Page 88 of All In
She swiped the back of her hand beneath her lower lip. “Gone?”
“Gone.”
“You have some too.”
I brushed the back of my hand over my mouth as my mother knocked. “Theo? Are you there?”
“Let me get it,” Kacey said, smoothing her skirt down and taking a deep breath. She squared her shoulders and opened the front door. “Beverly. Hi.”
“Kacey, dear.” My mom’s smile was tilted with surprise and confusion. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
Kacey gave her a big hug. “I just arrived. Literally five minutes ago. I thought I could catch a ride with you guys, if that’s okay.”
“Of course it’s okay,” Dad said, stepping inside. He bent to give Kacey a hug. “Good to see you, sweetheart. How are things in the Big Easy?”
Kacey chatted with Dad while my mom came over to kiss my cheek.
“Wonderful she’s here, isn’t it?” she said, her expression still dazed. “She’s part of the family, after all.”
“She is,” I muttered.
“Masters in Business.” My mom sighed, shaking her head. “I’m so proud of you.” She patted my cheek. “And I know Jonah would be too.”
I coughed to loosen the sudden tightness in my chest. “Thanks, Ma.”
Mom’s brows came together. “You have a little something…” She reached toward my chin. I reared back, swiping thumb and index finger down the corners of my mouth, then jamming that hand in my pocket.
“We should get going.”
My mother’s eyes widened, flicked to Kacey’s painted mouth, then back to me. “Yes,” she said, smiling brightly and looking around as if she’d lost her purse, which was on her shoulder. “Yes, let’s go before the parking gets too bad.”
My phone chimed a text and I grabbed it from my pocket. “It’s Oscar,” I said too loudly. “He and Dena will meet us at the T & M.”
“Wonderful.” My mother tucked her arm in Kacey’s. “Shall we?”
She kept Kacey close as we walked down to the parking lot. “Let’s all drive together,” she said. “Men up front, girls in the back. I haven’t seen Kacey in so long.”
Kacey’s eyes met mine as she slid into the back seat of Dad’s Chrysler sedan. The electric blue of her eyes when I kissed her was gone, replaced by a wide-eyed panic. A ‘what are we doing?’ kind of look that echoed my feelings exactly.
What are we doing? What am I doing? Tearing apart my mother’s memories so I can have what I want?
The UNLV Thomas & Mack Center was a small, enclosed stadium that looked better suited to hosting rowdy basketball games than sedate ceremonies. The parking lot was little less than halfway full. My mother kept her arm locked with Kacey’s the entire time.
I got the subtext: Kacey had been Jonah’s, and now she was hers. Not mine.Herdaughter-in-law, even if there was never going to be a wedding.
Pain compressed my chest as I walked ahead of the three of them, not in line with them. It was all well and good to steal a kiss in New Orleans or behind closed doors, but the reality of what it would mean for Kacey and I—if there was such a thing—crashed in hard. My mother would probably never accept it and how could I blame her? Who the hell was I to think it would be okay to go after my dead brother’s girlfriend? The love of his life. Never mind that he fucking told me to.
Jonah hadn’t seen how impossible it was on every angle. No matter how I looked at it, from anyone’s perspective, it was selfish and wrong.
Isn’t it?
I looked back over at Kacey, looking stunning and vibrant, wedged between my parents, and a pathetic fantasy tried to take root in my mind. Shewastheir daughter-in-law. Because of me. And when I bent to kiss my wife, my mother wiped the smudge of Kacey’s lipstick off for me, her eyes filled with teasing affection, not tears.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
The ceremony was a snore, the only highlight was watching Theo walk across the stage to take his diploma and shake the Dean’s hand. Oscar put two fingers in his mouth and whistled, while I hollered as loud as I dared for a singer two days away from a meeting with Sony Music.
