Overtime(52)

“You’re pouting. And why? I thought he didn’t matter?”

“He doesn’t,” she muttered, rolling her eyes again and then looking to see what she could do. There were bags of food everywhere and a list of everything Lacey was making.

“Sure, he doesn’t, but your parents are coming last minute, and he’s had these plans with them for a while. Elli even invited all of us, but we already had company. He’s gonna skip dinner to eat with us.”

“Whatever,” she muttered as she started to make a salad. “He isn’t any concern of mine.”

“Of course not,” Lacey shot back, her knowing green eyes locking with Kacey’s. That was until her phone went off. Glaring at her phone, she picked it up and shook her head, a disgruntled look on her face.

“Everything okay?”

“No, Rachel is pissing me the hell off!” she snapped, speaking of her sister-in-law who lived back in Chicago and ran her store there. She frowned as she typed back violently.

“Just fire her!” Karson called from the other room. Kacey looked back and hadn’t even realized he was lying there with Mena Jane on his chest. She quickly worried that he’d heard her speaking of Jordie, but he would have said something if he had, so she smiled as his face filled with annoyance. “She’s a bitch.”

“I agree with him,” Kacey said, hooking her thumb toward him. Rachel had done nothing good for Lacey since she married Karson. The chick was hard-set on ruining Lacey’s marriage and even plotted with Lacey’s estranged dad. Lacey needed to add Rachel to the list of people she didn’t talk to anymore, because the chick was a huge bitch. Always so damn demanding and acting entitled to anything that Lacey had.

It was really annoying.

Lacey let out a long breath, letting her hands fall against the island. “She’s pissed ’cause I won’t bring Mena up to Chicago. But I just feel like that’s such a big trip for a little bit like her. Also, I know she is setting me up so that my dad can see Mena. I don’t want to see him, and I really don’t want him in Mena’s life. He doesn’t even love Karson, so how is he going to love Mena?”

Kacey nodded. “True, but I mean, he is a grandpa, and we know my dad would kill anyone who tried to keep his grandbabies away from him. But you are her mommy and you know best,” she added when Lacey glared.

“I haven’t talked to him in over a year.”

Knowing when something wasn’t her business, Kacey nodded. “Then forget I said anything.”

Her phone dinged again, causing Lacey to roll her eyes. “She’s such a bitch! She is calling me selfish now.”

“Why doesn’t she come here?”

“Because I won’t let my dad in the house. At least there, I’d go to her house and, oops, he’d just show up.”

“What did Grady say?” Kacey asked, speaking of Lacey’s older brother.

“He says he’s staying out of it, but he’d like to see Mena too. I said, y’all are more than welcome to come here, and he said he’d see what he could swing, but Rachel is fixed on me going there.”

Kacey didn’t know what to say, but even before she could, Karson was saying, “Not only is she being a bitch to you, she’s being a bitch to everyone at work and just shitty all around. Fire her and then stop talking to her.”

“She’s my sister-in-law, Karson!”

“So? She’s insane.”

“I won’t get to see my nephews though,” she said sadly, and Kacey bit the inside of her cheek, thankful that she and Karson didn’t have these problems. They were solid.

“Sure, you will,” he said, sitting up, cuddling Mena. “Grady will make sure of it, and just be nice to her when you need to.”

“Yeah,” she said softly, picking the knife back up to continue cutting the apples as Karson closed the distance between them.

“I mean, it’s your decision. It’s your family, and no matter what, I love you. But please do something. I don’t want anything dulling your sunshine, especially since it just came back,” he said before kissing her temple.

She smiled over at him, kissing his lips and then Mena’s head. “I know, I’ll work it out.”

“Cool, I’m gonna go change this little lady and get her ready for Grandma,” he said, bouncing her in his arms.

“Make sure to put her in the little Assassins dress Audrey made her.”

“Will do. We need to get Mena Jane a little jersey. Yes, we do, with Daddy’s number on the back,” he cooed as he headed out of the kitchen, leaving Kacey to grin like a fool while Lacey giggled.

“He’s a sucker for that little girl.”

As Karson disappeared into Mena’s room, Kacey couldn’t help but think that Jordie would have been a sucker for their baby too.

Ugh, why was she thinking of him?

“Yeah,” she agreed, her mind still wandering toward Jordie and how life would have been so great if he hadn’t pushed her away. It was something she did often and she knew she needed to stop, but it was hard to break a habit.

What she needed was to get out of this house. The farther away from him, the better.

“I think I might start looking for a place,” she said then, surprising not only herself but Lacey.