Love and Chaos: A Growing Pains Novel (23 page)

“Say, do you want me to kick her ass?” Cassie swayed backward and bumped off Peter. Peter gave her a light shove back toward standing.

“This is going downhill,” Jace said, catching her by the shoulders to keep her straight.

“Not at all, bub bub bub. I will triumph!” Cassie thrust a finger skyward.

“Was that…Hitchcock?” Nick asked
with a lopsided grin, staring at her.

Peter started laughing with his eyes closed.

Cassie reached for Jace’s glass. “Conveyer belt. Hurry up.”

“Let’s go. We don’t need an
ymore.” Jace handed his glass to Nick and motioned for Cassie to head out.

“What?” Her eyebrows dipped.
“I want to finish tasting.”

“You don’t need anymore.”

The eyebrows went the other way. Not good.

“None of us need anymore,” Peter interjected. “It
’s not going to stop any of us.”

Cassie turned away from Jace
, waiting for a refill. Her jaw clamped down in stubborn determination. “Go, if you want to go, but I don’t have bosses. I have helpers. And they are elves. Fill ‘r up, Demetri.”

“Rachel is in charge. She’s the one with wood at the helm.” Demetri burped, and then growled.

“He
definitely
doesn’t need anymore.” Peter pushed his glass forward. “What wine are we on?”

“
Don’t know. Red.” Nick took the glass and handed it forward. “How do two smallish women need all that room?”

“Thank you, baby.”
Jenn fluttered her eyelashes at her husband.

“For what?”

“Calling me small.”

“That wasn’t really the point,” Nick muttered.

Jace shifted, uncomfortable with what he’d just done. With how she’d reacted. He’d overstepped his bounds. He should’ve learned his lesson about that. Wasn’t Marlene always screaming that he suffocated her? That he tried to boss everyone around. And here he was, so overbearing he was doing it to other people’s girlfriends. Maybe Marlene had been right. Maybe he had pushed her toward another man—

He jumped at a
hard, pointy jab to his ribs. He covered that damn ticklish spot, unable to stop the smile. “Stop.”

“
You
stop. C’mon. Let’s go.” Cassie tilted her head toward the door.

“Where are you guys going?” Peter pushed off from the wall.

“Outside. Wanna come?”

“Take Demetri.” Rachel pushed him out of the group. “At this rate we’ll have to carry the big donkey.”

“Now, lady love, that isn’t very nice.” Demetri stumbled toward the door, though, grabbing onto Peter and yanking him along. The two tilted toward each other as they staggered, elbows connected—it was unclear who was using whom for a walking stick.

“W
e can stay,” Jace said, uncertain. Wishing he could go back and unsay those words.

Cassie
tucked her hand under his forearm and gave a small tug. “Meh. I’m pretty far ahead. Let’s go before you think things I say make sense.”

“Cass, I don’t want to be pushy,” Jace said in a low, urgent voice. “I can be suffocating—“

She jabbed him again, making him chuckle despite himself.

“C’mon.” She jerked her head again and
tugged harder, now doing the leading. And he was letting her. Blindly. Trusting.

“Yes,” Cassie said when they got outside. “
You did cross the line. But I know you didn’t mean it, and you backed off. No harm, no foul. And look, you got your way.
Ta da!
Just don’t tell anyone you know the secret.”

“I don’t mean to suffocate,” he said quietly, starting off toward his two brothers, lumbering toward the limo.

“Hey.” She put her hand on his arm, stopping him.
“Don’t let her mess you up, okay? You and she obviously weren’t a good match. You hung in there, which is commendable, but it’s just as commendable that you got out when you realized it was a damaging situation. Just…relax.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly, his chest constricting painfully.

“We good?” Her gaze implored a positive response.

“Yes.”

“Okay. Let’s get back to those two knuckleheads. Then open a bottle in the car. I’ve just gotten a taste for it. Plus, we’re almost done with the family hour. Let’s go to a bar tonight and let our hair down. I feel like dancing.”

“Is Peter going to be okay with that?”

“Peter is going. That’s the end of it. I came all the way up here to hang out with his freaking family—that bastard is going to dance like its 1999!”

After the shit-show that was the last winery, the whole crew bought a bunch of wine they didn’t need and clambered into the limo. Cassie’s seat was taken by Demetri, who was three songs away from passing out. Rachel sat next to him, in case Demetri upchucked instead of passed out.

Cassie spent the whole, foggy journey
back to the house sandwiched between a drowsy Peter and silent Jace. Apparently Jace got quiet when he started to get drunk. In opposition, Cassie fist pumped and yell-sang her way home, Jenn and Nick doing the same right with her.

As they thundered into the town of Sonoma, Metallic
a blaring, Cassie turned to Jace. “Do you want to go to a bar? Or just back?”

Jace glanced across her to a sleeping Peter. “He won’t be going anywhere, and I…don’t really feel comfortable going with just you.”

Cassie let the music drone around her as she met his gaze, butterflies igniting in her stomach as she recognized the hunger there. The desire.

“Why?” Her words came out breathy.

“You know why.” His words were quiet and thick, hinting at the longing she felt. That he shared.

She nodded, her breath
struggling to get in and out of her chest.

They arrived
home a short time later, the early evening seeming so much later with the day they’d had. With the drunk that they were. The crew, greeted by overly jubilant kids, went about pulling all the coolers and any valuables out of the limo and taking them into the house. Wine purchases were next, everyone trying to sort who bought what, and then deciding to leave the questionable purchases in a pile so they could figure it out later.

“Did you have fun?” Becky asked
the group as she monitored the kids on the driveway.

Demetri mumbled something, patted one of the kids on the head, and headed into the house. They heard Roger instruct him to go to the kitchen and get some coffee.

“Water, Demetri,” Rachel yelled after them. She said to Cassie, “He hasn’t gotten out in a long time. He went a little crazy.”

“I can’t judge. I’m jus
t glad I don’t have any kids I have to function for.” Cassie wiped her hand across her eyes. Why? She didn’t know, because it certainly didn’t dislodge the drunk.

“We’re good here, do you want to get Peter…settled?” Jace stood beside the limo, his hand on a wobbly-legged Peter.

“Uh…Peter, you can walk, right? How are you this drunk?” Cassie stepped up closer to him and met his bleary stare.

“I don’t usually drink this much.” He burped one of those burps that could potentially become much more.

“Pass out time?” she asked, taking a step back. “Or…”

“Marcus usually makes me a certain drink when I get this drunk. Usually with you girls!”

Cassie couldn’t help glancing at Jace, wondering if he caught that remark. Thankfully, Jace was watching Rachel double-check they got everything. That woman could function through anything, it looked like.

“Okay, so I don’t know what that is. And I don’t want to bother making it, either, because standing still is
a harrowing thought.”

“A harrowing thought, huh?” Jace smirked.

“Quiet, you!”

“Then…bed, I guess. Water?” Peter burped again.

“Bed, I think.” Cassie glanced at Jace. “Probably bed. What do you think?”

“You’re the girlfriend,” Jace deflected.

“I’ve only been with him for…”
Shit—how long did he say?
“…a few months.” “You don’t remember?” Jace studied her closely.

“Bed.” Peter burped again
, this one more ominous than the last.

“All right. Decision made. C’mon Jace.
” Cassie motioned him forward.

“I can walk.” Peter tried to struggle away from his brother.

“There are kids here, man.” Jace tightened his grip on Peter’s shoulder. “They don’t need to see you staggering around.”

They got Peter up the stairs and into the room. Once there, Cassie gestured toward the bed. “Just…drop him there, I guess.”

“I can walk, you guys. I’ve had wine, not hip surgery.” Peter staggered forward a few feet, and then did a face plant on his bed.

Cassie stared down at him for a moment, and then stripped off her shoes. Jace started backing out of the room. “Are you going to go to bed, too?” he asked.

“Do I look like a quitter?” She kicked her shoes into the corner and pulled out her flip flops. “Question: Is there somewhere we can have a beer without a bunch of kids judging us?”

“We?”
Jace’s low voice sent tingles down her back.

She straightened up and turned to him slowly. She met his smoldering gaze
and recognized his resistance to being in the same room with her…alone. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was afraid of losing control.

“Are you going to leave me on my own?”
she asked softly.

“That’s not fair, Cassie.”

No, it wasn’t. She was playing with fire. She was intentionally trying to manipulate him into hanging out with her, and not only because she didn’t want to be alone, but because she didn’t want to be without him.

“Sorry,” she said softly, walking toward him.

He braced, wariness creeping into his expression. He held his ground, letting her get within a couple feet before she stepped around.

“Are you going to dress him, or anything? Get him out of his clothes?”

“No, he’s fine.” Cassie waited by the door. There was absolutely no way she was going to get that familiar with Peter. She’d been through enough on his behalf already. He could wrinkle the hell out of his clothes for all she cared. And he better not bitch about it, either.

They went through the kitchen and grabbed some water, realizing Demetri wasn’t there.

“Sent him to bed,” Rachel answered their silent question.

“Do you want to go to the game room?” Jace asked her, staying well away from Cassie.

“I’m okay. I’m going to hang out until the kids’ bedtime and then go myself.”

“What about Nick and
Jenn?” Jace asked.

Rachel took a sip of her water and picked up some of her mother’s banana bread from the plate on the table. “I doubt it.”

“Okay, well, tell them we’re down there.”

Rachel took a bite and waved them on. “Sure.”

The game room was similar to a basement, nestled at the bottom of the house where the hill sloped down. One side had windows pointed towards tree trunks, mostly. The other had no windows at all. In the middle of the room waited the ping pong table, ready for some action. A pinball machine stood in the corner with a dartboard next to that. A shelf in the corner had a plethora of board games with a table next to it and a refrigerator was pushed against the far wall.

“A ping pong table instead of a pool table, huh?” Cassie wandered toward the table as Jace headed toward the refrigerator.

He pulled out two beers, one Corona and one Great White. “For the grandkids.”

“Ah. So a relatively new addition. Did you grow up here?”

He popped her top with the bottle opener, which doubled as a refrigerator magnet, and handed her the beer. “This is the vacation house, mostly. Well, I should say it
was
the vacation house. It is now the retirement house. They sold their house in Texas.”

“Do you want to play a little ping pong?” Cassie asked,
walking to the back wall where a box of balls sat on a shelf.

“Why doesn’t he kiss you, Cassie?”

Startled, Cassie turned and met Jace’s inquiring gaze. “What?”

“He doesn’t kiss you. He doesn’t touch you. Why?”

Feeling like she was about to be caught in a lie, Cassie shifted her stance and flicked her hair. She let her gaze settle on the paddle in her hands. “It’s just weird with his family around.”

“Look at me.”

The command in his voice dragged her gaze upward. He stalked toward her with powerful steps, determination dragging down his eyebrows. He set his beer down on the ping pong table and closed the distance between them.

“Don’t lie to me,” he said softly, but with an unmistakable dominion in his voice. “Please don’t ever lie to me. No matter what, no matter how much it might hurt—please.”