If she’d been working him.
“This is between your sister and me. I didn’t get to be CEO of a successful firm by allowing beautiful women to get me to do things for them.”
Lacey’s mouth fell open. Her brow furrowed. And he had a feeling that if Jem Bridges had been present, he might have decked him for making his wife feel bad.
He wouldn’t have blamed him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was uncalled for, as well. I’ll go now. See you in the morning?” He tried a grin on her. It used to be a killer with the women.
“No, I’m sorry,” she was saying, following him to the door. “I didn’t mean to imply, even for a second, that you’d fall prey to...that you were... Shit.”
“Best to quit while you’re ahead.” Jem had joined them.
“I’m making it worse,” Lacey said, grimacing as she looked between the two men. “I just... Kacey’s the sweetest, most incredible woman I know, and I don’t like her to be misjudged when she doesn’t even mean to do what she does.”
Jem’s finger covered his wife’s lips. “Believe it or not, Lacey’s the one who can go into any volatile family situation and take control,” he said to Mike. “The woman’s a marvel at mediation and tact. Just not when it comes to her sister.”
“I’m well aware of your sister’s...abilities...to allure,” Mike said, genuinely liking the couple. “I also like and respect her,” he added. “Understand that I see her in a light different than most. I see her at the Lemonade Stand giving women the ability to feel good about themselves again. She’s gentle and loving. Kind. And compassionate. There’s not an egotistical bone in her body.”
He stopped. He’d gone on far too long.
Lacey was staring at him. Openmouthed.
Jem just stood there.
“You really get her,” Lacey finally said, her voice soft.
“In Santa Raquel, at the Lemonade Stand, yes.”
“But she’s the same person...no matter where she goes. I mean, you don’t become someone different just because you get in the car and drive down the road.”
“We all have different sides,” he said, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I don’t need to see the other sides of your sister. I admire her work at the Stand. And I’m happy to help her find out who hacked into her email account.”
With that, he said good-night and got the hell out of there, hoping he hadn’t given away just how close he and Kacey were.
Walking backward on his words wasn’t something he did often. Or had to do.
He wasn’t sure how successful he’d been.
CHAPTER FIVE
“OH, SIMON, DARLING, I would never deliberately hurt you, you know that...” Kacey, or rather her on-screen character, Doria Endlin, gazed into the vivid blue eyes of Tom Cryder, the actor who played Simon Willfinder, Doria’s best friend.
And forgot her next line.
“Cut!”
Tom, who’d been holding her shoulder and leaning in almost close enough for their noses to touch, broke away and stood up. “What’s with you this morning, Kace? That’s the third time you’ve messed up. You never mess up.”
If he’d asked the question a little more quietly, or sincerely, she might have answered him.
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking between Tom and the assistant director who was running the morning’s takes.
She’d like to say she felt sick. Had a headache. Or that she was upset about being hacked.
Any of those reasons would not have been false. But they weren’t what was crapping out her work—she was too professional to let such things get in her way.
No, the problem was unreal. Couldn’t be happening. She just needed a minute alone to sort through the noise in her head.