Scoring Lacey (12 page)

Shannon Koval had been her best friend since junior high when the Lewises had moved here for Shannon’s brother to attend the MHS. A nurse at the Granville Hospital, she worked night shifts while her father watched Danny.

Shannon’s brother had died a year after the family had moved to Granville. It had started as a sniffle, turned into a cold, then morphed into pneumonia and before anyone could process what was going on, he had passed away. He was one of the reasons why her friend became a nurse. The Lewis family had stayed despite everything.

Then, as if life hadn’t been tough enough, Shannon’s mother had died of heart failure in her sleep when they had been eighteen. At twenty-three, Shannon had married her high school sweetheart only to lose him in a wreck on the highway between Granville and Regina almost ten years later, leaving her and her newborn son alone. She had thought Don’s death was going to destroy Shannon. She had been so lost without him. Maybe she would’ve given up if not for that cute eight year old boy.

Lacey couldn’t comprehend that amount of grief. All that heartbreak and her friend still laughed, smiled. Life went on.

It went on. Husbands died, husbands left, families fought.

Life went on.

Lacey sat on her bed and stared at her friend. She didn’t want to rehash at the moment. Right now, she wanted to bleed. Leaning forward, she hugged her stomach. Shannon sat beside her and did what she had done when she had heard about Kevin and his lollipop. She hugged Lacey and said nothing.

What could she possibly say anyway?

It would be okay? How could this be okay? She and Carmen had stopped being okay when their familiar world had fallen apart.

“Lacey, honey, it’s Shayne. Why is Shayne calling you?”

Lacey rubbed her eyes as she reached for the phone. She hadn’t heard it ring. Truthfully, she wasn’t even sure of the time.

“Did you want anything to eat?”

Shaking her head, she lay back down and put the phone to her ear. Her entire body hurt. “Hi.” She sounded like she had been crying for hours.

“What’s wrong?” Clearly he could hear it too.

She reached down and drew up the quilt, she felt steadier hearing his voice, hearing his steps then a door closing. Her eyes filled once more. She heard a soft rustling.

“I think I hate my daughter.”

“You love your daughter,” he corrected. “So much that you hurt because she’s hurting. What happened, doll?”

Lacey covered her eyes with her hand. “She hates me, Shayne. She hates me so much.”

“She loves you,” he said calmly. “So much that when she’s hurting she knows she can take it out on you.”

Shannon had said the same thing. She wasn’t sure she believed that. “Is that why she wants to move in with Kevin?”

“Shit,” he sighed. She could imagine him rubbing his face, which would explain the raspy sound.

Lacey felt a tear escape because it was shit. It was total shit. Why was she the villain? She wasn’t the one who fucked a twenty-two year old then decided to shack up with her. She wasn’t the one who had thrown away twenty years. Okay, she had thrown Kevin out. Why would she keep someone who didn’t have enough respect for her to simply leave instead of fucking some girl half his age? “And I need her to go, Shayne. I’m so tired of fighting with her. I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered as another tear fell from under her hand. Then another.

“Oh baby.” His voice was low and gentle.

She squeezed her hand as if that would stop the tears. She wanted this to be easier. It was stupid, but she wanted to go back to the time before she knew Kevin was sleeping with the older sister of Kayla’s best friend. Back to the moment where it wasn’t so hard and Carmen wasn’t this ball of pain. Unfortunately that option meant being married to Kevin and she wasn’t entirely sure she could go back to that flatline of a relationship.

“Distract me, because I need it.”

“I’d phone sex you up but there’s a time and place. You crying in the dark isn’t the time.”

“Pervert.” She wiped her eyes and tucked her hand under her head.

He was silent for three heartbeats. “Well...yeah. Went to tell Todd. Didn’t go so well. We went to the rink only Payne showed up. So the game of one-on-one became the two of them taking shots at me. Turned into a fierce battle. I won. Elbowed Payne in the face. So really I won twice.”

She listened to him describe the game. She wiped her eyes and clung to the normalcy of his tone. “So in the end,” he said, “I didn’t tell Todd. Procrastination.”

She wiped her hand over her eye. “I thought you were trying to make me feel better.”

“How’m I doing, baby?”

“Terrible,” she whispered as she curled her knees up into a fetal position.

“Shit. Listen to me, okay? I may not know great parents but I know shitty ones. You’re not one. When she forgets she’s hurting, she adores you, but she
is
hurting. Her world has changed. It’s scary for her.”

“Me too,” she interrupted.

“I know, but you have some control in this. She has none. The only control she has is fighting with you.”

“When did you get so smart?”

“Oprah.”

A weak smile escaped as she sniffed.

“Carmen
does
love you, Lacey. Both you and she know that. Don’t forget it and you’ll be fine. And remember, what doesn’t kill you, drives you to drink.”

“Idiot. Thanks.”

“Stop crying, Lacey.”

“Night.” She hung up, sliding the phone under pillow. Then she grabbed the edge of her quilt, dragged it up over her head and cried. Her door opened and shut. The bed shifted as Shannon eased into the bed with her.

“Come here.” That was not her friend’s voice.

Shayne. She rolled over and his arms wrapped around her. “Oh God, I really wanted you here.”

“I’m here. I got you.” She gripped the back of his shirt, pressing her face into his chest. He murmured nonsensical words about it being okay and low shushing noises as he stroked her back. He massaged the back of her neck until the tears faded. He kept up the soothing sounds and touches as exhaustion claimed her.

He had come. He hadn’t needed to come over but he had. She buried her face in his neck then moved, kissing him. She looked a mess. She had no doubt about it. Red, swollen eyes, snotty nose, she didn’t care. She wanted it all to stop, to fade away so she didn’t feel like this.

“Lacey.”

“Make me feel good. Please, Shayne. Please?” She pushed against his chest, rolling him to his back. “Tell me there’s a condom in your pocket and make me feel not this terrible.”

“No.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Because then you’ll feel stupid in the morning. I want the good feeling to stay with you all day, not be fleeting. So tonight you cry, you feel sad. You can’t fuck it away, Lacey.”

With a tired sigh, she lowered her head to his chest. “Will you at least take off your jeans?”

“No. Because then my intentions will go down the toilet.”

His fingers brushed back and forth over her hip. Her hand fisted over his chest, clinging to his shirt. “I’m glad you came.”

“Me too,” he said as he kissed the crown of her head. “Me too.”

The next time she woke up, it was to find Shannon standing there, staring with some confusion at Shayne in her bed. God, she couldn’t get into this right now. “I have to head in for my shift,” Shannon said softly. “Dad will pick up Danny at around eleven. He went bowling. Carmen’s in her room. She emerged long enough for a sandwich, asked where you were, then went back to her room. Why is Shayne Donnelly in your bed, Lace?”

He was keeping her from falling apart.

Lacey eased out from under his arm and hugged her friend. “Thanks for coming over. Can we do this,” she waved a hand towards Shayne, “later?”

“Oh yes, yes we can.” Shannon squeezed her arm. “Bye, Shayne.”

“Bye, Shannon,” he said sleepily from the bed, shifting so he lay on his stomach.

Lacey followed her friend to the door. “Shayne. Shayne Donnelly is in your bed,” Shannon whispered, eyebrows rising. “Keeping secrets from your best friend. Shame, shame.”

Lacey shut the door and went to check on Danny. He looked like such a boy in Kayla’s old bed, the bedding still pink with bright, funky flowers on it. “Eight, right?”

His grin was so like his dad’s that Lacey paused for a heartbeat. She had liked Don Koval. He and Shannon had pretty much given up on the possibility of children. Eight years of trying and then bam. Only Don had never gotten to know his little boy. What a crime against all of them. “Right. Are you feeling better, Aunt Lacey?”

“Yeah,” she lied. She squeezed his toes under the blankets then went to check on Carmen. Her baby.

She lay on her stomach, her dark hair in her face, and one hand fisted on the mattress. Battling life even asleep. Smoothing aside the hair, Lacey leaned down to kiss Carmen’s forehead. “I love you, kid,” she whispered then left her to sleep the sleep of the emotionally exhausted. She grabbed a granola bar to eat then returned to her room, to Shayne.

Kneeling on her bed, she studied him. Did he understand how much it meant to her that he had come here while she was melting down? Who the hell was this man? Easing down to lie next to him again, she contemplated Shayne. His arm reached over and his hand gripped her waist. With a tug, he drew her against him.

He shifted, sliding over her and opened his eyes as he half covered her. A finger lightly brushed under her left eye. “Sad little mama,” he said, leaned down to kiss her eye then the right one.

Sad little mama indeed. Lacey traced one bold eyebrow that was a black slash above those beautiful hazel eyes. He was all hard lines and angles. So rough around the edges. Her thumb followed the long, blunt path from his temple to his jaw then along the angle to his chin. A familiar face that was new again. Her middle finger stroked down the middle of his nose then to his cheekbone. She liked the dark scruff of whiskers against her finger.

He was nothing like Kevin. Her ex was soft, not just weight-wise but life-wise. Shayne was tough--made tough by surviving his childhood, made tough by his career. He made no apologies for who he was: Tough, sexy, a little badass when he wanted to be, sweet when she least expected it. He was driven, determined but not blind to the rest of the world.

“I am trying to behave,” he said in a low voice, “what with the bevy of minors in this house. You are not helping, Magerin.”

How had he become
more
than the Shayne she knew?

Her afternoon had been such shit with Carmen’s declaration. Everything was still shit but it seemed manageable with him here.

She felt his fingers slide through her hair. He was very much trying to behave with keeping his hands by her head. The pillow dented from his elbows as he held himself above her. He also was succeeding in behaving because against her thigh she felt the firmness of his arousal.

She
behaved because didn’t rub up against him.

Still it was nice to know she affected him.

“I have to go tell Danny lights out.”

“But I don’t want to move,” Shayne said. “I like you all soft beneath me, looking at me with dark, intense eyes as if you’ve never seen me before. I do like,” he repeated, his voice low and raspy, making her insides give a little quiver.

And so much for behaving, she thought as he lowered his head and kissed her. It was slow and intoxicating. His lips glided over hers as if he had all the time in the world. She cupped the back of his neck, meeting the lazy, delicious explorations of his lips. A shift of his weight had him lying fully on her and settling between her legs when they parted for his body.

“I have to--”

“Not move,” he finished and took advantage of her words, his tongue sweeping in.

“I thought you were behaving.”

“Later.”

She nodded as his tongue claimed hers in another hungry kiss. He slid up and swallowed her moan when his erection rubbed against her pussy. Lacey’s legs tightened around him and a soft curse came from him before all his weight pinned her to the bed. He devoured her mouth.

He had the magical ability to set her afire fast. A touch, a kiss, and she became this hedonistic throb of want. That didn’t, however, turn off her brain. She pushed on his shoulder and he rolled them so she was straddling him. Oh hell.

His hands gripped her ass as he rocked her over his erection. A wicked laugh was muffled on her neck as his mouth slid down.

Bracing her hands on either side of his head, she gazed down at him. She kissed him then rolled away from him. A soft laugh escaped at his muttered curse. She approached Kayla’s room, the light still shining under the door. A soft knock and she opened the door. “Lights, bud.”

“Five more minutes?”

She flashed him five fingers then closed the door. The joys of being a surrogate aunt–she got to break the rules sometimes. Passing Carmen’s door, Lacey ran her hand over the wood before heading off to find food for Shayne. Clearly he needed to put something in his mouth.

In the kitchen, she picked up the cordless handset. Leaning against the counter, she debated then dialed. There was some surprise the call went through to voicemail. “It’s Lacey. Carmen mentioned living with you. You better have said yes because I have. A friend suggested she needs more control in the divorce as it affects her too. I agree. This is her choice, her decision. Don’t break her heart, Kevin.” She hung up with a nod then set the phone aside.

It was with some surprise to see her teenage daughter standing there. She looked younger with her hair messy and wearing pajamas. When was the last time Carmen had been wearing pajamas at eight o’clock? Probably when she was Danny’s age. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“You meant it?”

“About you moving in with your dad? Yes.” Lacey fussed with her own hair while hoping there were no visual evidence that she wasn’t alone in her room. Great. Now
she
was the one sneaking a boy in.

Carmen nodded as she made herself a glass of iced tea.

“Danny’s in Kayla’s room. If you’re still up, Mr. Lewis is coming by in a few hours to take him home. I’m going back to bed. Good night, Carm.”