The Bet (The Bet #1)(43)

They disappeared out the door, leaving Kacey and Travis and the board game.

The silence was deafening.





Chapter Twenty-two


Would they never get along?

As if answering that question, Kacey blew the hair away from her face and glared at him. “You gonna help me clean up the mess or what?”

“Hmm, let me think.” He leaned back in his chair. “Help you clean up the game or watch you bend over and do it yourself. Tough decision.”

“You. Are. An. A—”

“Hey now.” Travis slowly rose from the chair and sauntered over to the card table. “Do you think we can go an entire conversation without calling each other names?”

“Yes,” she said tightly.

She was horrible at masking her emotions, and she was obviously upset. “What’s up, Kace? You’re not yourself.”

She snorted. “How would you know?”

“I’ve spent more time with you than Jake this weekend. I think I can tell when you’re pissed, especially considering you’ve been straightening that stack of money for the past five minutes.”

Her hand froze over the money. She collapsed in the chair.

He wasn’t sure if he should scoop her up in his arms and kiss away her anger or just have it out right then and there.

“I want to punch you,” she said lightly, as if she was commenting on the color of the carpet.

“Okay…” he drawled “Now?”

“Now’s good.”

She made a lunge for him and slugged him in the shoulder. His balance was off, making him fall to the ground with a loud grunt.

Kacey stayed on top of him, clearly unaware of how much he wanted to rip her clothes from her body and have his way with her on the card table.

“You were an ugly bully when I was little.” She punched him in the arm again. “And then you have the audacity to grow up handsome?”

Oh God, she was finally losing her mind. He had successfully pushed her off the edge.

“How dare you be anything but unattractive!” She pinched his arm.

He howled with pain. “What do you want me to do?”

“Apologize,” she ground out.

“For what?”

“For—” She looked down at her hands and whispered, “For saying I don’t matter.”

Travis groaned and put his hands over his face. “You heard that?”

Kacey nodded, still straddling him. She looked down and flashed him a smile. “It’s not a big deal. I just wanted you to suffer a bit.”

“Kace, look.” He grabbed her arms. “You matter, you know you do. If you didn’t matter…”

He couldn’t do it.

What was stopping him?

“If you didn’t matter,” he repeated. “Then why would I waste all this time picking on you?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I guess that’s the closest I’m going to come to an apology, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely.” He grinned.

“At least I got a few swings in,” she muttered, peeling herself away from him, even though his body begged her to stay.

“Yes, you did.” He got to his feet. “And who knows? Maybe I’ll wake up with a few bruises you can push tomorrow morning.”

“One can only hope.” She held out her hand. “Truce?”

Hell no. No truce, his body screamed at him; instead, like an idiot he shook her hand. Friends. He could do friends. He was an adult after all.

Kacey smiled and bent over to grab the paper money off the floor.

His eyes focused in on her butt.

So maybe he was a fifteen-year-old stuck in an adult’s body. It was alarming how fast he was turned on by just looking at her.

“Um, Kace? Why don’t you go to bed? I’ll clean up. I probably deserve it after saying you don’t matter.”

“True.” She winked, then dropped the money back onto the floor allowing it to scatter so he’d have to gather it again.

“Mature.” He nodded his head.

“Always.” She bounced off.

Geez, she had a lot of energy for…

Oh crap. He forgot.

He’d been so mad that she was flirting with Jake and not paying attention to him he’d made her tea caffeinated. And then she had driven him so insane the next pot he’d made was the same.

He had a very sneaking suspicion that the truce was about to be over.

“Well, that was short-lived,” he muttered as he gathered the game pieces and began throwing them in the box.

By the time the game was cleaned up, it was nearing 1:00 a.m. Tired, he sluggishly walked to the new wing of the house and entered the master bedroom.

Everything seemed unfamiliar. Kacey was in his room, which was technically the guest room, and he was in this monstrous master suite with nothing but the crickets chirping outside to keep him company.

How, in two days, had he made such a mess of things?

His mind was a swirl of confusion. First Kacey, then Grandma acting as if she hadn’t had any mini-strokes in the past few months, and now Jake acting nice. He could handle Jake being an ass, but when he was nice it seemed so forced and fake. He didn’t want Kacey falling for it.

But how couldn’t she?