“Whatever,” she snaps, pulling her arm away from me.

I get her some water and asprin from the kitchen, and hand them to her when I return to the living room, where she’s staring intently at one of my drawings on the wall. “Drink some water and take this. Are you sure you don’t want to call your mom?

“Yes. She’s just gonna yell at me. She thinks I’m staying at Shelly’s.”

“Come on, then. I’ll set you up in the guest room, and we’ll deal with this tomorrow. It’s almost three A.M. I need to get some sleep, and you should, too.”

She follows me upstairs to the guest room, babbling, “Oh my God, all these stairs. Why do you have so many stairs?”

“All the sheets are clean,” I say, ignoring the drunken talk. This is exactly why I don’t like dating girls my age or younger. Most of them party and act like idiots, and I have no tolerance for it at all. “Do you need something to sleep in?”

She looks around the room. “Your house is just, like, so amazing. I want to live here.”

“Yeah, I’m working on that with your mom. I want us all to live here, but she doesn’t think it’s a good place for your brother to grow up.”

“Mom is so lame sometimes. This would be a great place to grow up. You have tons of cool stuff.”

“Thanks. You didn’t answer me. Do you need something to sleep in?”

She looks down at the skinny jeans and blouse she’s wearing. “Yeah, that would be great if you have something.”

“I’ll be right back.”

I find her a t-shirt and a pair of sweat shorts to sleep in from my room. “Here ya go,” I say, walking back into the guest room, just as she comes out of the adjoining bathroom wearing nothing but her bra and panties.

“Whoa!” I say, putting my hands up and looking away. “Where are your clothes?”

She strolls up to me and touches my chest. “I don’t think I need them.”

“What the hell? What’s going on?”

She rubs her hand across my chest. “What do you want to go on, Lukas?”

I grab her hand. “Stop it. Why are you acting like this? Did you take something?” I push the clothes against her chest and scan the room for any pill bottles. “Put these on, please. Stop playing games.”

She takes a step back and turns around slowly in front of me, showing off the black push-up bra and thong she’s wearing. “Don’t you like me?”

Fuck. She looks just like a much younger version of Ivy. I quickly avert my eyes to the floor. “Of course I like you. You’re like family to me. You know that. But I don’t like you like this.”

I wonder if she really did sneak some pills to be making her act like this, because she’s never behaved like this before with me, not since the day I fixed the shed and she blatantly flirted with me before she knew who I was. Since then, she’s always treated me as her mom’s boyfriend, coming to me for help or advice, and I’ve always considered her as my future stepdaughter. I’ve never once thought of her in any other way, especially sexually.

She puts her hands on my chest again, goes on her tiptoes, and presses her lips against mine, before I have a chance to back away from her. “We could be together, you know. We’re closer in age than you and my mother are.”

“Macy, don’t even go there. I love your mother.”

She slides her hand down and squeezes my cock. “Well, it feels like maybe you like me, too.”

I grab her hands and hold them tightly away from me. “Do not touch me,” I hiss at her. “You’re drunk.”

“And you’re hard.” She giggles, leaning her body against mine.

I push her away from me, disgusted and embarrassed. “Go to bed. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with you, but you better cut it out. I don’t think of you that way.”

I want to catch her as she stumbles but keep my distance from her. “You’re a fucking rock star. Don’t tell me you don’t want to nail everything in sight, including me.”

My hands clench at my sides. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Go to bed.”

I storm out of the room and go to my own, closing and locking the door behind me. What the fuck was that about? I sit on the bed, feeling sick to my stomach. She’s right; I was a little turned on, and I hate myself for it. I’m not attracted to her like that. It was just a normal guy reaction to a half-naked chick touching me. I would never touch her. I love Ivy more than anything and would never cheat on her, especially with her own daughter. The thought of it makes me sick.

I should call Ivy right now and tell her Macy is here and how she’s acting, so she can come get her, but then she’ll get all upset and race over here. She’ll have to wake up Tommy and bring him with her, and it will be total chaos. I don’t want to do that to her at three-thirty in the morning.

Stretching out on my bed, I resign myself to the fact that I’m not going to be able to get much sleep, knowing my fiancée’s daughter is down the hall and just fucking manhandled me like a stripper trying to get an extra twenty bucks. Nothing good is going to come of this. I can feel it.

IVY

I DROP TOMMY OFF AT MY parents’ house early Sunday morning, because they want to take him to a matinee and dinner. On the way back home, I decide to bring Lukas our favorite lattes and bagels. More and more, I am leaning toward the idea of moving in with him. We haven’t set a date for the wedding yet, but we both want it to happen within the next year, so we’re going to have to figure out living arrangements soon.

When he answers the door, he looks surprised and disheveled, wearing old faded jeans and nothing else.

“Hey! You’re earlier than you usually are.” He lets me in and gives me a quick kiss.

“You look exhausted,” I say, concerned. “Do you feel okay?”

He runs his hands through his hair and glances toward the stairs. “Yeah, I just have a bad headache. I’m not really awake yet.”

Handing him his latte, I go to the kitchen and get him some aspirin.

“Thanks, love,” he says when I return, swallowing the two pills I hand him. “I didn’t get much sleep. We need to talk.”

Other than during the time of Vandal’s accident, I’ve never seen Lukas look so out of sorts and distraught.

“Can I do anything for you?” I ask him, feeling his head for a fever, the mom in me coming out again. I try not to baby him, but sometimes, I can’t stop myself.

Grabbing my hand, he smiles and kisses it. “No, I’m fine. I just feel bad that you stopped by and I feel like crap.”

“You’re allowed to have bad days. I just wanted to see you. My parents called last night and asked if I’d bring Tommy by for the day, so now I have the entire day free. You could go back to bed. I’ll lie next to you and read until you feel better.”

“Whatever,” Ray squawks from his corner, in what sounds like my daughter’s voice.

I laugh. “Wow, is he mimicking Macy? That’s her trademark word.”

Lukas looks uneasily at the bird. “Yeah, maybe. He may have heard it on the TV.”

We go into the living room and sit on the couch, and he looks positively green, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask him, worried.

“I’m fine, baby. It’s just a migraine.”

“I still haven’t heard from Macy after our fight last night,” I say, sipping my coffee. “She stayed at Shelly’s house and didn’t even text or call me. She knows how much that upsets me, to not hear from her.”

“She’ll be okay. It’s just growing pains. You know, trying to be an adult when she’s still a kid.”

“I know. I just hate fighting with her, and I don’t like her going to parties and drinking.”

He touches my hand. “We’ll have a talk with her when she calms down, but I have to talk you about—”

Movement from the top of the stairs catches my eye, and I have to do a double take. My daughter is standing there with nothing but a towel on, her hair and makeup a mess, and she came from the direction of Lukas’ bedroom.

“Mom, what are you doing here?”

I’m too stunned to speak. I jump up, spilling my coffee, and look from him to her. He stands quickly, his eyes panicked.

“Ivy, this isn’t what it looks like. This is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Macy stands at the top of the stairs, glaring down at me. “I still have nothing to say to you,” she says to me angrily, then turns to Lukas. “Are you coming back up?”

Bile rises up to my mouth, and I choke it back before I vomit all over his living room floor. “What the hell is going on here?” I ask, my voice cracking.

He grabs my shoulders. “Ivy, I swear I didn’t touch her. She was drunk—”

“Why is she here? Did she sleep here?” I demand.

“She called me in the middle of the night from a party. She didn’t have a ride, so I went to get her and brought her here so we wouldn’t have to get you upset.”

“Why the hell is she naked and in your room?”

“I don’t know! She slept in the guest room. I don’t know what the fuck she’s doing.”

I look up at my daughter, who’s smirking at us. “Is that true, Macy?”

She shrugs. “Yeah, he picked me up, but then some stuff happened.”

Oh my God. My head is spinning. I look at Lukas, shirtless and exhausted looking, his hair a mess, and my daughter, just holding a towel against her. They definitely look like they’ve been up all night doing God knows what. I can’t believe I was this stupid, to trust someone like him.

“You’re disgusting,” I seethe at him. “How could you do something like this with my daughter?”

I head for the door, and he slams into me from behind, spinning me around.