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“Hi,” I greeted Harris. “I’m Kin.”
He tilted his head. “Hello, Kin.”
“I heard this is the place to be on Wednesday nights. Is there any way I can get on the rotation for the open mike?” I bit my lip, flirting unashamedly. “I have something I’d like to sing for you.”
“Oh, yeah?” He grinned again, his dimples popping.
Holy shit. I could totally see why Lucy was hung up on this guy, if that was what was going on with my friend. If I’d met him before I’d set eyes on Jace, I might have been crushing on him myself. “Yeah,” I said a little breathlessly and could actually feel Jace’s body temp freezing over.
Jealous Jace had always been amusing to me. He’d been jealous of Caleb that first night, but I’d quickly set him right about our relationship. Any other time I’d gone to that bar in Bristol to watch Tainted Knights perform he’d had his eyes glued to me to make sure no one approached me. He would rather I show up with Caleb than without him, because no one bothered to look twice when my stepbrother was in attendance and, if they did, one look from him usually had guys pissing themselves.
“Sure, Kin. I’ll put you on the list.” His gaze went over my head to Jace, then quickly back to me. I could almost feel the message that had passed between the two guys.
Hands off.
I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t shopping for a replacement for Jace. Hell, I was done with guys for the foreseeable future.
“Lu with you?” Harris surprised me by asking next.
I nodded my head in the direction I’d just come from and those aquamarine eyes zeroed in on her instantly. Well, hell. The look that crossed Harris’s face was unexpected yet…not. The way his eyes seemed to eat up Lucy told me all I needed to know about this guy. I wanted to get in his face and tell him that if he hurt her I would cut off his balls, but for some reason I didn’t think I had to stress that to this guy.
“You’re my new favorite person, Kin.”
I grinned at him. “Come over and join us.”
I didn’t have to tell him twice. He was on his feet before I’d even turned back toward our table. Lucy tried to look busy by pulling h
er phone out and playing with it, but I could see the slight tremble to her fingers as I dropped down into my chair just as Harris took the one right beside her.
“Why haven’t you answered my messages?” Harris demanded with a smug grin on his face as he scooted his chair so close to Lucy that I wondered if she would develop personal space issues. “I figured I would get a ‘fuck you’ or a ‘go to hell’. Instead all I got was nothing. Honestly, I’d rather have the ‘fuck you’, Lu.”
“What are you talking about?” Lucy demanded. “I haven’t gotten any messages from you.”
I sat back in my chair, watching them intently as they argued about Harris texting or not texting. It was slightly amusing to watch Lucy take charge of a guy’s attention like she currently was with him. In the few weeks that I’d known Lucy, I’d learned a lot about her. One of the things I already knew was that she thought guys were immune to her because she sure as hell acted like she was immune to them. Yet, with Harris, I could see how un-immune she really was. It was in the way her eyes dilated a little more every time their gazes met. In the way her breath seemed to catch when he dipped his head a little closer. In the way she lit up just being next to him.
“The hell you say. I’ve been texting you since Sunday night.” He pulled out his phone and showed her.
Lucy grinned and I glanced over her shoulder to see what was going on. “That’s not your number. Why would you wrong-number the poor 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.
