His First Choice

They’d switched hands when they’d turned around. Lacey’s palm was cool from the night air. He wanted to hold her. To lie on the beach with her and lose himself in her, to pleasure her so thoroughly that she forgot the bad parts of his world existed. And hers, too.

To help them both forget that people weren’t always kind to one another.

In a perfect world, maybe they were.

But in reality, everyone had a bad side. Issues. Hurts that didn’t heal as well as they could have.

“When I grew taller than she was, stronger than she was, she resorted to tears,” he said, remembering out loud under the cover of the darkness that was falling. “She’d use tears as a threat and point out to me how our father was a sucker for her tears, giving in to her every single time she cried.”

“Was she right?”

“About Dad? Pretty much.” And he understood that. Every single time Levi cried, it took a piece out of him.

“After that I gave her whatever she wanted most of the time. It was easier than dealing with the muck she’d conjure up.”

“Was she nicer to you?”

“Tressa’s words last night were kind compared to the things JoAnne continued to say to me. But they were only words. I learned to deflect the barbs for the nonsense they were, and to pity her.”

“Didn’t Levi say she’s coming to stay with you?”

“Right. Yes, she is. Later this summer.”

“So...things have changed since you grew up?”

“Nope...” He grinned. Because life really was kind of a joke sometimes. “She’s pretty much as bad as ever.”

“Then why...?”

“My folks asked me to put her up.” He let his shrug finish that sentence.

“Did they also tell her she had to stay with you?”

“What? No, of course not. It wouldn’t do any good if they had. JoAnne has no problem defying our parents.”

“She wants to stay with you.”

“I guess.” He hadn’t given it much thought. “It’s a small thing,” he told her. He stopped, turning her until they faced each other, touching, front to front.

“You want to know what I know?” he asked, gazing down at her in the moonlight—and in the glow from the lights farther up on the beach.

“What?”

“That I have so much to be thankful for I’d be a fool to waste my energy crying over the things I can’t change. I’ve got a boy that brings me joy every single moment of every day. A job I love and that provides a better than average income. I’m my own boss. I can make my home whatever I want it to be because I’m the guy who knows how to do that kind of stuff. And I’m on the beach with a woman who I never thought I’d meet...”

He stopped himself.

“I never thought I’d meet you, either.” Lacey filled in his silence, understanding.

And, with those words, sealed his fate.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THEY WENT OUT again on Saturday. Kacey was back at Jem’s, though Lacey hated that her sister was spending so much time babysitting. Not that Kace seemed any the worse for wear. She looked more relaxed and was laughing out loud a lot more than Lacey could remember her doing.

Hard to believe that in another week she’d be gone—back to the craziness of her Hollywood life.

Lacey had worn another one of Kacey’s dresses that was loose fitting and just a bit shorter and fancier. Jem had told her he wanted to take her out someplace nice.