The Art of Loving Lacy (Sweet with Heat: Weston Bradens Book 4)

by Addison Cole

  Thank heavens. “That’s great, Rob, and I’m here if you need me. All you have to do is call. Day or night. I’ve got your back,” Dane said.

  “You always do. Thanks, buddy. Are we sailing with your pretty lady tomorrow?” he asked.

  Dane smiled and looked at the cottage. “Why don’t you spend tomorrow with Sheila and the kids. Get on better footing. We’ll go out the next day.”

  “Man, that would be great. I’ll call Sheila now and let her know. All this came on so fast and stole my feet out from under me, Dane, and I’m really sorry. Actually, it seemed to come on fast, but as Sheila pointed out, she’s been after me for two years to leave the business. I’ve just been ignoring it,” Rob said.

  “And?” Dane had the feeling Rob was about to drop a bomb he didn’t want to hear.

  “Nothing. We’re working it out.”

  Dane let out a relieved breath and pushed away the part of him that wanted to nag him for a clearer explanation. He knew when Rob was ready, he’d clue him in on the details.

  “Hey, Dane.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Here’s to a good run,” Rob said.

  “Yeah. A good run.” With Lacy and with you.

  LACY’S STOMACH WAS doing flips. She’d hoped that Dane was going to at least try to kiss her goodbye, but he made no move toward her. He was a perfect gentleman. She hated the stupid promise she’d made. Why had she ever agreed to it? But she wasn’t going to be the one to break it.

  She sent an email to her boss and let him know that things were going well and she was enjoying the assignment. Then she took a quick shower to clear her mind. Everywhere she looked, she saw Dane. She checked her phone for messages, but he hadn’t called or texted. Shoot. She had to stop thinking about him. Lacy took her phone out to the deck and called Danica.

  “Hey, sis, how’s it going?” Danica asked.

  “Great and sucky at the same time,” Lacy said. She flopped onto a deck chair.

  “Give it to me straight,” Danica said.

  “Oh, Dan. Dane’s wonderful. He’s so darn nice and, well, you know how he is. That’s not new. We agreed not to fall in love with each other, and now it’s all I can think of. He had to bail his friend out of jail and—”

  “What?” Danica said.

  “Yeah, remember I told you about his best friend, Rob? You saw the pics. I emailed them to you months ago.”

  “Oh, yeah, the brown-haired shark hunter guy,” Danica said.

  Lacy looked out at the water, remembering the other night when she’d found Dane sitting in the sand. She smiled at the memory.

  “Yeah, well, he’s going through a rough patch with his wife and he’s a recovered alcoholic—well, he was. His wife left him, and he started drinking again. He started a fight and got picked up by the police. The whole thing was really sad. The guy’s in his forties, and he’s so broken over things with his wife. But Dane was so emotional. He’s always said that Rob was like a brother to him, and today I saw it. He was so careful with him. Protective. He even offered to go to AA meetings with him,” Lacy said.

  “I think Dane’s a good guy, Lace. It sounds like he’s really trying all around, but I thought you were supposed to be learning about his business.”

  “I am. He took me to the library, and he was so cute. He had all these books about sharks, and he wanted me to read them, to get familiar with the sharks. But, Danica, I’d stayed up all Sunday night reading about sharks for some stupid reason. Anyway, he took me to a new aquarium, and I pet a baby shark. You’d be so proud of me. I couldn’t go into the shark room, though. Totally freaked me out. I stood in the doorway, clinging to Dane’s arm,” Lacy said.

  “No panic attack?”

  “No, but I wasn’t in the room with them. I stood in the doorway.”

  “That’s awesome, Lacy. That’s a big step, but don’t be surprised if you have another panic attack at some point. It would be surprising if you were able to desensitize yourself in a day,” Danica said.

  “Oh, and he got advice on immersion therapy to help me through my fear.”

  “Yeah, about that…”

  “Danica Joy, please tell me that you did not do what I think you did.” Lacy was angry and overjoyed at the same time.

  “I didn’t do anything but answer a phone call…and maybe give a little advice,” Danica admitted.

  “He called you?” Now the picture was becoming clearer. “So you were the friend he mentioned. And you didn’t call me and tell me? How could you?”

  “Lacy, if I had told you, you’d have been angry with me, and it’s obvious how you feel about him and how he feels about you. Besides, I did more than just give him advice. I told him that if he hurt you, Blake would kill him.”

  She heard the smile in Danica’s voice. “That’s just great. So he went behind my back to my sister.” Lacy wanted to be furious at his sneakiness, but she couldn’t. No one would do what he did unless he really—Oh wow—loved her.

  “Lace, not many guys would go that far. I was impressed,” Danica admitted.

  Lacy sighed. “Yeah, I guess I am, too. He’s not like any other guy I know. That’s kind of what I wanted to ask you about. I’ve been thinking about everything, and I wonder if you might be right, that my panic attack wasn’t just about the shark. Could it really have been about everything? The shark, the memories, and the idea that after all that time I was finally with Dane? Could it have scared the crap out of me?” Lacy asked.

  “It could have, but, Lace, you have to be careful. You can’t just assume you’ll be fine on a boat when he’s tagging. That’s really dangerous,” Danica reminded her.

  “I’m not going tagging with him. Don’t worry. Danica?” Lacy asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “I really, really like him. I feel like all that time apart set us up to just fall in love the moment we saw each other face-to-face. I know that’s crazy.” Lacy leaned against the deck rail and ran her finger over the rough wooden edge.

  “It’s not so crazy. You guys shared your lives. You just did it from afar. You shared your secrets, Lacy. You shared your hearts. So in a way, you did set yourselves up for just that,” Danica said.

  “But shouldn’t I feel something about the fact that he was with other women during that time? How can someone be intimate with another person when they have feelings for someone else? I just don’t get that,” Lace admitted.

  “Oh, Lacy, intimacy is so different from what you’re defining. Sex is sex. It can be meaningless, filling-a-gap or easing-a-frustration sex, or it can be intimate and loving sex. Sex is not exclusive to love,” she said.

  Lacy sighed. “I know, but…”

  “From what you’ve told me, he’s not trying to hide who he was. He’s being honest and, Lacy, honesty is the most important thing in a relationship.” Danica paused, then said, “Haven’t you ever done anything in your life that you would be mortified if someone found out about?”

  “No,” Lacy said.

  “Nothing? Ever? You never cheated on a test or made out with a teacher? You never had sex on the roof of your high school? Or fantasized about your best friend’s father?” Danica asked.

  “Geez, Danica, what kind of people did you help when you were a therapist? No, I haven’t done those things,” Lacy said, then flopped into a chair.

  “Well, you really are perfect, little sister,” Danica teased. “Listen. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not cut out to be with him no matter what you feel for him. It takes a really strong, special person to forgive a past that is so different from her own.”

  “You make it sound like I’m conceited or I think I’m above him somehow,” Lacy said.

  “No. I’m just being realistic. If you had done some of those things, you might understand the whole using-sex-as-an-escape thing, but you didn’t, so to you it’s foreign. How did you ever forgive Dad?”

  Lacy pictured Danica’s serious dark eyes watching her, waiting for an answer. “He’s my father. I didn’
t forgive him so easily, and I’m not sure I have completely forgiven him yet. I have my moments when the whole thing still upsets me, but then I realize that he just happened to love two women…at the same time.”

  “But isn’t that worse than not loving any and being honest about it? He’s not living a double life, unless…did you guys say you were exclusive for all those months?”

  “No, Danica, you know we didn’t.” Lacy stood and paced.

  “Then it sounds to me like you need to make a decision. You’re either in the relationship and willing to forget his past—really forget it, as in, not bring it up every time you have an argument—or you’re out and you let him go and move on.”

  “Sheesh, sometimes I hate you,” Lacy said.

  “That’s what big sisters are for. What are you doing tonight?” Danica asked.

  “It sounds like I’m making a life-altering decision.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  BACK ON TREAT’S boat, Dane stepped out of the shower, wondering if he should have made a move toward Lacy. Her comment about her boss gave him hope, but she hadn’t invited him in after they spent the day together. She hadn’t made any innuendos either. Now he was stuck on the boat missing her. Dane wasn’t used to having to chase women, much less having to refrain from chasing them. Enough of this. He picked up his keys and headed for the car. He was the man in the relationship, and it was time he acted like it. If she didn’t want to be with him, she’d have to tell him to his face. Tonight. Now.

  His phone vibrated. He snagged it, hoping it was Lacy, but it was from Hugh.

  Dane read the text. Did u fix things w/Lacy?

  Dane smiled and texted back. Trying. Thanks 4 pushing me.

  He climbed into the car and a few seconds later his phone vibrated again.

  Can I come over? Confused, he scrolled back on the message and realized it was a text from Lacy. Lacy! He texted back. Of course. What’s wrong?

  Another text rolled in from Hugh. She’ll come around.

  Dane didn’t answer his text. He was too worried about Lacy. He pushed speed dial, and Lacy answered on the first ring.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing…I just…I didn’t feel like eating dinner alone,” she said.

  He leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes, sighing with relief. You won’t fall in love, huh? I must be doing something right. “Why don’t I come get you and we’ll go grab a bite.”

  “You were just here. I can come there,” she offered.

  Waiting will be torturous. “I’m in the car. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” He put the phone on speaker and turned the car around. “What are you hungry for?”

  “Your company.”

  DANE STOOD ON Lacy’s front porch with a bottle of wine and his leg bouncing with too much nervous energy to calm. He smoothed his black, short-sleeved button-down shirt against his stomach and checked the drawstring on his linen pants. What is taking her so long? Maybe she’s in the shower. Maybe she changed her mind.

  He knocked again, and the door swung slowly open, revealing Lacy in a dark blue, off-the-shoulder minidress and sandals, a nervous smile inching across her lips.

  “Hi.” She leaned against the door, looking up at him through wayward curls that hung in front of her eyes.

  “You look beautiful,” he said. Why am I so nervous? He kissed her cheek and couldn’t miss the coconut scent of her shampoo. “Mm. You smell nice, too.”

  “So do you,” she said, closing the door behind him.

  The glass doors to the deck were drawn wide open; the sheer curtains blew in the breeze.

  “You brought wine,” she said, eyeing the bottle. “Let’s open it.”

  He followed her through the living room to the connecting kitchen. His eyes were drawn to the fabric stretched across her hips, the fine outline of a thong evident beneath the sheer material. He felt a familiar tightening between his legs, and he drew his eyes away from Lacy, settling them on the counter beside her.

  “I’m glad you called,” he said.

  She handed him a corkscrew, and he went to work opening the wine, a much appreciated distraction.

  “I can never open those things. The corks just get me all befuddled,” Lacy said. “I’m always afraid I’ll drop the bottle or I’ll stab myself with the corkscrew.”

  “Well, consider me your personal cork remover,” he said, trying not to stare at the silky, tanned skin of her shoulder. “How did you open the wine last night?”

  “Screw top,” she said.

  He lifted his eyes and met hers. She shrugged. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

  “I guess so,” Dane said. He filled their glasses, and they went into the living room and sat on the couch. When Lacy sat, her dress hiked up even farther, revealing the crests of her thighs. She angled her knees toward Dane, and he stretched one arm over the back of the couch.

  “I was really proud of you today,” he said. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy for you, seeing the sharks, touching the pups.”

  Lacy looked at her glass; then she looked up at Dane through her curls. He reached over and used one finger to draw the curls from in front of her eyes.

  “I was proud of myself, too,” she said. “So…you called Danica?”

  Dane closed his eyes. Danica had promised not to tell Lacy unless she asked. I guess she asked. He took a deep breath, ready to be chastised for going behind her back—again. He looked her in the eyes. “Yes. I’m sorry, Lace, but I wanted to help and she knows you so well and she was a therapist. I know you trust her, so…”

  Lacy smiled, then looked down. “It’s okay.” She lifted her eyes to his. “I’m glad you did. That means you care, but just so you know, I don’t like things to be done behind my back. Next time, just tell me or suggest it to me.”

  He let out the breath he’d held in as she spoke. “I talked to her before you even agreed to see me. I couldn’t have mentioned it to you, but I probably should have mentioned it before you found out on your own.”

  “Dane, you do all these wonderful, romantic things for me, and honestly, I love them. But if we ever…you know…move past our friendship to something more, then I won’t ignore your calls and you can’t go behind my back. Deal?”

  He’d agree to just about anything for Lacy, and the fact that she even mentioned moving past their friendship gave him hope. “Absolutely.”

  “And I’m not mad, so there’s no reason for tonight to be weird.” Lacy took a sip of her wine.

  Dane wasn’t used to anything even closely related to real dates, and even though this wasn’t a traditional date, it was still completely different from anything he was used to—and now, no matter what she said, it had a layer of discomfort added to it. Dane was used to showing up, making a move, and moving on. He wanted so much more with Lacy, and if that meant facing the things he’d done, like calling Danica, then so be it. The silence in the room was broken only by the swishing sound of the curtains and the faint sound of the waves breaking on the shore, and it was heightening his nerves.

  “Want to turn on the stereo?” Dane asked.

  “Yeah, sure.” Lacy turned on a local station, and when she returned to the couch, she sat closer to Dane. “I was hoping we could talk.” She ran her finger around the rim of the glass, then stuck her finger in the wine and brought it to her mouth. She licked the sweet nectar from her finger, then drew it out of her mouth slowly.

  Dane bit back a groan. When she licked her lips, he let out a heavy breath.

  “Talk?” Dane repeated. You’re killing me.

  “Yeah.” She shrugged. “We know so much about each other, but there’s stuff we don’t know. It might be fun to find out more about each other.” Lacy placed her palm on the couch and leaned toward him. “Unless there are skeletons in your closet, of course.”

  “I’m an open book, Lace. I’ll tell you anything.” He downed the rest of his wine. If she moved any closer, he’d have to kiss her. The bl
ouse of her dress bloomed open, and Dane couldn’t stop his eyes from dropping to the groove between her breasts. She leaned back, just enough to right the neckline. Dane knew just how good her body felt, and knowing she wasn’t wearing a bra made it even more difficult for him to quell the urges that had been building all day.

  Dane refilled his glass and Lacy threw her head back and finished hers in one swift swallow, then held the empty glass out toward Dane.

  “Okay, here goes. Truth or dare?” she said.

  “Truth or dare? I thought we were talking.” He arched a brow. I like where this is going. He could think of about ten things he’d like to dare her to do.

  “This is more fun. I just thought of it. Okay, truth…or dare?” She finished the wine he’d given her, and he took his cue and did the same.

  This is getting interesting.

  Before he could reach for the bottle, Lacy had it in her hand and refilled their glasses.

  “Truth,” he said, although he was dying to know what her dare might be.

  “Okay, this is an easy one. Favorite ice cream?” she asked.

  “That’s not as easy as it sounds. My favorite depends on where I am. If I’m at Ben & Jerry’s, it would be Cherry Garcia, but if I’m at Baskin-Robbins, it’s definitely mint chocolate chip.”

  Lacy twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “Good choices,” she said. “Your turn.”

  Dane watched Lacy finish her wine. “Are you okay, Lace?”

  “Yeah, just a little nervous. Wine helps,” she said.

  “Why are you so nervous? We just spent the day together,” he said.

  “Truth?” she asked.

  “That’s what I’d prefer,” he answered.

  Lacy slipped her feet from her sandals and used the toes of her right foot to scratch the top of her left. “Because I’m trying really hard not to fall for you.”

  He finished his wine in one gulp. Too nervous to figure out if he should tell her that he felt exactly the same way and too afraid that if he did, she’d get scared and send him away, he said, “We have a deal. No falling.”