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Arms wrapped around my waist and I turned my head to kiss Jenna’s cheek. She’d been home for a little over two weeks now and so far she was doing great. She looked healthy and was acting like the old Jenna I loved so much. I just hoped she stayed that way when I moved out at the end of the month.
I couldn’t stay in our apartment much longer. Not when she was still with Tessa—who thankfully wasn’t in attendance tonight. I’d thought that I’d convinced Jenna that Tessa wasn’t good for her, but she was still on the fence about breaking up with the other girl. All I wanted was for my friend to be happy, but I wasn’t going to hang around and watch while Tessa brought her down again.
“Okay?”
Jenna nodded, her smile bright as she asked Nate for a glass of ice water. “Tomorrow.”
I couldn’t help but frown, she wasn’t making sense to me. “Tomorrow…what?”
“I’m ending things with Tessa tomorrow.” She lifted the glass and took a thirsty swallow before facing me again. “You were right. She’s trouble and now that I’m clean, I can honestly tell you that I don’t think I was ever in love with her. I was infatuated and in some deep lust, but it was the drugs that made me think it was love.”
My mouth gaped open for a moment before I forced it closed. Looking at her, seeing how natural she was, I realized that she was really going to do it. If she had just been saying it to convince me to stay at our apartment, I was sure that I would have known. Her eyes always shifted and she would tap her finger when she was pretending. “Do you want me to be there when you do it?”
She shook her head. “Nah, this is something I need to do without you holding my hand. But thanks, Harris. For everything.”
“Jen, you know I would do anything for you. You’re my friend. If you need me, I’ll always be there for you.” It was a promise we’d both made to each other when I’d moved in with her my freshman year of college. We would always have each other’s backs. No matter what.
“I know. Same here.” She pressed a kiss to my cheek before pushing away from the bar. “I’m gonna go hug the birthday girl and then dodge my brothers. They are still curious about where I’ve been the last few months and I’m not ready to tell them the whole truth yet.”
“See you later, Jenna.”
“She’s looking good,” Jace commented beside me. “Think she will fall off the wagon?”
“I hope not,” I muttered as I watched Jenna squeeze her way between Harper Stevenson and a very pregnant Lana to hug Lucy.
Lucy welcomed her warmly, having seen firsthand how much of an improvement Jenna had made in her recovery already. When Jenna hugged her, Lucy hugged her back and I watched my girl’s lips move as she whispered something in Jenna’s ear. The taller girl nodded and stepped back with a sad smile on her face.
“Okay, you two losers,” Grayson Knight grumbled as he stood up from the bar. “I’m here to play a gig for the birthday girl. Not sit around pissing the night away. Let’s go.”
Jace muttered something under his breath but stood. “I don’t get paid enough to have to deal with his mood swings.”
I chuckled. “Suck it up, dude. It’s all worth it.”
“Keep telling me that. I might actually believe you one day.”
Lucy
I couldn’t believe that he’d done this for me.
This was probably the best birthday I’d ever had in my life. Of course I’d said that before. My parents always strove to give me memorable birthdays, but this was different. This was from Harris. I was never going to forget how amazing he made my eighteenth for me.
The party had been going on for over two hours now. Tainted Knights was still playing downstairs and we’d all had a big piece of birthday cake already. I could tell that the few kids who were there were starting to get tired and I couldn’t blame them. After all the excitement of the day, I was fighting my own exhaustion.
All I wanted was to fall into bed and dream of this perfect day…
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the only thing I wanted.
My gaze found Harris across the room. He was sitting on one of the leather couches with his baby sister sitting on the armrest and his dad on his other side. Standing over him was my dad and Axton Cage. They were all grinning, laughing every few minutes, and talking animatedly.
What wouldn’t I give to have Harris drag me downstairs to his office and kiss me breathless?
That thought was still in my mind when Drake stopped beside me. Blue-gray eyes narrowed on me as he gazed down at me. “You with Harris now?”
I laughed at the accusation in his voice. “Somehow I thought it would be Daddy giving me grief over me and Harris, not you, Drake.”
He crossed his arms over his lean chest and I realized that he really had changed a lot since I’d met him when I was six. There weren’t any more dark shadows under those clear eyes—eyes that I could still remember always being bloodshot from all the Jack Daniels he would drink. His hair was a lot longer now than it had been back then with just a little gray streaked through it, but, honestly, I thought that made him all that more intriguing. He and my sister had started out as friends, just like Harris and I, but over a year later he had placed his ring on her finger.
Now he and Lana had three beautiful girls and another on the way. With each new arrival of one of his ‘angels’, Drake Stevenson became an even happier man. If Lana didn’t stop popping out babies I was pretty sure my brother-in-law was going to die of happiness. I was glad, though. I wanted Drake happy. It looked good on him.
