Page 20 of Burning Love (Looking For Love #7)

HEART OF GOLD

“ I s that a car door?” Talia asked later that night.

“It sounds it,” Jace said and moved to the front of the house to see who could be here.

The last person he wanted to see was his sister.

“Shit.”

“Who is it?”

“Kelsey.”

“Who’s Kelsey?” she asked.

Jace walked over and ran his thumb across the arc of her eyebrows, then leaned down to kiss her quickly. “My stepsister.”

“Oh. Do you want me to hide?”

He laughed. “Your car is in the driveway. There is nowhere to go.”

“Am I just your friend? How is this being played?”

“You’re thinking too much. Relax.”

He didn’t know how he wanted it to come out, but there was no hiding it now.

His doorbell rang, so he walked over to open it.

“Hey,” Kelsey said. “Sorry to just drop over like this.”

“Yet you did. Come in.”

She had a bag in her hand and he smelled food.

“Mom sent me over,” Kelsey said. “She made a bunch of stuffed shells and asked me to pick up some and then deliver them to you. It could have been Janey that stopped over rather than me.”

“You’re better.”

He stepped back and took the bag out of her hands. “Come meet Talia. I’m positive that is what you want to do.”

His sister was grinning. “I hadn’t planned it this way. I wish I had. Janey is going to be so mad, but I don’t care.”

“Hi,” Talia said.

“I’m Kelsey, Jace’s sister. Nice to meet you. I want to say I’ve heard so much, but the truth is, I’ve heard nothing.”

“Thanks, Kelsey,” he said dryly.

“It’s fine. This is new and we are feeling it out.”

He wasn’t sure how to take that truthful statement, but he couldn’t fault her for saying it.

“Do you have a last name?” Kelsey asked.

Talia looked at him. “It’s Talia Carlisle,” he said.

“Oh,” Kelsey said. His sister would have caught on fairly quickly. “Related to West?”

“That’s my older brother,” she said. “Jace didn’t know that right away.”

“I don’t follow that shit.”

“My sister, Janey, has talked about you before. I think she’s a year older than you. You used to play soccer, right?” Kelsey asked.

Fuck. Why hadn’t he thought of this?

“I did.”

“You played against Janey. Sorry, but you know how talk is,” Kelsey said.

“I do,” she said. “I hadn’t realized that. Jace hasn’t talked too much about specifics with his family. We haven’t gotten there yet.”

“Talia’s family is pretty private. I trust that you’ll keep this information to yourself.”

“Does that mean I can’t tell Mom or Dad? I don’t trust Janey.”

He saw Talia’s smile drop. “We’ll get back to you. It’s a conversation we haven’t had yet.”

“Got it,” Kelsey said. “It was nice to meet you. I’ll go now.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Scram, brat.”

The minute his sister was pulling out of the driveway, he turned to go back to the kitchen. “You sounded like Elias right now. He always calls me a brat.”

“I think it’s an older brother thing. Do any of your other brothers call you that?”

“To my face? Foster and Nelson. The rest probably just do it behind my back.”

“That’s not nice.”

She shrugged. “I might have deserved it when I was younger. I know you didn’t have this planned.”

“No.” He pulled the dinner out of the bag and put it in the fridge. “I can trust her to not say anything for twenty-four hours. How do you want to handle this?”

“It’s your family. That is up to you. I’ll tell you that my mother knows about you.”

“She does? Since when?”

“This morning. I planned on telling you tonight. She suspected I was seeing someone, but I hadn’t confirmed it. She had Laken grill me over the weekend. My sister informed me that my mother had suspected it was you. I’m not sure why, probably because I was being so quiet about it and I never am.”

“What did you tell her?”

“When I got back from running errands, she guessed I came to see you. I’m not someone to lie about it. I confirmed it. She wants to meet you and I told her that we weren’t at that stage. I didn’t know where we were, but I pointed out that she had already met you.”

He snorted. “I’m sure she didn’t buy that.”

“No. I told her to back off for now. That things were new and gave her a rundown of what was going on.”

He was surprised to hear that. “You’ll have to explain that better.”

“I said that we are taking it as it comes and having fun. If it changes to more for me, you’ll be the first to know and can decide where it could go for you. If it’s not what you want, then we’ll just part ways.”

He didn’t like the heat in his stomach and the sweat on his spine over those words.

“I’m not sure what I feel, but I wouldn’t have told my sister who you were if it was nothing.”

“She came to the door,” she argued.

“I could have met her outside and kept her there and not let her in. Don’t kid yourself.”

It hadn’t even occurred to him to do it.

He didn’t want to hurt Talia with those actions.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know. Are you going to force me to find an answer that makes you feel good?”

She laughed. “You sounded just like Foster right then. He’s grouchy but often does nice things and then gets annoyed when people want to know why he did it. As if they didn’t know he had a heart of gold hidden.”

“Don’t delude yourself into thinking I’ve got one.”

She moved and put her arms around his neck. “You do. You don’t want people to see it and that’s your decision, but don’t step on my puppy’s tail if I think it.”

“Step on a puppy’s tail? Who the hell would do that?”

“See, it’s the first thing you thought of. Listen, Jace. I’m not putting pressure on whatever we’ve got. I told you I’d let you know if things changed. I want you to tell me that too.”

“I’m not sure change is the right word, but they are different.”

Her head went back and forth. “Different from a few weeks ago or just different from what you’ve had in the past?”

“In the past.” It was hard to admit that much. That for once he wasn’t thinking so much about not having a commitment.

“The same here. It’s different but nothing changed much from a few weeks ago.”

“Okay,” he said. “That makes me feel better. We are on the same page.”

“Always good to know. Back to your family. What are you going to tell them?”

“Do you know my sister Janey?” he asked.

“I don’t think so. My guess is I played against her in high school, but I didn’t know the names of everyone I went against. I was good, so my name was out there for that reason.”

“You’re bragging,” he said.

“West went to some of my games. Not a lot, but he tried to show up to one a year.”

Which would put attention on her too. “Kelsey won’t say anything today, but I’m not sure how long she’ll keep quiet. I told you my father saw your car here, but he’s been good about letting it go.”

“Guys are good that way. Women not so much. My mother is going to be on my case at some point too. Maybe it’s just best to decide how we are going to handle this.”

“Do you want me to meet your mother?”

Her eyes got a little wide. “Only if you want to.”

He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

He’d met other parents before. He’d dated women for a few months but nothing he’d ever thought would get serious that he saw a future with them.

In the past year he hadn’t even gotten that far, but it’s not as if he was doing something he’d never done before by meeting Aileen Carlisle.

“It’s not a big deal,” she said. “I’ve brought men home to my mother in the past. I think it’s normal.”

“I haven’t introduced a woman to my family in longer than I can remember.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“You’re not upset over that?”

“Why would I be upset over something you’ve already admitted to me?”

He pulled her into his arms. “I can’t figure you out.”

“Half the time I can’t figure me out either,” she said, laughing.

“If your mother wants to meet me, we can work it out some weekend when I’m off.”

“We might want to do it during the week,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because on the weekend, my brother Elias could be available to drive here. My mother will make sure he is aware of the date and time.”

He frowned. “Is that normal?”

“After I’ve been dating someone for a period of time, it is. Elias always has to scope the guy out for the rest of my siblings.”

“It’s not been a while,” he argued.

“No, but as you said, this is different.”

“How so?”

She laughed and poked her finger into his side. “I’ve never asked to bring beer to someone before.”

“If he brings me more, I’ll meet him anytime he wants.”

Her jaw dropped. He’d been serious and wasn’t sure how those words slipped out of his lips.

Maybe things had changed, but he was terrified to be the one to admit it first.