“But what?” he asked.
Fingernails still in her mouth, she answered, “What if she finds out? I mean, I doubt Jake even told Grandma it wasn’t real. So she’s going to think we’re together, and…”
Travis gulped at the knot rising in his throat. Naturally, it had been one of his first concerns as well. If Grandma found out… well, Travis would gladly point at Jake and shake his head, throwing him under the bus. But the point was his grandma loved Kacey. If she knew they were tricking her to get her to feel better and to make her believe that Jake was more responsible than she gave him credit for…
Then, well, he wasn’t sure it would be a pretty sight. After all, Grandma had once had done a stint in the CIA, though he was the only family member who had actually pried the information from the old bat.
“She won’t find out,” Travis confirmed. Because if she does, I’d hate to be my brother.
Chapter Nine
Kacey hopped out of the truck and looked up at the giant house. It was exactly as she remembered. A colonial-style home set very neatly across a few acres overlooking the Columbia River. Nothing had really changed, other than the paint that seemed fresher than she remembered. A dark blue outlined the windows, and a pristine white shone off the bulk of the house. Attached was a seven-car garage, pool house, and a playhouse that was bigger than Kacey’s entire apartment.
“Ready?” Travis asked, coming up beside her.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at the house one more time before nodding. “Off to war we go.”
“Keep your gun in your pants,” Travis mumbled, setting Kacey to laughter just as the door swung open.
“As I live and breathe! Kacey! Oh sweet girl, you take my breath away!” Wescott Titus wrapped her in his giant arms and kissed her across the forehead. At a towering six feet-four inches, it was like getting wrapped in a hug rather than receiving one.
“Kacey? Is that Kacey?” A feminine voice shouted from behind Wescott.
“Hey, Mrs. Titus!” Kacey reached for a hug from the lady but was scolded.
“Now, you know I’ve told you to call me Bets!”
Bets was Jake’s mom’s nickname. When Kacey was young she’d had a hard time pronouncing Betsey for some reason, so she just called her Bets. But at the ripe old age of twenty-two, she wasn’t sure if that was still allowed.
With a warm smile, Kacey embraced Bets. “I’ve missed you.”
And she had. Desperately.
Bets’s warm hand enclosed Kacey’s. She led her to the couch and began chattering about Jake.
“We just knew you two would end up together one day! Didn’t I tell you, Wescott?” She giggled and reached for her iced tea, her long red fingernails clanging against the cool glass. “Now, honey, we know that you and Jake are trying to be private about things, but… well, we would love it if you got married here!”
Kacey felt panic tighten her chest. “We would love to!” She looked to Travis for help, but his eyes had taken on that darkened hue that said he’d murder anyone who breathed in his direction. “But, you see, the thing is… We aren’t sure we’re going to get married locally. We both work so hard, and we thought maybe of just going to Vegas or something.”
“Vegas?” both parents asked. They shook their heads in unison and laughed.
“Oh honey, I forgot about your sense of humor! Why the rush? Why get married in Vegas, that is unless…” Bets looked at Kacey, her eyes squinting. Oh God. Oh no, was she thinking…
“You’re pregnant!” she shouted, nearly dropping her tea to the floor! “Oh my heavens! Oh dear me. Oh, Grandma’s going to be so delighted!”
“I’m not—” Kacey argued.
“—She’s not telling anyone yet,” Travis interrupted with a devilish smirk. “You know, the media and all that.”
“Oh, oh, oh!” Bets scurried around the room until she finally stopped in front of a few shelves. “Oh honey, don’t you remember when you and Jake used to play house? And Travis…” Bets looked at Travis and pointed. “…Didn’t you play with them? Because they needed an extra person to stand in for the…”
“Dog.” Kacey smiled at Travis and stifled a giggle. “He was our dog when we played house.”
“Oh, how nice.” Bets winked at Travis and returned to digging out scrapbooks. “I’m sure I have some pictures we can use for the wedding.”
Kacey, still trying to gain control of her panic, swallowed before asking, “Why do we need pictures?”
“You know.” Bets waved her hand in the air. “For the video montage! You have to have a video montage! They’re all the rage. You know, baby pictures, prom pictures, that sort of thing. Guests love it!”
“But what about Vegas?” Kacey asked in a hopeful voice.
“Posh.” Bets shook her head vigorously. “We’ll pay for the entire thing. And you’ll get married here, at Titus Abbey.”
“Swell,” Kacey mumbled then glared in Travis’s direction. He was gone. She leaned across the sofa and noticed him in the kitchen opening a beer. Oh, nectar of the gods! Just when she needed something strong the most, and Jake’s family thought she was pregnant.
Oh God. She was going to have to be a closet drinker. She would have to sneak down to the kitchen just to snag some tequila to numb the guilt and pain. His parents were going to kill her, and they would hate her forever. Which meant she actually had to marry him and then turn a blind eye to his inability to keep his pecker in his pants. And then she’d start hoarding and buying cats in order to fill the void in her life.
The drinking would get worse. Jake would hate her, and in a final desperate attempt to regain her youth, she’d die on the table trying to get plastic surgery.
This. Could. Not. Happen!
“I, uh, I’m going to see what Travis is up to!” Kacey bolted from her chair and ran into the kitchen.
Chapter Ten
Travis watched in amusement as Kacey continued to schmooze over the family as if she’d never left.
His own father, traitor that he was, just smiled and patted her hand continuously, like she was some sort of puppy.
Mother was even worse. At one point, he was convinced she was going to throw an actual party in honor of Kacey’s return. In a fit of pure joy, his mother had gone to the scrapbooks and pulled out every single picture of their childhood together and laid them all across the table.
Of course Jake was in every picture.
And naturally, Travis was in the background sulking.
Damn his brother. Always taking the limelight. Kacey had been his and never Travis’s. With a growl that was unfortunately out loud, Travis walked into the kitchen and grabbed an ice cold beer from the fridge. His parents, anticipating their arrival, had stocked the house with snacks — and enough alcohol to get wasted for a year.
Which actually sounded like quite the idea after all. He was stuck at this God-forsaken house until the whole escapade was over. And with the way things looked, Jake wasn’t going to be hanging out much, not with all that was going on at work.
Travis, being the responsible one that he was, had given the ranch hand a bonus to hire some extra high schoolers over the course of the summer, giving him more time with his parents and his grandmother — who, at this very minute, looked the peak of health.
“Grandma? Should you be out of bed?” Travis squinted at his tiny grandmother. Color had returned to her face, and she looked ready to go golfing. According to the doctor she was supposed to be taking it easy. After all, a mini-stroke was still a stroke.
“Where is she? Where is my sweet girl?” Grandma Nadine clapped her hands in front of her and sighed. Bright red lipstick stained her lips and an ungodly amount of eye shadow was beautifully brushed across her eyelids. Grandma had always been a knock-out, and at eighty-five she was still breaking hearts.
The latest conquest just so happened to be their next door neighbor, Mr. Casbon. The poor man walked his dog by their property at least three times a day. Travis used to worry the m
an would get overheated and have a stroke in the driveway, but he was relentless and never stopped his pilgrimage to wave at Grandma.
“Travis! I’m going to kill you! Give me that!” Kacey stormed into the kitchen and grabbed the beer out of his hand, throwing back the entire can before slamming it down onto the counter and accidently letting out a loud burp. She slapped her hands over her mouth, and her face turned red.
In that moment, Travis fell a little more in love with her, if that was even possible.
Grandma Nadine let out a hearty laugh. “Oh my, honey girl, still chugging beer in the kitchen away from the watchful eyes of this one’s parents, huh?” Grandma reached for Kacey and pulled her into a tight hug. “Mum’s the word. I think a margarita is just what this one needs here, Travis. Now why don’t you two run along and have some drinks out on the porch. I’ll take care of things in here. You just leave those two to me.” Grandma straightened her tight-fitting jacket and strutted into the living room.
Kacey gaped after her. “I swear she could have been the first female president.”
Travis didn’t think it was the most appropriate time to let Kacey in on the family secret that Grandma had, in fact, enjoyed an affair with one of the presidents.
Instead, he grunted and grabbed the tequila from the pantry. “Get some cups with ice and I’ll grab the mix. This should be enough to get you good and drunk before Mom starts planning your wedding.” Travis winked and ignored the pain in his chest when he thought of Kacey in a wedding dress, standing opposite his brother.
The bastard didn’t deserve her. He dated strippers, for crying out loud! Real strippers! He paid for sex. He lived the life of a true bachelor. He didn’t even know how to do laundry! He would be the death of Kacey. Travis knew his brother was just sneaky enough to manipulate his way into Kacey’s life. Most likely, he’d deliver the line of doing it for Grandma, and say they could divorce when she kicked the bucket.
And then Travis would have to feel guilty every time Grandma woke up with a smile on her face. Oh, he’d love for Grandma to live another day, but it meant another day that Kacey and Jake would spend in holy matrimony. Her lips pressed against his. Jake’s hands running along Kacey’s hips…
“Travis? Travis? Hello, anyone home? We gonna drink margaritas in the tree house or are you going to stand there with your mouth open all day?”
“Tree house,” he grumbled and walked out of the kitchen to the backyard. The tree house sat on the edge of the property, far enough away that his parents wouldn’t be able to see them through the tiny windows.
He pulled the ladder down and balanced the tequila and mix in his left arm as he hauled himself up. Travis set the drink stuff inside the door of the tree house, and still grasping the top rung, turned around to grab the glasses from Kacey below.
Her eyes were glued to his ass.
He would have been flattered had she gasped or sighed or done anything except scream.
“Crap! Crap! Crap!”
“Kace, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“G-g-giant spider! On your ass!”
“GET IT OFF!” he shouted in a not-so-masculine voice.
Kacey moved away from him, slowly dropping down the ladder to the bottom rung. “I can’t! You know I’m afraid of spiders! What if it lunges at me!”
“Better it lunge at you than take a chunk out of my ass! Now, scare it!”
“If I scare it, it’s going to eat you, and I can’t have that on my conscience.” Kacey’s eyes widened again. “Oh gosh, it’s moving! It’s so gross! Can’t you just like, flex your butt or something?”
“Why, yes.” Travis clenched his teeth. “Why don’t I just clench my butt muscles in hopes that it will shock the spider enough to crawl back into the hell hole it came out of.”
“You don’t have to be mean!” Kacey argued. “Okay, um. I’m going to grab a stick. Do you think that will work?”
Did he think a stick in his ass would work? Well, so much for impressing her. “Just, kill it!” His muscles tightened as he kept himself positioned on the ladder.
“Found one!” Kacey announced. “Okay, now don’t move. I’m just going to smack it against your jeans.”
Travis laughed. He couldn’t help it. It was one of those moments that he wished he would have caught on camera, so that others could enjoy the ridiculousness. And then… searing pain.
He cursed, loud, dropping in a few inappropriate words that would cause his mom to smack him. What the hell kind of stick had she grabbed?
“I did it! I did it!” Kacey squealed.
Travis turned and glared.
“I killed the spider!”
“You almost killed the man too! What did you use? A baseball bat?”
Kacey blushed. “It was all I could find.” She lifted a wooden bat in her hands as if sacrificing it on the altar before him.
After a few more curses, Travis wordlessly reached for the tequila, opened the bottle, and took two gulps. “I’m going to have a giant mark on my ass for months.”
“But I killed my first spider in a year, so that should at least make it worth it, right?” Kacey’s grin was beautiful. White teeth peeked out from her pink lips.
“Fine. Good job, Kacey. We’ll do a toast to your victory. You’re such a hunter.”
“Thank you, good sir.” Kacey did a little curtsy and followed him up into the tree house.
It was absolute torture watching her lips close around the tequila bottle. Thankfully, they brought actual glasses to make the drinks on ice. If she was going to drink out of the bottle each time, he would lose his sanity, not that he wasn’t already dangerously close, what with being beaten senseless all within an hour of bringing her into the house.
“So…” He needed to change the subject or he was going to make a complete ass of himself “Jake? Married here? Think he’s going to flip?”
Kacey groaned and placed the bottle on the wooden floor of the tree house. “What are we going to do? Your parents don’t know. They think it’s our childhood fantasies come true!”
Travis shook his head. “Um, no, they think it’s your childhood fantasies coming true. Mine, however, had nothing to do with playing dog while watching you guys kiss and have se—”
“What the heck kind of house playing are you referring to, Trav? We did not pretend to have any sort of…” She waved into the air. “…relations, and frankly, I’m a little concerned for your childhood if those were the thoughts going through your head while playing dog.”
“In my defense, I really didn’t have anything else to do but watch.” Oh God, that made it sound so much worse, as if he was daydreaming or something.
Kacey leaned in. “Are you already drunk?”
“Nope, just beaten. Thanks, by the way, for that lovely bruise. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be on the opposite end of your scorn.”
“That’s not true.” Kacey lifted the bottle to her lips again and took a staggering drink before pouring tequila into the iced cups.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Travis poured the mixer and waited.
“I tortured you just as much as you tortured me in high school. Admit it.” She smirked.
Did she know? Impossible. There was no idea she knew he had a crush on her. He attempted to play it calmly. “I don’t think I know what you’re talking about. I blocked out at least half of high school. According to you, I was a eunuch. You can understand my reasoning.”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “Every time the cheerleaders did a pep rally and needed volunteers, I paid them to pick you.”
“You lie!” He closed his eyes to keep himself from doing something he’d regret, like attempting to strangle her and kiss her senseless instead.
“Nope.” She grinned and winked. “Thought it was luck of the draw, huh?”
It was Travis’s turn to laugh. “No, I just thought Jake hated me that much. He always did have those cheerleaders deep in his pockets.” Among other things.
Cheerleaders, strippers? Truly he’s moved up in the world. Bastard.
“What are you gonna tell Mom? She’s going to want know what’s up with you two when Jake gets here.”
“What do you mean?” An irritating male voice interrupted their private discussion and then Jake’s head poked through the bottom of the floor as he lifted himself up into the tree house. “Sweet! I forgot this was out here.” Probably just like he forgot Kacey was here. Idiot.
“Hey Jake, work okay?” Kacey held out her hand and Jake took it. Immediately Travis wanted to cut off his brother’s hand. When had he turned into such a raging lunatic?
And then Jake winked at him, and the rage came back full force. Oh yes, that’s how, because his brother was a selfish ass who deserved to get the crap beaten out of him. And suddenly Travis was taken back to the time when Jake and he had fought over Kacey and made that stupid bet. They were just little kids, but Travis’s competitive nature burned through his veins as he watched Jake reach out and touch Kacey’s hand. Travis needed to remember that her hand wasn’t his to touch. It never was. He swallowed another gulp of the margarita and looked away.
****
Kacey watched the tense exchange between the brothers. It was like being in one of those twisted melodramatic TV shows or something. One minute she and Travis were laughing, and the next he looked ready to burn a hole through his brother’s face.
Tequila did weird things to people.
Jake lifted the bottle to his lips and smiled. “So, Kace, how goes it with the parents?” His smile was devastating, perfect, and ridiculous. Why didn’t he just go to Hollywood and get it over with?
“Great!” she lied. “Although, they did talk about our upcoming wedding and it’s possible I told them we were thinking Vegas, then things got a little fuzzy. All in all, we just have to convince your parents not to have the wedding next weekend, and we’ll be good to go.”
Kacey nodded her head enthusiastically trying to get Jake not to panic — which he didn’t. He probably didn’t even hear a word I said. He was actually texting when I made that speech. Just to test her theory, Kacey added, “Oh, and they think I’m pregnant.”