“Damn you, Cade!” his best friend yelled into the phone.
“Nat—”
“How could you? I sent you to watch my shy little sister in a place where she’s completely out of her element…and you sleep with her?”
“I’ll give you shy, but your sister can hold her own just about anywhere,” he said. “And she’s a knockout. She doesn’t see it, possibly because her own sister looks at her and sees an overweight woman with scars on her face that she feels the need to hide behind a damn mask.”
“Did you sleep with her before or after you found out what happened?”
He could hear her stacking glasses in the background, and he had a feeling she was close to hurling one against the wall.
“I’m not giving you the details,” he said. “But I’ll tell you this. When I found out, I couldn’t walk away from her. I couldn’t let her believe even for a second that the scars on her face made a difference in how I saw her.”
“How do you think she’s going to feel when she learns that I sent you to the party to watch over her?” she snapped.
“She’s not going to find out.” He stopped in the middle of the carpet and squared his shoulders. “She’s leaving tomorrow. Until then, I plan to show her around town. After she’s gone, she never needs to know I’m your friend.”
“What if she comes to visit me here? Everyone here knows you’re the closest thing I have to family around here. Hell, we have a dog together.”
“I didn’t get the sense you were that close to Lucia. You’ve never once gone to see her in Tennessee. And she’s never flown out to see you.”
“We text and email,” she said.
“But you’ve never mentioned my name.”
“We’ve grown apart over the years. After some of the stuff that happened, it was just easier to live our lives. But I’m still the person she c
alls. When it matters, I’m there for her,” she said, her voice trembling.
He had witnessed his petite friend stand up to drunken sailors twice her size. Nothing shook her—except the past. It was part of the reason they’d become friends. They both knew what it was like to hold grudges for the way the past shaped the future. And they both knew what it was like to have someone walk away from you repeatedly.
He leaned his shoulder against the wall. “Why didn’t you tell me how bad it was for you when you were a kid?”
“I didn’t have it nearly as bad as Lucia,” she said softly. “No one ever laid a hand on me.”
“You could have told me,” he said.
“I didn’t want you to walk up to Lucia at a party and offer her pity. She’s had enough of that. She’d just walk away. She was looking for someone to make her feel pretty. I thought you could charm her without losing your clothes, seeing as you promised and all.”
“Things got out of hand.” There was this list… “And I’m sorry,” he added. “For going back on my word.”
“Don’t do it again, and maybe Mufasa and I will forgive you.” The Great Pyrenees barked in the background.
“Hey, don’t bring our dog into this,” he said, wondering for the hundredth time why he’d let her name their dog after a Lion King character.
“Fine. But from this point forward, the clothes stay on. I don’t want you to get her hopes up. Because I swear, if you leave her wanting more, if you break her heart—”
“I won’t. She was clear from the beginning. One wild Vegas weekend. This ends when she gets on the plane.”
“The part where you talk her out of her panties ends now,” she insisted. “The clothes stay on until she heads home.”
He stole another glance at Lucia as she licked the last of the powdered sugar off her lips. Men were staring, but it didn’t have a damn thing to do with her scars. He’d bet they were wondering what she would feel like under their touch, how she would respond to a kiss.
He knew. And he wanted to learn so much more.
“Cade?”
“I need to go,” he said. “I’ve left her at the table too long. Take care of Mufasa, and I’ll see you when I get back.”