Rocking Kin (Lucy & Harris, #3) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,25
guy like that, Lucy?”
“I didn’t,” Lucy said with a snicker. “Mom did.”
Harris snatched his phone back, a pout already forming. “Layla wrong-numbered me?” The hurt in his eyes made me feel bad for him. “I thought she liked me.”
“Oh, stop,” Lucy told him with a grin. “Mom loves you. She just loves me more.”
“So give me your real number,” Harris commanded, holding the phone out for her once again. “Let me send you messages you can read and ignore. Or—and this is my preference, by the way—actually talk to me.”
It was cute to watch them together like that, but my attention was quickly pulled away when the fourth and final chair at our table was suddenly pulled back and Jace sat beside me. His shoulders were more tense than I’d ever seen them and his blue eyes were full of ice as he glared down at me.
“Are you really going to play games with me, Kin?” he gritted out. “I thought you were more mature than that.”
I could guarantee that I was more mature than any chick he’d ever dealt with before. “Go to hell, Jace.”
He leaned closer and I shot a quick glance toward Lucy, but she was still caught up in Harris as he tried to convince her to give him her real number. Jace tapped my hand and I moved it away before he could touch me again. “You haven’t returned any of my calls.”
I lifted a brow at him. “I was surprised you still had my number, actually. Figured that went out the door the second you decided I wasn’t worth your time.”
The look that crossed his face was so intense I got a twisted sense of pleasure. Direct hit. It didn’t make me feel any better that he could feel pain where I was concerned. If anything it just made my own aching heart ache all the more. I couldn’t even begin to guess why he would still care after so many months had passed without so much as a word from him. He hadn’t tried to keep up with what was going on in my life.
If he had, maybe I wouldn’t have still been so…
Destroyed.
Maybe if he’d reached out to me while I’d been going through pure hell watching my mom fade right before my eyes I could have been a little more forgiving. It wouldn’t have mattered so much that he’d left me for his band. I could even understand that—just a little. He’d had a chance to make something special with Tainted Knights and I never would have stood in his way where his dreams were concerned.
I loved him too much to stand in his way.
Had.
Had loved him too much to stand in his way.
I’d loved him so much it had scared my mom and Carter. I’d fallen fast and we’d moved even faster where our relationship was concerned. I’d thought he’d loved me just as much.
But there had been nothing from him. After he’d walked away, leaving me a broken mess of the Kin I’d once been, there had been no calls, or texts, or emails. The one person I’d ached to talk to most in the world. The one I’d trusted to have my back and love me as completely as I loved him. The one I’d ached to see. To have his arms around me. To just be there for me to unload my day onto.
I’d had Carter and the twins to support me, but I’d needed more. Needed Jace. He’d known how much I’d needed him.
And he’d turned his back and walked away without a second glance.
Those blue eyes were still on me and I felt more than a little exposed right then. Deciding to tune him out—which was easer said than done—I turned my attention back to Lucy who was now standing with Harris taking selfies and looking so flushed and happy I thought I was looking at a whole new Lucy.
Those two looked good together.
If any two people were meant to be with each other, it was these two. It was kind of adorable.
Right then, however, adorable only pissed me off.
I’d thought I was supposed to be with Jace and look where that had gotten me.
“So when does this open mike thing start?” I demanded as I picked up my glass of ginger ale and took a small sip. “I’d like to get this over with.” And go back to my father’s house so I could forget this day ever happened.