded her body as the whistle blew. “Play on,
” Roger yelled.

“Uh oh, wasting time.” Nick
tsk’ed at Cassie. “I call an audible.”

The boys suddenly braced, and sure enough, the shuttle flew past her head and over the net. Demetri got there this time, batting it back
Jace’s way. He stepped forward easily, lobbing it back. Nick ran in like Flash and slammed the thing back over the net. Jace didn’t get there in time, scooping dirt instead of birdie.

“What am I, invisible?” Cassie spread her arms accusingly.

“They’re just trying to tire me out.” Jace winked at her and threw the shuttle over the net.

“Ser-VICE!” Deme
tri strutted back to the service line. “You want the cock, Cassie?”

“Dirty!”
Jenn yelled.

“There are children present,” Roger scolded in a deep voice.

Demetri looked over at his dad with raised eyebrows, disbelieving eyes, and a hanging mouth. He held up the little white plastic birdie. “Dad, this is a shuttle
cock
. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”

“Quit stalling, slacker,” Jace growled. His voice had dropped the play, though. He hadn’t liked that comment.

A thrill went through Cassie’s body as Nick noticed the change in tone, too. “Uh oh, we have wrongly spoken to thine woman-folk. Three lashings!”

“Don’t worry, Cassie, he’s an idiot on the best of days.” Rachel waved her hand through the air, unconcerned. She turned to Peter. “What’s the next drink on the menu? That was
delicious!
And how did we not know this fabulous trait of yours?”

“Less alcohol, though, or we’ll need a nap in an hour,”
Jenn’s voice drifted over.

Demetri served the shuttle, the little white blur heading directly for
Cassie. She stepped to the side and fired it back, not as hard as she could, but hard enough to send it flying to a spot no one occupied. Demetri stepped left with a swinging racquet as Nick jogged over. They
thwapped
each other, but missed the shuttle.

“What the hell, Cassie? You never told us you could handle a—“

“Demetri!” Roger warned.

“A
racquet
dad. Wow, you are really hanging out in the gutter today.” Demetri shook his head with a grin.

Cassie laughed and caught the thrown shuttle. She turned back to the line, meetin
g Jace halfway there as he shifted position. He put his large hand up, his tattooed arm rippling with muscle. She gave him a wink and a high-five. They were
so
going to win.

“Photo bomb!”
Jenn yelled. “Good work, honey! I got you playing with your brother.”

Jace smiled that mouthwatering smile and shook his head, his dimple distracting her for a moment. “I don’t think she knows what a photo bomb is.”

“Honey,” Nick straightened up for a moment. “A photo bomb isn’t an ordinary picture, it is a hijacking of an ordinary picture, or mass selfie explosion. And
please
don’t take pictures for Jace to post on his blog.”

“You have a blog?” Cassie dropped her arm and looked over.

He glanced back, still grinning. “They wish I did.”

“I’d com
ment the hell out of that.” Demetri squatted down, ready for Cassie to serve.

She did so, putting a little more sauce on it this time, but not over-doing it. Trying too hard would only backfire. It flew over the
net, forcing Demetri to nearly dive to get it. He did manage to return, but Jace was there, slamming it back down into their court.

“Should I photo
opp that one, honey?” Jenn asked sweetly.

“I don’t love you as much as I could after that comment, sweetie-pie,” Nick called back.

“Hey Cassie!” Demetri yelled across the net as she readied her next serve. “1980 called—they want their cutoffs back.”

She paused to let the laughter bubble up before she let them have it.

***

Peter lounged on his lawn chair and watched his brothers play. He couldn’t help the beaming smile, content to be hanging out with his sisters-in-law watching the festivities
instead of fumbling ineptly through the sporting activities. He felt loose and relaxed in a way he hadn’t in the last few years. Part of that was his few slips into being completely himself. Calling the girls
doll
or letting other effeminate parts of himself show didn’t have them so much as raising an eyebrow. They didn’t comment, or even seem to notice.

A warm trickle of hope
infused his body. He wanted to be the real Peter so badly it hurt. He wanted to joke and laugh without censoring himself, and so far, with Rachel and Jenn, he’d mostly been able to do that. He was able to just
let go
without judgment.

Maybe this would all be okay.

The euphoric feeling was quickly dowsed as his gaze swept past his father. His problem had never been the wives.

Fear encroached
as Peter thought of his father’s comments when he arrived—about fashion. Or his constant badgering about being more manly. Or his brother calling him
fresh
looking.

No, the problem wasn’t the wives, it was the men of the family.

Peter sighed and sipped his drink. He really did want to come
out
, but how could he and risk losing all this? His brothers laughing and joking, the stupid running photobomb joke, the jostling each other—it felt good to have his family around him. He missed them in L.A. He didn’t want to bring up something that would tarnish all of this. That would rip them away.

“She’s good,”
Jenn commented.

Peter followed
Jenn’s gaze, trying to push away the sudden hopelessness. Cassie had her hand up to Jace, ready for a high-five. Her bright smile enhanced her beauty.

“Yeah, she loves this sort of thing,” Peter commented, his gaze snagging on Jace as his brother slapped Cassie’s hand and stepped out of the way so she could serve. Peter recognized the glimmer of attraction, which in itself wasn’t a huge surprise—Cassie was a beautiful girl.
She and her brother had gotten a huge dose of the attractive gene. But that gaze held something else, too. A deeper interest.

“She works with Jace pretty well, too,” Rachel said. “He’s actually letting her play.”

Peter couldn’t help but joining in their laughter. “Are you saying he never let me play?” he accused.

“Maybe just…helped you not have to play,”
Jenn intoned, laughing again.

Peter watched the pair working off of each other effortlessly, not even needing vocals to know how to share the space.
They were as good as Krista and Sean always were when they played a sport. Or as well orchestrated as Marcus and Peter when they threw a party. Perfect symmetry in the relationship.

Peter couldn’t help thinking about Marcus. About meeting him for the first time and immediately falling into conversation. The man was as handsome as he was fascinating, but more than that, he was such a good person. Open and honest, Marcus was the salt of the earth. Peter had never felt luckier
than when the belle of the ball had asked for his number. And when they started hanging out, it was like a burning fire lit up his insides. Like Marcus filled in a hole and balanced Peter out.

And now he
saw that feeling expressed between his brother and Cassie. When they looked at each other their gazes lingered. Their eyes sparkled. Eventually, one or the other would remember to rip their glance away, but their bodies stayed pointed at each other. Their desire to hang around the other screamed out their interest. Their mutual longing.

The question was
, was he the only one to notice? And the larger question—if that spark of interest between Jace and Cassie started to grow roots and take over, how could Peter keep from standing in their way without admitting his secret and damning him and Cassie both?

Peter felt despondency settle over him as he emptied his drink. “You ladies want another? I’m going…”

“Yes, please,” the women chorused, holding up their empty glasses.

Peter didn’t notice the pointed look pass between the girls as he trudged toward the house.

“Honey, you don’t mind if I murder a ringer and bury her in the yard do you?” Demetri called to his wife pleasantly.

Jace threw his racquet to the side of the court, and then stepped back so Cassie could do the same.

“Talk to your mother before you choose a place to bury her
. She needed some fertilizer for her flowers.”

Demetri til
ted his head at Cassie. “That’s why I love her.”

Jace reached out to put his
hand on Cassie’s back to direct her toward the whiffle ball diamond, but caught himself just in time. He cleared his throat and pointed, instead. “Next up, baseball.”

Her eyes scanned the length of his arm, glanced at the field, and then back. “Those are some really awesome tattoos.” She reached out to touch one, and then shied away. Like he’d just done, she pointed. “
I like the tribal stuff.”

“Poser.” Nick forced his face between the two of them to take a selfie.
“Cheese!”

Demetri took a running leap, jamming his face in front of everyone else with a giant and crazy smile, and then ran on. “C’mon—baseball is a
man’s
sport. We’ll win at this one.”

“Hear that Cassie?” Nick asked, taking down the camera phone and bounding toward the field. “
We are going to
rock
you in this game. That toilet is as good as ours!”

“
Better stop running so fast, then,” Jace yelled after his brothers. “You’ll have a heart attack before we even start.”

“Well, that’ll be fun, too.” Demetri waved his father over. “C’mon, dad, the girls have a huge head start
on the festivities.”

Jace walked beside Cassie, overwhelming awe mingled with respect
showing on his face. The woman was dynamite. Unreal athleticism and confident in it.

“I was wrong in the store. About bei
ng good for a girl. You know, as opposed to just being good.” Jace put his hands into the pockets of his sweats.

She gave hi
m a sideways glance. “You’re a man. You’re often wrong. So let me get this straight. The different sports are like heats?”

Jace tried to hide his smile as he looked down. They’d played three games of badminton
, Jace and Cassie winning the first, Nick and Demetri winning the second, and Cassie and Jace stomping on them to win the third. Now they would move to five innings of whiffle ball.

“No. One of those trophies is ours for badminton, and now we play for the second trophy.”

“What?” She turned to him in outrage. “I have to share my spoils with you?”

Her smile gave her away. Jace stepped away from her somewhat and glanced toward his brothers to see what the status of the next sport was. He didn’t like the tingling in the base of his stomach, nor did he like the uncomfortable pounding in his chest.
He couldn’t seem to stop the effect she was having on him.

He glanced around the grass, noticing Peter sitting with
Jenn and Rachel, laughing and having a great time, each with a bright pink drink in a martini glass.

Anger rose up. “He hasn’t come over to congratulate you.”

“Huh?” Cassie looked at Roger in confusion before she noticed where Jace was looking. “Oh. PETER!”

Jenn
got Peter’s attention and pointed at Cassie. She and Rachel waved hello happily as Peter glanced over.

“I won.” Cassie threw him a thumbs up. Jace shifted to the side, honing in on her facial
expression, amazed she could be this blasé about her boyfriend not giving a shit. Six months in a relationship usually meant undivided attention. Hell, he wouldn’t leave her side if he were in Peter’s place.

“What?” Peter yelled back, cupping his hand to his ear.

Jace clenched his jaw and stared at the ground, two seconds from walking over to that lawn chair, dragging his brother out, and demanding he give his girlfriend the attention she deserved—any woman deserved.

“I won, you idiot. Yay me!” She mimed waving to
a fake crowd, bowing, and then threading her fingers together and pumping her combined fists in the air.

Jace had had enough. He shook his head and walked on. They could mock him on their own time.