My fury rose to boiling. This is outrageous. Why am I even here? Why did he drag me along? The food in my stomach turned to lead, but I fought ferociously against the nausea. I would not vomit in that cute house and ruin everyone’s night.
Mia must have sensed something because she bumped my shoulder, saying, “You’ll be a bridesmaid, right?” waggling her eyebrows, eyes full of mischief.
“Uhh, while I’m flattered by the offer, I don’t think I would look great in a dress at nine months pregnant.”
“Ah, but you would look so good in fuchsia.”
Her lips twitched when Ava spluttered, “Fuchsia? You’re making me wear fuchsia for your wedding?”
The guys were now paying attention, Pierce chuckling. “Don’t pick on your sister, Mia.”
“It’s so fun, though.” She batted her lashes, giving him a toothy grin.
I snorted a laugh, which got Kai’s attention. His gaze snapped to mine, eyes full of delighted amusement. Before I could smile at him, those stormy grays shuttered, the emotion disappearing to be replaced by indifference before he looked away and his jaw began twitching again.
My heart sank, a lump forming in my throat. This was ridiculous. I shouldn’t have cared so much that he was giving me the cold shoulder, but I did. I missed him, even though he was right there sitting across from me.
“Ava, you could wear a brown dress with your red Converses for all I care,” Mia said, pulling me from my pity party.
“As you can see, Mia’s ecstatic about the wedding,” Pierce drawled before sipping his beer. “It’s a surprise we’re having one at all.”
That earned him a blazing stare from Mia, her electric blue eyes flashing. Pierce had the good sense to appear sorrowful while we all sat in stunned silence. “Don’t be a dick. I want to marry you, jackass, obviously. This is just too much fuss. Mom invited ninety people. Ninety! It’s too much.”
“Then tell her,” Ava said, patting her sister’s arm, but Mia only snorted.
The tension dissipated slightly while the twins joked lightly about the wedding and Pierce and Kai talked about work. Since I was staying in the background, watching, I noticed that when Pierce was talking about some case he was working that was going to require him to be gone for a few days, Mia watched him with that blazing look again while she chewed on her cheek. My own drama kept me from asking or prodding her for information.
Kai continued ignoring me, and both Mia and Ava seemed to notice, sharing pointed glances between each other and Kai and me, although they didn’t say anything about it. By the time we left, I was exhausted again and ready for bed, so I said a quick goodnight to everyone before locking myself in the guest bedroom for the night.
Sleep did not find me. Obsessive thoughts of Kai kept me up all night. I couldn’t pinpoint why his cold shoulder affected me so much. He was likely distancing himself since he knew I didn’t want anything, and he clearly did. I couldn’t give him what he wanted, but I could let him be a dad. I only wished we could at least be friends or talk or something.
This was so foreign to me. I had never wanted a guy before, but there I was, pining after any form of relationship with him.
9
Kai
I was stuck in the very back seat of my mom’s SUV with Kate pressed up against my side, our legs and arms snug together. The fit was tight back there in general, making it difficult to move for even just one person. Kate was wearing little Daisy Dukes that didn’t cover her legs even a little and a pink tank top that revealed way too much of her tanned skin, stretching over her perfect little bump where my baby was currently residing. I was wearing a black T-shirt and gray shorts. Every inch of our skin that touched had flames licking up and down it. My self-control was wavering.
For some damn reason, Ava thought her and Cade’s short legs needed the space the middle seat provided. She had forced the issue, saying Kate and I would be just fine in the back together. Little brat thought she was perceptive, likely forcing us to sit together because she thought we were fighting or some shit.
Which we were. We were very definitely fighting. Just not outwardly. I was wearing her down little by little like a well-traveled road. She could think whatever the hell she wanted of my intentions, but she was likely misreading and misjudging. Her rigid posture and attempts to unglue herself from my side only proved my suspicions. If she knew what my intentions were, she wouldn’t have agreed to sit in the back seat with me. She would be pissed as all hell, much angrier than she already was.
Whatever she thought I was doing—trying to distance myself, having a temper tantrum about her declaration, blah blah blah—she was wrong. See, distance made the heart grow fonder. Her heart and other body parts were already pretty damn fond of me. When she told me she didn’t want anything, I just about laughed in her face.
I was no fool.
She wanted me. She wanted to joke with me, laugh with me, cry with me, touch me.
She. Wanted. It. All.
She was lying to herself.
For whatever reason—the same reason she liked her control so much—she didn’t think she could be in a serious relationship. But I couldn’t dwell on that point because it only made me ponder why she was the way she was. I had seen shit. The worst of the world. Therefore, when I thought on her issues with intimacy, I contemplated what had happened to her, usually ending up with murderous rage demanding I take vengeance against whoever had hurt her.
I
