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She shook her head again. “I’m leaving for Florida on Sunday.”
“What?” No. She couldn’t be leaving again. Not this soon. Not ever. “Wait, what? Florida?” Florida meant she wasn’t going back to school. I could work with that. Some of my tension faded.
“My parents are taking me and the twins on vacation to Panama City Beach,” she informed me with a little shrug. “Then we’re all going to Disney World for a week. Luca and Lyric have only ever been to Disneyland.”
“When will you be back?” I’d wait a few weeks if I had to. Fuck, I’d waited this long, I could wait a little longer.
She lower
ed her eyes to look at the carpet and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. “I’m not coming back. I’m going back to Georgetown for the summer semester.”
Chapter 11
Lucy
I wanted to stay mad at my family, but it was hard to when they loved me so much. I knew that they had only kept the news about Harris and Tessa from me because they cared. If the roles had been reversed then I was sure I would have done the exact same thing.
After working out most of my anger on Harris, I was able to see my mom’s reasons for not telling me herself more clearly. That didn’t mean I wasn’t still hurt that she—and everyone else—had kept something so important from me.
Once I’d left First Bass the night before, soon after telling Harris that I was returning to D.C. for the summer semester at Georgetown, I’d gotten in my Range Rover and driven around the city until late. It was weird being all by myself. That never happened. Ever. There was always someone watching over me, making me feel like I couldn’t completely relax.
By the time I’d gotten back to the house, all the lights had been off and I’d been thankful that I didn’t have to face Mom or Dad. I’d kept my phone off so I didn’t have to talk to anyone, and since I hadn’t taken Marcus with me, I knew they must have been worried about me. That I didn’t have to deal with them waiting for me at the front door to yell or lecture me had been a relief.
When I’d gone up to my room, trying to be as quiet as I could, it was to find my bed wasn’t empty. My mom had been asleep on top of my covers with one of my pillows cuddled against her chest. As I’d gotten closer to the bed, I had seen clearly from the dim lighting of the hall light that she had fallen asleep crying, and my heart had broken all over again.
I was close to my parents. We shared a bond that few families got to. We didn’t normally keep secrets. We trusted each other. We loved each other harder than any other family I knew. Maybe it was because we’d come together in such an unorthodox kind of way since Layla was really my sister and Jesse had pretty much adopted both Lana as well as me when he’d married Layla. We’d known how not to treat each other and we’d loved each other and been thankful for what we had.
Kicking off my shoes, I slid into bed beside her without bothering to change my clothes. Hating the sight of those tears and knowing that I’d caused them, I wrapped my arms around her and, before I’d known it, I was sound asleep. By the time I woke up the next morning, to the sound of my brothers running up and down the stairs, it was to find my bed empty.
With a tired sigh, I got out of bed and went into my bathroom to shower. The pain between my legs was a dull ache this morning, but my fists were bruised from having used them to hit Harris so many times the night before. Regret filled me at remembering the blood he’d spit out when I’d made him bite his tongue. I couldn’t believe I’d tried to kick his ass.
And he’d let me.
Grimacing, I washed my hair and then got out of the shower. I wanted to get the confrontation with my parents over with sooner rather than later, so I got dressed without drying my hair and went downstairs. The smell of sausage led me into the kitchen.
Luca and Lyric were already at the table eating plates loaded with pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs. My dad was standing at the island, pouring three glasses of orange juice, while Mom finished up making the last of breakfast. Growing up, this would have been a typical Sunday morning for us. Today was Tuesday, though, so it had me pausing on the threshold.
Catching sight of me just standing there, Dad shot me a smile. “Morning, Lu. Sleep well?”
I wrapped my arms around my middle and bit my lip, but gave him a small nod.
His smile dimmed slightly and I could see the indecision swirling in his eyes, but he didn’t start lecturing me on staying out too late and worrying them. As I watched him watching me, I realized he must have been feeling just as guilty as Mom was.
“You missed the best party yesterday, Lucy,” Luca told me, talking with his mouth full, but too excited to care. “Cannon pushed Piper into the pool and Lyric beat the snot out of him.”
My eyes widened at that news and I found myself crossing to the table to sit next to the youngest twin, my own worries pushed to the back of my mind in light of my little brother’s news. Lyric was looking down at his food, his eyes just as stormy as our dad’s when he was pissed off about something. It wasn’t like Lyric to beat up on anyone. That was normally Luca’s MO.
“Why did Cannon push Piper?” I asked.
“He thought it was funny,” Luca answered for his twin. “He laughed about it even though she cried. Lyric jumped out of the pool and had him pinned down before anyone could stop him. Aunt Dallas had steam coming out of her ears when she found out what Cannon did. He got a black eye from Lyric and was grounded for two weeks.”
“Is Piper okay?”
“She skinned her knee on the bottom of the pool,” Lyric mumbled, speaking for the first time. “It was bleeding really bad.”
“Did you help her put on the Band-Aid?” I was trying to get him to look at me, but he kept his eyes focused on his plate. Ah, my poor Ric. His gentle heart was probably beating him up for what he’d done to Cannon, who was younger and a little smaller than the twins.
“Yeah.”
