Staying closer to Harris.
Clearing my throat of the lump that was there, I lifted my eyes back to meet my dad’s. “I love you guys so much. Even when I do leave for college, I’m not going far. You’ll still have to deal with all my annoying issues.”
Dad’s eyes brightened, letting me know that he was on board with me staying close to home, while my mom’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying, Lucy? You aren’t going to pick Georgetown?”
“Layla—”
“No, Jesse. I want to know.” She pulled her hand out of Dad’s and stood there, frowning down at me with her hands on her hips. “You’re going to UCLA? Is that really what you want? Are you going to be happy with the English program there?”
“Mom…”
“No.” She shook her head, looking more upset than I’d seen her in forever. “Ever since you were ten years old you’ve been talking about the programs at Georgetown and Harvard and even Columbia. UCLA was a last choice for you, in case the others didn’t want you. Which was a stupid thing to think because they were all tripping over themselves months ago to get you to come a semester early.”
Luca and Lyric jumped off the end of my bed where they had been sitting, watching us for the last few minutes. As the tone of our mother’s voice rose, they knew it was best to get out while they were still not the ones in trouble. “See you at breakfast, Lucy,” they called as they ran from my room.
I didn’t even glance at them. I was too focused on Mom. She was so upset that there were tears in her eyes. “Why is this such a big deal?” I demanded. “I thought you would be glad I was going to stay closer to home.”
“Of course I want you close to home. If possible, I would keep you locked in this room for the rest of your life, baby. But I know that isn’t going to happen.” She combed her fingers through her long hair, pushing the thick cinnamon tresses away from her face. “You’ve had dreams that I’ve always been determined to help you fulfill, Lucy. You have such talent, such a bright future. Georgetown can give you so much more than UCLA.”
“Let’s just calm down for a minute,” Dad tried to cut in.
“Sometimes dreams change.” Fresh tears burned my eyes and I tried to hold them back. “I’m sorry that I’m disappointing you, but...”
“You aren’t disappointing me, Lucy. I just don’t want you to wake up in four years and regret your school choices. I don’t want you to waste your talent somewhere you won’t be truly happy academically.”
“I will be happy at UCLA. They might not be Georgetown when it comes to their English program, but it is in no way below par.” I pushed back my covers and climbed out of bed. Going to my mom, I wrapped my arms around her waist and met her gaze without flinching. “I want UCLA, Mom. Please, will you accept that and be happy for me?”
Her jaw clenched, the muscles working for a few seconds before she blew out a long sigh and finally nodded her head. “Yeah, baby. Okay. If that is really what you want, I’ll stand behind you.”
“Is it safe to talk now?”
Mom and I both turned to look at Dad who was still sitting on the edge of my bed. I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the frustrated look on his handsome face. “Sorry, Daddy.”
Jesse Thornton stood and wrapped his arms around us, kissing first the top of my head before brushing his lips over my mom’s. “Since that is decided—and yeah, I’m gonna say it, I’m glad you’ve decided to stay close to home, Lu—I think we should get downstairs and start on breakfast for the birthday girl.”
“Yeah.” Mom nodded. “Pancakes or waffles, Lucy?”
“Surprise me,” I told her as she and Dad left my room. I waited until the door was closed behind them before falling back onto my bed.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I reached for my phone. I couldn’t believe that Mom had been so upset about my college choice. I’d honestly thought she would be just as easy to please about my staying home as my dad was. Shaking my head, I turned my attention to my phone and smiled when I saw that I had a message from Harris.
Happy Birthday! I love you.
The text had been sent at 12:01 am. I must have just fallen asleep when he’d sent it. Flicking my thumb over his name, I lifted the phone to my ear as it began to ring on the other end. I knew he was awake. It was Tuesday and he was probably already knee deep in work at First Bass since he’d had the night before off.
“Did you tell him yet?”
I blinked at his greeting and let out a small laugh. “Considering I’d just woken up and have already had a scene with my mom, no. I haven’t told Daddy anything yet, Harris. But I will, I swear. The day won’t end without me telling him.”
For the last week Harris had been asking me almost daily if I’d told my dad about us yet. I knew it was bothering him, keeping our relationship from not only my dad but also his own so that Jesse wouldn’t find out by accident. I’d assured him repeatedly that I would tell him today no matter what, though. It was time to tell him. Time to get it out there for the world to see. I was tried of hiding how I really felt about Harris Cutter from my family.
“You and Layla had a scene?” From the sound of his voice, I could picture him frowning. “Everything okay?”
I sighed. “It is now. She just had a little meltdown over my decision to go to UCLA rather than Georgetown.”
There was a long silence on his end and I wondered what was going through his head. After what felt like a lifetime, he finally spoke again. “You’re staying here?”
I wished I could see his face. I needed to know what he was thinking, how he felt about my decision. I hadn’t told him about it, hadn’t told anyone, really, until that morning. “Yes,” I answered simply.
“Fuck, Lucy.” He let out a harsh breath and I could picture him leaning his head back against his chair with his eyes closed. “Do you know how much I’ve been dreading the end of your school year? I thought… Hell, I thought you were going to leave me and then I’d lose you because of the whole long-distance thing. That sounds selfish, because I know how much you want Georgetown, but seriously, sweetness, I think I’ve given myself at least one ulcer thinking about it.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured and closed my eyes, hating that I’d made him stress when he didn’t have to. “I wish you would have told me. I could have eased your mind.”
“Are you going to be happy with UCLA?”
“Of course I’m going to be happy with it.” I shook my head, feeling like I was about to walk into yet another battle about what college I was picking. “Can you just accept that I’m going to UCLA without questioning me? I want to stay here, close to my family and to you. Is that so hard to believe?”
“No, of course not,” he grumbled. “But you’ve been talking about Georgetown since you were ten, Lucy. If you’re staying because of me, I want to make sure that you’re going to be happy.”
“Actually, I’m staying for me, so you can relax.” I pushed up onto one elbow. “Are we still on for three o’clock?”
“All set.” He paused for a second before speaking again. “Are you okay?”
“If you tell me you love me again, I will be.”
“I love you. Always,” was murmured in my ear and I couldn’t help but melt at my favorite words being spoken from his lips. “I’ll see you in a few hours, sweetness.”
“Can’t wait. Bye, Harris.”
Tossing my phone on the end of my bed, I forced myself to get up and shower. Leaving my hair damp, I dressed and went down to have breakfast with my family. Over the next few hours I was kept busy with calls from everyone wishing me a happy birthday. Even Caleb and Angie sent me a text telling me they hoped I enjoyed my day.
The Jacobson twins and their father had left the day after Christmas, much to Kin’s disappointment. After the argument that was heard around the world—because the paps had made sure of it—Carter and the twins had thought it would be better for Kin if they left a week early. Seeing how upset Kin had been over the last week, m
y mom and Aunt Emmie had only had that much more reason to hate Jillian Montez. I seriously feared for that chick’s social standing if she didn’t slack up on Kin. Aunt Emmie was not someone you wanted as your enemy when your goal in life was to become as popular as a Kardashian.
I wasn’t even completely sure what the disagreement had been about. Kin hadn’t wanted to talk about it and I had refused to believe anything the tabloids had to say about it. They never printed the truth and I wasn’t about to hurt my friend by looking at one of those damn trash magazines.
At two o’clock, I started getting ready. I left my hair curly today but with enough product in it to keep it in cheek. I pulled the craziness into a ponytail and then started on my makeup. Harris and I were doing the only thing I really wanted to do today.
Getting ink.
When he’d given me my Christmas present, I’d known exactly how I’d wanted to spend my birthday. He’d given me a necklace with a silver and diamond Celtic knot charm on it that represented friendship. I loved that necklace and hadn’t taken it off since he’d helped me put it on. I’d asked him the next day if he was up to getting the friendship Celtic knot inked with me and he’d been more than willing.
I loved that it was something that we could do together, that would mark up both of us as belonging to each other, without being something cliché. We were getting them on our wrists, his on the right and mine on my left, because he wanted them to line up when he held my hand. I’d already told my parents, told them the meaning behind the matching ink we were getting, and they’d had no objections to it. Not that it would matter if they had. I was eighteen today and they no longer had a say in whether or not I got a tattoo.
At a quarter to three I went downstairs, knowing that it was time I told my dad. I didn’t know what Harris and I were going to do after our tattoo appointment. He’d mentioned dinner and then maybe back to First Bass for a little while. I was hoping he would bring me home himself tonight, but didn’t know if that was going to be possible or not.
I found Dad in the living room with the twins. We still had another week off from school for break so the boys were soaking up all the TV time they could get in. As I walked into the living room, the boys decided it would be fun to tackle me.
I went down just a few feet from the couch in a pile of arms and legs as they started tickling me. “Stop,” I squealed. I was probably the most ticklish person on the planet and my brothers exploited that fact. Often. “No, don’t. Luca you little… Lyric I thought you loved me.” I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. “Daddy, please!” I wheezed out.
“Okay, boys, let your sister up.” He pulled Luca off of me and Lyric got up on his own, but they were both grumbling about having to end their fun.
I lay there for a few minutes, trying to catch my breath. I was sure my hair was a total wreck, but I wasn’t worried about it. Finally, Dad offered me his hand and helped me up. I tugged down my shirt and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Daddy, you love me, right?”
“That’s the stupidest question you have ever asked me, Lucy.” He hugged me tight. “I love you more than anything in the world, baby. You know that.”
Yeah, I did. And I was going to exploit that fact times a million. “And you want to make my birthday special, right?”
Ever-changing brown eyes narrowed on me. “Of course.”
I smiled up at him, giving him the look I knew he would never be able to say no to. “If I started dating Harris, you would be okay with it, right?”
I expected him to go stone still and then Hulk out on me. Jesse Thornton was without a doubt one of the most overprotective fathers in the world. I’d always known that the first guy I wanted to date would end up crippled and in a nursing home somewhere under twenty-four-hour guard supervision so that Jesse didn’t get to finish the job of murdering the poor bastard.
Weirdly enough, none of those things happened. His face actually relaxed into a smile. “Yeah, baby. If that is what you and Harris want to do, I’ll be okay with that.”
I blinked up at him, sure that I hadn’t heard him right. “Really?”
He gave me another tight hug and stepped back. “Of course, Lu. Actually, I’m glad you two want to start dating. I know I give the boy a hard time, but he’s the only guy I could ever willingly let you go to.”
A mixture of relief and surrealism washed through me. I’d had so many arguments ready to convince him that Harris was a good guy and that me dating him wasn’t going to be as bad as he might think. Now that he was telling me so calmly that he was all for my relationship with Harris Cutter, I was at a loss for words.
The sound of the doorbell didn’t immediately snap me out of my shock. I stood there while my dad went to answer the door, replaying everything we’d just said. Had it really been that easy? I mean, really?
“Lucy?” I turned at the sound of Harris’s voice. His face was full of concern as he ran his eyes over me. “You okay?”
“Um…yeah.” I shook my head in hopes of getting rid of the rest of my shock and was able to smile at him. “You ready?”
“I was going to ask you that.” He grinned. “Your hair seems to have a mind of its own today.”
I didn’t even blink. The twins had pulled most of my ponytail down, but I wasn’t going to take the time to fix it. I crossed the room and grasped his arm, pulling him toward the front door where Dad was still standing, a grin on his handsome face. We needed to get as far away from there as possible in case my scary-as-hell dad changed his mind and decided to feed Harris to the sharks that had been spotted offshore behind our house the day before.
I rushed through a goodbye hug and practically pushed Harris toward his Maserati. Harris shot me a glare over his shoulder, but I ignored it until he was safely buckled in behind the wheel.
“What is the matter with you?” he growled as he started the car.
“I told Daddy,” I informed him, watching the front door of my house in case my dad suddenly came out.
“Oh,” Harris frowned. “And?”
“He said he was okay with it. That he was glad that we were going to date.” Harris backed out of the driveway and put the car in Drive and only then did I start to relax.
“So why are you acting like we need to be running to Mexico?”
I grimaced. “Because it was surreal. I didn’t know whether he was being serious or not. It scared me more than if he’d gone off the walls about it.”
Harris laughed. “I knew he wasn’t going to have a problem with it, Lu. He told me weeks ago that if we ever decided we wanted something more than friendship that he would be cool with it.”
I blinked, sure that I hadn’t just heard him correctly. “He did? Why didn’t you tell me?” I exploded. “I’ve been scared to death, fearing for your life.”
He shrugged. “You weren’t ready to tell him. You had to have the guts to tell him without me making it easier on you. I had to know that you were really ready to take us seriously.”
I went completely still in my seat. “Excuse me?” Had he really thought I wasn’t serious about the two of us being together? What the hell!
“Look, I knew you wanted to be with me, but I also know that to you it wasn’t actually real until you told your parents about us. Real is important to me, Lucy. That’s why I was so impatient for you to tell him the past few weeks.” He braked at a stop sign and reached for my hand, which was now free of that stupid soft cast on it. “Don’t be pissed at me. You know I’m right.”
I wanted to be mad, but I knew that he was right. Damn it. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he assured me and leaned over to brush a quick, soft kiss over my lips. “I knew I had to give you time. I’m just glad it’s over now. I don’t have to pretend I’m not in love with you when your family is around.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. Always.”
Those words wrapped around me as he shifted gears and drove on.
I was nervous wh
en we got to the tattoo shop, but as soon as I sat down in the chair to go first, a calm washed over me and I barely felt the needle as I had the Celtic knot inked into my left wrist. It took less than fifteen minutes from start to finish on the tattoo, and I was in love with it.
Harris sat in the same chair when I was done and when it was finished we took a picture of our ink so I could send it to Kin before the tattoo artist bandaged us up. Outside the shop, Harris grabbed hold of my waist and pulled me roughly against him for a kiss that had me going up in flames.
Like it always did when his lips touched mine, my mind shut down. All thoughts of dinner or celebrating my birthday evaporated. All I wanted was his hands on me, touching me, making me crazy for more. Ever since our first heavy-duty make out session where he’d sent me soaring through the stars, we’d been getting more and more daring. Last night, in his office at First Bass, I’d actually convinced him to touch my favorite spot with his fingers. Up until then he had never really touched me there, not with his hand at least. I knew it was something he’d been struggling with—that he thought it was wrong to touch me sexually before I was eighteen—and I wasn’t ashamed to say I’d felt powerful when he’d given in to my pleas for more.
When he lifted his head, we were both struggling for air. “Dinner,” he said, as if trying to remind himself. “Dinner first.”
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth. It was beginning to be a habit but I knew that it drove Harris crazy when I did it. “How about dessert first?”
His arms tightened even more, pulling me harder against him. “Don’t tempt me, Lucy. It’s taking everything inside of me not to put you in that car and take you back to my place. This is a special day for you, sweetness.”
I pouted out my bottom lip but didn’t argue. As much as I wanted to be alone with him, I didn’t want to mess up his plans. Although, with the way Harris’s hardness was flexing against my lower stomach, I was seriously tempted to say to hell with everything else and beg him to take me home and make love to me.