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“Kassa’s is next weekend and we leave on Thursday.” She grimaced. “Thankfully Gray leaves on Monday so we don’t have to deal with his ass on the flight out.”
“Has she decided on a school yet?” I knew that Kin had picked UCLA and she and Angie would be moving from their current apartment into one closer to campus over the summer.
“She’s going to UCLA and going to live with Jace and Gray. She’d thought about going to the University of Tennessee but she wants to be closer to the guys, and it’s not like Alici
a will miss her. The woman has turned into a serious workaholic.” Kin made a face and shrugged. “Maybe Gray will calm down now. He’s been driving Jace crazy.”
“Nothing new about that,” I reminded her, and she grinned. Gray and Jace didn’t get along and barely tolerated each other. In the short time I’d known the two Tainted Knights rockers, I’d seen them butt heads repeatedly. The only things the two could agree on was their band and Jace’s little sister. To them, however, that was all that seemed to matter.
The ride to Malibu was spent with Kin mostly doing all the talking. I soaked up just being with her after so many months away. It was good to see her so happy. Since she had moved out of her father’s house, Kin had been able to be herself. With Angie living with her, she got to have a part of her family daily and her homesickness had pretty much evaporated. I knew that Jace was the biggest part of how happy Kin was, though. They were great together, even if it had taken me a little while to accept that Jace wasn’t the dickhead I’d originally thought him when I’d first found out he’d broken my best friend’s heart.
At the apartment, Kin wasted no time ordering us some dinner and then getting Marcus settled in his room before coming back to camp out with me and Angie on the couch. As much as I’d missed Kin, I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Back at Georgetown I went to class, studied in the library, ate my meals in the cafeteria and then hid in my dorm room. It was the same cycle every day. Kin’s excitement was draining me and I was ready to crash before our food even arrived.
My eyes were starting to drift shut when my phone started ringing. Kin gave me a dirty look when I reached for it. “This is our time,” she grumbled.
“Sorry. It’s just my parents making sure I got in okay.” I gave her an apologetic grimace as I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hey, baby. You make it to Kin’s?” Layla’s soft voice filled my ear.
“Yeah. I’m here and we’re getting ready to eat,” I assured her.
“Great. I’ll let your dad know. Do you need anything?”
“Nope. I’m good.” Kin let out a huff and I shook my head at her impatience. “I’ll see you on Sunday, okay?”
“Okay, baby. Have fun with Kin.” But she didn’t say goodbye or try to hang up, which had me tensing.
“Mom?”
She let out a long, tired sounding breath. “Sorry. It’s nothing. I’m just glad you’re home, Lucy. I love you, baby. See you on Sunday.”
Before I could even tell her I loved her back she had hung up and I set my phone down distractedly. Something was up with my mom but I had no clue what it was. I hadn’t seen her since she and Dad had dropped me off at Georgetown back in January. We talked regularly, but she could have been keeping things from me.
Just as I was keeping things from her.
Chapter 3
Lucy
I passed out halfway through Kin’s big sleepover Friday night. Between the stress of end-of-semester exams, the flight, and the anxiety of being home, I hadn’t been able to keep up with Kin. Even though I fell asleep by six, I was the last one up the next morning but I still felt exhausted.
Kin wasted no time in getting me out the door. She was already marking off things on her list and I was glad to go along. Anything to keep my mind off of the actual graduation ceremony, and more importantly the after party. I found myself smiling a little more easily as the day wore on and by that night as we climbed back into her bed my face didn’t feel nearly as stiff and the smiles came a little more easily.
I stretched out on my stomach beside Kin and bunched one of her pillows under my head. “Thanks for today,” I mumbled as I fought sleep.
She turned on her side, propping her head up on her hand. “It was fun, but it showed me just how much I’ve missed you. Are you sure you want to go back to Georgetown for the summer term? I mean, really, summer school?”
“I don’t want to take a break. It helps to keep my mind occupied.”
Blue eyes darkened and she scooted closer. Reaching out she pushed a few of my curls back from my face. The gentle touch of her fingers to my cheek had my eyes stinging but I didn’t shy away from her. “I know it’s been hard, Lu, but things haven’t been easy for him either.”
I turned my face away from her. “Is that why he’s been in the trash mags with a handful of different chicks the last few months?” I didn’t mean to sound so bitter about it, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
It had been a hard pill to swallow when I’d first seen Harris on the cover of some trashy tabloid with his arm around some blonde with killer legs and an even deadlier body. He’d been grinning down at her like she was his whole world and I’d fallen a little deeper into the black abyss that I’d been in from the day he’d told me we didn’t belong together.
I’d tried to tell myself that I was happy if he was moving on. If he was happy then that was all that really mattered. Right?
Wrong.
