Looks Like Trouble to Me - UNCUT (Bad Boys Need Love, Too Book 1) Read online

  “She likes to suck things. Did you give her a pacifier?”

  Lila giggled. “She’s not a baby, Jace. She’s a year and a half.”

  His face grew hot. “So, they don’t still…?”

  “Mom says they get more ear infections when they’re allowed to keep a pacifier.” She bounced Marni on her hip.

  “Yeah, well…it works.” He blew out a lungful of breath. “Sorry it took me so long to get here. I caught the ferry in Edmonds but there was a wreck on 101. How long’s she been at it?” Jace asked, grabbing Marni, and swinging her in the air.

  Marni cried even louder. She smacked Jace with her tiny hands.

  He jerked his head away, snagged her flailing fingers, and kissed them, desperate to calm her.

  “Well, she started in before I sent you the text. So, I’d say about a couple hours or more.” Lila slumped into a yellow-vinyl padded kitchen chair.

  “Non-stop?” Jace asked, eyes wide. He cradled his arms under the child and tried rocking her in wide, sweeping arcs.

  “Not all the time, no. Sometimes she’d quit. I’d try to put her down and she’d start up again. I thought I’d die with so much screaming.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know she’d be so freaked. I’ll pay you extra.” Jace balanced Marni on his left hip, fished in his pocket for some cash, pulled out a couple of twenties, and handed them to Lila. “Sorry, that’s all I’ve got. I’ll get the rest to you tomorrow.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Thanks.”

  He sidled over to the stainless-steel sink, washed his hands, and stuck his pinky finger into Marni’s mouth.

  She sucked vigorously, hiccupping and whimpering.

  “You feed her?”

  “Yeah, I gave her a bottle, a mashed boiled egg, and some of that baby food you left on the counter.”

  “Uh, diaper?”

  “Yeah, I did it right before you got here. I know how much you hate to change diapers.”

  “I’m learning. Hand me a damp paper towel. Her face is a mess.”

  Lila got to her feet, tore off a paper towel, held it under the faucet, squeezed it. She stepped across the kitchen and handed it to Jace.

  Jace withdrew his finger from Marni’s soft pink mouth to swab her snotty, tear-stained face.

  She started her howls again, pushing away the paper towel.

  “No, no, no, no!” she screamed.

  “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Jace replied, still dabbing. Fuck. “Her mama call?” He crumpled and dropped the snotty towel onto the granite counter and gave her his pinky to suck again.

  “Nope, no one called but you.”

  Jace sighed. His twin sister was probably hanging at the park somewhere, or the football field, or any one of several hangouts she and her friends use to get high.

  “Too bad for your sis. Drugs are bad news,” Lila said. “That would be so scary to find my sister unconscious.”

  “Tell me about it,” Jace said. “I never want to experience that again.”

  “The brother of a friend is strung out on drugs, too. She’s part of the hookup culture,” she added conversationally, as if the two topics were connected.

  Marni pushed away his finger and started up with the screams again.

  He swung her gently back and forth, finally getting her to stop wailing.

  “Oh, yeah? What’s that, exactly?” Jace kept his focus on Marni.

  He used to be immersed in the hookup culture when he was younger, only they called it something different. And then he met Kate. That’s how some of his trouble began. He rubbed the tattoo on his forearm absentmindedly. And, until recently, he’d been doing it again…hooking up as much as he could, trying to obliterate the lancing pain Kate left in his heart when she screwed someone else.

  “You know, the kids who swap partners all the time. They keep it all poly-amory until they’re ready for exclusive rights. And you don’t give them unless you really want them.”

  “Give what?” He stroked Marni’s damp curls with his calloused hand, still not following the conversation. You’re such a sweet little girl. Your mama isn’t doing you any favors by being strung out all the time. When she started to whimper again he gave her his finger.

  Marni looked up at him, her lashes wet. She studied him intently with her green eyes as she sucked.

  His heart melted as he witnessed the bewildered heartbreak in her expression. Neither one of us asked for this, did we?

  “You know, rights. You don’t give exclusive rights unless you want them. It should be your choice. Number one rule.”

  “What’s that again?” He looked at Lila.

  “Aren’t you listening to me? I said, it should be your choice to be with a guy exclusively. That’s the number one rule of the hookup culture.” Lila twirled a strand of her long brown hair around her finger.

  “I thought the number one rule of the hookup culture is to get laid as often as you can with as many partners as you can. And to think that you’re falling in love but instead you’re confused a lot.” Jace winked at her. “But you’re too young to know that.”

  “I’m almost sixteen,” Lila said insistently.

  “My apologies.” Jace made his way to one of the yellow-back chairs and sat down, jiggling Marni on his shoulder. The phrase “exclusive rights” wisped through his brain, accompanied with thoughts of being used by Kate. Fuck her. I’d rather think of Zoé. The image he’d conjured in the bar of her naked, lying in the sand, popped into his head. With you on top, he thought. Your breasts hanging ripe in my palms. Camera time’s over, baby.

  “You got Marni to go to sleep. You’re good with her.”

  “What?”

  “You’re not listening to me!” Lila huffed. “I said, you’re good with her.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he said, blinking. “I honestly don’t have a clue how to raise a baby. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken off like I did tonight.”

  “That’s what my mom said when she came over to help me.”

  Jace arched an eyebrow. “I think this baby girl deserves better than what my sister’s giving her and I mean to do my best until we can make other arrangements.”

  “Like what?” Lila said, sitting next to Jace at the kitchen table.

  “Not sure. Adoption, maybe. Not my favorite choice. Or maybe, God willing, my sister will get some help and resume her role as mother.”

  “You don’t want to keep her?”

  “Not sure I’m set up to be an insta-dad. It doesn’t really fit with my life right now. I tend to be gone a lot.” He scraped at something stuck on the table top.

  “This is sure a funny old table.” Lila walked her fingers across the yellow tabletop.

  “What, you don’t like the chrome dinette? I love this table.”

  “Where’d you get it?”

  “eBay, where else? I bid on it and won.” He laughed.

  “Why don’t you have a girlfriend, Jace?”

  Because I suddenly have a baby. Fuck. “What are you, a member of the inquisition? Sent here to interrogate, posing as my neighbor and part-time babysitter?”

  “No,” she said, smiling. “I just wondered. All my friends think you’re cute.”

  “And you don’t?” he said with a wink. “I’m hurt.”

  “No, I…I didn’t mean…” Her face turned a crimson flush.

  “I’m kidding, Lila. We’re friends. Friends are better than boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  “That’s not what my mom says. She wants you to meet a girlfriend and settle down. She says you need to put your past behind you.”

  Jace’s face darkened. “Did she, now?”

  Shit. This town is so small. What he did and who he did it with was his business, not Lila’s nosy mom’s.

  His phone vibrated in his pocket. He withdrew it, looked at the screen, slid the answer button to the right, held it to his ear, and said, “Yeah? What is it?”

  “Dude, you should be here right now,” Billy slurred into the phone. �
��The girls are taking body shots off each other and it’s fucking hot.”

  His cock twitched. “Yeah, well, didn’t you read the word ‘emergency’ on my phone? Besides the fact that I’m hours away? Besides the fact that I said no before I even got the text?”

  “No, really. This is an emergency. I need back up.”

  A clatter sounded like Billy had dropped the phone. Female laughter followed.

  “Oh, fuck,” Billy said faintly.

  “Put the phone away, Billy,” one of the girls said. “Wait. Is that Jace?”

  “Bye-bye,” Jace said, tapping the phone off. He tossed it on the table. When it rang again, he ignored it.

  “Was that Billy?” Lila asked. “I don’t like him.”

  “Sometimes I don’t either.”

  “Why do you hang out with him then?”

  “Good question. He works at the same place as me. His money helps keep your dad’s boat business alive and well. I guess I feel like I owe it to your dad to keep hanging out with him. Your dad’s done me more than a few favors over the years.”

  “That doesn’t give Billy rights to you. Remember the hookup culture —you don’t grant exclusive rights to anyone unless you want to.”

  Jace smirked. “I’m not dating Billy.”

  “Yeah, but the principles are the same. He gives me the creeps sometimes.”

  “How so?”

  “The way he…the way he looks at me.”

  Jace stiffened. “Looks at you how?”

  “I don’t know. In a weird way like he…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Lila, Billy can be a total dipshit. If he ever makes you uncomfortable or touches you in any way you don’t like, you come and get me, yeah? You find me, you find your dad, find one of us.”

  “Yeah, okay.” She pushed her fingers nervously back and forth across the table.

  Jace lifted her chin with two fingers. “I mean it, Lila. I’ve got your back. Has he ever touched you?”

  “Well, one time he brushed against me. I was sorting some parts that came in and he came up behind me and well…he got a little too close. He pressed up against my back and he…you know.”

  “No, I don’t know.” Jace wanted to pound Billy’s face to a pulp.

  “It felt like he was…like…you know.” Her face turned bright red.

  Jace felt the rage burning inside him. Damn trustifarian prick. “Don’t ever let him get that close, Lila. I mean it. He’s a snake with a face.”

  Lila looked up at him, biting her lip. “Okay, Jace. Thanks. Well, I’ve gotta go. I told mom I’d be home as soon as you got here. Good luck with Marni. Looks like she’ll sleep okay. I’ll babysit whenever I can. I need the money.”

  “Saving for something?”

  “Not really,” she said, standing. She grabbed her coat from one of the hooks next to his motorcycle jacket. “It’s just nice to have a little cash.”

  After she left, Jace got up from the kitchen table and traipsed into his bedroom where he’d set up the crib. He gently placed Marni on the mattress and pulled the blanket over her, tucking it around her small body. This puts a definite damper on getting laid. Tomorrow he’d head to the store and buy supplies like pacifiers. He and Lila’s dad had boxed up whatever meager supplies his sister had before bringing the baby to his house last week. He was still getting the swing of this whole goddamned baby-care thing. He patted her plump tummy before peeling off his own clothes, dropping them on the floor, and climbing in bed, wondering how he could see Zoé again and get between her legs.

  Chapter 4

  Jace

  “Jace, I need to move you off the Selene and have you work on a rush job today,” Lila’s dad Neil said, as he entered the boat shop employee area.

  “Okay, what is it?” Jace asked. He opened his beat-up gray metal locker, put his wallet and keys inside, and reached for his well-worn blue cotton coveralls. He pulled them over his jean-clad legs.

  “Old Rival 32 came in last night. Exterior has blisters. Owner’s heading down to Mexico in a month. He bought the boat on the contingency that we can fix them.” Neil removed the ball-cap from his head, ran his hand through his slightly graying blond hair, and placed the blue hat, emblazoned with Jenson’s Yacht Service, back on top. “You’re going to have to remove the entire gelcoat bottom. Once that’s done we’ll prepare the hull for a new top coat.”

  “Okay, I can do that. What’s Billy on?”

  “He hasn’t come in yet this morning.” Neil scowled, his weathered face forming deep creases. “I can’t exactly fire him but we sure need him today. We’ve got the Sea Dreamer to finish, and we need to get started on Martin’s Folly.” Neil glared at his clipboard. “Now that summer’s ending, everyone’s bringing their boats in for tune-ups so they can take one last spin around the sea. Then it’s winter maintenance time. That should help us survive another year.” He tapped the clipboard on the round plastic dining table. “How’s the situation at home?”

  “You’re still keeping it on the down-low, right? I don’t want anyone to know about this.” Especially the ladies.

  “You know it. Even the wife is keeping it to close to her chest if you can believe that.”

  “Good.” Jace nodded. “I’m doing the best I can.” He grimaced. “I’m not used to waking up to a toddler staring at me. This morning I woke up far too early to see her standing in her crib, gripping the rails saying ‘Unca. Unca. Unca.’ Grinning at me as if I were her favorite toy.” He smiled. “More like the food bag. Dropped the little one off at Aunt Molly’s this morning. She took care of Marni a lot for my sister. Apparently Jayna inherited no child-rearing skills. My goddamned sister. No one knows where she is.”

  “Can’t believe she snuck out of the emergency room, that’s pretty damn bad. File a missing person’s report?”

  “Yeah. But one of her friends said he saw her a couple of days ago at Discovery Bay marina so she’s not exactly missing. Said she was getting on a boat. I think he knew more than that but he wasn’t saying.” Jace sighed. “Her friends tend to be pretty closed mouth.”

  “Protecting their interests, no doubt,” Neil said. “Do you know who the father is? No sign of him?”

  “I know who he is, yeah,” Jace said, his mouth pressing into a hard line. “He’s around but out of the picture.”

  “A man’s got to assume responsibility when he brings new life into the world,” Neil said.

  “That would require a responsible man. I wouldn’t let that loser get near Marni, even if he begged. He’s the reason my sister’s so messed up.”

  Neil looked at him with kind eyes. “He may have been the end but he wasn’t the means, son, you know that.”

  Jace scowled. “Yeah, all right. I’ll give you that. She was messed up before she took up with him. He just helped her dig in deeper.” He bit the inside of his cheek. “Anyway, enough with the gloomy thoughts. I’ll head out to the shipyard and get started on that boat.”

  “Good. You know I’ll help you out any way I can, right?” Neil said.

  “Yeah, I know that. But I’ve got to deal with this one on my own. Can’t have you always being the one to get me out of a scrap.”

  Neil patted Jace’s shoulder. “I’d do it again, in a heartbeat. You’re like a son to me, Jace.”

  A lump formed in Jace’s throat and he quickly looked away. “Yeah, thanks, Neil. That means a lot to me.” He stared at the gray metal of his locker. “Beats my bible thumping parents back in Minneapolis.”

  He’d left home at age sixteen, tired of the tyranny of his mom and dad trying to interject “the good Lord’s mercy” into his life with leather straps inflicted on his backside and Bible school. And punishments I don’t care to remember. He’d moved out west, ended up here in Port Townsend. His sister soon followed. Where was this goddamned good Lord and his mercy when he’d needed it, hefting his unconscious sister in his arms, willing her to stay alive?

  He headed to the yard, crowded with yachts, skiffs, tugs,
and fishing vessels, in various states of repair, and set to work on the boat. A couple of hours later, he removed the respirator from his face, pushed the safety glasses on top of his head, set the sander down, and stretched his back.

  Billy slunk around the front of the boat like a naughty schoolboy. “Hey, Savage, Neil know I’m late?”

  “What do you think?” Jace said.

  “Shit. My old man’s going to kill me if he finds out I’m late again.”

  “Daddy going to take away your allowance?” Jace smirked.

  Billy glared at him. “You don’t know what it’s like. You’ve got to cover for me. Say I’ve been out here the whole time.”

  “Nope. You can dig yourself out.”

  “Come on, man! You owe me. I got you a good woman last night.”

  Jace rolled his eyes. “You didn’t see me between her legs, did you? She wasn’t my type. I don’t owe you a thing. You look like hell, by the way.” He eyed Billy’s pale, yellowish-green complexion and the dark circles bruising his sculpted face. Even his dark blond hair looked hung over, drooping listlessly in his blue-gray eyes.

  “I feel like dog shit. Got about two hours’ sleep. But man, oh, man.” He chuckled. “Those two were hot. Girl on girl, girls on me. It was intense.”

  Jace groaned inwardly. “Good for you. Now why don’t you grab your tools and help me? This is a rush job.”

  “Yeah, I’ll get them. I’m not going to be much use to you, though. I feel like dog shit.”

  “You already said that.” Jace pulled the safety glasses over his eyes. “Did you ever remember how you know Zoé?”

  “Who’s that?” Billy asked.

  “The waitress at Chica Ríos.”

  “Oh, her. Yeah, I think I balled her a couple times. She looked familiar. I didn’t want to let on to Jasmine, though. I kind of like her.”

  “You kind of like your girlfriend?” Jace shook his head.

  “She knows how to get freaky, what can I say?” Billy scratched his head. “Fuck. I need aspirin, a cigarette, and coffee, big time. So, why’d you ask about Zoé? You like her?”

  “She seemed interesting.” Can’t stop thinking about her, more like it.