Family Affair (6 page)

“I’d like to complain, but I won’t,” Jack said. “I’m more than pleased that Dog decided to call upon Cleo; otherwise I don’t know how long it would have taken me to break through those barriers of yours.”

He kissed her then, slowly, thoroughly, leaving her trembling when he’d finished.

“We’ll celebrate. Dinner, dancing, a night on the town. We’ll—” He stopped abruptly and closed his eyes.

“What?”

“I’ve got another one of those stupid dinner meetings this evening.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She was disappointed, but she understood. “This is rather short notice. We’ll celebrate another time. It doesn’t matter, truly it doesn’t.” Nothing could mar her happiness. “How soon do you have to leave?”

He glanced at his watch and frowned. “Ten minutes.”

“I’d better go.”

“No.” He kissed her hungrily.

“Jack”—she managed a protest, weak at best—“you’ll be late for your dinner.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Jack!”

He kissed her nose. “Spoilsport. Remember, we’re on for dinner on the town tomorrow night.”

“I’ll remember.”

Lacey returned to her apartment in a daze. When she slumped onto the sofa, Cleo settled in her lap, and she slowly stroked the cat’s back, thinking over her day. Lacey wasn’t sure how long she sat there before someone knocked on her door. Checking the peephole, Lacey was shocked to see who it was.

“Sarah!” she said, unlocking her door.

Jack’s sister took one look at her and burst into tears. “Oh, Lacey, I’ve been such a fool!”

Eight

“S
arah, what happened?” Lacey led Jack’s sister into her apartment. Sarah slumped onto the love seat and covered her face with both hands. Several seconds passed before she was able to speak.

“I . . . found out Mark’s involved with someone else. I found them together, in our bed. I thought I was going to be sick . . . I couldn’t believe my own eyes. How could I have been so stupid?”

“Oh, Sarah!” Lacey wrapped her arm around Sarah’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”

“Jack
told
me Mark was seeing someone else, but I didn’t believe him. I loved Mark . . . I really loved him. How could I have been so stupid?” She buried her face in Lacey’s shoulder.

The experience was nearly a mirror image of her own, so Lacey could appreciate the devastating sense of betrayal Sarah was feeling.

“I know what you’re going through,” Lacey said when Sarah’s sobbing had slowed. She brought her a hot cup of tea with plenty of sugar to help ward off the shock.

“How could you?” Sarah said. She looked up at Lacey, her face devoid of makeup, her eyes filled with a hollow, familiar pain. The afghan Lacey’s mother had crocheted for a Christmas present was wrapped over the younger woman’s shoulders as if she’d been chilled to the bone. Sarah looked as if she were six years old.

“It’s like your whole world has been violently turned upside down. But it’s much more than that. The sense of betrayal is the worst emotional pain there is.”

“You too?”

Lacey nodded. “My husband—ex-husband, now—left me for another woman. Apparently they’d been lovers for months, but I didn’t have a clue. When Peter asked for a divorce, I thought I’d die.” Memories of that final confrontation filtered through Lacey’s mind. She found, somewhat to her surprise, that although they saddened her, she didn’t feel the crushing agony that had been with her for the last year and a half.

“What . . . what did you do afterward?”

Lacey reached for Sarah’s hand and squeezed her fingers. “After the divorce was final, I packed everything I owned and moved to San Francisco.”

“Then it must not have been very long ago.”

“The divorce was final last year about this time.”

Sarah sipped her tea. “I was blind to what was happening. I trusted Mark, really trusted him. I nearly allowed him to destroy my love for my brother.”

“Don’t blame yourself.”

“But I do!” Sarah cried. “Looking back, I can’t believe I sided against Jack. He’s never lied to me, and yet I believed everything Mark was telling me about my brother being jealous and all that other garbage.”

“I believed too,” Lacey said, “but when you love someone, the trust is automatic. Why should we suspect a man of cheating when such behavior would never occur to us? The very thought of being unfaithful to Peter was repugnant to me.”

Sarah cradled the mug between her palms. “Do you think you’ll ever be able to trust a man again?”

“Yes,” Lacey answered, after some length, “but not in the same blind way. I couldn’t bear to live my life being constantly suspicious. The burden of that would ruin any future relationships. I’m not the same woman I was eighteen months ago. Peter’s betrayal has marked me forever.” She hesitated, unsure of how much she should admit about the changes knowing Jack had brought into her life. “It wasn’t until recently that I felt I could say this, but I believe it changed me for the better.”

“How do you mean?”

“It was a long, painful ordeal. Only in the last month have I come to terms with what happened. For a long time I thought I hated Peter, but that wasn’t true. How could I hate him when I’d never stopped loving him?”

“What do you feel for him now?”

Lacey had to think over the question. “Mostly I don’t feel anything. I’ve forgiven him.”

“You? He should be the one to beg
your
forgiveness.”

Lacey smiled, knowing Peter as she did. “I could wait until hell freezes over, and that would never happen. Peter believes
I
was the one who failed
him
, and perhaps I did in some way. He needed an excuse to rationalize what he was doing.”

“Mark blamed me too. How could you forgive Peter? I don’t understand.”

“You’d be right to say he didn’t ask for my forgiveness. But I didn’t do it for
him
, I did it for
me
. Otherwise his betrayal would have destroyed me.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“In the beginning,” Lacey said, “I couldn’t deal with the pain so I pretended I wasn’t hurt. But in the last month, I’ve realized that I needed to let go of Peter and the failed marriage, and the only way to do it was to admit my own faults and forgive him. If I didn’t, I might never have let go of my bitterness.”

Fresh tears brimmed in Sarah’s eyes. “I’ll never be as wise as you are.”

Lacey laughed. “Oh, Sarah, if only you knew how very long it took me to reconcile myself to this divorce. I have Jack to thank, and my friend Jeanne. Even Cleo played a role.”

“Jack’s wonderful,” Sarah admitted and bit her lower lip. “I’ve treated him abominably.”

“That’s one thing about brothers, they’re forgiving. At least we can trust that Jack is. He’s a special man, Sarah, and I can’t believe you’ll have any more problems setting matters straight with him.”

They sat and talked, and as the hours passed Lacey realized how much they had in common. It was nearly ten o’clock when the doorbell chimed. The two women looked at each other.

“You don’t need to worry. I’m sure it’s not Mark.”

Lacey checked the peephole anyway. It was Jack. Unlatching the chain, she opened the door and was immediately brought into his arms. He kissed her as if it had been weeks instead of hours since they’d last seen each other.

“Jack.” Sarah’s voice cut into the sensual fog that surrounded Lacey.

Jack abruptly broke off the kiss but kept his arm around Lacey’s waist. She watched his face as he discovered his sister sitting on the sofa, wrapped in Lacey’s afghan. His gaze went from Sarah to Lacey and then back again.

“Sit down,” Lacey said, easing her way out of his embrace. “Sarah has something to tell you.” Then, because she knew how difficult it would be, she leaned close and whispered, “Be gentle with her.”

“Lacey,” Jack said irritably, “don’t lift that, it’s too heavy for you.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, hauling the carton out of the back of the rented van. It was heavy, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Sarah had found an apartment of her own, and Jack and Lacey were helping her move. It had been an eventful month. Sarah had temporarily moved in with Lacey and the two women had talked, often long into the night.

“That should do it,” Sarah said, as Lacey set the carton on the kitchen countertop. She looked past Lacey and whispered, “What’s wrong with Jack? He’s been a real crab all morning, and he wasn’t much better last night, either. Did you notice?”

Lacey had, but she hadn’t wanted to say anything. “I don’t know what’s wrong.” But something was.

“If anyone can get it out of him, it’s you.”

Lacey wondered if that was true. After the last month she felt as close to Sarah as if they were really sisters. And in that time she’d come to another, more profound realization.

She was deeply in love with Jack.

For someone who was convinced she was constitutionally incapable of falling in love again, this was big news.

“I can’t thank you two enough,” Sarah said when Jack returned from the truck. “I don’t know what I would have done these last weeks without you.” She hugged them, then turned away in an effort to hide the tears that glistened in her dark eyes. “I’ll be fine now. You two go and have fun. I don’t want you to worry about me.”

Jack hesitated. “You’re sure?”

“Positive.” Sarah made busywork around her compact kitchen, removing several items from the closest box and setting them on the counter. All the while her back was to them. “Please,” she added.

Remembering her own experience, Lacey whispered, “She’ll be fine. All she needs is time.”

Together Lacey and Jack walked outside to where Jack had parked the moving van. He opened the passenger door and helped her inside.

Lacey removed her bandanna and shook her head to free the thick strands of dark hair that were plastered against her face. Jack climbed into the driver’s seat. She noticed how his hands tightened around the steering wheel. For several seconds he just sat there. Then he started the engine and moved out into traffic. But he still seemed deep in thought. Something was wrong.

“Jack,” she said softly, “what’s troubling you?”

Her voice broke him out of his reverie, and he smiled as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “Not a thing. How about sharing a hot fudge sundae with me after we take the truck back?”

It sounded wonderful, but Lacey had discovered in the last few weeks that almost every minute she spent in Jack’s company was special.
He
was special.

“Are you worried about Sarah?” Lacey pried gently, wondering at his somber mood. Something was on his mind, but she couldn’t force him to tell her. He would speak up when he was ready, she decided.

“Not as much now as when she was living with Mark. Although it’s been hard on her, discovering exactly what kind of man he is was the best thing that could have happened.”

“She’ll be fine,” Lacey said confidently.

“Thanks to you.”

“Oh, hardly. Sarah will come away from this experience a little more mature and a whole lot smarter. I know I did with Peter. But it takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“I’ll say. Look how long it took me to get to know you.”

“It was worth the effort, wasn’t it?”

He took one hand from the wheel and patted her knee. They were sitting so close to each other that their hips touched. The morning was muggy, but neither of them moved, enjoying this small intimacy. “The wait was well worth the while,” he agreed and then added, his eyes dark and serious, “I’m crazy about you, Lacey; I have been for months.”

“I’m crazy about you too,” she returned softly.

What was definitely crazy was that they should admit their feelings for each other in a moving van in the heavy flow of San Francisco traffic.

After having spoken so freely, both seemed a little embarrassed, a little relieved, and a whole lot in love. Lacey felt as if she were in college all over again. The years of her marriage and the aftermath of the divorce vanished, as if they’d never happened.

Leaving his car in the underground parking lot, they caught the elevator. The instant the door slid closed, Lacey was in Jack’s arms. His mouth sought hers with the desperation of a man locked in a dark room, unable to find the exit. His arms half lifted her from the floor, giving her the perfect excuse to cling to him.

“I’m crazy about you,” she said. She felt drunk, as if she’d spent the last few hours sitting in a bar instead of the last few moments in his arms.

He caught her face between his hands and kissed her until she trembled and whimpered. He moaned.

“Jack.” From somewhere deep inside she managed a weak protest. “We’re still in the elevator.”

He lifted his head and looked around. “We are?”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and tilted back her head to smile up at him.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” he teased, kissing her nose. He reached over and pushed the button for the fourth floor.

This intense feeling of desire was new to her. If he didn’t continue kissing her, loving her, touching her, Lacey thought she’d die. It was as if years of dammed-up longing had broken free deep inside of her, swamping her senses.

He kissed her again and she sagged against him just as the elevator delivered them to the fourth floor.

“Your place or mine?” he asked, and then made the decision for her. “Yours.”

Her hand trembled when she gave him her keys, and she was gratified to see his fingers weren’t any steadier. In that moment, she loved him so much she couldn’t bear it a second longer. Her arms circled his middle and she kissed the underside of his jaw, teasing him with her tongue, running it down his neck to the hollow at the base of his throat and sucking gently.

“Lacey, stop,” he protested.

“Do you mean that?” she whispered, lifting her face.

“No . . . never stop loving me.” The door opened and they all but stumbled inside.

It was then she heard Cleo’s pitiful meow. Jack heard it too. He glanced over his shoulder and then turned his gaze back to her. His eyes were tightly shut.

“Cleo’s having her kittens,” he announced and moved away from her.