Page 51 of All In
Before I could reply, she came back out and pointed at the TV. “The hotel has HBO On Demand. Can you see if they haveDirty Dancing?”
“Again?” I asked. “I’ve seen it twice with you. God knows how many times you’ve seen it alone.”
“Fifteen.” Kacey grinned. “Sixteen’s the charm.”
“If you insist.”
“Thanks. I gotta get out of this dress.”
I kicked off my shoes and settled against the headboard while Kacey rummaged in her luggage for something to sleep in.
I hoped she didn’t need help unzipping her dress.
I hoped she did.
Some friend you are.
She managed it on her own and came out of the bathroom wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Her hair fell around her shoulders in honey-colored waves from being pinned all day.
“It was a beautiful ceremony, wasn’t it?” she said, settling herself on the pillows of her bed.
“Yeah,” I said, though I couldn’t recall much of it. I’d watched Kacey come down the aisle, looking radiant in her dress that made her eyes stand out like sapphires, and just about lost my damn mind. The rest of the ceremony was a blur.
I punched in buttons on the remote and called up the movie.
“Oscar and Dena are going to make the most beautiful kids,” Kacey said after a few minutes.
“Probably,” I said.
“How about you? Do you want to get married some day? Have kids?”
“Yeah, I do. You?”
Kacey smiled sadly. “I don’t know. I never thought I’d be the marrying type. Or the kid-having type, either. I was too messed up for too long to be responsible like that. But maybe. Someday.”
“Somedayshould be my motto.”
“You’re actually willing to give up your rep as a ladies’ man and settle down?” she asked with a grin that pushed back the sadness for a heartbeat.
“I’m not like that,” I said. “Not anymore. I got it out of my system.”
“Yeah? The way Oscar talks, I imagine you out with a different girl every night.”
“He’s just messing around.”
She nodded. “Well, I can see you getting married.”
“You can?”
“Of course. You told me once, you like permanence.”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling a familiar fire simmer in Kacey’s presence, the same I’d felt on the dance floor. A peacefulness and an urge to trust her with the truth. “I want something real.”
She curled toward me on her bed. “I have this image of you holding a baby, tucked in the crook of your arm like a football while snagging the diaper of another toddler before he tips over and clocks himself on the edge of the table. And you do it with zero stress. Don’t even blink an eye.” She laughed a little. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“Oh yeah?” I was going to leave it at that, but it was easy to talk to Kacey. “Buddy of mine has a new baby. He posts pictures of him napping with her on his chest, holding his finger in her little fist. I could handle that.”
“How many kids do you want?”
