Lacy (The Doves of Primrose) (24 page)

“How can I forget? That fun led to eight years of misery. Get in there and make yourself comfortable. Not too comfortable
,” she added, pointing her finger at him.

“It’s like that?”

Air puffed out her nose at his boldfaced allusion. “There are no witnesses here to save your ass this time. I suggest you bridle that tongue before I break your jaw.” She leaned in closer to him and he pulled back with uncertainty. “Brice, you humiliated me in front of this whole town and now you are ruining our divorce. I won’t rest until you’ve paid for that.” She pushed away with one final pointed look. She turned her back and started to walk away.

“I’m going to make up for that
, Lacy.” She stopped without looking back. “You’ll see.”

Her stomach clenched. She rolled her tongue over the roof of her mouth trying to stave off her apprehension. He sounded so
sure of himself and that was never a good thing.

“No
, you won’t, Brice.” She walked to the back of the barn but didn’t open the door to her room before she heard the click of the tack room door. She didn’t want Brice to know she was staying in the barn too. She looked at the wall clock. Great, there would be no sleep for her tonight, topped off by a busy day. The production picked back up and she wouldn’t have Scarlett’s help.

Lacy grabbed some clothes from her bag that she hadn’t bot
hered to unpack and snuck out the back, cut through the corral and walked to the house. She felt hollow inside. How was she supposed to manage a sneaky, almost-ex-husband and a demanding movie crew? Throw in an angry lover, an injured best friend and another with twitterpated fantasies and you have one giant disaster. And to top it all off, the bills were due this week.

If she could bang her head against the wall for an hour she would. She climbed the stairs to the bathroom
, wishing there were a shower on the first floor instead of a bathtub. She grabbed the door handle just as it twisted and jerked back when it opened.

“Oh, hi.”

Kyle’s face was closed. “Hey. You okay?”

Her heart throbbed and her hands curled around her clothes. Even when he hated her, he was kind. Her jaw ached
from holding back the sorrow inside her. “Yeah.” She had to swallow to get rid of the raspy whisper. “Look, Kyle, I don’t know what’s going on but I’m getting rid of him just as soon as I figure out what needs to be done.” She tried to move closer to him, she needed his strong body to embrace her, but he laid a firm hand on her shoulder, keeping her away.

“I understand.”

“Kyle?” A shiver of dread quaked through her.

He sighed but kept his isolating hand in place. “You’ve got a lot on your hands and I don’t want to add to it especially if I don’t know where you stand with me. I can’t
, Lacy.” He shook his head and the shadow in his eyes tore her heart to shreds. “You’ve had me on a rollercoaster since the moment we met and I can’t do that anymore. I need to know that you’re all in. And I don’t. So I’m giving you the space to work it out. I’m gonna be here for a while. If you figure it out before I leave, let me know and we’ll go from there.”

He set her aside and walked away. She clutched her clothes to her chest
, using the door frame to keep her from crumpling while waves of agony consumed her. Her soul beaconed to him, willing him to turn, to come back, to hold her and tell her he loved her, but she had lost that the second she didn’t echo his declaration in the study. She wanted to but she had held that wall of defense around her heart so tightly nothing was getting through. Her cowardice, her caution, her utter lack of trust just lost her the only man she ever loved.

She used the water stream to cover her sobs. Her life was an absolute disaster. Who was she kidding? It had always been that way. Her mother started it, Brice had amplified it and her pe
nchant for calamities topped it off. Kyle was the only thing that had ever been remotely stable and she had blown that to smithereens.

She
climbed out of the shower and wiped the steam from the mirror. What stared back at her resembled her appearance after Brice had left her. She dressed, trying to think what she would manage to make for breakfast that wouldn’t take too much effort since her brain was a hollow crypt unable to process anything else.

She opened the door to a blinding sunrise bursting through the east window. At least the puffiness was good for shielding her burning eyeballs.

“Good morning.”

Lacy held a hand up to deflect the light and look
ed at the person speaking to her. She didn’t want to bid happiness to anyone. “Morning, Lauren.” Of course. That woman was always up with the sun, which seemed strange to Lacy. The time difference meant that she would have been up at four in the morning in California.

“Are you sick
, Lacy?”

Now
she used her name. “I’m not sure.”

“Can I get you anything?”

Stress and lack of sleep must be making her hallucinate. “Uh, no thank you.” Lacy stared at her, perplexed, finally noticing the folded towel. “I’ll get out of your way. Breakfast will be ready as soon as you’re finished. Did you want anything special?”

The warm smile that Laruen gave her was so weird. What was going on
? ”Whatever fruit you have will be fine and maybe some peanut butter.”

“Toast?”

“Why not?”

Lacy nodded and Laruen smiled again as she entered the bat
hroom. This was an alternate universe. Lacy bumbled down the stairs using the wall as her support. If she could lie down right on this staircase she knew she would be asleep.

She detoured into the study to check on Scarlett and found the blanket folded and the room empty. Her steps were faster as she made her way to the kitchen
. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Scarlett was propped on a chair she must have dragged in from the dining room
, whisking a bowl of eggs. “Cooking,” she replied innocently.

Lacy went
over and stood next to her, slapping her hand on the counter, inspecting her friend who looked almost as bad as she did. “Did you take a shower?”

“Not yet. I knew the bathroom would be
Grand Central Station.”

“Scarlett, Lord knows I can barely dress myself without your help but I love you too much to allow you to hurt yourself. You need a bath, you need to stay off your feet and you need rest. I can manage it.”
Lacy may as well have been talking to the barn door as much good as her lecture was doing. Scarlett simply stared at her, waiting for her to finish.

“I could be saying the same thing to you. Did you get any sleep last night?”

Lacy turned, picked up a dish towel and walked over to hang it on the peg. “No. But don’t turn this around on me. You always do that. For once the focus is not going to be on my disastrous life.” Lacy removed her apron from the hanger and slipped it over her head.

“But then we wouldn’t have anything to do.”
Both women bubbled over with laughter.

Lacy picked up the knife and started slicing strawberries. “True. It would be nice
, though.”

“We’ll try it sometime.”

Lacy dropped her head, focusing on the cutting board. “I hate to tell you that it isn’t going to be any time soon.” She darted a glance at Scarlett who had spun on the chair, propped her leg on an open drawer and poured the egg batter into the pan.

“I didn’t figure. Why do you think I’m in this kitchen?” She pushed the firming eggs back and forth.

“And as soon as we get this ready you’re cleaning up and resting.” Lacy waited for a nod from her friend. “What I meant earlier was that things are crazier than you know.” She dumped the berries into a bowl. Scarlett had turned her head and looked over her shoulder. “Brice showed up last night.”

Scarlett jammed a hand through her long brown hair. “I see. What did he want?”

Lacy chewed her bottom lip and leaned both hands against the counter. “Turns out we aren’t divorced.”

Scarlett moved the pan from the heat and turned around fully. “What? How is that possible? I was with you when you mailed the papers.”

“That’s the thing. He didn’t sign them.” Lacy threw her head back, staring at the ceiling. “And Kyle hates me. He was here when Brice waltzed through the door and I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing and he took that as confirmation that I don’t love him.” She rubbed a hand over her face, wishing for an answer to solve all her problems.

“But did you tell him he was wrong?”

Lacy turned sad, bleary eyes on Scarlett and shook her head. Scarlett closed her eyes and Lacy knew what she was thinking. It was the same thing Lacy thought about herself.
Chicken-shit
.

“I’m gonna kill Brice,” Scarlett declared with calm
determination.

“Get in line.”

“Where is he now?”

Lacy actually debated
on telling her the truth; she looked pretty serious about her death threat. “In the barn.”

“Jesus, Lacy!
Did you…? You didn’t…?”

Lacy’s jaw dropped. “
NO!
How could you even think such a thing?” She wrinkled her forehead and dropped her brows. “I put him in the tack room. Geez. I just told you how much I hate him.”

Scarlett tipped her head back and forth
, looking apologetic. “I know, but I know how you are with him. The worse he treats you the more you seem to like him.” Lacy wanted to argue with that but she couldn’t.

“Well
, now what?” Scarlett went back to her eggs.

“I get a divorce no matter what it takes.”

Scarlett nodded her head. Lacy could see she was already thinking of a plan to help.

Chap
ter 22

Lacy sent Scarlett to the doctor after breakfast. She was ner
vous that Brice would show his face at any moment and no matter what she told Scarlett she didn’t want to have to deal with him. Last night had been such a shock to her system that even thinking was difficult. Top it off with zero sleep made it a disaster waiting to happen. Her nerves were stretched so tight she could provide the wire for a circus performer.

She was comforted by the thousands of miles that had been separating them. She had just got
ten settled with being divorced. She wanted to be with Kyle and once again Brice had thrown a wrench in her plans. He always found a way to do that. She was scared this time it had done monumental damage that would be impossible to overcome. Lacy had suffered one too many debacles in her short life and now the consequences could be devastating. She had dealt with them before, but somehow this time felt different.

She didn’t know if she should go to the movie set or not.
Emmylou would be there with the food table and without Scarlett she would need the extra hands. Damn, what she really wanted was a nap. No, what she really wanted was to bury her head in the ground and wait until the storm settled. She had gotten used to the idea that perhaps her life was going to calm down for once. Kyle was here and he was with her. He loved her. That thought brought a glow to her heart and a frown to her face. Had she destroyed any chance she had of rebuilding a relationship with him?

Stuck
with indecision, she went out to the front porch. That was her favorite thinking place. The shade, fresh air and aromatic flowers along with the creak of the swaying swing called to her. She sat with her arm over the back if the swing gazing out over the grassy prairie. The trees dappled sunlight onto the lawn and Betsy whinnied and trotted down the fence line. It was a perfect early autumn day. Too bad she couldn’t enjoy it more. Her mind was whirling with activity but not coming up with answers.

She closed her eyes and pushed against the floor with her toe. The rocking sensation lulled her enough to rest her head on her arm. Birds fluttered and chirped above her, squirrels chattered to each other and the breeze played on her skin. Her eyelids were too heavy to lift. In moments she had fallen into a deep sleep.

“Lacy!”

A rough shaking of her leg and shoulder along with someone calling her name roused her. She jerked awake, wiping the drop of drool from the corner of her mouth. “What?” Being rudely woken got
her madder than an old wet hen.

“Get up.”

That wasn’t nice. She swung her arm out to get the person to stop shaking her so she could go back to sleep.

“None of the rest of us
have been so privileged to get any sleep, so you can get up and go help your friend who is serving fifty people all by herself instead of napping all morning long.”

Lacy sat up, angry and shamed to the core. Kyle knocked her foot from its propped position to the floor
, further nailing his point.

“Okay. I’m sorry.” She looked up
, wanting to plead with him. Her heart was calling out for him to forgive her but her pride wouldn’t allow the words to pass her tongue.

He straightened and reigned himself back in. “I’m sorry too
, but that husband of yours is down at the set kicking up a row. I’m not sure Marcus isn’t going to kill him.”

For a brief moment Lacy thought it would be easier
to let Marcus do it but she kicked the thought from her head. “He’s not my husband.”

Kyle quirked his brow and turned his back on her. His boots thumped the floorboards with his ground-eating strides. “I’ve
gotta get back.”

Lacy tipped her head back
, gathering her wits. The sting of Kyle’s anger with her was no more than she deserved. Loving him and walking on eggshells to make him love her back made it difficult to fire back at him. She was on fragile ground and she didn’t have the finesse to traverse it but she couldn’t think about that now. Emmylou was soldiering on at the set and Lacy wouldn’t let her do it alone, even if she knew showing her face there was likely to cause an all-out war.

When she arrived on the set it appeared that the entire cast and crew were in an uproar.
Marcus was shouting on the bullhorn, the crew was hustling around in a frenzy to obey the orders and the cast members were either sulking in their chairs or snarling at each other. Lacy hurried to the food tent to get out of the way.

And there was Brice. Somehow she had hoped he would have disappeared or that she had only dreamed he had la
nded on her doorstep last night. Seeing him sucked every bit of energy she had gained during her short nap. She shimmied behind the table and attempted to use Emmy as a shield and like a true best friend Emmylou understood the plan without hesitation or discussion.

“There you
are, darlin’.”

Lacy cringed and hunkered closer to
Emmylou, who tried to use her one-hundred-twenty-pound body to hide her while talking to one of the crew members about the meal. It was no use; Brice came to the table and made himself a road block to any escape. “I figured you’d be sleeping or cleaning or whatever it is you do at the house,” he drawled.

The fact that he knew so little about her triggered her deep h
atred of him. “Sorry to disappoint you,
darlin’
.” She moved from cover and glared at her soon-to-be-ex-husband.

Brice threw an arm around poor Oscar who was simply trying to eat and squeezed his neck
, making his sandwich drop to the ground. “Isn’t my wife a firecracker?”

Oscar looked from Brice to Lacy. Lacy crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She didn’t give two shakes what Oscar thought about her but the sheer absurdity of Brice pretending to be a do
ting husband was waving a red flag. Brice loosened his grip and Oscar left shaking his head. To tell the truth, Lacy felt like doing the same thing. “What are you doing here, Brice?”

The grin that she used to think was sexy made her clench her teeth. He was so damned handsome when he did that and the sun he had gotten
, wherever he had been, added just the right touch to his looks. “I told you, baby, I want to work things out with you.”

Her eye twitched while she studied him. “No, that’s not it. So why don’t you cut the bullshit and tell me what you want.”

“I want you. I want our home.”

Lacy pressed her hands on the table and leaned forward. “I’m not yours anymore and that
home
we had has been rented out to some other poor couple. And since your own mother won’t take you back there’s nothing here for you.”

The glint in his eyes told her she had struck gold with that dig. He shifted his jaw and narrowed his brows.

“Sign the papers and be on your way.” She held his gaze, trying not to remember the times she had lost herself in them. She had hoped for years that they would have a good marriage, then she had resigned herself to the fact that all she would have is a roommate. But her stubborn self never gave up hope.

“I’m going to win you back. You’ll see.”

Lacy dropped her head, gathering strength to stay calm. “Brice, please. I don’t want to be your wife anymore. You ran off with another woman and sent me a text message breaking off our marriage.” She lifted her head. “A text message!” Lacy shrugged her shoulders, wondering if he realized how demeaning and cowardly that was. “There is absolutely no chance of us working anything out. Give me a divorce. You don’t want to be married to me either.”

He looked like he was chewing on something. Lacy hoped it was his thoughts, if he had any. She hoped she had gotten through to him, begged God that she had. She couldn’t put it any nicer and she didn’t want a
battle on her hands. She couldn’t afford a court battle, she needed a nice, clean divorce. And damn it, she thought that was what she had. Without saying another word
,
Brice walked away.

Lacy looked over at Emmylou rearranging the platters and si
lverware. “You can say it, you know. ”Emmylou clamped her lips and continued working. “Say what?”

“’
I told you so.’” Lacy turned fully. “Go ahead and tell me what an idiot I am. Tell me that I should have listened to you in the first place and gone to a lawyer. That trusting the librarian to help me fill out the paperwork online was a mistake. I know you’re dying to do it so go ahead. I’m ready.”

Emmylou took Lacy by the shoulders and tilted her head with a sigh and
a firm look. “Lacy, I know why you did it that way. I know that it was cost effective to do it yourself. But I will not tell you that I told you so. I simply gave you advice you chose not to use. How were we supposed to know that Brice would be an asshole about it? For all we knew he had eloped with that floozy and was committing bigamy. You did the best thing that you could.”

Lacy smiled and hugged her friend.

“Besides, how do we know he’s actually telling you the truth? Maybe he did sign the papers and is here because he likes jerking you around. Maybe he needs money and his mother told him you were hosting a big movie production at The Dove House.”

The beaming sun shone down on her with that revelation. How could she be so stupid or trusting? “Emmy, you’re a genius!” She squeezed
Emmylou tighter. “Why
am
I believing him? He’s never given me a reason to before.”

“Now you’re thinking.”

***********

Kyle felt like crap for
scolding Lacy like that. He was tired and angry – granted, he was tired and angry because of her - but that didn’t give him the right to tell her she was a terrible friend and make her feel bad. Still, he wanted her to suffer. He had laid out his feelings and put himself out there in hopes of drawing her out of that damn protective bubble of industrial strength steel she hid inside.

Really what he should be doing is beating the shit out of her stupid husband. Lacy had been so close to opening up and then
that moron showed up on the doorstep with some thumper of a tale about their divorce and Lacy had bought into it. He hoped she was simply trying to keep the peace because the alternative of her taking him back was not within his wheelhouse of coping skills.

He tromped up the stairs of his trailer
and jerked the refrigerator door open, looking for anything with alcohol. He would commit murder for a Jack and Coke but the beer he found inside would have to do. And when he was finished with that one he may have another, or the case. Whatever it took to file the edge off. Comatose sounded like a nice place to be.

Marcus
had decided that the combination of Kyle’s temperament and his appearance weren’t lending anything to the production so he sent Kyle on his way. His bad mood had already done its damage, though, and Marcus had been berating everyone within reach of the bullhorn. Kyle took his beer and went back outside. A ruckus off to his side had him ducking behind the door.

He saw Brice putting his hands on a woman he couldn’t make out right away. Brice’s large frame was blocking the view and the blonde hair could have
belonged to any number of women. With the way she was arguing he thought it was Emmylou. He knew she could hold her own and was sincerely hoping Emmylou would clean his plow. Kyle inched closer, hoping he could hear what she was telling him or serve as bodyguard if need be.

He didn’t make it before she broke loose and walked past Brice. She turned back and Kyle caught sight of her face. A shock tremor zinged along his spine and he crouched to the ground to keep her from seeing him. He waited several moments before checking to see if the coast was clear. What the hell was Lauren doing talking to Brice? A better question was
, what were they arguing about?

He walked back to the trailer listening to the faint echo of
Marcus on the bullhorn and watching the crew milling around on various tasks. He was still concerned over what he had witnessed but maybe he was reading too much into it. Brice had probably been hitting on her and she was giving him the cuff. He was a persistent son of a bitch. It was a good thing that Kyle hadn’t needed to step in.

Now he had to decide if he
should tell Lacy or just let it ride and let good old Brice hang himself. He wasn’t sure how long he was willing to stand around waiting on Lacy to decide between the two of them. He had done all he could to send her the message that it was time to choose; he only hoped that it wasn’t too strong of a move and she thought Brice was her only choice.

She had told him that she was getting rid of Brice as soon as she could get him to sign the divorce papers. This whole situation was really sticking in his craw. He went inside the trailer and r
etrieved his cell phone from his jacket. He dialed a number and left a message on voice mail. He knew the drill. He would receive a phone call in ten minutes.
We’ll
see who wins this game, he thought.

The phone rang and he picked it up.
“Yeah. I need you to work on something.” His eyebrows shot up with the rapid-fire information he was receiving. “Really? So you found them?” He nodded, listening. “That doesn’t surprise me. They were always cowards.” He chuckled with the vision of his former friends spilling their guts when Mike threatened them for the information on what they had done to Lacy. “No, I think they got the message when you told them you would rip all the appendages from their bodies, starting with the most important one. Thanks, man. I owe you for that. I’ve got something else for you. ”Kyle told his contact on the end of the line exactly what he was looking for and provided him with the information he had. He was assured a twenty-four-hour turnaround. Until he had his answers he vowed to keep his eye on the slick little bushwhacker. He had a bad feeling that the man was up to something and that Lacy was just a pawn to him. He certainly didn’t care about her the way Kyle did, but Kyle was certain he wanted something from her.