I wrapped my fingers around her hands, giving them a gentle squeeze. “You were right, Mom. It wasn’t your place to tell me. Harris should have.”
“But I should have told you anyway.” A few tears fell onto her cheeks but she didn’t try to wipe them away. “I’m so sorry—”
“What the fuck happened to your hands?” Dad’s near roar when he saw the bruises on my fists had me dropping Mom’s hands. He snatched them into his own and brought them closer to examine them. “What did you punch, a fucking wall?”
I winced when he ran his thumb over a particularly tender bruise on the middle knuckle of my left hand. “More or less.” His brow rose and I shrugged. “I kind of beat Harris up yesterday when I confronted him.”
My parents’ reaction to that was so comical that I actually found myself smiling. Mom gasped and Dad’s mouth fell open in surprise. “You beat up Harris Cutter?”
“Kind of.” I felt my cheeks turning pink with shame. “I was upset and pissed and when I saw him I just started swinging.”
Dad’s mouth snapped closed and he shook his head twice before letting out a laugh that seemed to come straight from his soul. “That’s my girl.” He carefully released my hands and wrapped his arms around me in a hug that pushed all the air out of my lungs. “I’ve never been more proud of you than right now, Lu.”
Chapter 12
Harris
The doorbell woke me up.
Groaning, I lifted my head and squinted my eyes at the digital clock beside my bed. Fuck.
Two thirty-six. PM.
Fucking, fuck. I needed to get up and head to the club.
I was going on maybe three hours of sleep. I’d left the club at ten the night before and gone out to look for Lucy when her dad had called to see if she was still with me. I’d torn the entire city apart hoping to find her. Around three that morning Jesse had finally texted me that she’d made it home. I’d gone back to First Bass, exhausted and stressed to the max and hadn’t gotten home until after nine that morning, still trying to get Lucy to call me back.
Her phone had still been off and I’d fallen into bed, unable to keep my eyes open for another second. My cell was still lying on the bed beside me where I’d left it, but there were no missed calls or texts. She was killing me, fucking killing me.
Not answering her phone. Wouldn’t see me again while she was in town. Leaving on Sunday. Not coming back.
Killing. Me.
Well, fuck that. I didn’t care if she wasn’t going to make this easy for me. If I wanted easy I would have moved on. Hell, I never would have waited for her in the first place. Lucy Thornton was anything but easy. She was the exact opposite and that was just one of the million and one things I loved about her.
She was still killing me, though.
The doorbell rang again, and this time the person pressed and didn’t let go. Shit.
Jumping out of bed, I grabbed the shirt I’d tossed on the floor that morning and headed for the front door. If it was Jace, I was going to punch him in the face. He knew I’d been out looking for Lucy and had promised to call if he or Kin talked to her.
My tired brain realized it probably wasn’t Jace by the time I got to the living room of my one-bedroom apartment. He was probably getting ready to head out to Virginia with Kin for his sister’s graduation that weekend. Muttering a curse because I had no clue who was at the door, I paused to look through the peephole.
Seeing the blonde standing on the other side—still holding down the doorbell—had me groaning. Unlocking the door, I pulled it open and glared down at Angie. “What?”
“Holy shit. Who gave you the fat lip?”
I grimaced and touched my swollen lip with my tongue. Lucy had gotten some good hits in the night before. I was fucking proud of her. “Lucy.”
“Oh.” Angie grinned.
My glare turned harder. “What do you want?”
“Jenna won’t let me in.”
My brows lifted. “And?”
“So give me the fucking key,” she growled at me, putting her hands on her hips and tossing her long blond hair back. “She can’t just sit up there and sulk.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, that’s all she does these days.” I turned away from the door and opened the drawer to the little table behind me. Pulling out a set of keys, I found the one to my old apartment and handed it over. Jenna would probably call me later and bitch, but Angie was right. Jenna needed to stop sulking so much and get out.
After everything that had happened in January, Jenna had become a hermit. She rarely left the apartment we’d once shared. Natalie had completely cut herself off from her sister, but Drake and Shane still came around. Without their wives or kids, though. No one, not even Drake, was happy with her after she’d kept her time in rehab from them. That she’d babysat Drake’s girls during a time she had been high—something I’d had no idea about—had turned Lana and Harper Stevenson against her. Drake still tried to help her stay clean, but it would take a miracle before he let his daughters around her again.
Jenna was an outcast now, and she didn’t help matters any by just staying in her apartment, painting dark emo shit and not talking to anyone.
The only shining light in Jenna’s life these days was Angie, who had taken it upon herself to help Jenna. Most days, however, Jenna tried to keep Angie out, but Angie being Angie, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Neither was I. If Angie helped my friend even a little bit, then I would give her the key to the apartment and anything else she needed.
Snatching the key from me, she twirled around, making her hair hit me in the face and headed for the elevators. “See ya.”
“Make sure she eats,” I called after her.
“That was the plan.”
I started to close the door, then stepped out. “Hey, Ang.” She stopped at the elevator to look at me. “Can you take care of her for me for a few weeks? I think I’m going to be out of town for a little while.”
Blond brows lifted, but she only nodded. “Sure. Don’t worry about Jenna.” The elevator arrived and she stepped inside. “Call me, though. Let me know you’re alive and shit.”
I smirked. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Angie.”
Closing the door, I headed back to my room and went straight for the shower. If I was going to be out of town, I had some serious work to take care of at the club.
My staff was already arriving by the time I got to First Bass. Normally I was there an hour before them, so they stopped to gape when I walked in behind them. Ignoring their looks, I headed for my office. “Tell Nate I need to see him,” I called over my shoulder.
I got straight to work, making sure everything was in order for my assistant manager when she got back. If I ended up being gone as long as I planned, then I had to make contingency plans. Every base had to be covered because I wasn’t going to let work interfere once I left.
It took Nate thirty minutes to get to my office. I hadn’t expected him to jump the second I sent someone after him. He was good at his job and that meant he did the shit that needed doing without me having to tell him. Anything I needed to speak to him about could wait.
I was putting together the ‘to do’ list for the assistant manager when my office door opened and Nate walked in. “Yeah?”
I lifted my eyes from my computer screen long enough to glance at him. “Sit down. I need to talk to you about something.”
Taking one of the two empty seats in front of my desk, he smirked as he stretched out his long legs. “Nice lip. Lucy has a hell of a left hook.”
I ignored his jab and picked up the stack of papers I had already printed off. “I’m leaving Sunday night. I don’t know when I’ll be back, so you need to step in as my second assistant manager in case Barb needs help.”
That wiped that smirk off the bartender’s face. He sat up straight, his eyes wide. “What?”
“You’re the only one I trust to step into that role, Nate.
You know this club inside and out and I know you can handle any problems that pop up just as well as I can.” I offered him the papers. “This is the contract. I’ll pay you a salary and you can still keep the tips you make while bartending upstairs.”
He took the contract and flipped through it. He read over it, taking in all the details like a smart person should. I hadn’t expected him to just sign and not read the damn thing. I knew the second he saw the page that had the salary I thought he deserved on it. His head snapped back up. “You trust me that much?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, man. I trust you that much. Now sign the fucking thing so I can send it over to my lawyer. I have shit to do and only a few days to get it done.”
Nate shook his head, grabbed a pen and scribbled his name over the last page. “Where you going?”
“Florida.” I took the contract, scribbled my signature under Nate’s and then tossed it on the table behind me so I would remember to send it to my lawyer.
Nate blinked like I’d just said outer space. “Florida? What the fuck is in Florida?”
“Right now, nothing. Next week, everything.”
Chapter 13
Lucy
The rest of the week passed quickly. I spent a whole day with Aunt Emmie on Wednesday. We didn’t talk about what had happened on Monday and I was grateful. I didn’t want to rehash all of that crap all over again. They were sorry. I was sorry. End of story.
The same happened when I spent Thursday at Lana’s house. She wanted to say she was sorry, but as far as I was concerned she was the one who least needed to apologize to me. My sister had done what she had done from the second I was born: taken care of me. Had my back.
Instead of letting her apologize, I’d hugged her hard and then told her to shut up. We’d had a great day just hanging out at her house with all four of her girls and Drake. I spent the night, camped out between my three older nieces where we all fell asleep after I’d read them a few chapters of the Ever After High series Lana had gotten Nevaeh addicted to.
Friday I went from Lana’s house straight to Shane and Harper’s, who lived only a few minutes away. No one mentioned Monday and I wondered if it was because they didn’t know what had happened. Still, I knew Harper and Dallas were as close as sisters, so she had to know even if Shane didn’t.
“Are you sure you won’t intern for me?” Harper asked with a pout as she put a plate of sandwiches on the kitchen table for lunch. “I mean, I know you want to get your degree as quickly as possible, but think of the experience you’ll get and be able to put on your resume when you finish school.”
“I’m sorry,” I told her with a smile. “I’ll think about doing it next summer, okay?”
The pout only grew. “So you’re going to subject me to a bunch of interns who know nothing and can’t write for beans? I thought you loved me.”
I laughed. “I’m sure you will find great interns who can write even better than I can, Harp. Besides, you don’t want your staff to accuse you of nepotism, do you?”
“Like I care. What’s the fun in being the boss if I can’t play a little favoritism every now and then, huh?” She picked up one of the sandwiches and took a small bite. “Is it the money, or rather lack of money? Because I can square it with human resources and get you a salary.”
“Oh, my gods!” I shook my head, laughing even harder now. “You are a nut case, you know that, right?”
The pout turned into a cheeky grin. “True, but I would still pay you.”
“Shane,” I called out. He was outside with the kids who were playing in the sand. “Tell your wife to stop already.”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” He chuckled. “I like sleeping beside her too much to do that, Lu.”
Harper kept it up for another ten minutes, until her children came in to eat with us. After that everyone’s energy was focused on Violet and Mason and I was happy to forget about anything and everything else. It was nice to know Harper wanted me to work with her so much, but I was still debating where I wanted to go with my career and I had plenty of time to figure that out.
I went home after dinner to find the house empty. My mom had texted me earlier in the day to let me know they were all going out to dinner with Emmie, Nik and the kids. I was tired and just wanted to crash so I went up to my room and flopped face down on my bed. My phone landed on the pillow beside me and I lifted my head to glare at it before burying my face in the pillow once again.
Kin was in Virginia with Jace now so I couldn’t call her to come hang out with me and Harris…
He had taken me seriously and hadn’t tried calling me. Not once. The disappointment that had flooded through me every time my phone would go off and it wouldn’t be from him cut like a knife. Everything he’d said about not giving up on us had apparently been just a load of BS.
Refusing to cry over him—yet again—I turned on the TV to some boring rerun of a crime show I liked and kicked off my jeans before crawling under the covers and falling asleep.
Saturday was spent packing. Our plane left early Sunday morning and since I wasn’t coming back to California for the rest of the summer I had to pack up everything I wanted to take back to school with me. When I’d left back in January, I didn’t do any packing. Mom did all of that for me because if she hadn’t, nothing would have gotten packed. This time I wanted to leave, so I made sure to take everything I wanted and needed.
We had an early dinner that night and then went to bed. The twins were more hyper than normal with excitement for our trip and Dad had to yell at them to knock it off and get to sleep. I wasn’t nearly as excited but still couldn’t fall asleep.
This was it. I was leaving in less than twelve hours and I had no idea when I would be back. Or even if I should come back. Sure my family was all there, but they spent time on the East Coast throughout the year too. Kin was there, but whenever she was in Virginia, Marcus could drive me down to spend some time with her.
Harris was here.
He was here and I would be over three thousand miles away. The distance would be good for us both. We could move on.
Eventually.
Fuck it. There was no use lying to myself. I wasn’t ever going to get over him, but our chance was over.
We were over.
With that thought, I fell into a restless sleep with tears still dampening my lashes.
As babies, the twins hated flying. It had hurt their ears and made them sick. Now that they were older, that was still the case. Mom pumped them full of Dramamine and gave them gum to chew in hopes of helping with the ear problem, but they still hated flying. Luca more so than Lyric. Thankfully, we were all in First Class, so that made it a little more bearable for them.
Mom and Dad both sat with Luca, hoping to keep him calm while I sat with Lyric. He put on his Beats headphones, turned his music up to full blast and leaned back in his chair. Closing his eyes, I watched him mutter to himself from time to time, but I couldn’t tell if he was praying or cursing.
Once we landed at the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, it was just an eighteen-mile drive to Panama City Beach. The heat in SoCal and the heat in Florida were completely different heats. SoCal’s was a dry heat and bearable. The heat in Florida was full of humidity that weighed a person down, and if they had curly hair like myself, then they were screwed.
I hadn’t bothered to try to straighten my hair and would probably leave my flat iron in my case the entire trip. Even with product in my hair to calm it down, it became a giant ball of frizz the second we stepped off the plane. I pulled out a sturdy hair tie and put the thick tresses into a knot on top of my head as Dad picked up our rental and started putting our luggage in the back of the SUV.
Before we got to the condo where we would be spending the next two weeks before moving on to Orlando for some fun at Disney World, we stopped for some dinner. The condo was supposed to be ready to go with the fridge stocked, but no one felt
like cooking that night. Dinner took over an hour because fast food wasn’t something anyone wanted and the sun was starting to set by the time Dad was unlocking the door to the condo that belonged to Aunt Emmie, Natalie Cutter and Annabelle Brockman.
Aunt Emmie had started off her management company solo and then Annabelle had come on as an equal partner. Natalie, who had worked her way up from being Aunt Emmie’s assistant now owned a third of the company. The three partners had decided to invest some of their money in real estate, not just around the country but worldwide. They had the condo in Panama City Beach, a house in Toronto and various apartments in London, Paris, Rome, and Germany.
It was nice to have a place to hide out in that offered privacy. The condo in Panama City Beach was a gated complex with its own private beach. Security was tight because celebrities owned most of the condos. Paps were kept out as well as fans and any kind of crazy trying to get close to one of the many famous residents.
The door now open, Dad stepped back and let the twins in. Mom followed behind them and I slowly made my way inside after her. I was hot, sticky and ready for a shower followed by a date with my pillow. My mind was already starting to shut down with jet lag and all I could think about was the lukewarm shower washing away all the grime that felt caked into my skin.
“We’re here,” Mom called as she set her overnight bag down on the couch in the living room.
“Yeah, Mom, we’re aware.” I yawned as I passed her on my way toward one of the many guest rooms.
This condo took up the entire top level of the complex and had six bedrooms, all with their own bathrooms, as well as a large kitchen and dining room; not to mention the theater-size living room with the sixty-five inch 4K television that took up the majority of one wall. It wasn’t the space that had sold the place to Aunt Emmie, though. It was the view from the balcony—or rather, balconies. The sun setting over the Gulf was priceless.