“Yeah, I guess not,” she said slowly.
Biting her lip, Kacey watched her for a moment and then finally asked what she had wanted to know for months. “Have you spoken to him?”
She knew that Lacey had. Karson and Jordie were best friends to the extreme, basically holding each other’s dicks when the other peed, but still no one had spoken about him in months. Maybe something had changed?
When Lacey shrugged slowly, she reached for the salt and pepper before biting the inside of her cheek. “Yeah, of course, we have.”
“About me?” she urged and Lacey looked away.
“No, Kacey, I wouldn’t do that in front of Karson, and I’ve only seen or talked to Jordie with Karson.”
“Oh,” Kacey said sadly. She wasn’t hoping for a different answer. She should have known better. It wasn’t as if Lacey would betray her and talk about her in front of her brother, but she sort of hoped that Lacey had been able to get Jordie alone. Because she wanted to know something, anything. Maybe that he missed her. Or that he even talked about her. But it seemed that she didn’t matter to him, something she needed to accept. “So he hasn’t asked about me?”
Looking up, Lacey slowly shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I thought maybe he was talking to you on the sly.”
“Nope, nothing.”
“That really sucks,” she said softly. “He could really benefit from having you in his life.”
Her statement sounded really loaded, but before Kacey could ask, Karson strolled into the kitchen. “Hey, people are getting here. You ready, love? Ew, Kacey, you gonna fix your hair or something? The team is starting to show up.”
“Fuck you,” Kacey shot back as she redid her ponytail, looking her brother over. He had gained a little weight over the summer, probably sympathy eating with Lacey, which was just too damn cute. But nonetheless, Karson was basically her male twin. Despite the two-year age gap, they looked so much alike it was scary. Both with caramel eyes and dark hair, tall and broad shouldered with lean, strong bodies. There wasn’t a summer where they didn’t work out or spend the day playing hockey. While Karson was an ass and drove her insane, he was her best friend and she loved him more than words could describe. She knew he loved her more than that and was disgustingly overprotective. Hence why he didn’t know that there had been a relationship between her and Jordie. He thought they’d only slept together once, and he was still very unhappy about that. But despite all the love between the two siblings, they fought like cats and dogs. “I am supposed to be in bed.”
“Then why aren’t you? I told you we were having this party today. You should have come in tomorrow,” he said, coming up behind Lacey and cuddling her close to him.
“I didn’t want to drive on the Fourth of July, and Ma and Dad basically pushed me out the door. Dad wants me to start training with you guys on Monday.”
“True,” he said with a nod. “Well then, go put on your party shoes and drink a few more cups of coffee, ’cause it’s time to party!”
“You’re an idiot,” was her decision as she downed the rest of her cup. “Where is the dee to your dum?”
“What?” he asked confused as Lacey giggled softly.
“Jordie,” she said, acting as if she was bored.
His shoulders dropped, his grin gone as he looked away, reaching for the bowl that Lacey has pushed to the side. “He won’t be here.”
“Really? Why? That’s weird,” she said, watching her older brother, who was obviously uncomfortable. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. He can’t come.” He then disappeared, and Kacey looked across the island at Lacey.
“What the hell was that about?”
“I don’t know,” Lacey lied with a shrug. But the thing about Lacey was that she couldn’t lie for shit.
“You’re lying to me,” Kacey said, surprised. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” she said again, still ignoring eye contact. Before Kacey could ask anything else, the side door opened and Kacey promptly forgot her next question. Because in walked a freaking Greek god of sexiness. Tall, very tall, taller than her, and that didn’t happen much since she was almost 6’1”. He was carrying a couple cases of beer with ease, his shoulders flexing as the tank he wore pulled to the side due to the cases against his chest, showing off one hell of a pec. It would be a great place for a tattoo, but he was bare, his virgin bronze skin only covered in light blond hair. His eyes were the color of the ocean, his blond hair brushed to the side, his face full of sharp lines that were surprisingly beautiful. His nose was a bit crooked, but that was a hockey player for you, and at least he had all his teeth. Fake, yes, because they were bright as hell and blinding her as he set down the cases, grinning over at Lacey.
“Hey, Lacey, where do you want me to put these?”
Lacey didn’t even smile at him, obviously still thinking of their previous conversation. But Kacey has already forgotten it and was consumed with Mr. Tall, Light, and Hot. “Over here, please. Sorry, my head is running a billion miles a second.”
“No problem,” he said in a low tenor of a voice, lifting the cases and taking them to the cooler Lacey had opened. “Almost ready for that baby, yeah?”
She smiled up at him as he placed them in the cooler. “Almost.”
“You look beautiful, as always.”