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With Trinity still clinging to his back and Mason flying above his head, the three of them went into the house. Knowing I’d lost him for the foreseeable future, I turned my gaze on my brothers. Lyric had Heavenleigh on his back just like Harris had his sister, and Luca had Violet on his back. Apparently, all the girls wanted piggyback rides now. Including Arella, who was trying to jump on Nevaeh’s back.
“Get off, you cow,” Neveah complained. “Daddy, tell Arella I’m not her pack mule.”
“But there’s no one else to give me a piggy ride! Oh, wait…” Without warning, she abandoned her older sister and jumped on my own like some kind of stealthy ninja. I nearly toppled forward at the slight but unexpected weight on my back, but I quickly righted myself.
“Help!” I cried with a laugh as I ran into the house with her clinging to me. “Daddy, help!”
“I’m not that heavy, Aunt Lucy. Jeesh, relax,” my niece grumbled.
Dad stuck his head out of the living room as I went past. “Hey, Lu. When did you get the pet monkey?”
“Shut it, you,” Arella yelled at him as I headed up the stairs. “You’re next!”
Still laughing, I carried her upstairs to her room and dropped her on her bed. I grabbed a pillow and hit her across the back with it then covered her up with her blanket. She shrieked in outrage, but I made a run for the door and closed it before she could untangle herself. Giggling, I raced down the stairs and threw myself into my dad’s arms for a tight hug just as Arella stomped downstairs.
“You’ll pay for that,” the girl bellowed as she stormed into the room, her hair tangled.
“Daddy, protect me,” I pleaded, hiding behind him.
“Uh oh.” He sidestepped me. “If it were anyone but Arella, I would, baby. But she scares me too much.”
“Traitor,” I squealed as my niece tackled me. We both toppled to the floor, and Arella started tickling me. Damn it, my only weakness and everyone knew it too.
“Help!” I cried, laughing so hard tears blurred my vision. “Lana, help me. Someone. Anyone! Please…”
Suddenly her small weight was lifted off me, and I just lay there for a moment, trying to catch my breath. But I had to admit, it felt good to play around and laugh. My hair was probably a tangled mess, but my heart felt lighter than it had in weeks. A hand appeared, and I took it, letting Jenna pull me to my feet.
As soon as I was vertical again, I took in the taller girl. Jenna was smiling, but I could tell she wasn’t herself today. I didn’t know if it was because she was sad Santana, her new roommate, and Angie weren’t there, or if it was because she was in the same house as her sister. The two Stevenson sisters hadn’t made up yet, and I knew it was something that bothered Jenna. They had always been close, until Tessa had ruined their relationship and nearly cost Harris his life. Nat was the only one who hadn’t forgiven Jenna for her part in everything, and I wondered if she ever would. Part of me understood Nat’s position, but I loved Jenna too much not to forgive her.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh in a while,” Jenna said, keeping her voice quiet so it didn’t reach the group of rockers sitting around the living room watching football. “I didn’t realize I missed it until I heard it.”
I shot a glance to where Dad was sitting on a long couch beside Cole Steal. The two were talking about some reunion tour Cole was doing with his rock legend band Steal Entrapment, but I didn’t want to pull his attention to me. This thing between Mom and me, I wanted it to stay that way. I didn’t want Dad to have to take sides, especially since I wasn’t one hundred percent sure whose side he would take.
I wanted him to take mine, but at the same time, I didn’t want him and Mom to fight over me. But what I was really afraid to face was how disappointed he would be in me for my little emotional scene with Mom at lunch the week before. How our argument hadn’t ended up in the trash mags or on TMZ was a minor mystery to me.
Minor because I really only needed one guess as to who had stopped any story dead in its tracks with just a few well-placed phone calls. Aunt Emmie had stopped Harris’s supposed sex tape with Tessa from hitting the mainstream media within an hour once I’d realized what Tessa had done. Something as simple as a few pictures snapped with smartphones wasn’t going to give her any trouble.
“I’ve kind of been tense lately,” I told Jenna now.
She snorted. “Nah, really?” She rolled her pretty blue-gray eyes that seemed to be a Stevenson trademark. Every single one of them had them, with the exception of Violet. But it was a family joke that Harper had wanted a baby so badly that she had more or less cloned herself when she finally did get pregnant with Violet. But the truth was, Violet looked more like Shane than Harper except for her hair and eyes.
“I’ve seen how tense you’ve been, Lucy. It’s a regular topic at the breakfast table up in my apartment. Santana doesn’t know how you haven’t gone off the deep end and bitch-slapped someone yet. She’s taken a lot of bridal pictures in her short career, but she says she’s never seen a more stressed-out bride in her life.” My eyes went back to Dad, and Jenna followed my gaze before sighing resignedly. “One word and you know Jesse would step in. Or Harris. Although, if you ask me, you should have already been kicking his ass about it anyway.”
I bit the inside of my bottom lip and turned my gaze to look at anything but Jenna or my Dad. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
She touched a gentle hand to my arm. “No, Lucy. You’re anything but fine. You might have been playing around with Arella just now, but those cries for help were genuine.”
“I see someone finally helped you,” Lana laughed as she came into her living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel that was tucked into the waistband of her jeans. She ignored everyone else in the room as she came over to give me a tight hug.
My arms wrapped around her, and I closed my eyes as I felt her lips touch the side of my head. Lana had been the first person to ever love me. Once our mother had given birth to me, I’d become more of a burden to her than a treasure. Unlike with Lana and Layla, my father hadn’t been a rocker who had bought off Lydia Daniels with a hefty check to keep her in her favorite lifestyle for a little while.
My biological father had been her drug dealer, and instead of handing over money, he had gone to prison for possession and assault. But Lana, who had been only a kid herself, had taken over responsibility for me. She was the one who had fed and bathed me, changed my diapers and read to me. Hell, she had even potty trained me. When our mother died, I didn’t remember feeling sad. I was only four years old, but I could still remember thinking, “So what, she’s dead? She never loved me. Only Lana. If something happened to her, I would be lost.”
When Lana started to pull back from our hug, my arms tightened around her, and I began to feel the levee I’d erected for my tears the afternoon things had blown up with Mom crack. But Lana only hugged me tighter, and the urge to cry quickly passed.
I pulled away first this time, but not before I caught the scent of sage and a torrent of other spices. That was when I inhaled a little deeper and finally smelled the food she was cooking in the kitchen. My stomach growled hungrily, and suddenly, all I could think about was turkey and stuffing. “Please tell me dinner will be ready soon,” I begged with a laugh.
“Nope. We still have a little bit of a wait.” She caught my wrist and then grasped Jenna’s. “I came in search of reinforcements, though. I need help with our side dishes.”
