“Okay, squirt. Now that everyone is here, I’ll start the grill. Why don’t you run inside and get the tongs for me.”
“Yay! Hot dog time!” Annie yelled, spinning on her small feet and racing for the sliding glass door that led into the house.
“She makes me tired just watching her,” a woman who Kassie didn’t recognize said. She had extremely short hair which looked awesome on her.
“Oh my God, me too,” Rayne agreed wholeheartedly.
Hollywood led Kassie over to where the two women were sitting. “You know Rayne. But I don’t think you’ve met Mary. Mary, this is Kassie. Kassie, Mary.”
“Hi,” Kassie said, somewhat shyly.
“Hey. It’s good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from Rayne.”
“Oh. It’s good to meet you too. Do you belong to any of these guys?” Kassie asked, obviously confused.
“Oh Lord, no,” Mary said swiftly. “And I can tell that you’ve been hanging around with them. I’ll never ‘belong to’ any man.”
“I didn’t mean—” Kassie began, but Hollywood interrupted her.
“Leave her alone, Mare. Just because you can’t see what’s in front of your face doesn’t mean other women don’t. I think you’re forgetting that if you belong to a man, that man belongs to you right back. And never say never, you don’t know what’ll happen in the future,” Hollywood teased.
“Oh shut up,” Mary retorted, but grinned at him nevertheless.
He held up his hands in capitulation and chuckled. “You doin’ okay?”
“I’m good,” Mary said quickly, almost too quickly.
Hollywood didn’t think she looked good, but didn’t want to embarrass her, and he wasn’t sure what she’d told her best friend. The last thing he wanted to do was say something out of line in front of Rayne. After the ball and talking with Truck about her continued chemo treatments, he wasn’t even sure she should be out and about like she was. She was seriously one of the toughest women he’d ever met. She was prickly, yes, but if that gave her the strength to get through not one, but two bouts with cancer, she could be as brash as she wanted. He’d have her back every day and twice on Sunday. Going on with her daily activities as if she wasn’t getting poison injected into her body on a weekly basis simply proved his point about how strong she was.
“You need anything, don’t hesitate to ask, yeah?” he told her, making sure to look her in the eyes as he said it.
“Thanks, Hollywood. I’m good,” Mary responded quietly.
“Besides, I’m here if she needs anything,” Rayne said brightly. “Why would she go to you when she’s got her best friend?” With that, Rayne threw her arm around Mary’s shoulders and beamed up at them.
Mary winced. It was quick, but noticeable nevertheless.
“I’m gonna take Kassie around,” Hollywood told the women.
“Bring her back so she can eat with us,” Rayne demanded. “I have about a million questions for her about you.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve signed a nondisclosure agreement,” Kassie told Rayne seriously. “All I’m allowed to tell you is my name, age, and that I have a sister named Karina. Oh, and that Hollywood is the most amazing man I’ve ever met.”
The looks on Rayne and Mary’s faces were priceless, and Hollywood tried to keep a straight face, but failed.
Kassie immediately put them out of their misery and smiled broadly at the women. “Kidding. I’d love to sit with you and tell you all of Hollywood’s secrets. Did you know he doesn’t even have a bed? He’s just got a mattress on the floor. It’s pathetic really.” She grinned up at Hollywood to let him know she was teasing.
“Oh my God, seriously? Girl…you are totally sitting with us. I gotta know more,” Rayne enthused.
“Come on, Kass,” Hollywood urged with a hand on the small of her back. “Let’s go say hi to everyone else before you tell all my secrets.”
Hollywood accompanied Kassie around to all the groups. She already knew the men, but seemed happy to say hello to them again. She was a little reticent with Emily; Hollywood figured she still had some feelings of guilt about what Jacks had done to her. He’d keep working to make sure she put that behind her. He knew without a doubt no one held her responsible for anything that asshole had done.
They ate dinner; Kassie sat with Rayne and Mary and the three giggled and laughed throughout the meal. Emily and Harley sat at another table with Annie and their men. The rest of the guys sat at the third, devouring the food as if they hadn’t eaten in days. Hollywood loved looking over to the other table and seeing the happiness on Kassie’s face as she relaxed with his friends. Her life hadn’t been a walk in the park and his aim was to make things much easier for her from this point on.
After everyone had eaten, they all went to sit and relax around the fire pit. Hollywood and some of the other men dragged a few of the plastic chairs from the deck over to the cleared area around the blaze. He settled into one of them and pulled Kassie onto his lap. She squeaked at his move, but settled against him with no protests.
Ghost did the same with Rayne, and Fletch and Emily sat next to each other on one of the benches near the fire. Truck led Mary to another of the chairs and helped her to sit. He took a seat on the end of a bench next to her. The other men took places on either a bench or chair around the fire. The mood was mellow and relaxed.
“So, Kassie,” Harley said when they were all seated. “I hear you need the services of a lawyer.”
“Oh, well, I—”
“Jacks has a friend who has been making her life hell,” Hollywood told Harley, and the entire group, baldly.
“Well, jeez, don’t hold back,” Kassie grumbled, ducking her chin to her chest in embarrassment.
“Don’t feel ashamed about something someone else is doing,” Harley told her. “He doesn’t have the right to make you nervous, and he definitely doesn’t get to follow you around or threaten you.”
“I know, it’s just…serving him with a protective order seems like it’ll only piss him off more.”
“It might,” Harley said and shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.”
“Told you,” Hollywood whispered. Then said louder, “If you can give your sister a head’s up that Kassie’ll be calling, we’d appreciate it.”
“Of course. And for the record, you’ll get the friends and family discount,” Harley told both Kassie and Hollywood. “Which means she won’t charge you. So don’t even ask.”
“I don’t—”
“I said, don’t even ask,” Harley repeated, not even letting Kassie get the protest out.
“Thank you,” Hollywood told the other woman. “Appreciate it.”
“Anytime. And that goes for everyone, in case you didn’t know it. Montesa told me to tell all of you if you ever need a lawyer’s services, she’s here for you. Call it a thank you for doing everything in your power to help find me when I had that accident.”
“Oh jeez, don’t tell everyone that,” Mary joked. “She’ll be bailing us all out left and right.”
Everyone chuckled at that and individual conversations started back up around the fire.
Fletch helped Annie make s’mores and didn’t even care that she had more chocolate on her fingers and clothes than it seemed she put in her mouth. After an hour of running around, burning marshmallows for anyone who wanted one, and generally making the adults laugh at her antics, Annie finally curled up in her mom’s lap.
“Have a good time tonight, Annie?” Emily asked.
“Yeah. I like when everyone gets together.”
“Me too.”
“Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“I want a brother.” Annie’s words were loud in the quiet Texas night.
Hollywood choked back a laugh as Emily tried to respond to her daughter’s statement.
“Having a child is a big responsibility for parents,” she told her daughter.
“Yeah, I know. But Daddy said he wanted
to see you round with his baby and that with his super swimmers you’d be preggo sooner rather than later. I don’t understand what him being fast in the pool has to do with you being pregnant though.”
Fletch coughed and almost spat out the sip of beer he’d just taken and looked over at his daughter with big eyes.
The men around the fire burst out laughing, and Hollywood was suddenly glad he wasn’t in Emily’s shoes right then.
“Fletch, you want to explain to your daughter?” Emily passed the buck to her husband.
Fletch put his beer down on the grass and plucked Annie from Emily’s lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into him.
“I want a baby very badly, squirt. And I’m hoping in a few months we’ll be able to tell you that your baby brother or sister is on the way.”
Mumbling into her dad’s neck, Annie asked, “I want a brother. But Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“You’ll still love me if you have your own real kid…right?”
“Look at me, squirt,” Fletch demanded.
Annie lifted her head.
Fletch took her little face between his large hands and said in a deadly serious tone, “You are my real kid, Annie. You might not share my blood, but you’re as much a part of my heart as if I knew you from the second you were born. Me and your mom having a child together will never change that. You’re my oldest daughter. Period. Okay?”
“Okay.” She paused a moment, then asked, “Daddy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
And with that, Annie snuggled back into the only father she’d ever known and closed her eyes.
Hollywood looked over at Kassie and saw her gazing into the fire pensively. He leaned over. “You okay?”
She nodded quickly.
Hollywood put his finger under her chin and turned her face to his. “What is it?”
“It’s silly.”
“It’s not if it’s upsetting you.”
“I just didn’t think I’d ever have kids,” Kassie said in a whisper.
Hollywood heard his friends talking and laughing around him, but he had eyes only for Kassie. “What do you mean? Why not?”
“I thought Richard was my one chance.”
“Kass, you’re only thirty,” Hollywood told her, confused.
“I know, but you have no idea what the last couple of years have been like. Some days Richard was great, but others he was crazy. I thought we could work things out for a while, but when he started getting paranoid and having Dean follow me around, it got bad. He’d question every single man I said two words to. I’d resigned myself to never being able to have a normal life. I wasn’t going to be able to date anyone, never mind get close enough to someone to be able to have a kid. And I wasn’t going to consider having a baby while Richard was still around. I wouldn’t put a helpless baby in danger. No way.”
“You’re going to have your babies, Kass,” he told her with conviction. “Little boys and girls with your brown hair and hazel eyes.”
“It wasn’t until just now that I thought I had any hope that it could happen,” Kassie told him, emotion heavy in her voice and shining out of her eyes.
Hollywood closed his eyes for a moment, then wrapped his arm around her, resting it right under her breasts, and pulled her back until she was boneless against him once more. “We need to stop talking about babies,” he whispered in her ear.
“Why?”
“Because talking about you having babies makes me think about how they’re made. And thinking about how babies are made makes me want to take off all your clothes, plant my cock deep inside you and get started on giving you that family you’ve always wanted.”
“Graham,” Kassie moaned, shifting on his lap.
Hollywood smiled at the use of his real name and buried his nose in her hair while he clamped a hand around her hip, holding her still. “Relax, Kassie. Enjoy the evening.”
“You’re evil,” she complained good-naturedly.
“So, I guess that whole, ‘keep your friends close but your enemies closer’ thing worked out for you, huh?” Blade teased from out of the blue from across the circle.
Kassie stiffened in Hollywood’s lap, and he scowled at his friend and teammate. Fuck, Blade had the worst timing. But before he could say anything, Fish smacked Blade in the back of his head with his good hand and said fiercely, “Why would you say that? You’re an asshole.”
“Hey…what’d I do?” Blade asked, rubbing the place where Fish had hit him.
“You insinuated that Hollywood is with Kassie to keep his eye on her rather than because he loves her,” Fish told him without an ounce of pity.
“I—” Blade turned to the couple in question and paused, obviously seeing how much his words had upset Kassie. “I was teasing, man. You guys were talking about babies and shit and I was making a joke. I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I mean, right after the ball we talked about how Hollywood should talk to you to find out what Jacks is up to, but it’s obvious that you’re meant for each other.”
“Just shut up,” Fish told him. “You’re making it worse.”
“I’m a little tired. I think I’ll leave you guys to shoot the shit and go up to bed,” Kassie said softly.
“Kass, he didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” Beatle put in, trying to fix Blade’s faux pas.
“It’s cool. I understand. Let me up, Hollywood,” Kassie ordered as she tried to get up and off his lap.
Without a word, Hollywood immediately stood with Kassie in his arms and strode away from his friends. He headed for the apartment over the garage.
“I’ll keep Annie home tomorrow,” Emily called out. “Breakfast’ll be served at nine! But if you’re not there, I’m siccing Annie on you!”
Hollywood didn’t bother responding. He wasn’t sure if Em was talking to Kassie, or to both of them, but it didn’t matter. He could feel how upset Kassie was by the way she held herself stiff in his arms.
They’d gone from talking about her getting pregnant with his babies to him needing to get back in her good graces in a split second. He’d be the first to admit that he loved how passionate Kassie was, but it sucked when it was going toward pushing him away.
“Hollywood, put me down, I—”
“Shut it, Kass,” he bit out.
“What? No, seriously—”
“Yes, seriously, Kass. Wait until we’re upstairs.”
“I’m tired. You need to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Fuck no. You’re pissed at Blade, rightly so, and maybe a little at me simply for being friends with him. You’re probably hurt too, and that kills me. I need to explain. You need to forgive me, then we need to get back to talkin’ about you having my babies.”
“Hollywood, no. You’re right. I am pissed…and hurt. I need some time.”
“No, you don’t,” he countered as he started up the stairs on the side of the garage toward the door of the apartment. “We need to talk this out. I don’t mind you being upset, but if I leave you alone tonight, you’ll think about all the reasons you think this won’t work. You’ll decide we’re moving too fast, that you need to concentrate on keeping Karina safe, and you’ll get in your car and go home.” As soon as he finished speaking, Hollywood dropped her legs and held her tightly against him as she got her balance.
“Give me the key, sweetheart.”
Without a word, she belligerently pulled the key to the apartment out of her pocket and smacked it into his open hand. Hollywood unlocked the door and deadbolt and held the door open for her. She stomped in ahead of him and went straight to the refrigerator.
Hollywood closed and locked the door behind them and put the key on the small table just inside the apartment. He was upset at Blade’s inconsiderate words, but a part of him was weirdly pleased with Kassie’s reaction.
He wasn’t happy she was upset, but the fact that she was pissed at him meant that she care
d. He could make her understand that the conversation he’d had with his friends had happened when he was still working through what she’d told him at the ball. Not once since he’d decided he wanted Kassie in his life for a fuck of a long time had he thought about being with her simply to keep tabs on Jacks.
He kept the solemn look on his face as he stalked after Kassie, but inside he was smiling. They’d get past this and she’d realize once and for all how serious he was about her.
She might as well learn now that he never intended for them to go to bed upset with each other. And he had every intention of going to bed with her tonight. His vow to not make love to her this weekend was still intact, but she would be sleeping in his arms.
Chapter 15
Kassie snatched a bottle of water out of the fridge and wrenched it open. She was angry, embarrassed, and heartsick all at the same time. She knew this relationship with Hollywood had moved too fast. She’d been so desperate to feel safe and loved that she’d blocked out all the reasons why she should be careful to keep her heart safe. Stupid.
She guzzled the water but stopped when Hollywood took hold of the plastic bottle and eased it down and away from her mouth. “That’s enough, sweetheart.”
“Oh, so now you get to tell me what to drink too? Next you’ll be telling me I’m too fat and what I can eat,” she bit out bitterly. She knew she was being unreasonable…it wasn’t as if Hollywood hadn’t told her over and over how much he liked and wanted to be with her, but Blade’s words had cut deep and she was having a hard time being fair.
“You are not fat,” Hollywood told her, placing the water bottle on the counter next to the refrigerator. “And if you’re saying that because that’s what your asshole ex did to you, you have to know everything out of his mouth was bullshit. You’re beautiful.” He put his hands on her hips and turned her to face him. “Every curve. Every inch. It’s all fucking beautiful.”
Kassie’s heart turned over at his words. He sounded firm and unyielding in his opinion. Never in her life had any man told her she was pretty. Never mind beautiful. “Hollywood,” she began, “this isn’t going to work.”
Rescuing Kassie: Delta Force Heroes, Book 5 Page 17