The Bet

  “You’re not fine, Kace. You’re shaking. What aren’t you telling me?”

  Oh, just about everything, she wanted to say.

  Defeated, she just hung her head and remained silent.

  Travis cursed. “Fine, don’t tell me, but I’m here, if you ever want to talk.” He began walking away then turned around. “Listen, Kace, I don’t know what happened between you two. I know it’s none of my business, but it had to have been bad for you guys to have such a falling out. Promise me you’ll talk to someone, even if it’s not me.”

  She would do no such thing, but she nodded her head anyway. Nobody knew. Well, except her one girlfriend, but her parents died thinking Kacey was eventually going to be marrying into the Titus family.

  God, it felt like the ultimate letdown.

  Her parents were so proud of her going to school, and they loved Jake like a son. They always joked about taking family vacations together and spending all the holidays baking cookies.

  What do you do when the life you thought you were supposed to have is stolen from you? What do you do when it’s your fault and you can’t even tell anyone the reason why? What do you do when the one person that caused you the most pain in your entire life is suddenly offering you everything you’ve ever wanted on a silver platter? She was facing the ultimate in golden handcuffs, because she knew Jake possibly better than anyone. It wouldn’t take much to convince him to truly marry her. His parents would see to that, especially if he broke things off.

  What was she doing? Did she really want to be with a guy who couldn’t keep it in his pants?

  Her hands were still shaking from the encounter.

  It was too real. Smelling a foreign perfume on him had successfully transferred her into the past. When she’d seen him the first time after their night together.

  He’d been wearing a worn Abercrombie sweatshirt and tattered jeans. He’d looked gorgeous.

  When their eyes had met, he’d smiled and walked up to her. Within minutes they’d hugged, but he hadn’t smelled like Jake.

  He’d smelled like another girl, and then someone had appeared at his side and asked if he was ready to go. Another girl, a beautiful girl. She’d squeezed his butt and they’d walked off.

  So started the first day of the rest of her life.

  Lost in thought, she walked into the house where the family was, no doubt, planning her future marital bliss and nearly tripped over Jake, who was lying on the floor yelling.

  “What happened?”

  Jake was cursing up a storm, his mother was fighting a losing battle with the wine cork — no doubt trying to drown her sorrows, and his dad was trying to put ice on Jake’s eye.

  Grandma Nadine was smirking, and Travis was clenching his fist.

  All in all, a normal scene for the Titus house.

  “He ran into the wall,” Travis said simply.

  “A wall did that?” Kacey pointed at Jake’s eye. It was puffy and already starting to change colors.

  “It was a big wall.” Jake moaned from the floor. “Damn wall. I hate walls.”

  Travis smirked, and Grandma Nadine began to choke and fan her face.

  “Okay.” Kacey wasn’t really sure what to do next, so she crouched down at eye level with Jake. Taking the ice from his father, she slapped it onto his eye as hard as possible.

  Bets gasped while Grandma Nadine burst into laughter.

  “Sorry,” Kacey said sweetly. “It slipped.”

  Jake glared, but said nothing.

  “Can we have a minute alone?” she asked.

  Slowly the family trickled out of the room, leaving them alone. Kacey leaned in, wanting to whisper so nobody could hear her, just in case they were waiting to hear fighting from the kitchen.

  “Never again, Jake.”

  He opened his mouth to speak.

  “No.” Kacey shook her head. “No, you don’t get to talk. You get to listen. Difficult task for you I’m sure, but try.”

  He nodded once.

  “If I’m here doing this giant favor for you, then you better learn some self-control. You can’t run around sleeping with your skanks and expect not to get caught. Cameras are everywhere, and one of these days you’re going to get careless. Do you honestly think those girls care for you anyway? I guarantee they want nothing but your money, status, and hot body. If you don’t stop grinning, I’m going to slap you.”

  He swallowed convulsively and stopped smiling.

  “I know it’s important to you to have your parents’ approval. And I can even respect that underneath all that selfishness you want what’s best for the company. I think I, of all people, understand that, but you can do all those things without manipulating people you love. After this weekend, I’m done. Just know that I’m done.”

  Shaking, she rose to her feet.

  Jake reached out and grasped her wrist. “Kace.” His eyes were uncertain, and he cursed under his breath. “I messed up.”

  “Story of your life.”

  He gave a half-smile. “Only when it comes to women I care about.”

  Kacey believed that. She shook her head and began to walk away.

  “I loved you, you know.”

  She stopped in her tracks, her heart pounding out of her chest. Kacey took a few soothing breaths, then turned to face him, the man she had loved for so many years. No longer her childhood friend, but a selfish man who thought only of pleasure. “I loved you too, Jake. But this, the man you are now, not so much.”

  With that, she walked out of the kitchen, directly into Travis who actually had been eavesdropping.

  Funny, she expected it of Grandma, not her nemesis.

  “So, that was a special moment.” He tensed and ran his fingers through his hair.

  “You punched him.”

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets, and his curly hair fell across his forehead. “I did.”

  “How’d it feel?” Kacey wanted to know.

  “Not as good as I thought.”

  Kacey laughed and slapped him playfully on the shoulder. “Maybe next time let me fight my own battles?”

  “No.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Panic crossed Travis’s face, as he looked out the window then back at her. “I said no. Why do you get to have all the fun anyway? I think I have just as many reasons for wanting to punch my brother.”

  “Like what?”

  ****

  Travis froze. Should he tell her? Should he say it? Golden opportunities don’t always present themselves. He opened his mouth to speak just as Grandma came sauntering in.

  “Oh honey girl, don’t you know?”

  Oh no. Oh, God. No, no, no.

  “Travis, here…” She pinched his cheek, kill him now. “…had the biggest crush on you when you were little! Why do you think he was so insistent on playing house even if he had to be the dog? Why, it was precious. I remember when you had your sixteenth birthday party and your date didn’t show, he—”

  “Grandma!” Travis shrieked. “Really, let’s not exaggerate my boyhood crush. Plus, I’m guessing Kacey already knew, what with the ponytail pulling and rock throwing.”

  He hoped she at least suspected.

  Kacey’s mouth was slightly ajar, her eyes focused on the two of them as if inspecting them. “You’re telling me…”

  Oh, God.

  She approached both of them, still squinting. “…That he put me through hell because he liked me?”

  He gulped. Somehow he saw this happening differently in his head. He would confess his love, and they’d laugh about how silly it was and make love on the kitchen floor.

  One by one he watched his daydreams shatter as Kacey advanced toward him. “You told the entire fifth grade class that I peed my pants during recess!”

  Yes, yes he had.

  “You hid a spider in my lunch box, and when I cried you told everyone the reason I was crying was because my mom left the crust on my sandwich.”

  “It wasn’t that bad, come o
n, Kace…”

  “I was in high school. And yes, it was that bad. People thought I had some weird crust fetish until I graduated. I found crusts in my locker for an entire year.”

  Travis backed up against the counter.

  “Oh, look at the time!” Grandma chuckled. “See you later, you two. Now don’t go fighting over things you can’t change!”

  Travis mentally pleaded with his grandma to stay. Really, he was on his knees, tears poured down from his face. He began to sweat. And then when she disappeared, he resorted to praying for God’s intervention.

  Kacey looked ready to explode.

  Not good.

  “You cut my hair.” Her tone was clipped as if that was the final straw in her book.

  “I did,” he confirmed, slowly inching farther down the counter toward the door. “But in my defense, I was trying to get the gum out.”

  “THE GUM YOU PUT THERE!”

  “You can’t prove that!” Why was he yelling? “Besides! You told everyone my junior year that I only pretended to stutter to get extra help from the teachers!”

  “You did!”

  “One time!”

  “That’s nothing compared to what you put me through.” She pushed his chest. Travis reached behind him. A carton of eggs were on the counter. His mom must have been getting dinner ready.

  Slowly, he reached inside and grabbed two. “Well, I guess I just like to be one step ahead of you, Kacey.” With that, he plopped the eggs onto her head.

  And tried to take off in the other direction.

  Kacey tripped him. He went sailing to the floor.

  Cursing, she grabbed for his arms, pinning him to the floor. “I’m going to murder you!”

  “Kacey, I was kidding, I’m sorry, I—”

  Her eyes were blazing as if possessed. She frantically looked around the room, and a smile erupted across her face. “So… you want to do this here? Now? Get all that childhood angst out? Fine, let’s go.”

  “Go?” Oh God, he could feel the stutter coming on, as his tongue felt thick in his mouth.

  “Yeah, go.” She reached onto the counter and grabbed two eggs, then skillfully, while he was still frozen in fear, pulled at his jeans and stuffed the eggs into the front, straddling him as they cracked and oozed down his legs.

  He closed his eyes. Never had he been so angry or aroused. Really? What was with him and food? First, chicken at the dinner table, and now eggs. He’d probably never eat a normal meal again without getting painfully turned on.

  “That’s it.” He knew he was stronger, bigger, tougher. He grabbed her arms and flipped her onto her back, egg staining his pants. Damn, that was uncomfortable.

  She squealed and tossed her head from side to side. He pinned her arms on either side of her head. Egg was beginning to dry on her face.

  “Say you’re sorry and I’ll let you go.”

  “Never.” She smiled.

  “Fine.” Arms still pinned, he leaned over her and gathered some spit in his mouth.

  “No, no, Travis, don’t you dare.” She struggled underneath him. Damn she felt good.

  “All you have to do is say you’re sorry.”

  Her eyes flashed.

  “Fine.” He let the spit fall from his mouth just slightly. She screamed.

  And suddenly he was getting pulled off of her.

  “What the hell is wrong with you two?” Jake yelled.

  His parents came running into the room.

  And he could only imagine what they thought. Travis with wet stains on the front of his pants as if he’d had an accident, Kacey with egg in her hair, and Jake with a black eye.

  As if on cue, Kacey and Jake both pointed to Travis. He cursed.

  His mother clenched her fists at her sides. “Travis Titus!”

  “Uh-oh, she used his full name,” Jake interjected.

  “He’s dead now,” Kacey added.

  Travis wanted to roar.

  His mother shook her head. “Really Travis, it isn’t like you to be so immature! Oh heavens, Kacey, is that egg on your head?”

  Kacey nodded solemnly.

  Travis clenched his teeth.

  His mother inspected him more closely. “Honey, did you have an accident?”

  Jake chuckled and began coughing wildly next to him. He looked to Kacey, and she bit her lip and looked away.

  “Yes, I’m twenty-three, and I had an accident. Really, Mom?”

  “Well, honey, I’m sorry it just looks like—” She pointed then blushed. “—and then I know how you were when you were little.” Oh no.

  “How exactly was he?” Kacey asked, suddenly intrigued.

  “Oh, he used to have little accidents and nightmares, nothing serious.”

  Kacey beamed. “Really? Well I’m sure the bunny he slept with was a huge comfort during those difficult times.”

  “Bunny?” Jake and his dad said in unison.

  The only people that knew about the stupid bunny were Kacey and his mother. It had been a gift from his grandpa before he died, but he had named it after Kacey, not that he’d ever told her that.

  After one careless night of sleeping with the damn thing in junior high, Kacey had wandered into his room and found it.

  It was the only time they had been civil.

  Now, all bets were off. “Really, Kacey, I doubt it’s any worse than that stupid lamb you used to sleep with. You know, the one you refused to let anyone wash?”

  “It wasn’t dirty!” she argued.

  “It was gray.”

  “So?”

  “Its original color was white.”

  Kacey’s mouth went into a firm line, and she raised her hand.

  Travis’s mom clapped. “Children, really. Goodness. Everyone go wash up and be down here in the next hour. We’re going to have an early supper and go over wedding plans, and then have family game night, a normal family game night.”

  “Fine,” they all snapped and walked in different directions.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jake had tried to appear unaffected by Kacey’s little speech, but after going to his room and feeling sorry for himself, he’d realized he needed to give her a real apology.

  He’d gotten to thinking. What if? What if he could change? What if he could be the man Kacey needed? What would life really be like with her? Would he be bored out of his mind? Or did he owe it to both of them to at least try?

  Confused, he had run downstairs only to see his older brother straddling Kacey and attempting to spit on her face.

  Their immaturity knew no bounds, but at least now he knew there was absolutely nothing romantic going on between the two.

  Travis was twenty-three, and at that age, if he used violence to still attract girls, well, then no wonder he was still single. And a girl like Kacey wouldn’t fall prostrate for a guy who still resorted to childhood pranks in order to win her favor.

  Geez, if Jake were a nicer guy he’d actually give some tips to his brother. He desperately needed them.

  Maybe everyone would be safer if he just kept Kacey and Travis away from one another. It seemed they brought out the worst in each other.

  By the time they had all returned to the dining room, his mother had actually put name cards on the table.

  Classy.

  Kacey was sitting between him and Grandma. Good choice.

  Travis was sitting on the opposite end of the table with— Wait! Why was there another place setting?

  “Company tonight?” Really? Did his mother think that safe after the escapade in the kitchen? Not to mention his brother punching him in the face for no reason.

  Okay, so he punched him because he was upset with Jake for not paying attention to Kacey. It’s possible he kind of deserved it, but only slightly.

  “Oh, Grandma invited Mr. Casbon.”

  Jake choked on his laugh. “Our neighbor, Mr. Casbon? The one who lives for Grandma’s smiles? Well, this should be interesting.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Travis
muttered, entering the kitchen.

  “Good to see you changed your pants, bro.”

  Travis glared. “At least I can change my clothes. You, on the other hand, are stuck with that wonderful personality.”

  Jake clenched his fist. His brother smiled.

  Kacey entered. “Well, I think my hair looks the shiniest it’s ever looked. Thanks, Trav. I owe it all to you.” She winked.

  Travis rolled his eyes. “Yes, and my balls are—”

  “Travis!” Bets almost screamed. “We’re going to have company any minute. Could you all at least try to act your age? Goodness, Jake, you’ve been groomed to take over the company, act like it! Travis, you’ve owned that ranch of yours for years, by all that is holy, be mature!”

  “You own a ranch?” Kacey asked. He watched the exchange. Travis shifted his feet as if uncomfortable, then cleared his throat.

  “Yes, a small one. No big deal.”

  “Oh, that’s rich.” Bets laughed. “You own one of the largest ranches on the west coast, but if you want to pretend it’s small, I guess that’s your prerogative.”

  It was a new feeling, being ignored, but Jake was interested to see how Kacey would respond. He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter.

  “But, you said you were a ranch hand.”

  Jake laughed. “Him? A ranch hand? Babe, he’s no more a ranch hand than I’m a janitor.”

  “But…” Kacey’s brow furrowed.

  “It’s no big deal.” Travis shrugged and began filling the glasses with water.

  Kacey turned to Jake. “Any other family secrets?”

  Probably not the best time to tell her that his grandmother was manipulating all of them.

  “Um…” Jake shoved his hands in his pockets. “Travis used to have a crush on you? At least that’s what I assumed, considering he stuttered every time he was around any female.”

  Travis froze. “Yeah, rewind to about an hour ago, and you’ll see how she reacted to that certain piece of information.”

  Jake chuckled. “So that’s what started the fight. I see…”

  Kacey looked angry all over again, so Jake decided to make it better. Slowly he walked to where she stood. “Kace, I’m sure it upset you, but what you don’t know is that even though he did some awful things… Emphasis on awful—”