The doctor’s eyes went from me to my parents, lingering appreciatively on my mom for a few seconds longer than my dad liked, given the way he growled at the guy. Dr. Levin quickly shifted his gaze away. “The x-rays look good. No fractures. Your hand is just badly sprained, Miss Thornton. Sometimes that can feel just as bad if not worse than an actual break. Nurse Frost is going to put a soft cast on to keep the hand immobile, but I suggest following up with your regular doctor next week.”
The nurse stepped forward with the soft cast and some paperwork, which she handed to Layla to sign. When everything was taken care of, the nurse walked us out to the waiting room where Kin and Jace were still waiting with Aunt Emmie and Nik. Marcus went to get my SUV, but Jesse told him to just drive it on home. I guess I was riding with them.
“Everything okay?” Aunt Emmie asked as she wrapped her arms around me but her question was directed at my mom and dad.
“Nothing broken,” Jesse assured her. “Follow up with her regular doctor.” Nik handed him cup of coffee and he drained the small cup in one swallow. “Fuck, that’s weak.”
“Sorry, bro. Not everyone believes in making coffee so strong you could eat it with a spoon.” Nik took his turn hugging me before grasping Aunt Emmie’s hand. “Let’s go home.”
I looked up at Harris who was standing with Jace. They had both ridden with me and Kin in the Range Rover, but since my dad had sent Marcus on home I didn’t know how they were going to get home or back to the club. A glance at my phone’s screen showed me that it wasn’t all that late. They could still go back to First Bass if they wanted.
Catching my gaze on him, Harris gave me a small smile. “I’m going to catch a cab back to the club with Jace. I need to make sure they didn’t have any problems.”
Disappointment made my heart clench. I’d hoped he would come home with me or would have at least wanted to ride with us and we could have dropped him and Jace off. I wanted a goodbye kiss. Something. Anything. But he was keeping his distance.
Forcing a smile for everyone else who was watching, I nodded. “Okay.”
Aquamarine eyes darkened and he took a step toward me before pausing and glancing toward Jesse, who was too busy talking to Nik to notice. I grimaced. I was the one who didn’t want to tell my dad about us just yet. If I was feeling disappointed right now, it was my own fault.
I thought about just blurting it out right then and there, letting everyone that was standing in our group know that I was with Harris now—that he was my boyfriend—but my parents had had enough excitement and reasons to want to kill people tonight.
“I’ll call you,” Harris promised and hugged me against him. I felt his lips touching the top of my head. Because it was something he always did, no one questioned it. “I’ll pick you up from school tomorrow and we’ll have dinner. To make up for not getting to yesterday.”
He started to step back but my hands wrapped around him, holding on for a few extra seconds. He pressed another kiss to the top of my head and carefully untangled my arms. “Goodnight, Lu.”
Kin wrapped her arm around my waist and leaned her head against my shoulder as Harris and Jace said goodnight to everyone else and headed for the door. I laid my head against hers. “You okay?” I asked. She’d been left in the waiting room with Jace for over an hour.
A shuddery sigh left my friend. “Nope,” she told me honestly, “but I will be.”
Harris
Something tickling my cheek had me jerk awake with a suddenness that left my stomach protesting.
Opening my eyes, I frowned up at the culprit smiling down at me innocently. “Hey there, tall, dark, and yummy.”
I sat up fast, quickly taking in my surroundings. After a few seconds of frowning at the room I was in, I began to relax. I was at Jace’s apartment because I hadn’t wanted to go back to my own. Tessa was still there and I didn’t trust her not to try and start trouble. I had a feeling that Tessa suspected that Jenna might break up with her when she got home and, even though I didn’t know Tessa all that well, I wouldn’t put it past her to make life for me as hellish as possible until she got the boot.
Rubbing sleep from my eyes with the heel of my hands, I shook the last of the fog from my head before turning my attention back to the chick who had been tickling my face with her long hair. She was easy enough to look at, and from the look of her, easy, period.
Who the fuck was she?
Jace and I hadn’t gotten to his place until after four that morning, and I’d passed out on the couch before he’d even called it a night. Jet lag and stressing over Lucy had drained me to the point that I hadn’t even cared where I fell asleep.
I did know, however, that neither of us had brought a girl back with us. Which only left one other explanation. Grayson Knight, guitarist and all-around badass motherfucker, was Jace’s roommate as well as his band-brother. And the chick standing over me, eyeing me and obviously enjoying the fact that all I was wearing was my boxers, was definitely Grayson’s type.
Cheaply dyed blond hair, nice tits, voluptuous ass, and more importantly—easy. Grayson was one hell of a guitarist, but his hard work and talent sometimes didn’t go any further than the edge of a stage. He wanted the easy lay because it meant that it would be easy to get rid of her the next morning. The rocker didn’t do commitment, and he sure as hell didn’t do next-morning drama. I liked the guy, respected his skills, but in all honesty the dude was a total douchebag the majority of the time.
“What’s your name?” the blonde asked, dropping down onto the couch beside me.
“It’s ‘mind your own damn business’,” Jace grumbled as he walked into the living room with two mugs of coffee. Handing one over to me, my friend took his usual chair angled toward the flat screen on the wall. “Hooker, go get your fucking clothes on and leave me and my friend alone. We aren’t interested in sloppy seconds, especially when they come from Gray.”
The chick gasped, obviously offended, but Jace didn’t spare her so much as a look. I didn’t want to get into this shit. It was way too early to be dealing with hoes walking around my friend’s apartment. Taking a deep swallow of the hot coffee Jace had given me, I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes.
As soon as the mug was empty I was going to have to go up two floors to my own apartment and get ready for work. I’d promised Lucy dinner, but I still had to go into the club tonight. With Tainted Knights performing, I couldn’t be spared. Things always went crazy with those five fuckers in house.
Thinking of Lucy, I couldn’t suppress the smile that lifted my lips. Taking another swallow of the strongly brewed coffee, I opened my eyes and leaned forward to snatch my phone off the beat-up coffee table in front of me. It was hard to believe that Jace and Grayson had bought all the furniture in this apartment when it was brand new. With all the parties they’d thrown over the last eight months or so, their new things looked like pure crap now.
Swiping my finger across the screen on my iPhone, I saw that it was three in the afternoon and I only had one text from Lucy. Pulling it up I was a little disappointed to see that it was just the reply to my ‘goodnight baby’ after I’d texted her on my way home with Jace in the early morning hours.