Her Secret Life

Was Jem sick? Something bad?

“We’re having a baby, Kace. I’m pregnant! I just did the test this morning. And I’m hormonal and being an idiot and here you are wanting what I have and now I’m telling you I have even more and I’m so sorry...”

Kacey put a finger on her twin’s lips. “Don’t you ever, ever be sorry for being happy, Lacey. Not ever. All those years I took my happiness at your expense. I owe you a lifetime...”

And then she grinned and filled up with tears, too. “You’re pregnant?” she squealed. “I’m going to be an aunt?” She looked out at little Levi, and had to add, “Again?” Because though Levi wasn’t Lacey’s biologically, he was definitely a child of their hearts.

Lacey nodded.

Jem glanced in. And Kacey understood.

He’d given the two of them this time alone. “I just didn’t want you to feel left out, or like you’re all alone,” Lacey was saying.

Kacey hated not being able to tell her that she’d never felt less alone in her life. She had her sister. And she had Michael, too.

“I’ll never feel left out where you’re concerned,” she said now, tending to Lacey. Because in Kacey’s new world, Lacey came before she did. “What you feel, I feel, you know that.”

Lacey nodded. “Right now I’m feeling pretty happy.”

“And scared, too,” Kacey said softly, tuned in.

Lacey nodded. “So much can go wrong,” she said. And then added, “But we’ll get through it all together, won’t we?”

Life had changed for them when Lacey fell for Jem. They didn’t tell each other every single thing anymore. But they still felt each other. “You know we will,” Kacey said.

It wasn’t a platitude.

It was a promise.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

MIKE ARRIVED IN Beverly Hills, at Kacey’s door, right on time, carrying the box she’d left—which had contained, among other things, a key card to her private parking area and a key to her door—under his arm.

The keys were great. Better than great. He just hadn’t felt they’d ever be denied him if he needed them. Kacey had given him access to her most intimate thoughts. Her home, while pretty incredible, would never have that much value. But it was the kids’ craft kit that interested him the most.

That and the letter on top.

Michael,

As much as I crave your body on top of mine, more than anything on earth, I crave you. Your spirit, your soul, in my life for the rest of my days. You are my best friend. And if I have to choose between sex and your friendship—I choose friendship every time. Your handprint has been engraved on my heart forever and always...

He didn’t knock. He used his key.

And felt grossly dressed up for the occasion in his black jeans and black-and-white button-down shirt. Thank God his cuffs were rolled up. At least they went better with the more casual look she’d chosen.

In gray sweats and bare feet, a colorful T-shirt with Daytimers Do It Best emblazoned across the front, she was standing at the dining room window looking out to a gorgeous sunset over the mountains. The table was covered in plastic and set only with a big plastic bowl, a water pitcher and a wooden spoon.

“We’re setting our hands together in stone before we do anything else,” she told him.

And he grinned.

“What would you have done if I hadn’t brought the kit?”

“I knew you wo

uld.”

He’d never considered leaving it behind. It had been in his car, waiting, since she’d left his office the previous morning, telling him to open the box as she walked out the door.