“Luc was heading to the bathroom and I accidently ran into him when I was sneaking out of Kaleb’s room. Oh, and by the way, he’s still sound asleep. I think little guy is down for the count. No worries about him. Excuse me.”
Kassie hurried past the living room and into the kitchen. Kaden followed. His words were sharp with concern. “Kass, you good? Did he say something to upset you?”
“Luc? No!” Her breathing was hasty, and it took effort to calm down fast enough so Kaden wouldn’t notice. “No. You know better than I do how he’s all calm and slick with the ladies. He’s a big flirt. Tried that crap on me, but I don’t easily fall for it.”
“Okay. If you say so. But if he keeps it up, let me know. I’ll kick his ass.” Kaden was joking, but she could read his face, and he wasn’t amused. She knew the rules; his buddies did NOT mess with his sister. It’d been the same all their lives.
“Nah, it was nothing. I told you, I’m immune to that shit.” Kassie waved it off. She didn’t have any choice now. No matter how Luc made her feel, they could be nothing but friends, or her brother would kill him. But that wasn’t going to be easy.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Luc
Seeing Kassie last night had put Luc in a fog all morning. He was slow in practice, got yelled at by Coach, who assumed he was hungover, which lead to his being forced to do laps. But taking the punishment for his faux hangover was better than admitting in front of Kaden that he was really just feeling the aftereffects of seeing Kassie O’Conner. She was on his mind all night, keeping him awake.
Now back in his townhouse, all Luc wanted to do was take a nap. Lying down on the couch with the television on for background noise, his brain relaxed. Unfortunately, it drifted right back to Kassie, and the way she had moved at the club the other night. He only hoped that she knew what she was doing and wasn’t as drunk as she was letting on, because he enjoyed all of it. Every bump and grind, every contact her body had with his.
He didn’t want to be attracted to her. She was Kaden’s sister. The guys didn’t mess with a friend’s or a teammate’s sister. Everybody knew that. It was an unspoken rule, and something he obeyed all these years.
Until Kassie O’Conner.
She had sass and spunk, yet was total class. Her body was tight in every place that it counted, and he loved watching her move. Last night, the way her shirt was tied, her midriff was showing. All he wanted to do was reach out and slide his hand around her bare waist. He knew he’d made her nervous just by standing close to her. And if he read that correctly, it meant she was as affected as he was. Just one problem: she was still his friend and teammate’s little sister.
Luc awakened to the music ringtone on his phone. His exhausted body must’ve finally given in to sleep. He didn’t make a conscious effort to move until long after the ringing stopped.
There was no voicemail, but he did have a text message from Sam.
Sam: Dinner at our house tonight? Be here at four.
Dinner at the Morris house sounded better than what he had planned, which was to either raid the fridge or order some Thai food. Even though Thai food was delicious, it was boring to eat alone. Dinner with the Morris clan, it was!
Luc arrived promptly at four. He knew the routine: Trina was very pregnant right now, so when he came over for dinner, he kept Willow occupied while Sam got dinner ready and Trina put her feet up and relaxed. She never asked for this treatment; Sam just did it out of love.
He heard Willow running to the front door, giggling. Sam opened it for her and she lunged into Luc’s arms.
“Uncle Luc!” Willow squealed with delight.
“Hey kiddo! Is it party time?”
“Uncle Luc, it’s not a party, silly,” the little blonde girl said with a giggle.
“It’s always a party when Uncle Luc is around,” Trina said before she peeked out from around the corner. Her welcoming smile lit up the room. “Hey Rock-Star. Glad you could come over.”
“As always, thanks for the invite.” Luc did his best to hug a very pregnant Trina while Willow clung to him.
Luc fist bumped Sam with little Willow still hanging off him. “Yo, bro. Need any help in the kitchen?”
“Nope. I got it covered.”
“Awesome, because I think surfer Willow and I have some Legos to build!” Luc hurried into the living room with the little girl giggling like crazy.
“Uncle Luc!” Willow said through her laughter. “We’re not playing Legos today!”
“No Legos?” He put the little girl on the ground and waited to see what they’d be doing today. He never thought he would like little kids until he hung out with her. “What are we going to do, then?”
Willow ran to her toy chest and pulled out a shoebox, holding it as high as she could in the air. In a strained voice, due to the heaviness of the box, she exclaimed, “Cars!”
“Uncle Luc’s favorite thing,” Trina said from the couch. She was reclined back with her feet up and a book in her hand.
“Heck yeah! What kind of cars, kiddo?”
“Fast cars!”
“Like I said, right up Uncle Luc’s alley,” Trina commented. “You’ll need the race track in the corner beside the toy box.”
Just as Trina said, he found a red-and-blue plastic race track in the corner. It appeared too big for little Willow to carry, so he grabbed it. “Where does the race track go?”
“On the floor, silly Uncle Luc,” Willow said. She flopped down on the carpet with the shoebox of cars.
He sat down next to her with the track. The little girl showed him how to put two cars at the top of the winding track and hit the button that raised the checkered flag that began the race down the track. She giggled and squealed with each and every race.
Willow only let him race the white cars, knowing he drove a white sports car. Once she ran out of white cars, she decided to let him race blue ones, but only blue ones. This girl was a trip, and he loved every second with her.
During dinner, Willow was quiet as she separated the food on her plate into colors, then some other combination that Luc couldn’t figure out, before she finally started to eat.
“Sam, since you’ve been practicing with the team, how’ve you been feeling?” Luc asked.
“Pretty great. No symptoms. I saw the doctor after practice this morning, and he said everything looks good. He gave me the okay to play. Then I met with Coach Walker, and long story short, I’m cleared to play!”
“Bro, that’s fantastic!”
“Yeah, I know that he’s thrilled, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on him,” Trina added.
“And she’ll be holding her breath every time I take a hit. Right, babe?” Sam asked with a sly grin.
Luc didn’t voice it, but that would be a concern of his, too.
Once dinner was over, Trina took Willow into the living room to watch a movie and get settled down before bedtime. Sam brought out a couple of beers to the table.
“I hear you were bothering Kassie the other night at Kaden’s,” Sam said, with a disapproving look.
“Not bothering, just talking.” Luc took a sip of the cold beer.
“And at the club?”