Sisters in White (Love in Bloom: Snow Sisters #3) Contemporary Romance (5 page)

“What did Mom say about my favorite niece and nephew?” Danica walked with Kaylie into a small boutique next door while the others lingered behind.

“They’re excited to see us tomorrow. Lexi didn’t sleep well last night. Mom said she got up and was just fidgety, so she finally put her in bed with Trevor, and she fell right to sleep.” Kaylie watched the others approach. “I just hate letting them sleep together.”

“A few nights won’t hurt. Besides, I remember you climbing in bed with me when we were little.”

Kaylie’s eyes remained trained on Lacy. “Yeah, it’s just that Lexi needs to learn to self-soothe.”

“You sound a little like a therapist. Ferberizing?” Danica teased. It had been a few months since Kaylie stopped seeing Dr. Marsden, a therapist who had helped her to deal with her anger issues surrounding their mother and her careening career while she was pregnant, and now Danica wondered if she might do well talking with her again—about their father and Lacy.

Lacy passed with a smile and went into the store.

Kaylie followed. “I read everything I can on kids; you know that. I don’t want to screw them up.”

That’s my in!
“Then maybe you should read about dealing with divorced parents.”

Kaylie rolled her eyes, and while she pretended to lift and inspect a shirt, Danica knew she was really watching Lacy’s every move. Lacy moved easily from counter to counter. She turned, looking past them to her mother, and waved her over. Danica watched as Lacy put her hand on her mother’s shoulder and spoke animatedly into her ear, while pointing at something inside the glass cabinet. Madeline put her hand to her chest, then leaned closer to inspect whatever they were looking at. Their father came up behind Lacy, and Kaylie’s body went rigid. Madeline pointed into the cabinet, and he touched Lacy’s shoulder. As Danica watched the scene unfold, she remembered what it had been like to be the center of her father’s attention for so many years and was surprised that she felt a twinge of longing.

He withdrew his wallet and handed it to Madeline, at which point Kaylie suddenly stormed deeper into the store, glancing quickly at the cabinet that held their attention, then stalked to a corner and rifled through a bin of purses.

“She’s really having a hard time.”

Danica startled at Chaz’s deep voice. “Yeah, she is.” He watched Kaylie with a worried look in his eye. “I’m sorry that I invited them. I probably should have left well enough alone, huh?”

“No.” Chaz shook his head. “I don’t think so. Lex and Trev are his grandchildren, too, and if we can mend this broken fence, I’d love for them to know him, and Madeline, who, by the way, seems lovely, despite...”

“Yeah, she does.” Danica blew out a breath. “Look at Kaylie staring at Lacy. I know she’s jealous, but I’m not sure what to do about it.”

Chaz turned his back to his wife and leaned against the table where they stood. “I’m even more lost than you. Seems everything I say leads to a fight, and it doesn’t help that she misses Lex and Trev something awful.”

“She does? I guess that’s good that she misses them, as long as all of this doesn’t come between you two.”

“Between us? No, we’re fine. Don’t get me wrong. This is tough, and Kaylie’s emotions are all over the place right now, but we’ll be fine.”

“She’s having a hard time...She’s distracted by the whole Dad, Lacy, Madeline situation.” Danica worried about Chaz. She knew that Kaylie would lash out at anyone in her path when she was upset; no matter how much she’d changed, everyone needed an outlet. And Chaz was an easy target; he was so loving and gentle.

“It’s everything, not just them, but they’re a big part of it. I feel bad for her,” Chaz admitted. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but she’s trying. She just goes about it differently. She has to deal with the muck and mire before allowing herself to release it all.”

She did know that about her sister. She was glad to hear that Chaz understood it, too.

“She’s such a good mother, too. The kids are her world. Believe it or not, with all that showiness that she gives about wanting time away, she can hardly stand to be separated from them. I asked her if she wanted me to fly your mom and the kids out early, but she wanted this time alone as a couple as much as I did, no matter how much we miss the babies.”

It hurt to watch Kaylie struggling just to make it through the day. “She wouldn’t be any good with them the way she is now anyway. She’s too sidetracked with Lacy. Do you think I should cancel the snorkeling? I know Kaylie was looking forward to it, but given the situation, maybe it’s best?”

Lacy broke away from her parents and headed toward Kaylie.

“I think I’d better get over there.” Danica headed in their direction before Chaz could answer.

Kaylie’s eyes didn’t waver from the purse she gripped in her hands. Lacy’s lips moved quickly as she reached out to touch the purse with a hopeful smile. Kaylie turned abruptly out of her reach.

“Kaylie, wow, that’s a gorgeous purse. Is it leather?” Danica planted herself between the two of them. She watched Lacy’s contemplative eyes swim over Kaylie, like she was figuring out the best way to get close to her. Danica cringed when Lacy reached out to touch the purse again with a hopeful gaze. Sisters shared; they touched; they laughed. It was obvious that Lacy wanted that, and just as clear that Kaylie would just as soon kick her to the curb.

“I think it is.” Lacy brushed the soft leather with her fingers. “That really goes well with your hair, Kaylie. What is that color? Tawny? Is that what you’d call it?”

Kaylie grasped the bag so tight her knuckles were white.

Danica put her hand on Kaylie’s shoulder in an effort to calm her sister’s nerves. “Kay, can I see it?”

Kaylie reluctantly released the bag. She seemed to pull from whatever state she’d succumbed to, and her feigned smile told Danica that she had enough control to avoid losing her cool.

“You know, this would go well with your hair, too, Lacy.” Danica handed the bag to Lacy, feeling very much like a playground attendant.
Share nicely, girls
.

“Honey, if we’re going to make the snorkeling class, shouldn’t we get back to the hotel?”

Her father’s use of the endearment surprised her. Unsure if he was talking to her or Lacy, she didn’t answer. Then she realized he could only have been speaking to her—she’d scheduled the event.

“Uh, yeah, we should, actually. Geez, where did the time go?” Danica waited for Lacy and her father to head out of the store. “Kaylie, are you all right? Chaz and Blake are waiting up front.”

“Yeah. Did you see the way he just handed his wallet over to her? What is she, a little princess or something?”

There was no mistaking the green-eyed monster that had hold of Kaylie’s heart. “She is his daughter, too. He used to do the same thing for us.”

Kaylie turned her determined blue eyes on Danica. “Did he? I don’t remember.” She stalked out of the store, hooking her arm possessively into Chaz’s on the way out.

They stood at the water’s edge, the sand warm and sensual beneath their bare feet. Danica listened intently to the safety procedures and precautions and memorized every word about breathing techniques. The snorkeling instructors were two of the most incredibly sculpted men Danica had ever set eyes on. They weren’t thick and manly like Blake and Chaz, but as they stood confidently before the group in their matching swim trunks (sporting the hotel logo across the left leg) their sun-drenched skin glistened in the sun. They looked as if they’d just walked out of a fashion magazine. Lacy’s eyes were glued to the dark-haired, older one, while Kaylie was doing her best to compete with Lacy’s itsy-bitsy aqua-blue bikini. Kaylie’s red and yellow two-piece rode low along her sleek hip bones. To anyone else, she looked like a twenty-something girl enjoying a carefree summer, but Danica saw the glint of competition in her eyes, the slight jut of her right hip, and the extra-deep curve of her spine as she cast her breasts higher, her shoulders pulled back in a proud, confident stance.

“We’ll need a volunteer to show the others how this is done,” the older instructor said.

Lacy’s hand shot up, and Kaylie ran on her tiptoes to the front of the group. “I’ll do it!” she called out.

The instructors exchanged a glance and laughed, their shoulders lifting with matching shrugs, obviously used to gorgeous women fawning all over them.

“Okay, then,” the sandy-haired one said. “You can both do it.” His wide smile reached all the way up to his interested dark eyes.

The older instructor pushed his black hair back with a big, thick hand. A muscle in his biceps pulsated with the quick movement, and Danica thought Lacy might fall to the ground with weak knees. Kaylie caught Lacy’s interest, and she sidled up to the sexy, dark-haired man.

“I’m Kaylie,” she said in her best sultry voice.

Oh no. No, no, no
.

The instructor’s eyes were locked on Lacy, and Danica watched as he maneuvered his way to Lacy’s side. Kaylie’s eyes narrowed.

“I’m Justin,” the fairer of the two said to Kaylie.

The darker man reached for Lacy’s hand. “Dane,” he said in a deep, husky voice.

Danica shot a glance at her father and Madeline, who appeared to be watching without much concern at all.

“Poor Chaz,” Blake whispered, nodding at Chaz, who seemed to take his wife’s flirting as some kind of joke.

Is that a laugh on his lips?
“I’m going.” Danica moved to Chaz’s side, trying to figure out if Chaz was really okay with Kaylie’s behavior. Lacy and Kaylie put on the masks and snorkels and slipped into waist-high water with their gorgeous instructors. “Hey, you okay with...this?”

This time she was certain Chaz laughed. “Are you kidding? This is Kaylie at her finest.”

Danica didn’t think before she reacted. “Um, yeah, it is. Isn’t it?” She snapped around to find Chaz still smiling, his muscular arms crossed, his own hard muscles an easy match for the older, bigger of the two instructors. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Danica, this is all fun and games to Kaylie. When we were in our hotel room, she said she’d be damned if she’d be outdone by”—he lowered his voice—“
that little trollop
.”

Danica couldn’t stifle her laugh.
That’s my sister, all right
. “Trollop? Really? Lacy is anything but that.”

“I know. That’s what makes it so funny. Kaylie is so wrapped up in some warped competition that she can’t see Lacy for who she really is.”

“Doesn’t that worry you?” Danica watched her sister in action, holding on to the instructor’s thick arm, flipping her hair as she threw her head back with a laugh when she removed the mask, and all the while, keeping one eye trained on Lacy, whose every move contradicted the term
trollop
. Lacy moved uneasily, with a naturally nervous and heartfelt smile. She used her hands to move her hair from her face when she breached the water. The instructor’s hand moved swiftly and comfortably to the small of her back as she stumbled backward.

“Not in the least. I knew who Kaylie was in the first five seconds after we met. I adore her just as she is.”

Danica swallowed the lump that was quickly forming in her throat. Was she going to cry her way through the weekend? That was all she needed. Between elation and worry, she just might run out of tears. Chaz loved Kaylie. He really, truly loved her for who she was, not for who he wanted her to be, or who she might one day become. He didn’t love her for her looks or the party-girl attitude she still flaunted from time to time. He loved her for the spunky, somewhat unorthodox, competitive vixen that she was, and for that Danica was more than thankful.

They spent time getting used to breathing through the snorkels in shallow water, and Danica was surprised at how difficult she found it to inhale while her face was underwater. It was one of the most unnatural things she’d ever done. They’d been told to first practice with the snorkel on while their faces were out of the water and then, once comfortable with the apparatus, to try it with their faces submerged. That helped, though it still incited a little shock of fear with each submerged breath.

Once they all had mastered using the apparatus, they took a boat toward a nearby island they’d seen from the shore. A small plane flew in patterns across the cloudless sky, and Dane followed Lacy’s gaze toward it.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Weather changes here in an instant. Sometimes a storm hits so fast that it blindsides you. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, you’ll think you’ve stepped into another world.” Dane pointed far out into the middle of the clear blue bay. “But there’s nothing more beautiful than the water.”

Blake sat behind Danica, his arms wrapped around her, his chin resting on her shoulder. The wind whipped against their faces, causing Danica to blink, blink, blink.

“You okay?” Blake whispered.

 “Yeah,” she said.

“Do you know how much I love you?”

His voice sent a shiver of memory up her back. She closed her eyes, remembering the ache of the night before, the urgent, sexed-up look in his eyes when he’d whispered,
Tell me
. She shifted in between his legs and took a deep breath, reminding herself that they were in public,
with her
father
.

“Tell me,” she said, unable to stifle the urge to make him experience the same racing pulse as she was. She felt his understanding against the small of her back.

He leaned down, the stubble of his chin brushing against her cheek. “Oh, I’ll tell you, all right.”

Danica was sure everyone could feel the heat between them. Maybe she shouldn’t play with fire after all. She breathed a sigh of relief when the boat slowed to a stop, and the instructors helped everyone put on their masks, snorkels, and fins. Kaylie held on to Chaz, and Danica studied the way she looked up at him. The love in her eyes when she looked up at her incredibly handsome fiancé was unmistakable. Danica knew that Chaz was right and that what she’d witnessed between Kaylie and the instructor had been nothing more than a competition. Lacy, however, stood shyly next to their father, while Dane helped her into her fins, his hands lingering on Lacy’s slim calf.

“What’s this scar from?” Dane asked, pointing to the outside of Lacy’s right thigh, where thin white lines covered a long patch of discolored skin, as if someone had taken sandpaper to her leg.

Lacy blushed and covered her leg with her hand. “Just an accident from when I was younger.” Her voice was thin and tethered.

Danica had an urge to go to her side, put a protective arm around her, and tell her how beautiful she was despite the scar, but she wouldn’t dare hurt Kaylie that way when she was so obviously entrenched in staking claim as the prettiest of the Snow girls.

Dane finished helping her into her fins and then stood beside her. “Check this out.” He turned and pulled the waistband of his swim trunks down an inch, revealing a long scar. “Only the best of us get to carry our scars forever.” He winked and Lacy smiled.

Danica breathed a sigh of relief, thankful for Dane’s tenderness
.

Her father held Madeline’s hand. “You’re sure you’re okay with this?” he asked thoughtfully.

“More than okay. This is what we always talked about, remember?”

Remember
. There it was again, the acknowledgment that they had a life together. They had history, and Danica wondered how she and Kaylie fit into that history.

She felt Blake’s presence beside her like a wall of sensuality. She moved to the edge of the boat and stepped off, landing in the cool water with a splash, taking her heated-up desire down a much-needed notch.

At first, the awkwardness of breathing underwater contradicted the vision of a peaceful undersea experience, and Danica wondered why on earth no one had explained how uncomfortable it would be. Once they’d spent a bit of time underwater, Danica’s discomfort disappeared, and the beauty of the bay came to life.

Underwater, she reached for Blake’s hand, surprised to realize that he was much farther away than he appeared. She saw a smile behind his mask and she gave him a thumbs-up, then kicked around in search of Kaylie. She spotted her a few feet away from Lacy. Kaylie watched Lacy like her life depended on it.

Spectacular purple and yellow plants danced from their sandy base like a magical forest. Fish too plentiful to count, with stripes and other markings in reds and blues, yellows and silvers, shone brightly in the clear water.

Lacy kicked her feet gracefully, moving closer to shore, then dipped beneath the water. She broke through the surface with a large orangish starfish in her hands and wide eyes behind her mask. Dane’s massive, muscular legs propelled him to Lacy’s side.

Kaylie spotted Danica and dipped beneath the water, watching Lacy and Dane kick their feet to remain upright. Danica submerged and looked through Kaylie’s mask. Her sister’s eyes were filled with determination, competition, and something else Danica couldn’t define, but one thing was clear. Kaylie had gone covert and was in full spy mode.

Dane turned toward them, and the outline of an impressive bulge in his shorts could not be ignored. Embarrassed, Danica looked away, catching Kaylie’s startled eyes as she whipped her head around. They broke through the surface together and spat their snorkels from between their teeth.

“Oh my God!” Kaylie screamed.

Danica was laughing too hard to tell her to be quiet.

“Did you see that?”

“Yes!” Danica said as she came to her sister’s side. “Shh.”

They couldn’t stifle their giggles, causing so much ruckus that Lacy looked over her shoulder and put her palm up toward the sky.
What
? she mouthed, causing Kaylie and Danica more fits of laughter.

They put their masks back on and swam underwater hand in hand. Danica pointed to their father and Madeline, just beneath the water’s surface, both kicking to stay afloat. His hands rested on her ample hips as they gazed into each other’s eyes. She felt Kaylie’s hand slip through her fingers and followed her around to the other side of the boat, where she broke through the water’s surface once again.

“You okay?” Danica asked, huffing for air.

“Yeah.”

There was a softening to Kaylie’s tone, and Danica waited to see if she’d say more. When she didn’t, she moved closer and looked directly through her mask. Kaylie’s eyes glistened.

“Kay?”

“I’m fine.” Kaylie shoved her snorkel back into her mouth and swam away.