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“About you and Mike Valentine.”
Shaking her head, Kacey glanced out the window beside the front door, looking for headlights. “We’re friends.”
“Kace, I heard you asking for him last weekend. I saw how you reacted when you heard his voice. And I found you curled up on his lap when I came to check on you.”
Turning back, Kacey felt a surge of...not anger, really, but something close to it. “We are friends, Lace. Please don’t ruin it by implying...other things.” She swallowed. Those hours on the couch with Michael—they were sacred. “He held me without doing anything. He didn’t even try. He wiped my tears. He just...”
“He’s in love with you.”
Her heart leaped. In fear, mostly. “He is not in love with me!” But he loved her. “We’re like brother and sister. And I need him right now, Lace. Please, I’m begging you, don’t mess this up.”
She’d been standing up to Lacey’s probing stare her entire life. She did so now and was surprised to see her sister frown. Like she was disappointed in her.
“Listen, Kace.” Lacey’s tone gave her a sick feeling in her stomach. “I know you’re having a hard time, and I will do everything possible to help any way I can. I love you more than life, you know that.”
She nodded, warmed by the reminder. As long as they had each other, they could get through anything. She’d always known that.
And they always had. Even through their rough patch, they’d still talked. They’d still connected in the midst of their disconnect.
“And I know you.”
Kacey nodded.
“I’m afraid that you’re using Mike. He’s clearly got a thing for you. I get that you don’t see that, so I want you to at least think about trusting what I see...”
She shook her head. She was not using Michael. Lacey wasn’t often wrong, but it did happen.
“Just think about it.”
She didn’t have to think about it. Couldn’t think about it. Because if she did, she’d mess up what they had. But when her sister’s gaze didn’t relent, she nodded.
And hated that she’d just lied. The only thing that eased her conscience was knowing that Lacey knew she’d lied. The look they exchanged said so.
“I love you,” Lacey said, sticking a stray strand of Kacey’s hair up under her baseball cap.
“I love you, too,” Kacey said. And promised herself she wasn’t going to cry.
But she did.
* * *
WHEN MIKE FIRST saw Kacey he almost laughed. He thought, for a brief second, that she’d regained her power and was playing a joke on him. He expected her to laugh, pull off that ridiculous cap and let her blond hair tumble down past her shoulders.
Only for a brief second.
She looked to both sides as she exited her sister’s front door. Kept close as he walked her to the car. And then very succinctly she delivered the instructions that would take them to the exact place she’d been the previous weekend.
A mere six blocks from home.
He couldn’t just sit there and pretend that she was...herself.
“What gives, Kace? Surely you aren’t wearing that garb in Beverly Hills.”
“I’m Doria there.”
One glance in her direction and he knew there wasn’t going to be any joking between them that night. “So Doria was the one who knew she needed a life change? The one who chose to quit drinking so much? Who started spending less time in clubs? Who convinced her boyfriend—her possible partner for life—to also quit partying as much?”
He felt cruel. But the Kacey he knew was driving him. Or that was the garbage he gave himself. He hoped there was truth in it. That he wasn’t just fighting for what he wanted—to spend time with the woman she’d been. To have light back in his life.
