Deceiving Lies

22

Rachel

IT’S FUNNY, the things that used to seem so big—so hard to deal with—suddenly seemed like nothing more than having a bad hair day. The situations that threatened to ruin my life now seemed like nothing more than stubbing my toe on the coffee table. The events that seemed impossible to get through without my parents, all seemed as easy as stepping over a microscopic hurdle.

I was ready for anything. I was prepared for whatever difficult or unexpected situations might arise for Kash and me, or our families. I trusted Kash to take care of us, and was finally opening up to the family that I did have. My parents were gone, that would always be hard . . . I would always wish they were here. But I had to give my future in-laws and Candice’s family the chance to be there for me in their place.

As soon as I saw Candice and Maddie walk into the café, I closed my journal and put it away in my bag. Kash had surprised me with Candice almost a week after Trent had gone into witness protection, and it couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. She’d been able to help plan the wedding, and when she wasn’t with Mason, we were spending almost all our time together.

I was glad Maddie and Candice were getting along now. There was a little over a week left until the wedding, and it had been tense between Candice and Maddie when they first met. Maddie wasn’t exactly thrilled that Candice was one of her brother’s fuck buddies. Who could blame her, though?

“Hey, Rach!” Candice bounced her way over to me and hugged me hard. “Guessing you’ve been here a while, since you were writing when we walked in?”

I nodded and hugged Maddie after Candice handed me off. “Just an hour or two . . . or four.”

“Mason said you’ve been writing a lot more since you came back.”

“Wait”—I shot Candice a confused look—“how would Mason know that I’ve been writ— Oh . . .”

“Kash,” we all said together and shrugged.

“It was worse at first, I’d gotten so used to having nothing really to do all day except write, so it was hard to get off that. But I’m getting back to a point where it’s normal. Well, uh, for me anyway. I just had a lot to say today.”

Maddie raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest as Candice’s green eyes widened. “Oh really? Do tell!”

I laughed and sat back down in my chair. “Nothing to tell, just all the wedding stuff with it being a week away. I figured with your parents, Eli, and his fiancée, Paisley, coming in a couple days, I wouldn’t have a lot of time to write then. So I’m getting it out now.”

Candice frowned. “Well, that was boring.”

Maddie laughed out loud before covering her mouth and looking around. “Uh . . . I’m gonna go get some coffee. Want anything?”

“I’m coming with,” Candice said as she picked up her purse, which she’d dropped on the chair earlier. “Rach?”

“No, I’m good.” When Candice eyed me curiously, I lifted an arm out to the side before letting it flop back onto my lap. “What? I already had something earlier. I’m good. I won’t sleep if I have anything else.”

“Whatevs.” She turned, and the ever-present bounce in her step was even more prominent than usual as she made her way to where Maddie was in line.

I wanted to tell her she didn’t need any more caffeine or she’d turn into a squirrel on speed, but that would probably just make her get an extra shot of espresso in her drink. So I kept my mouth shut.

“You okay, Rachel?” Maddie asked when they sat down at the table again. “You look like something’s bothering you.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Candice snorted and crossed her legs as she took a sip of her drink. “Fine. Good. Keep using those words, Rachie, see if I start believing you.”

“But I really am!” I said on a laugh. “I’m having a great morning, I’m excited to see everyone, I’m ready for this week to be over so I can get married. I really am fine.”

She studied me for a few moments before pointing at me with her coffee cup. “Are you and Kash okay? Are you having sex regularly?”

Maddie made a gagging noise and my lips twitched as I fought back a smile.

“Yeah, we’re fi—”

“Don’t say that word!” Candice nearly shrieked in the café.

The three of us looked around at the people giving us odd looks, and I nodded awkwardly at the old woman closest to us, who no doubt had heard Candice’s questions.

“Okay, Candice, we’re incredible. Is that better?”

She didn’t reply to my question before asking her next one. “And the sex?”

“Oh God,” Maddie said, and made another gagging sound.

“Uh, Candice, that’s so not your business . . . but I know you love sharing yours. So how are you and Mason doing in bed?”

“Shit.” Maddie didn’t need to fake the gag that time. She looked like she was about to throw up what little she’d already drank. “Can we stop talking about them? Just . . . gross.”

“She’s being weird,” Candice hissed to Maddie.

“Yeah, caught that. Don’t need to talk about my brother and Kash right in front of me, though. Jesus, let’s just get to what we were going to talk to her about.”

I raised an eyebrow and waited.

“Oh, yeah!” Candice set down her cup and did her little happy clap. “Totally forgot. Rachel, which one of us do you love more?”

“Uh . . .”

“That’s not fair, you’ve known her longer.”

Candice looked at Maddie with an expectant expression. “Exactly.”

“What is this about?” I asked.

“We’ve been fighting over who gets to babysit Trip while you and Kash are on your honeymoon,” Maddie responded. “I think I should get to, since I’m the one who led you to him. Technically I led Kash, and then you. But, you know.”

“And I think I should get to, since I don’t actually live here and won’t be able to see him whenever I want, once I go back to California. Well, and because I’ve known you forever.” Candice sat back in her chair and crossed her arms like she knew she’d won.

“Hmm, both valid arguments,” I mused.

“What? Hers didn’t even make sense!” Candice said at the same time Maddie laughed. “She’s using her time of knowing you as her argument. So not fair.”

“I was being sarcastic. Both those arguments sucked,” I said and drummed my fingers on the table. “You both sounded ridiculous, but why don’t you both babysit him? One day at Mason’s, the next at Maddie’s.”

“Well—” Candice began, but I cut her off.

“We’re not even really going anywhere. We’ll still be in town, and it’s only two days. So this way you each have a day, and we’ll pick him up from Maddie’s on our way home.”

“I guess that works.” Maddie sniffed as though she wasn’t happy with it.

“I don’t see how neither of you came up with that before. You really thought you had to have me choose who got him for that time?”

Despite Maddie’s hate for Candice the first few weeks, they were just alike. Well, if you didn’t count Maddie being Candice’s opposite in looks. Their personalities were the same, and as I sat there watching them defend their arguments to each other, I realized that must have been why Maddie and I had gotten along so well when I first moved here.

My phone vibrated and I looked down at it.

KASH:

I’m home, where’s my Sour Patch?

Café with Maddie and Candice. I’m coming home now.

“I’m tired, guys. I think I’m going to go home and take a nap.”

Candice gasped and Maddie snapped before pointing at me. “I knew there was something wrong.”

I paused from putting my phone in my purse and eyed them curiously. “Meaning . . . ?”

“You’re tired,” Candice answered for her.

“Yeah, and . . . ?”

“So there was something wrong. You weren’t normal Rachie.”

I laughed and stood up. “You’re both just crazy today. Maybe I’m being perfectly normal, and there’s something wrong with you.” Before they could say anything, I blew a loud, ridiculous kiss toward them and hurried to the door. “Love you two, see you later.”

I sped the entire way home and practically ran into the house. Launching myself at Kash, I kissed him hard and wrapped my legs around his waist as he laughed against my mouth.

“Well, hello. I missed you too.”

I smiled and kissed him again. “Take me to bed, babe.”

He pulled back to study my face. “Bed? It’s four in the afternoon. Do you still feel sick from this morning?”

Curling my hands around the back of his neck, I pressed against him harder and watched his gray eyes become hooded. Grinning to myself when he began walking us toward the bedroom, I thought about Candice and Maddie as I said, “Nope. I’m just fine.”

Kash

I HANDED BOTH ELI AND MASON A BEER, and my eyes scanned the crowded house, looking for my fiancée. We were getting married tomorrow, and instead of having a normal rehearsal dinner, Rachel had wanted my entire family here so they could spend time getting to know the Jenkins family. I knew it was a good idea, but I’d found out right after the rehearsal that the girls were stealing Rachel from me tonight and having a girls’ night at Maddie’s apartment so I couldn’t see her at all before the ceremony tomorrow. And now I was wishing this wasn’t as big as it was, because other than a few chaste kisses, she and I hadn’t gotten to talk since before the rehearsal.

My eyes finally fell on her, and I tried to rein in the caveman instinct that rose up inside me. She was holding Shea again. I swear to God there was something about that woman holding a baby that just set my blood on fire and made me want to get her pregnant immediately. I hadn’t brought up the baby topic since the night we’d fought about it before Rachel had been taken. With how upset she’d gotten, I’d been afraid to, but God, the more I saw her holding my cousin’s daughter, the more I wanted this for us.

I knew we were both still young. Rachel was twenty-two and I was twenty-six, but not only did I have a career that constantly reminded me of how fragile life was . . . my entire time with Rachel had been one giant reminder that everything you knew could be gone in a second.

Seeing death as often as Mason and I did already made us both the kind of guys that didn’t wait for what we knew we wanted . . . and a family with Rachel wasn’t an exception. But until she was at a place where she wanted a family too, I would keep my mouth shut about it.

Rachel laughed at something Eli’s fiancée, Paisley, was saying to the group of girls; and like I had just a few seconds ago, she began scanning the room. As soon as her eyes met mine, her body relaxed and she smiled softly.

I said I’d keep my mouth shut. But when had I ever been the kind of guy to make sure Rachel wasn’t pushed out of her comfort zone?

Lifting the beer up to my lips, I raised my eyebrows and let my eyes slide over to Shea before meeting Rachel’s again. She just shook her head at me, but that smile never left her face, and her eyes didn’t leave mine until Mrs. Jenkins captured her attention.

Well. That hadn’t been the “fuck you, Kash” I’d been expecting.

Eli called my name, and I reluctantly dragged my eyes from Rachel to look at him. “Come talk to me,” he said softly and walked toward the back door.

“Dude,” Mason said, and put a hand on my chest to stop me from walking. “This is where he kills you. Don’t go out there.”

“What? Mase, you’re so fucking dumb.”

“I’m not joking, give me a minute, I’ll go around the front and to the side. I’ll be waiting just in case he tries anything. The dude hates both of us.”

I snorted and took another long pull of my beer. “I wonder why, Mason? You’re having sex with his sister, and I’m sleeping with someone he views as a sister. There’s no way he doesn’t know that. Rachel lives with me, and Candice has been living with you; and neither of you are worried about how public you are with it. At least I’m in love with, and about to marry, the sister that I’m sleeping with. You’re just fucking Candice because you’re bored.”

“Don’t make it seem like he hates me more! Homeboy is staying in my apartment tonight. I want to be able to sleep without being afraid he’s going to kill me.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed past him.

“He has to hate you more, you didn’t even ask him if you could marry Rachel.”

I turned and threw my arms out. “I asked Candice and Eli’s dad, George! Well, I asked him before I asked her to marry me the second time.”

Mason pointed his beer bottle at me and I shook my head.

“So fucking dumb, Mase.”

Walking to the door, I turned and made sure Rachel was still distracted with all the women in the corner before slipping outside and finding Eli. He stayed silent as I walked over to him and still didn’t say anything for another minute after I was in front of him.

Maybe I should have had Mason wait on the side of the house.

“Uh, what’s going on, man?”

Rachel had told me about how Eli had helped her through the time after her parents had died. I remember her telling me how he had this quiet intensity that soothed her. But right now, I had to wonder how it soothed her, because I was noticing the quiet intensity . . . and it was scaring the shit out of me.

“You know I love Rachel just the same as I do Candice. I’ve grown up having her there, she’s always been a part of the family, just like Candice was a part of hers before her parents died.”

I nodded and waited for him to continue.

“There was so much that happened in her life, and no matter how much she’ll tell you about it, you’ll never be able to fully understand what she went through. But she’s so damn strong, I’ve always been in awe of her and the way she’s made it through some of the shittiest situations. I have no doubt that a lesser woman wouldn’t have made it through what Rachel has in the last year. Sometimes I wish that she wasn’t as strong, that she would need to come back to California so that I could make sure she was okay there. But then she wouldn’t be Rachel, and she wouldn’t have you.

“I wanted to hate you when she was kidnapped. I just needed someone to blame, like I’d blamed Blake for all that happened last year. But I know I can’t, I know you did everything you could to find her. When Mason, Candice, and I all talked last year while the two of you were separated, I found out a lot about how you blamed yourself; and I can only imagine you did the same this time. Despite the reasoning for their taking her, it wasn’t your fault, and I hope you know that. I want to say I’m sorry for the way I treated you, and above all, I want to thank you for bringing her back.”

“I, uh, well I’m glad to know you don’t blame me or hate me, but you don’t have to thank me. You know I would do anything for her.”

He took a long drink from his beer and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “I do kind of hate you. You’ve taken one of my sisters away from us and all the way across the United States . . . but there is no other guy I would trust with her life, and with her heart.”

Before I could respond, I felt, before I heard, Mason coming up behind me. “Mason . . .”

Eli eyed me, clearly confused, and his eyes widened when he must have finally seen Mason.

“Years of undercover work together,” I answered Eli’s unspoken question. “We couldn’t sneak up on each other if we tried.”

“Ahh . . . him I don’t like.”

“What the hell did I do?” Mason asked as he joined us.

Eli looked up at him, and even though he was a good head shorter than Mason, I fully understood why Mason looked like he wanted to go hide again.

“Stay away from my sister,” Eli said in clear warning before walking toward the house.

“Is he for real?” Mason asked.

I just shrugged and drained my beer. “You should totally sleep with one eye open tonight.”

“Son of a bitch,” Mason groaned and followed me back into the house.