He didn’t think she meant it that time.
He hoped to God she didn’t ruin the best thing—next to Levi—that had ever happened in his life.
* * *
IT WAS JEM’S idea that Kacey and Levi spend the evening at Jem’s house, leaving Lacey’s home for the two of them for their date.
Kacey, who was like a saint on a mission, was ready to move her things over there and trade places with Jem. As it was, she jokingly threw her toothbrush in her purse. At which time Lacey told her she was being ridiculous and said they weren’t planning on a late night.
Kacey didn’t know how little chance of success her date with Jem had that night, because Lacey hadn’t mentioned Tressa’s visit the night before. Or the talk they’d put off.
She’d texted Jem and asked him if it was a good idea that Kacey and Levi be at his place, in case Tressa showed up again. Jem had texted back that Tressa was in LA overnight.
But that didn’t mean his ex-wife wouldn’t still be there, too. Between them. Because she had to tell Sydney about the outburst she’d witnessed.
The things Tressa had said...they bordered on psychotic. And if Jem didn’t see that, if he was too blinded by the smoke to see the fire...
If he’d been living with Tressa’s episodes so long they seemed normal to him, chances were that he couldn’t be relied on to see the dangers to Levi, either.
Not that the boy was in any danger at the moment. Tressa didn’t have him again for another week.
He just had to see that even though Tressa loved her son, if she had times when she was unable to control herself, she could also be hurting him.
If he could see. But then he’d have to see that he’d been a victim, too. It was a hard enough fact for women to face. Because of the stigma it carried, men fought seeing that particular reality even more.
But even if Jem was a victim, it didn’t make him any less desirable in Lacey’s eyes, or any less manly. If anything, it showed her his backbone—that he’d survived, had gotten out. Ran a successful business and was raising an adorable and mostly well-adjusted kid.
She didn’t find him any less sexy, either. Most particularly when he showed up at her door in board shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops. She’d let Kacey talk her into one of her ankle-length sundresses. It was tie-dyed and had spaghetti straps but was loose and flowing so she could still feel as though she wasn’t flaunting something she wasn’t willing to share with every guy who looked her way.
Her hair was down again. And she’d put in the pearl-and-gold flip-flop earrings she’d bought on a trip to Hawaii with Kacey a few years before.
Jem stopped cold and stared when she opened the door to him.
“Your sister said to tell you she forgot to move the wine from the freezer to the refrigerator.” Kacey had driven over to Jem’s. She didn’t want to be without a vehicle in case of emergency.
He was still standing on her stoop.
“I already found it and moved it,” she told him, then added, “She made a grilled chicken and vegetable casserole for us, homemade rolls and peach cobbler for dessert. All on her own. I thought we were going out.”
Kacey had set the table, too, with linens and wineglasses and candles. Lacey wanted him to know it wasn’t her doing.
That, after the night before, she wasn’t presuming anything.
“Can dinner wait?” he asked.
“Of course.” Her heart sank and she felt a little stupid in the dress. She might just be on the shortest date in her history.
“I thought we’d take a walk on the beach. Enjoy the sunset...”
The glance he gave her as he said the last word robbed her of the doubts that had been plaguing her since she’d left him the night before. She hadn’t imagined that this...intense whatever this was...was forming between them.
Dinner was in the refrigerator. Just needing to be warmed up.
“I’d like to take a walk,” she told him. And locked her front door behind them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ONE THING JEM had learned from his years with Tressa was that it was better to get things out in the open than it was to avoid them hoping that they’d go away. They never did. They just festered and eventually exploded into something more than they’d ever needed to be.