Taste of Lacey

by Linden Hughes

  Rye remembered Lacey wasn’t his and pushed down his jealousy. He mustered up a semblance of a smile as he tried to contain his pain. “Is this why you invited me? So I could see for myself she’s better off without me?”

  “Rye, man, I didn’t know—”

  “No worries, Bishop. After all, I’m just a ‘hit and quit’ kind of guy. I don’t know anything about loyalty. Never mind that my parents have been happily married for thirty-six years, and I’ve seen firsthand how a faithful relationship works. I’ve been with the same company for fifteen years—longer than you’ve been at Pinnacle. Oh, and I’ll probably still have the Jeep a hundred years from now. Hell, you and I were best friends going on three decades. But judging by my shaky, unstable past, anyone could see I don’t know a damn thing about commitment.” Rye snorted. Then he turned and searched the crowded lounge so he could see Lacey directly one last time instead of through the smoky reflection of the mirror. She looked happy. Her happiness should be enough for him.

  Only it wasn’t. He wanted her with him, but she didn’t want the same.

  “I get it. No bastard alive is good enough for her. Especially me,” Rye said as he stood and tossed enough bills on the bar to cover his and Kyle’s tab. Then he navigated through the sea of bodies until he made his way out of the building.

  “Just a minute!” Lacey yelled as she ran down the stairs. For the past two minutes some deranged person had leaned on her doorbell. Panting from her unexpected brisk run, she turned the locks and pulled the door open until the chain stretched. To her surprise, her mother and Kyle were on her stoop, one bearing a smile and the other seeming to have trouble meeting her eyes. She opened the door and motioned for them to come inside.

  “To what do I owe this pleasure?” Just as she was about to close the door, Lisa bounced up the stairs behind them.

  “Oh God, is something wrong with Dad?” Lacey’s heart almost thudded out of her chest at seeing the three together without her father.

  “Calm down, baby. Everybody’s fine,” her mother said. “Or will be,” she added with a raised brow as she glanced at Kyle, who had the grace to look embarrassed.

  “In case you haven’t figured it out, this is an intervention,” Lisa said before sitting in an armchair and crossing her model-long legs. “We’re tired of you moping around, bringing all of us down. It seems some people invited themselves into your business and shouldn’t have. They now understand you are a grown woman who can make her own decisions, and vow to never let this happen again. Stupid-ass is going first.”

  Confused, Lacey sat down slowly on the sofa, stared at the most familiar faces in her life, and waited.

  Kyle cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” he said to Lacey before sitting down next to her on the sofa. “I was a selfish, arrogant bastard. You said I was upset because I thought I was losing my best friend, and you were right. I made this about me, and I shouldn’t have. Rye cares about you, and I should have stayed out of it. I didn’t know how sincere he was about his feelings until the past few days. I don’t deserve it, but I’m asking for your forgiveness.”

  Lacey’s heart lurched, but she didn’t say a word. Anger warred with sadness deep in her soul. Anger at herself for giving in to the pressure her mother and Kyle had placed on her, and sadness for the heartache she’d experienced while away from Rye. She couldn’t blame them for her actions, but it still smarted to know her brother’s interference was selfishly motivated.

  “It’s my turn now,” her mother said. “I’m sorry, baby. I treated Rye less than kindly because of something that happened to someone very important to me a long time ago. It’s taken me a while to understand I need to leave what happened in the past, because it wasn’t my battle to fight. Can you forgive an overprotective mother?” She seemed nervous, a first.

  Lacey’s gaze caught her mother’s. “Yes, your experiences happened in the past, but you treated Rye like a leper because of the color of his skin not so long ago. You didn’t raise us to know prejudice, but you behaved horribly.”

  Her mother turned away from Lacey and lowered her head. “Please believe that I don’t care if the person you love is banana yellow as long as he loves you. Rye being white was never the real issue; after all, the boy stayed at my house as much as he did his own as a child. My feelings were hurt. You’re always pushing me away, and I just want to be included…and consulted now and again.”

  Lacey was still skeptical about her mother’s sincerity. “And you’re sure it has nothing to do with control?”

  Her mother’s lips quivered the slightest bit, but Lacey noticed it. “Not if it means losing your respect. Or making you and Rye unhappy. I am so sorry, baby. I plan to ask his forgiveness too.”

  Lacey was so overwhelmed with emotion she didn’t know what to say or do. She held her hands to her face and sobbed. All the misery and pain she’d suffered over the past two months poured out through scalding tears. Her mother and Kyle were on either side of her, and she slumped when their arms went around her. Lisa stayed put in her chair. She was sitting straight up and had at least stopped swinging her leg.

  Her mother began to talk as she rubbed Lacey’s back. “You have to disregard whatever influence your brother and I had in your decision to end your relationship with Rye. Then you have to decide what you want. If you want to keep breaking my heart and walking around like the shell you’ve been for weeks, fine, but that’s not what the daughter I raised would do. You are a fighter, even if the threat comes from me. But”—she paused—“if you want to go after the man you love, gather your resolve and do it.”

  Lacey sat forward once she’d calmed enough to be coherent. “But how, Mom? I was a wretch and basically told him to go to hell. We all know Rye is ten times more stubborn than I could ever be.”

  “Maybe this will help,” Lisa said as she stood and handed Lacey a folded piece of paper.

  Lacey wiped away tears and focused on the document. When she got to the most meaningful paragraph, her hand flew to her mouth, and she gasped. “You knew about this?” she asked Lisa. “You helped him do this?”

  Lisa nodded.

  When Lacey saw that the paper was dated one week after her first official date with Rye, the tears flowed again like a rushing river. “I’ve got to see him,” she told them and stood to find her purse and keys. Before she could make it to the door, Lisa grabbed her elbow and turned her around.

  “What is it?” Lacey asked, puzzled. “I have to go.”

  Lisa crossed her arms and arched one silky eyebrow. “Your eyelids are swollen, your hair is a mess, and snot is running from your nose. And you think you’re going somewhere looking like a raggedy mess and a half? I don’t think so. Up the stairs.”

  Two hours later—dressed to Lisa’s standards, showered, layered, and intimately trimmed—Lacey stood in front of Rye’s door, her hand poised over the doorbell to ring it for the second time. She still had the key he’d given her, but she wouldn’t resort to using it. When she and Lisa had circled the parking garage, the Jeep and the Range Rover were both in their respective parking spaces, so she assumed he was home. Hoped he was. Now she needed to get past her nerves.

  When he still didn’t come to the door, her heart sank. What if he hadn’t answered because he was entertaining another woman? That she couldn’t take. Imagining him with someone else was one thing; seeing it in person would be asking too much. Just as she was about to leave, the door opened, and he stood in the threshold.

  Oh, Rye. Dressed in a sport coat and a white button-down with worn jeans, he looked better than the most edible dish on her signature menu. He also looked like he was headed for a night out.

  “Rye, hello,” Lacey started and cleared her throat. “I was, ah… I came to see you, but I see you’re about to leave,” she muttered before turning to walk down the hall.

  “What do you want, Lacey?” Rye asked, his voice terse.

  She stopped turned short and rotated toward him. “I wanted to see you. To apologize.
For everything.”

  Rye stood straight and pushed his hands deep into his jeans pockets. He gave a quick nod. “No apology necessary. We fucked for a while, and now it’s over. Right?”

  She stood and looked at him while her heart burst into millions of pieces. They couldn’t have a civil conversation anymore. He had moved on, and she’d lost a lover as well as a friend. She still had to fight, though.

  “Can you forgive me, Rye? Can we at least be friends again?”

  Rye didn’t say a word. The little muscle twitching in his jaw was his only movement, and from experience she knew it indicated his aggravation. He didn’t want to save their friendship.

  “Well, I don’t want to keep you from…whatever you were doing,” she said. “Or wherever you were going.”

  He was quiet for a moment, but then he spoke. “To Lakeview.”

  “What?”

  “I was going to Lakeview to let my mother feed me, because she thinks I’m wasting away.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her voice thick. “I screwed up so bad.”

  Rye tightened his lips, but he remained silent.

  “I didn’t mean any of those things I said. I’d never felt about anyone the way I felt about you, and I didn’t know how to handle it. You more than anyone should know I have a hard time dealing with things I can’t rationalize. Including us,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  He didn’t respond. Instead he pushed the door open and went inside. When he didn’t slam it closed, she followed and sat on the edge of the sofa.

  Rye exhaled and paced in front of the fireplace. Finally he stopped and looked at her. “How the hell did this happen, Lacey? What we had was so good, but it wasn’t enough. And none of it means a damn thing without trust.”

  Lacey grimaced, her heart aching because it seemed they weren’t getting anywhere. “It wasn’t you I mistrusted,” she said. “I didn’t trust me. I didn’t believe I was enough to keep you happy. I was scared, but I’m not anymore.”

  “How could you not know? Every touch, every kiss, every time I hopped on a fucking plane to get back to you as soon as I could should have made it clear you were enough. Hell, I’d never made love in my life until you, but it didn’t keep you from walking when you thought the fire was getting too hot.”

  He was right. And the misery she’d suffered since was nothing compared to what would come. When she visited Lakeview, she’d look across the way at his parents’ house and wonder how he was doing. Was he happy? Was he in love? Judging by the mask of disgust on his face, she’d always be on the fringes.

  It was too late.

  The breath she’d been holding swooshed out in a defeated rush, and she rose to her feet. Her legs had the consistency of cooked noodles, but she braved the few steps required to take her closer to him. Oh, God, he smells so good. His manly scent wafted toward her nose, and she wanted to bask in it, but filling her lungs today wouldn’t last a lifetime. She pulled the deed Lisa had given her from her purse and handed it to him.

  “You put this property in my name. I can’t let you do that. This is your dream. You can’t just give it away like I did.”

  He frowned and looked at the folded document warily. “And what dream did you give away, Lacey?”

  “You,” she said, her voice shaking.

  Rye closed his eyes and tilted his face to the ceiling. After the longest minute of her life, she heard the paper drop just as his arms went around her. A sob escaped her throat, and she circled his neck with her arms. When she buried her face in his shoulder, she tried to inhale particles of his very being, wanted to get drunk on his scent.

  “It didn’t have to come to this,” he muttered as she brushed his cheek with her lips. It felt like heaven.

  “I know. I was such a fool.”

  “Never a fool. You were cautious but over the top. You have to trust me. Depend on me.”

  “I do. I just didn’t expect that the love of my life would be my brother’s best friend.” She moaned when his arms tightened around her.

  “I love you, Lacey.”

  Her heart swelled until it overfilled her chest cavity and infringed on her lungs. Her entire being rejoiced at the possibility that she might have a chance with him. “You love me?” she whispered as she leaned back to looked into his eyes. There was no use in fighting her tears.

  “Yes. You should have known,” he said, his tone brusque and low.

  “And I love you. Always.” She gave a tremulous smile at his look of relief. “Do you forgive me?” God, she hoped so, because she didn’t know if she could survive not touching him all over. She was starved for him.

  “As long as you recognize I’m more than capable of taking care of you. I will take care of you.”

  “Oh, thank God, Rye,” she cried and held him tight. “Would you be willing to meet with my mother and Kyle? They both want to talk to you.”

  He gave a quick nod. “When the time is right, I’ll listen. I missed you so much. Don’t ever fucking leave me.”

  “Does this mean you want me to stay?” she asked through her tears.

  “You damn well aren’t going anywhere now that I have you back.”

  “I’m so glad, because Lisa dropped me off. It would have been so embarrassing to have to call her to pick me up,” she admitted.

  He fused their mouths together. She frowned when he pried her arms from his neck.

  “I have something to show you.”

  The next thing she knew, they were in the parking garage. When he went to unlock the Range Rover, she stopped him. “I know a way to prove how much I really love you.”

  She reached for his keys and selected the largest black square on the ring. “Lisa spent an hour on my hair so I could look decent enough to come see you, but, let’s ride in the Jeep. With the top down.”

  Rye reared his head back and gave a throaty laugh before helping her in the vehicle. Mercifully, though, he kept the top up. He must really love her as well.

  “Plus I wanted to exorcise the presence of that blonde woman you had in here,” she said.

  Rye frowned. “What woman?”

  “The one I saw you with. At your mom’s.”

  He chuckled. “That was Jensen’s roommate. She had visited for the weekend, and I was taking her to the airport.”

  “Oh,” she said in an embarrassed whisper.

  “Since you won’t come out and ask, there hasn’t been anyone else.”

  Giddy with relief, Lacey smiled large enough to light up the interior of the Jeep. “Me neither.”

  “Not even the guy at the karaoke bar?” he grunted.

  Lacey’s eyes widened. “The one I sang with? And how’d you know about that?”

  “Don’t worry about how I know. Who was he?”

  “I have no idea. We’d both signed up for a duet and happened to be paired together. Monica made me do it. She threatened to quit the Thymes if I moped around for a second longer.”

  They turned into the neighborhood across the way from Lakeview. The moonlight reflecting off the water, making for a gorgeous night. Perfect for lovers.

  “What are we doing at a vacant lot?” Lacey whispered as though she was afraid talking any louder would alert someone to their presence.

  He gave one of his lopsided grins that melted her panties every time. “You asked me if we could go somewhere I’ve never ‘fucked, sucked, or—’”

  She screamed and cupped his face in her hands. “This is it, isn’t it? This is the property Lisa brokered for you?”

  He smiled and led her to the spot smack in the center of the roped-off parcel of land. Nothing surrounded them but lots of grass, beautiful magnolia trees, and calm waters. Facing her, he held both her hands in his and rubbed her palms.

  “This spot will be our bedroom once we build our house. It’s the center of the property and the heart of our home. We’ll laugh here,” he paused and gave a sly smile, “we’ll make lots and lots of love here. Knowing you, we’ll p
robably do a fair amount of arguing as well.”

  “This is where we’ll make babies and where we’ll just hold hands when we’re too old to care about making love.” Without letting her go, he bent until he was on one knee in front of her. “This is where I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’m in love with you. I knew it the very first night we spent together. Maybe I didn’t handle it the best way, didn’t communicate how hard I was working to provide stability for us, but that’s what I was doing. Before then, every road I traveled led me to you, and you are it for me. Lacey Marie Bishop, will you be my wife?”

  She knelt in front of him and squeezed him as tight as her love strengthened her to. “Yes, Rye. Yes, I’ll marry you,” she said through her tears.

  He shocked the breath out of her when he reached into his pocket, pulled out a velvet box, and slid a spectacular princess-cut diamond ring on her finger.

  “Oh my God, Rye! Where’d that come from? It’s gorgeous!” In the moonlight, the brilliance and beauty of the symbol of commitment was evident.

  “I’ve been carrying it around the past couple of weeks. If you hadn’t come to me, very soon I was coming to get you. It was getting harder and harder to function without my heart.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Rye was getting on her last nerve. He’d given her the same answer on the phone, and now he was repeating it in person.

  “No.” Rye didn’t even look up from the documents in front of him. He’d been working from daylight to dark managing two major projects, which didn’t leave a lot of time to help Lacey plan a wedding. Pinnacle’s commercial development department had won the bid for the new simulation center, plus Kyle and company, in way of apology, were also building the new house.