Chapter Five – Kaia #3
“I’m not fucking guilty because I haven’t fucking lied, Kaia. I’ve told you how I feel about you and Diesel. I’ve told you why I don’t trust you. If you can’t understand my fucking explanation, then you aren’t as smart as I gave you credit for whenever you recite your amazing poems.”
“So if I tell you what you don’t want to hear, I’m fucked. And if I don’t confess, you will forever be suspicious of me and my motives. I can’t fucking win with you.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to,” he snapped. “You’ve said enough other shit.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No!” He was so frustrated and annoyed, the lie fell from his lips without consideration.
“Then it doesn’t matter what the fuck I said. But I’m warning you. Diesel’s a motherfucker. If you haven’t told me the truth and you piss him off, he’ll tell me.”
“He has nothing to tell, Rebel,” Kaia insisted.
“Now that that’s settled, let’s have the champagne,” she said.
Mattie tried to grab the bottle but Kaia raised it above her head. She was tall; he was taller. When he extended his arm as far as it could reach, she had no chance of grabbing it.
“You never said why you two came in with the sparkling wine?”
“Bro,” Mattie said with disapproval.
“It’s champagne,” Rebel stated. “Read the label. And we just wanted to celebrate Mattie acing a test today.” She smiled at her cousin. “If she keeps it up, she’ll graduate with CJ.”
Mattie tossed her red hair. “I would totally decline. I’m back with you and Harley, so I’m fine now.”
Clenching her jaw, Rebel glanced away, then huffed. “Momma suggested we have something downstairs to celebrate Harley’s stupid play.”
“Downstairs?” Kaia frowned and glanced around, lowering the champagne bottle and holding it by the neck. “Isn’t this the first floor?”
“There’s the basement,” Rebel said.
Mattie glanced between Kaia and his brother with a pointed look. “Newsflash: it isn’t a normal basement.”
“It is!” Rebel said with indignation. “And how do you know what a normal basement looks like?”
“We have a basement, too.” Mattie rolled her eyes. “It’s filled with boxes and pipes and regular stuff.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Kayce rocked on his heels. “So, uh, what’s in Rebel’s basement?”
Rebel waved her hand and laughed. “Don’t worry about it.” She pointed to the bottle. “Back to the champagne. We need to empty it and use it for the game.”
Mattie snapped her brows together. “What game?”
“Spin the bottle,” Rebel announced happily.
“You want to play spin the bottle?” Mattie glanced from Kaia to Kayce, then back at Rebel. “With these two?”
“Yeah,” she said offhandedly, pointing at the bottle and then Kaia. “Open it.”
“But–”
“Please, Mattie?” Rebel said, interrupting her cousin. “I thought it would be more fun with the four of us than just me and Kaia.”
Yeah, no. Kaia wouldn’t have been able to withstand the game with only him and Reb. He’d been dreaming of tasting her lips from the moment he saw her on the pedestrian deck at Turn Creek Bridge in her cute little school uniform, trying to light her cigarette.
Mattie glanced at Kayce and her shoulders slumped. “F-fine,” she said morosely and shuffled to the bed, grabbing delicate crystal glasses with long stems out of the basket.
Rebel’s obliviousness disappointed Kaia. Obviously, Mattie liked Kayce, but Rebel saw no issue with drawing him into a game where there was a fifty percent chance she’d have to kiss him. And what about Kaia? He didn’t want to watch Rebel kiss his brother or anyone else.
Silent, Kaia popped the cork and smiled at Rebel’s squeal.
“I love that sound,” she gushed, snatching the bottle from him and drinking deeply.
Hiccupping and giggling, she licked her lips as Mattie dragged herself back to the sitting area with the four beautiful glasses.
“A toast,” Rebel called once Kaia poured the champagne.
“I’m not in the mood.” Mattie took a sip and lowered her lashes. “Let’s just play the stupid game.”
Rebel indicated the spot beside her, her bright blue gaze unreadable. Mattie sat on the floor across from Rebel and Kayce took the spot next to her across from Kaia.
“Do we do a coin toss or something to see who goes first?” Rebel asked.
“It’s your game,” Mattie grouched. “You go first.”
Draining her glass, Rebel nodded. “We should’ve stolen more than one bottle,” she said, setting the crystal next to her feet.
Kaia gulped. “Stole from who?”
“Diesel,” Rebel said offhandedly, ignoring Kaia’s sudden horror. She set the bottle to spinning.
Round and round it went until it slowed and crept to a stop, landing on Kayce.
Of course it fucking would.
Everyone except Rebel froze. She glared between Mattie and Kaia, then smirked at Kayce and cocked her head to the side. “Do you want to kiss me, Kayce?”
“Does it matter what I want?” he asked evenly. “You wanted to play the game when clearly we didn’t.”
“Right,” she said with biting sarcasm. “Because you have zero free will.” She made a face at Kaia.
“Which is what you take away from me by lying. Tell me the fucking truth and let me exercise my free will. Diesel’s a liar, so you’re one by association.
I’m giving you one last chance to tell me the real story. ”
Fuck. Instead of manipulating Rebel and backing her into an emotional corner, he’d just pissed her off more.
“You did this to prove a point?” Kayce disapproval and dismay only annoyed Rebel further. “You’re so fucking wrong for that.”
She flipped him off and added, “fuck you,” to underscore her displeasure.
“I’ve had to outthink dickheads to stay two steps ahead of their fuckery for most of my fucking life. How the fuck did it make you feel that I didn’t give a fuck how you felt? Kayce? Kaia?” She glared at Mattie. “Cousin? Going once, going twice. Sold to the biggest fucking liars.”
“No one’s lying to you,” Mattie said warily.
“Really, Matilda? Really? You’re blabbing our confidential conversations for nothing?” She looked at Kaia, her eyes blazing. “And you throwing in my face what I shared with you because I trusted you. Deflection much, dickhead?”
The tears lurking in her eyes horrified Kaia and made him feel lower than he ever had.
“Babe, listen to me,” he said, grabbing her hands, especially the one in the cast so she wouldn’t conk him upside his head.
He tightened his hold when she tried to yank them away.
“Babe, babe. Listen…I’m sorry. The conversation about this was unexpected.
I handled it wrong. I’m sorry. I thought I’d make you cry–”
He cringed at her growl. The tears she’d held back began to fall, but her eyes blazed and he knew he’d fucked up a little more.
“That was low of me, but I didn’t know what else to do so we could enjoy our time together.”
“Why don’t you let Kaia take my place?” Kayce offered hesitantly.
“Or…or…you don’t have to kiss on the lips,” Mattie inserted. “You can kiss Kayce if you want to and we do another spin.”
“I’m sorry,” Kaia said again. “I swear I won’t ever try to manipulate you again.”
Rebel stiffened.
“Bro, shut up!” Mattie snarled. “That is the worst thing you can say to Rebel other than the other worst thing you just said: I wanted to make you cry.”
“Wait. How can there be two worse things?” Kaia asked.
“Kaia, quit while you’re ahead,” Kayce told him.
“Kaia wasn’t right the way he handled everything. Neither was I, but are you really ruining this chance to kiss Kaia because of what Diesel did?” Mattie asked.
“How is this about Diesel?” Kaia asked, confused again. “And the bottle landed on Kayce.”
Mattie squinted and drained her glass. “What’s wrong with you? Like seriously? She did it to make a point. Obviously, she was going to point the bottle at you.”
Kaia lifted his brow, almost afraid to hope. “You were?”
Rebel gave a curt nod, then snatched her hands and got to her feet. Her face was the color of ripe radish. Kaia just might be in love. “It’s whatever. I’m going to my room.”
Mattie threw Kaia a death glare, then jumped to her feet and hurried in front of Rebel.
“Kaia’s a good guy and really into you, Reb. Whatever supposedly happened between him and Fia was the night before you two agreed to go steady.”
“The three of us took this way too seriously,” Kayce put in, twirling his finger between himself, Kaia, and Mattie. “Maybe, if we hadn’t been so uptight, shit wouldn’t be so intense right now.”
“Maybe if you fuckheads wouldn’t try to play me, I wouldn’t have suggested the stupid game,” Rebel responded.
“Does that mean you don’t want to kiss me?” Kaia asked, oddly hurt.
Mattie glowered at him.
Shaking his head at Kaia, Kayce placed a finger over his lips, then smiled at Rebel. “We don’t have to deep throat if it lands on someone we don’t want to really kiss.”
Rebel pursed her lips, then looked at Mattie and blinked, her eyes glistening. “I shouldn’t have suggested the game. I’m sorry to all three of you. That was shitty of me, but I wanted to prove a point.”
“Let’s call it a draw,” Mattie said, “and start the game over. Kayce’s right, anyway. We were looking at it totally wrong.”
“Can I just go to my room?”
“Nope,” Mattie said cheerfully. “You’re just going to sink deeper into your despair. You know Uncle Christopher loves you. He also knows you’re just like him. I think he’s secretly proud.”
“I don’t, so let’s talk about something else. The older I get, the more he wants to put me in my place. Unlike Uncle Johnnie, who wanted you to be an automaton, Daddy wants me to be a doll. I can be flawed as long as I allow him to dictate my life and play fucking games with me.”
She clenched her jaw, pain written on her face, her eyes watering and her nose as red as Rudolph’s on a dark snowy night.
Mattie reached across the coffee table and held out her hand. Rebel hesitated before she placed her hand in her cousin’s.
“Your determination to play the game upset me but it was a glimpse of the old you,” Mattie told her.
“I want Rule,” Rebel said quietly. “I miss him. We used to talk for hours, Mattie.”