The Day He Kissed Her (19 page)

“Mac—”

“Don’t Mac me. He beat you and put you in a goddamn hospital. What the hell do you want me to say? Didn’t you see enough of that when we were kids? How many times did Dad slap the shit out of Mom, and when he got tired of that, he turned to us? How many times did he say he was sorry and that it wouldn’t happen again?”

Her eyes got shiny, as if they were full of tears, but Mackenzie didn’t give a rat’s ass.

“How many times did we go to school when it was a hundred goddamn degrees outside, wearing long-sleeve shirts because we were too embarrassed for our friends to see the bruises on our arms? Or the belt marks on our backs? Ten times? Fifty? One hundred?”

Jesus, Mac was so angry. He clenched and unclenched his fists, eyeing the punching bag he’d installed in the family room.

Becca stood. “David is not our father. He’s not! And I need to see him, Mackenzie. I need to talk to him.”

Mac threw his hands into the air. Gone were all the warm, fuzzy feelings he’d woken with—but he should have known. This here, this brutality was his reality, and he would never get away from it.

He thought of Liam, of the lost and angry look in the kid’s eyes, and he saw himself. He saw the broken kid he’d been, and it filled him with such blinding rage that for a moment he couldn’t see clearly.

He took a step toward his sister, his face black and angry. “How the hell can you do this to your kid? How can you be that goddamn selfish?”

“Mac,” her voice trembled. “Please, listen to me.” She blew out a long breath and wiped at her face. “I need to do this but give me some credit. I’m not Mom, and he’s not Dad. We need to figure some things out and just need a few days. A week or two at the most. Just David and I. I just need to…”

He’d heard that before too.

“You know what? I don’t give a shit.”

And he didn’t. He didn’t want to get involved. What the hell was the point? He could write the ending to this story in his sleep. Mac took a step back and shook his head. If his sister wanted to be that pathetic, well, she could go right ahead. She was an adult, and it was her life.

He glanced out the windows that faced the water and spied Liam standing at the edge of the beach.

“Why’s the kid here? Why can’t he stay with Mom?”

Becca’s bottom lip trembled a bit. “Mom is teaching Bible School all week and well, Liam’s a bit old for it. He…he asked if he could stay with you. He had fun the other night, and I think that he thought you would be okay with him staying for a few days, but obviously I was wrong.”

Something twisted inside Mac, something hard and painful, and he glanced out the window again. He didn’t have time for a kid. Christ, he was in the middle of this big project for Jake, and there was Lily…

Liam tossed a rock out over the water, and it skipped a few times before disappearing beneath the surface. He shoved his hands into his pockets again and hunched his shoulders, head down as he stared at his feet.

It was like looking at himself when he was young.

Mackenzie dragged his eyes back to his sister. He was probably going to regret this—what the hell did he know about kids?

“He can stay,” Mac said. “I’m going to be busy and probably won’t have much time for him but…”

His sister launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his chest in a hug that was hard and desperate. “Thank you, Mac. I knew I could count on you.”

Everything inside him was coiled tight, but after a few seconds, that part of him that still cared loosened up a bit, and he slipped his arms around his sister, holding her, supporting her when the tears started up again.

Chapter 19

Lily waited until Mac’s sister left before she ventured out of the bedroom. The cottage was empty, and for a moment, she stood in the middle of the kitchen not really sure what to do.

She was still reeling from what she’d overheard and felt awful for listening in on a private family conversation, but it’s not as if she’d done it on purpose. Mac’s loud voice had woken her, and at that point, there was no way she couldn’t listen—not even if she’d shoved her head under the covers and slid beneath the pillows.

Dressed in an old T-shirt she’d found in the bedroom, Lily pushed her hair out of the way and peeked out the window that overlooked the lake. Mac was down there talking to a young boy who looked about nine or ten. They stood at the edge of the water, both of them with their hands shoved into their front pockets.

The boy was as blond as Mackenzie with the same build—wide shoulders, tapered waist, and long legs—and if she’d never met them before, she would think he was Mac’s. She watched them for a few more minutes and decided it was time for her to go when she felt something stirring in her breast. She didn’t know what the hell it was, but she sure as heck knew she needed to shut it down.

Last night had been amazing, but it was over and time for her to go. She and Mac had a sex thing—nothing more—and a relaxed morning together wasn’t in the cards.

Her overnight bag was still in the truck, along with her cell phone and purse. She moved gingerly because there were a lot of parts on her body that ached, which, considering the night she’d had, was par for the course. She opened the door and slipped outside, spying a pair of Mackenzie’s sandals—thank God. She slipped her feet into them, nearly falling on her ass twice as she made her way up the uneven path that led to the driveway, but it was worth it—the path and driveway was strewn with rocks.

As luck would have it, the truck was locked—when the hell he’d had time to think about locking the stupid thing she had no clue—and she stared through the window at her bag.

“Dammit.”

She’d never been in this situation before. Not really. When she’d been “good-time Lily,” any sex she had was at a party or in a dorm room or some back alley of a club. She had sex for the express purpose of having sex because she was a St. Clare, sister to the crazy Maddison St. Clare, and well, why not give them what they all expected? It had seemed somehow easier.

Lily never thought she deserved better anyway, and considering sex wasn’t exactly something she liked, doing the nasty with a stranger didn’t matter. At least not back then. It was more of a way for her to mean something to someone, even if it was only for a few hours.

So there’d been no sleepovers. No waking up in bed with someone. No awkward morning conversations…or continuations of the previous night’s activities. She’d never wanted any of that.

Which is why she was a little shocked that she’d been so disappointed to wake up alone, with no sight of Mac. Instead, he’d been arguing with his sister, and now he seemed to have forgotten all about Lily.

Carefully making her way back down the path, she slipped back inside the cottage. Mac was still down at the dock with the boy, but now they were sitting side by side, gazing out at the water.

There was something bittersweet about the two of them together, and for a second time, Lily had to mentally pull away. She walked into the kitchen and spied Mac’s cell on the counter. Grabbing it up, she punched in Jake’s number, and he answered on the second ring.

“Draper, what the hell? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for the last hour.”

Lily made a face. Ten guesses as to what Jake wanted to discuss with Mackenzie. In some ways, she preferred having no one who really gave a damn about her.

“I’ll make sure to pass that along.”

She thought that maybe Jake fell off of something because there was a whole lot of cursing and then he must have stubbed his toe because the cursing moved to a level of epic she hadn’t heard in a good, long while. And then the barking started.

Jake must have closed himself into the bathroom or something because all of a sudden there was nothing.

“Shit, Lily. Sorry. I—”

“Did you fall out of bed?”

“What?”

“Bed. Did you fall out of it?” She moved back to the window, her eyes on the two boys down near the water.

“Yeah. Stubbed my fu…my damn big toe, and it’s not funny.”

“I’m not laughing.” She was too distracted to laugh.

Jake cleared his throat. “So you’re with Mac.”

“Yeah. I’m at his place.”

There were a few moments of silence. “Okay,” he said quietly.

“Is it weird for you?” she asked, suddenly curious.

She could picture the wheels turning in Jake’s mind and leaned against the sofa, balancing her butt on the edge as she continued to watch Mac and his nephew.

“No. I mean, kinda.” She heard him exhale. “Look, it’s none of my business.”

“You mean Raine told you that it was none of your business.”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“But?”

“I can’t help worrying that this is gonna go south. You both mean a hell of a lot to me, and I don’t want to see either one of you hurt.”

“We’re not kids,” she murmured.

“No,” he said quietly. “You’re not.”

“I need a favor.”

“Anything.”

“I need you to come get me.” Silence filled her ear. “Jake?”

“Ah, sure. I can do that, but where’s Mac?”

Her eyes were still on them, and Mac had moved into the boathouse, Liam following in his wake. Her throat tightened, and she took a moment to answer.

“He’s busy right now. Um, some sort of family thing, and I don’t really want to get involved.”

Jake didn’t hesitate. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Feeling a little out of sorts and not really knowing why, Lily placed Mac’s cell back onto the counter and went back to the bedroom. She needed to find his keys and get her stuff, but after a quick search of the room, she realized that there weren’t any clothes or keys.

God, they’d stripped down to nothing on the dock and—her head whipped up as she groaned—their clothes probably ended up in the lake. Her dress, his clothes…his
keys.
What the hell was she going to do?

Another search of the kitchen and family room turned up nothing, and she knew that she had no choice but to walk down to the boathouse and see if maybe Mac had an extra set hanging around. There was no way she was going home in nothing but a freaking T-shirt.

Which brought to mind her second problem. The whole commando thing had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but it didn’t look so good now, because she had nothing between her butt cheeks and that sweet Crystal Lake air. She rummaged through Mac’s drawers and found a pair of boxers that she thought might do the trick. After pulling them up over her hips, she turned the waistband several times, but she still had to hold them so they didn’t end up around her ankles.

She didn’t bother looking in the mirror—she knew exactly what she looked like—and as she slipped his big-ass sandals on again, she slowly started toward the water.

It was the ultimate walk of shame.

She was so preoccupied with keeping her shorts up that she didn’t see the boat or hear the voices until it was too late. She squared her shoulders, deciding that if she looked like she didn’t give a shit, then he would think that she was schooled with this sort of thing and that she was totally fine walking around in his T-shirt and boxers. She stepped into the boathouse and froze.

Lily saw Mac right away. Shirtless. Cargo pants slung so low that it was obscene. He was barefoot—something she found incredibly sexy—and his hair fell to his shoulders in waves. Her eyes traveled over his muscular chest, down past his flat abs, until they rested on the indent just above the waistband of his pants.

Jesus. It was insane how hot he looked. All conscious thought fled as she gazed across the boathouse at him. He had a fishing rod in one hand, and his eyes did a slow once-over, starting from the top of her head and traveling downward. By the time he returned to her face, her nipples were standing on end and those parts of her that ached, not only ached, but they freaking throbbed too.

He didn’t say a word, but then again, he didn’t have to.

Lily walked toward him, cheeks flushed with need. “Hey,” she said softly when she stopped. Her right hand still clutched his boxers and his eyes flickered over her, resting on the bit of skin visible at her waist.

For several long moments he said nothing, and then he bent forward, brushing a light kiss across her mouth, before moving to her ear where his warm breath tickled the side of her face.

“This is a good look for you.” He paused and the goose bumps started. “The only thing better is you minus my clothes.”

Lily tried to swallow, but it was damn hard with the big lump in the back of her throat. She leaned into him, suddenly weak with need.

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she whispered.

“Shit,” he muttered, tossing the rod onto the ground. “Darlin’, your timing sucks.” His arms went around her, and she melted into him. He was big and warm and solid, and she could have stayed like that forever.

Lily rested in the crook of his neck. “I know,” she replied quietly, wanting her words only for him. “I heard you and your sister arguing. I’m sorry.” She pulled back so she could see his face. “I know your nephew is here.”

Mac stared down at her for so long that her cheeks began to burn, and she attempted to pull away.

“That’s not it, Boston. Your timing sucks way worse than that and don’t you dare move…not just yet. I’ve got all kinds of things going on between my legs and damned if I want Cain and the other guys to see how fucking horny I am.”

Lily’s eyes widened, and she froze as a slow grin began to spread across Mac’s face. He bent forward again, his mouth near her ear. “Don’t let go of those boxers. I wouldn’t want these ten-year-old boys to see more than they should.”

Noises she’d not heard earlier penetrated the sexual fog that seemed to envelop her whenever she was around Mackenzie—the water lapping against the dock. Shuffling feet. A cleared throat. Or two.

Giggles.

Shit, little-boy giggles.

And then one of them whispered, “Holy cow, Mac’s girlfriend is hot.”

Lily wanted to dive into the water and disappear forever.

But she didn’t. She very carefully gathered the ends of Mac’s boxers and made sure that the T-shirt covered everything that it could cover. She shot a murderous look at Mac—because he was totally enjoying the whole thing—and turned around.