In a mild state of bewilderment at the woman’s intervention on her behalf, Lydia let Summer draw her cover-up closed. Summer helped her stand then gave Ace a nasty look before she put her arm around Lydia and led her up the stairs.
Lydia could hear Kemp talking calmly to Ace as they went upstairs.
The beautiful woman quietly said, “Lydia, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I regret very much that it’s under these circumstances. My name is Summer, and I’m your brother’s fiancée.”
“Ace is engaged?” That was a total surprise to her. He hadn’t called her or said a word to her about it.
Summer smiled weakly and replied, “Great. He’s downstairs acting like a caveman and leaves me to be the one to tell you. Both of your brothers are engaged, Lydia.”
“To who?”
Summer bit her lip and said, “Me.”
“Ace…and Kemp?” Summer nodded straightforwardly, and Lydia said, “That great big…”
“Hypocrite? Yeah, I know. Trust me. He’ll apologize when we get back down there. Once he figured out you were in town, and I started putting two and two together, I tried to explain to him but he just wouldn’t listen to me. As soon as Kemp got to the house we followed him, knowing this was where he’d go. I tried to call Chance because I happened to have his number in my phone but no one answered. Now I understand why.”
“Yeah. We turned off all the phones. We get…interrupted a lot,” Lydia replied as she pulled clothing from the bureau and a top off a hanger in the closet. She slipped into the bathroom and tidied up a bit and quickly dressed.
“With a ranch this big, I imagine you do. I tried to tell him that Chance and Clayton are in love with you. I don’t know where he got the impression you were having a fling.”
“I don’t know either. I haven’t talked to him in over a month. I can’t believe he hit them both.”
“Me either. He and Kemp are super protective of you, aren’t they?”
Lydia rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Like pit bulls. I’m twelve years younger and according to them I’m still a teenager who doesn’t know her own mind. After mom and dad both passed away they got even worse. Kemp at least will listen to reason before he starts plotting revenge.”
Summer snickered at that and then said, “Well, let’s go downstairs and see if they made peace or broke anything else. You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Lydia hurried downstairs and heard the men’s voices coming from the family room. She rushed into the living room to remove the towel from the chaise lounge and all the other evidence of their hot, little tryst and noticed that the rain was still pouring down in torrents.
She went into the kitchen and made ice packs for both of her men. Summer was already seated on the couch next to Kemp when she walked in, and Lydia smiled when Summer winked at her. Clayton and Chance both sat on the couch opposite Summer and Kemp while Ace sat in the upholstered chair. Lydia handed Clayton his ice pack after looking at the swelling around his eye and then went to Chance and applied the ice pack to his jaw.
Chance flinched and took the ice pack from her with a look of gratitude and said, “Ace, you know Clayton and I would never take advantage of a woman, no matter her age. If we had a baby sister, I would feel protective, too, and might even have reacted the way you did if it was put in my face like that.”
Lydia thought Chance and Clayton were being very good-natured about the situation, considering Ace had essentially barged into their house and sucker punched them. He wasn’t going to get off so easy when it was her turn. She stood beside Chance until both men said what they needed to say, eyeing her brother as the irritation inside her built to a peak. It almost sounded like Chance was making an excuse or identifying with Ace.
Clayton gingerly pressed the ice pack to his eye and broke in, “It all boils down to this, guys. We love your sister. Bottom line. We’d never do anything to dishonor or embarrass her. We didn’t anticipate having company, with that storm blowing in, when we set up in the living room with the drapes open.”
That was more information than she thought Ace deserved considering he’d gotten an eyeful because he’d showed up unannounced.
Ace nodded, looking mollified, and turned to her. “Anything you want to say? You can start with why you are in Divine and I didn’t know.”
Fury, white hot and indignant, raced through her at his fatherly tone. “I’ll start by telling you that you’re a fucking asshole. How about that?”
Ace’s jaw dropped, and he adopted a hurt look at her words.