by Lee Kilraine
“I bet you have. I’m pretty sure I starred in the daily Grapevine updates for weeks.” Mira smiled. “But then, you grew up here, so I guess you’re used to it.”
“Jo never had to worry. You’ll never meet a more rule-abiding, no-drama person than Jo.” Kaz stepped forward and gave Jo a welcoming hug before moving back with his arm around Mira. “Jo and I go way back, don’t we? They always separated the sets of twins, so Jo and I were often in the same classes.”
“You’re a twin also?” Mira asked. “How lucky for you. I have an older sister I’m close with, but after seeing how close these two are, having a twin seems pretty special.”
Jo’s throat went tight, making replying impossible. And she guessed the whole Cates clan remembered how not special her relationship with her twin was because someone swooped in and moved her along for a few more hellos.
Sijan and his wife, Avery, the Hollywood elite, stood looking both glamorous and tired, having just flown in that morning from filming in London.
“I could have used your help again with my Shakespeare unit, Sijan. The students really responded when you stopped by last year and read A Midsummer Night’s Dream with them.”
“I missed it? I’m not scheduled to film out of the country next year, so call me.” Sijan smiled at the memory. “Seriously, it’s fun watching kids get his plays.”
“I absolutely will.” Turning to Avery, Jo grinned. “I heard Sijan finally talked you into acting in a movie with him.”
She looked up at her famous husband. “He did, but I held off until he’d written us a fabulous screenplay. If I’d known he was such a slave driver as a director, though, I might have thought twice before saying yes.”
Sijan shook his head. “She’s fibbing. She’s still head-over-heels over me and would have made a movie in Antarctica if I’d asked.”
“There goes that Cates’ male modesty again,” Avery said with total adoration in her eyes.
“That sounds like my cue.” Mr. Cates joined the conversation.
“Jo, you know Seamus. Seamus, you remember June and Joe’s daughter.” Mrs. Cates locked elbows with Seamus for the introduction.
“Of course I do.” Seamus winked at her. It was clear where his sons got their looks and charisma. “No matter how grown-up and lovely you become, Jo, I confess I still have this picture of you with lopsided ponytails. I think Cecelia and I apologized to your parents for at least three years after Paxton’s act of infamy.”
“Pop, she’s forgiven me. If you keep it up, you’ll have her changing her mind and then what will I do without her?”
What will I do without her? Her head knew this was all an act, but that didn’t stop her heart from misfiring when Paxton said things like that.
“Suffer, my boy. Suffer the way we all do when the love of our life, the light of our heart is mad at us.” He clapped Paxton on the back with a very serious look on his handsome face. “And then you grovel as if your life depends on it.”
Paxton’s strong arm wrapped around her and pulled her into his side. “How do you think I got her to go out with me?”
To Jo’s recollection, he hadn’t groveled. What he’d done was wear her down with his tenacity. The same quality that had caused her much frustration back in high school each year they competed against each other for class president. Funny how attractive that quality was when it was aimed at her instead of against her.
The last of Paxton’s family to greet, but certainly not the least, because this family gathering was for them, were Quinn, Delaney, and their precious baby girl, who this very minute was being passed around and admired by every member of the family.
“Hey, Greer’s here. Jo, you know Delaney’s sister don—” Paxton didn’t get to finish because Jo and Greer most certainly knew each other.
They both squealed and performed the ritual greeting from cheerleading days. Stepping toward each other, they went through a series of hand slaps, snaps, and foot stomps until it wound down with a shimmy, their hips bumping together before finishing with an exploding fist bump.
“So that’s a yes,” Quinn said.
“Cheerleaders.” Delaney shook her head at both Jo and her sister. “You’ve got to love them; it’s the only way to stop the urge to smack off their perky little ponytails.”
“Or smack something.” Paxton laughed when Delaney glowered at him.
“I’ll remind you one of them is my sister.”
“Right. Not the one I was talking about.” He wrapped an arm around Jo and reeled her in until her back rested against his chest.
“All right, everyone. Who’s ready to eat?” Cecelia called from the other side of the room.
“Ma, for the first time ever, no one. We’ve waited a month to find out the baby’s name and cutie pie isn’t going to cut it for one more minute.” Paxton looked intently at Quinn and Delaney.
Everyone heartily agreed.
“We hear you.” Quinn took the baby from Seamus’s arms and moved back to stand next to Delaney. “We didn’t intend to drag it out, but it was important to Delaney that the whole family be here.”
“Up until three years ago it was just me and Greer. I’ve never had”—Delaney sucked in a quivering breath, looking around the room at all the faces—“well, this. A family. Some days I still wake up and pinch myself because it’s so wonderful. I just wanted to be surrounded by everyone we love for this. So . . . thank you for putting up with us—with me. Go ahead, Quinn.”
He looked down into their baby’s face with so much love it took Jo’s breath away.
“She’s already got me wrapped around her tiny finger and Delaney is poised to pounce like a lioness should anyone make the mistake of hurting our girl, Mackenzie Nan Cates.”
Aww. The celebration for the next two hours involved good food, lots of baby cuddles, and happy conversation. While Jo had known Paxton’s family forever, she’d never seen the brothers and their partners all in one social setting before.
Seeing the brothers interact was heartwarming because it was easy to see the genuine affection they had for one another. She understood why this gathering, this moment, had been so important to Delaney—and the whole family really. And the sight of each big, strong Cates male going bananas over the baby was turning her insides gooey.
After the meal, the women relaxed while the men cleaned up in the kitchen. Once it passed Cecelia’s inspection it was time for dessert and coffee.
“Ma, you don’t need to inspect with Kaz and Tynan here.” Paxton gestured to his more OCD brothers. “You know I used to pay them to clean my room back in middle school, right?”
“I know. It’s your cleaning I’m worried about. Sometimes you get so carried away talking you forget to keep working.”
Paxton shrugged. “They never complain.”
Cecelia looked around at all her sons in surprise. “Why would you let Paxton get away with doing less work?”
“Entertainment value,” Sijan said. “Pax can talk about cleaning out a septic tank and make it interesting. It always made the hard jobs go faster to listen to him.”
“And I thought I knew everything there was to know about my sons. Goodness, how long has this been going on?”
Kaz shrugged. “Pretty much since he could put together a complete sentence.”
“Uncle Cullen used to say I took after him. Solabharthact, he called it. The gift of gab.”
“Remember the time he convinced us the dentist’s needle was so long it went through the back of his head?” Tynan grinned. “He was so convincing we all faked bellyaches to get out of our checkups.”
Quinn nodded. “The best, though? Was how he took our minds off how damn hot it was during all our long days of painting houses in the summer.”
“The Cates Brothers Painting Company wouldn’t have lasted three summers without Paxton regaling us with stories or making up goofy monologues.”
“The man-eating parrot story,” Kaz said, drawing a few snickers.
“Don
’t forget the bathroom story,” Tynan reminded them.
All the brothers looked at one another and burst out laughing.
It was enlightening to hear about a side of Paxton she’d only seen glimpses of recently. The two of them had spent years either ignoring each other or sniping back and forth with the shortest sentences possible.
“Oh man, fun times.” Sijan ran a hand down his face and slapped Paxton on the back. “So, yeah, we never minded pulling some of his weight.”
By the time Jo ate her last bite of Lu’s delicious crème brûlée cheesecake, she was full up. Her stomach, her head, and her heart.
After one more cuddle with the baby, Paxton and Jo said their good-byes. A good time to leave, to Jo’s mind, because seeing grown men holding a wee baby was dangerous to a woman’s ovaries. A true fact.
“So how are you doing?” Paxton looked over at her as they headed back to her house. “Still feeling weird about it?”
She settled back in her seat with a sigh and lifted her hand holding her index finger and thumb close together. “A little bit, but I do love your family. Do you realize how lucky you are?”
“I actually do. But your parents are great, so you’ve got the same—”
Jo quirked one eyebrow at him.
“Right. Sorry. It’s just sometimes I forget about your sister.”
Jo never did. She couldn’t. So much worry about where Darlene was and whether she was okay. Was Darlene finally happy? And was Jo an aunt? Oh boy, she couldn’t begin to count the time and tears she’d expended on so many regrets about her sister and wishing things had been different between them.
“I knew her a little growing up, but by the time we were in high school she was always angry.” He glanced away from the road and over to her quickly. “Not like you. You were only angry at me; your sister was angry at the world.”
“I have an ugly confession.” She swallowed past the tightness in her throat and looked out her window, seeing nothing. “Part of why I didn’t like you growing up was that I was jealous.”
“What? Of me? My family?”
She shook her head. “No. I mean, a little, but no. Of you and Kaz. How close you two were. Are. I wanted the same thing with Darlene and it wasn’t even close.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Did you two ever swap places and try to fool people?” She saw his grin when oncoming headlights lit up the interior of the car. “I can see you have. It’s like a twin rite of passage.”
“It’s possible Kaz and I abused it too much.”
“So did my sister. I found out from a few friends in high school that she pretended to be me a few days when I was home sick. She started arguments with my close friends, confessed to a teacher that she’d, meaning me, cheated on a test, and even flirted with boys—as me. Can you believe it?”
Paxton pulled the car over to the curb rather abruptly and sat with his hands tense on the steering wheel, before glancing over at her, an odd look on his face.
“What? What is that look fo—” Jo jerked on her seat belt as nausea rolled in her stomach. “She didn’t.”
“She did. I’m a fucking idiot. Unless you asked me to the ninth-grade Sadie Hawkins dance . . . and then stood me up.”
Jo could only shake her head slowly as the two of them stared at each other. “I’m so sorry. That must have been terrible.”
“It wasn’t fun. You said—Darlene said—her dad would drive over to pick me up. She even told me what color suit to wear so we’d color coordinate. I didn’t have a suit, so I went shopping with Ma and looked in four different stores for a burgundy suit. I was ready at six-thirty. Your dad was going to pick me up at seven to take us to the dance. So I paced around in the foyer, holding the corsage I’d bought, while my brothers teased me. Ma called your mom at about seven-thirty, but the line was busy.”
She couldn’t help it, but she teared up for fourteen-year-old Paxton. Tears welled up until she couldn’t see him and she swiped them away. “How long did you wait?”
“Two hours.” Paxton shook his head. “It got so pitiful my brothers stopped teasing me. And that was the day I truly started hating you.”
“I’m so sorry. I . . .” She had no words to express how much she hurt for him. So she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and placing one careful and heartfelt kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“Kiss me again, I’m starting to forget it.” He wrapped his hands around her head, his fingers tangled in her hair.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He lowered his lips to hers.
It began as a featherlight kiss, an exchange—of being there in the present moment—and in the past. When regret and pain were conveyed and absolved, the kiss caught fire. Paxton took control and breathed her in, tasting the heat between them, giving and asking for more. His hands stroked along the nape of her neck, down her shoulders, bringing her closer until her breasts pressed firm against his muscled chest.
Her own hands were out of control, touching, fluttering, stroking his jawline, his chest; one hand ran along his tense biceps while the other grabbed hold of his hard-muscled thigh. He groaned when she slipped her hands up to unbutton the top three buttons of his shirt.
She honestly didn’t know how far she would have gone if a car hadn’t slowed down and honked as it drove by. They pulled apart slowly, panting to catch their breath.
“Paxton, I’m so, so—”
He reached out, placing a finger softly against her lips. “No. You did nothing wrong. That was all her. You don’t have to atone for her. But . . .”
“But what?”
“If that kiss is how you apologize, I think I do have a list of things you were responsible for. A long list. For example, remember when you won class president sophomore year and I came in second? That hurt.” He frowned and rubbed his chest, flicking his gaze at her. “A lot. I was dejected, maybe even devastated. That one might take three, maybe even four kisses to get over.”
Paxton was trying to lighten the mood, but Jo didn’t have a laugh in her. She sat as her throat closed up tight. Her heart ached for what her sister had put Paxton through.
Yet even as her heart broke a little, there was also something else: a new beginning to the friendship they might have had if her sister hadn’t interfered.
Chapter Eleven
Paxton hadn’t seen Jo in a week. Not since the evening he’d learned she hadn’t stood him up back in high school. Sure he’d gotten over it even when he’d thought it was Jo, but it had been devastating to his teen self, not to mention how it possibly had changed the course of their friendship.
Or maybe it hadn’t. He had been the one who cut off her ponytail and they’d still competed every year in high school for class president, so who knows? But it could possibly have ended up a friendly rivalry if Darlene hadn’t been a class-A crazy bitch.
With Jo wrapping up the last week of the school year, they’d both been too busy to get together. Jo had finals and essays to grade, along with writing over a dozen letters of recommendation for some of the rising seniors.
Considering how hot their last kiss had been, the time apart was a good thing. Holy hell, if that car hadn’t driven by and honked there was no telling if either of them would have stopped. So the timing was actually good. It gave him much-needed space to cool off and remember what they were doing together. Jo was doing him a favor. Hell, it wasn’t even that. She was paying off a debt out of guilt, and he needed to remember that.
He’d spent the week being productive, when he wasn’t distracted thinking about Jo, that was. His caseload was light right now, but because the committed relationship with Jo wasn’t the only iron he had in the fire toward his ultimate goal of a judgeship, he’d had plenty to keep him busy.
This year Paxton was in charge of heading up the countywide Disaster Legal Services, mainly making sure they had enough lawyers lined up to assist people as they got closer to hurricane sea
son. There was a new pro bono case he’d just been contacted about. He was also on the committee of the Wills for Heroes, where volunteers drafted basic estate planning documents for fire, rescue, and law enforcement.
When he’d talked to Jo a few days earlier, they’d agreed to spend today together getting seen about town as soon as school was out for summer. He was looking forward to spending more time with her, and though he told himself it was all toward his goal, he was afraid that wasn’t the complete truth. Getting to know Jo had turned out to be an unexpected pleasure.
She opened her front door at his knock and he had to ignore the impulse to take her in his arms. He guessed a week wasn’t quite long enough for him to forget that last kiss. Not when his body was ready to pick up where they’d left off, even while his brain admonished him to knock it off. Talk about opposing forces.
“Stay right there.” She set the puppy in her arms back in the foyer and stepped out on the small porch, shutting the door behind her. Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him. A sweet, soft kiss that ended too quickly to Paxton’s mind.
“What was that for?”
“That was a PDA. I wrote up a list of couple things to do.” She ushered him into the living room and handed him her list from the coffee table. “Public displays of affection are at the top of the list.”
“I see that.” Paxton skimmed the list: volunteer together, create daily rituals, check in with each other, double date, work out together, and cuddle. “Work out together? Do we really want to be one of those couples?”
“You’ve never worked out with your previous girlfriends?”
“No.”
“Well, you will today. In fact, we’re knocking out four items on that list today.”
“We are?” His eyes scoured the list again, checking to see if make out or make love were on it. Nope. Not his lucky day. Stop thinking with your dick and focus. Jo’s helping you, asshole.
“First up, volunteering at the animal shelter. Today’s their annual beautification day.”