Taste of Lacey (12 page)

Her mother stood and gathered the crystal glasses nearest her, beginning the cleanup process. Lacey sagged against Rye’s side. The bomb had been defused. For now.

“Wait just a minute,” Katie started. “I need to get this straight. Lacey is having relations with Rye, but didn’t she bring another date here a few weeks ago? The young black man?”

“Katie!” Lacey groaned. She gripped Rye’s thigh and exhaled a long, harsh breath. Fortunately he didn’t flinch away. “Please—”

“You went from not having a man to acting like the coochie ambassador to the United Nations, huh? White, black, whatever; it doesn’t matter. Of your two fellows, I’d go with Rye; he looks like he can take care of things.” She laughed as if she’d told the funniest joke in the world. Her extended family joined in her grandmother’s mirth.

Lacey was livid.

Supportive glances came from Lisa and Monica, but Lacey felt like a fool. Before last night, she and Rye hadn’t discussed their arrangement being exclusive and had made no promises to each other. That fact didn’t make it any easier to meet Rye’s gaze.

“Everybody needs to mind their own business,” Monica piped up. “Including you, Katie.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a little lovin’. She’s not getting any younger, and neither are you. It would do you some good to find a man too,” Katie told Monica. “And you’re not too big to go across my knee.”

“Okay, enough. Everybody out. I’ll clean up while you guys get ready for the game,” Lisa announced.

Lacey couldn’t hide her surprise. Someone should alert the media, because Lisa volunteering to help with kitchen duties was breaking news.

“What?” Lisa worked her neck in a half circle. “I know how to clean up.”

“But we’ve never seen it in action,” Monica said drily.

“Whatever. You all just go on with your game. I’ll be fine. I promise I won’t hurt anything or anybody,” Lisa mumbled and started gathering the fine china.

“I think we should do shirts and skins this time,” Lacey’s cousin Charles said as he headed out the door.

Monica poked him on the shoulder as he passed by her. “There are girls playing, fool.”

He grinned. “I know.”

“We are your
cousins
,” Monica reminded him.

“Next time bring some friends,” he retorted.

While the rest of the clan headed outside to prepare for their weekly flag football game, Lacey watched as her father motioned for her smug-looking mother to join him. He seemed none too pleased about the commotion at the dinner table, even if it wasn’t all her mother’s doing. Kyle, still a bit green, smirked as he escorted Katie out the door, which only made Lacey madder.

Lisa concentrated on her chore, and Monica mouthed,
Are you okay?

Lacey nodded, and then Monica made her way outside to join the others.

When Rye approached, and before she lost her nerve, Lacey grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hallway to her mother’s home office.

“Rye,” she started. “Listen—”

His hard look stopped her short. “Save it, Lacey.”

She frowned at his harsh tone but tried again. “But I wanted to—”

“Now is not the time,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Hear me out.” She rested her hands against his chest, her favorite place to touch him. The steady rhythm of his beating heart comforted her.

“Lacey, stop. I woke up in bed alone, had to crash a lunch where I normally have a standing invitation, only to learn the woman I fucked just this morning brought another man here without telling me.” He paused and sent her a look sharp enough to cut stones. “I had to bite my tongue while your mother made it clear she disapproves of us, even as my best friend acted like he wanted to skewer me. Believe me when I say now is not the time,” he said before turning toward the door.

Her throat constricted, and she felt a wave of shame although she had no reason to. “Where are you going?”

“I have some shorts and a T-shirt in my car. I’m going to change, and
we
are going to spend the afternoon with your family. Like a goddamn happy couple,” he added before he pushed the door open and stalked down the hallway.

Her heart thumped a mile a minute as she walked more slowly behind his long, curt strides. She paused when she heard Lisa call to her from the dining room. Great. Now she had to put up with her sister’s unsolicited advice. Could she even buy a break today?

Lacey returned to the spacious dining area.

“Is he all right?” Lisa asked, stacking the last of the dishes onto a tray.

“I hope so.”

“Why didn’t you tell him about Malik? I know it’s been a minute since you had a man, but you can’t keep things like going out with someone else from him.”

Lacey ignored her sister’s sarcasm. “Rye doesn’t know I actually went out with him, and I think I should keep it that way. I swear, Malik was no more than a friend I invited for a meal.”

“Yeah, well, Rye wasn’t here to know all that. You need to do whatever it takes to make sure he gets over your little slip and moves on.”

Lacey folded her arms and scrutinized Lisa’s honey-smooth face, so like their mother’s. “And how did you find out about Rye and me?”

“Are you serious?” She smirked. “I have my sources. At any rate, you shouldn’t let Mom’s and Kyle’s attitudes come between you and Rye.”

Lacey was surprised by Lisa’s support. They were close, but Lisa—notoriously focused on herself—had never shown this much interest in Lacey’s love life. “You don’t have a problem with Rye and me? Everybody else seems to.”

Lisa placed the tray full of dishes on the table. “Hey, I don’t have to sleep with him, so it doesn’t matter what I think. Or anybody else.”

“You’re right.” Lacey sighed as she headed out the door.

“Lacey?”

“Yes?”

“Do he make you happy?”

“Yes.”

“Then fight for him.”

Touched, Lacey doubled back to hug her sister. As expected, Lisa didn’t exactly return the embrace, but she didn’t bolt either.

“Thanks,” Lacey whispered.

By the time she made it to the backyard, the flag football competition was in full swing and the competition was fierce. Kyle wasn’t on top of his game, but his apparent determination to beat Rye made up for his visible lack of coordination. At first.

What he must not have counted on, however, was Rye’s unquestionable athleticism coupled with an endurance not hindered by a bitch of a hangover. And who could have predicted Monica’s grit? She caught every pass Rye threw her way, and their team won handily. Kyle, the sore loser, walked away with a sneer at Rye and without shaking a single opponent’s hand.

Lacey stood on the sidelines and waited for Rye to bid her parents farewell. She’d made a point to sit as far away from them as possible because she was beyond irritated with her mother. For some reason, her family seemed to forget she was a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions, and she was fed up.

Rye approached, his gym bag draped over his shoulder, sweat dripping from his spiked hair to land on his equally soaked sleeveless jersey. She was grateful he even had on a shirt; the scratches she’d put on his back this morning would have required a lot of explaining. Her gaze fell to the corded muscles of his arms, and she welcomed the flutter of butterflies in her stomach. He was so fine. His tall, lean physique was enough to make her wish they were alone so she could savor every square inch of his masculinity. It was a paradox he could be sweaty and still smell so good, but he did. Man, she had it bad.

“Your team did great,” she murmured.

“Thanks,” he replied, looking straight ahead.

“Are you going to follow me back to the house?”

“Yes,” he said without expression. “I parked next door at my parents’, so give me a minute, and I’ll be behind you.”

“Okay.” Once she was in her car, her heart pounded as she waited for Rye to pull behind her. He was scaring the hell out of her. She’d never seen him so quiet and irate, and she knew the change was a result of her grandmother’s blunt announcement. It sure would have been nice if Katie had kept her mouth closed about Malik. She made it seem like Lacey opened her legs for both men within a week’s time. Damn old, loudmouthed, opinionated grandmothers. Typical Katie, thinking just because she was of a certain age she could say whatever she wanted, and never mind the consequences.

Finally, Rye pulled around, and Lacey backed out of the driveway. Traffic was light on the interstate, so the ride was quick, but the closer they got to her house and a sure battle with Rye, the more the butterflies in her stomach started flapping madly. At her brownstone, she rolled into the basement-level double garage and expected him to do the same, but he parked in the driveway. He exited the SUV and then walked down to open her door.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “Are you going to pull in so I can let the garage door down?”

“I’m going to the condo. I wanted to make sure you got inside safely,” he said, his voice guarded.

Her eyes widened, and she stared at him. “That’s unusual.”

What happened to his intent for them to spend as much time together as they could while he was off this week? And hadn’t he asked her to be his girlfriend last night? He said he didn’t want to be away from her, yet he was preparing to leave. Her butterflies turned into angry bats.

He gave a cynical twist of his lips. “It’s been a fucking unusual kind of day.”

“What happened has nothing to do with us now. Why are you acting this way?”

“You don’t think I have reason to be fucking furious?”

First Kyle, then her mother, and now Rye. They were all trying to manipulate her, trying to bend her to their will. Until last night, there was no status for her and Rye’s so-called relationship. Technically, there was still no agreement about seeing other people. She’d invited Malik—someone she wasn’t remotely attracted to—for a meal to get her mother off her back. So what? At the time, her unofficial man was in unknown parts of the country. Now everyone wanted to punish her for making her own decisions, including Rye. Well, it had to end.

“No, I don’t,” she snapped. She stepped over the threshold, then placed her hand on the doorknob.

He stood beside her car without saying a word.

“If you’re leaving, don’t let me keep you. Have a good evening,” she said before closing the door.

Seconds later, she sat on her living room sofa and tensed when she heard his powerful vehicle come to life. Was he really leaving? If he was, the hell with him. Since he was out of sorts because of something so trivial, so be it. She didn’t have time for relationship drama anyway. She sat in the dark room, eyes focused on an off-centered brick in the fireplace, her heart thudded when the roar of his engine grew fainter as he drove in the other direction. Away from her.

When the silence became deafening, her breath came in small pants, and the tears rolled down her cheeks as painful shudders racked her body.

Chapter Twelve

Rye paused in the middle of chopping his second cord of wood of the morning, looking up as his father approached. “I was wondering how long it would take you, old man.”

“It was either come out here or listen to your mother moan and groan about her baby until the cows come home,” his father grumbled.

“We don’t have cows, Dad.” Rye started making neat piles of cut wood between the makeshift borders he’d set up. His overworked muscles protested and bulged when he maneuvered the heavy pieces, but he didn’t mind.

“Exactly. Anything you want to talk about since you’re chopping firewood in the middle of the summer?” His father looked as enthusiastic as when he and Rye had “the talk” when Rye was ten. “Not that we haven’t enjoyed having you here for the last few days—er, if you were to come visit some or eat dinner with us, but I’ll listen if you want to talk.”

Rye stopped working and peered at his father. “Man, she has you between a rock and a hard place, doesn’t she?”

His father nodded in defeat. “And she knows it, damn it.”

Rye laughed. His first laugh in ages felt good. Trust his parents to pull it out of him. He’d spent two of his five days of vacation locked in his father’s workshop, in solitude. Food had been of minor importance, as had answering his phone or spending leisure time with his parents. Finding out about Lacey’s date had left a hole in his gut and was taking some time to repair—a first for him.

Of all the things that could go wrong with them, Lacey being with someone else hadn’t worried him. Hell, she could have run the other way before even considering being with someone of a different race. The time demands of her business would also have provided a valid excuse. But this shit? She’d been with another man, and not a peep had crossed her lips. It rubbed him raw she could do whatever she wanted when he was away so much, with him none the wiser.

For once he wasn’t traipsing around the country being an engineering hero, and he was too out of sorts to spend the precious time with his woman. If Lacey was still his woman; he’d yet to acknowledge the two voice mails she left on his phone Monday morning—the best decision for both of them. Any conversation then would not have ended well. With Lacey being Lacey and as stubborn as a dozen mules, she hadn’t called again.

He was pissed at her for thinking she was free to even be in the same room as any fucker who wanted her, and furious with himself for not having made it clear she wasn’t. The feelings of intense anger and jealousy were so far out of his normal realm he couldn’t handle them. Hence the decision to hole up in his father’s shop and immerse himself in physical labor.

“I talked to John. He told me about what happened Sunday,” Jackson said. “You realize you have no control over this situation, right?”

“I’m starting to,” Rye replied as he stacked the last few pieces of wood on the pile. “You realize the next generation of McKays might look quite different from the last, don’t you?”

His father’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree at the implication of grandchildren. “Will they have my blood running through their veins?”

“If I can possibly negotiate a merger,” Rye answered in a grim tone.

“Well, then, let me help you out. I never thought I’d say this to my only son, but get the hell off my property.”