“I think it would help her if she moved in with you.”
The elevator stopped but I pushed the closed button so the doors wouldn’t open. Jace shot me a curious look, but I couldn’t have spoken to him if my life depended on it. I couldn’t believe what I was hearin
g. I wanted it so much that I was pretty sure I was having a mental break and was hearing things. No way had Jesse Thornton just told me he wanted his daughter to live with me. I would have done a damn backflip off the top of my club if I thought he was for real right then.
“Can you say that again, sir?”
“She sleeps easier with you around, Harris.” The strain in his voice had doubled now. “She’s happier when she’s with you. Her happiness is all I could ever ask for and that means letting her go so she can live with you.”
“I…” I swallowed hard, and tried again. “I… Thank you, sir. I promise you I’ll take perfect care of her.”
“I know that, boy. If I didn’t I would never let her go.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll let you go now.”
“Yes, sir. Goodbye, sir.” The phone went dead on his end and I dropped my hand, trying to wrap my mind around the reality of what just happened.
Jace nudged my shoulder. “You okay, man?”
“Yeah,” I muttered as a grin lifted my lips. “Yeah, I’m great, man.”
“Good, then maybe you can let us out of this sardine can and we can go see our girls? I’m getting claustrophobic in here with your ass.”
Chuckling, I released the button and the doors opened. Jace stepped off first and my eyes went around the room in search of Lucy. I felt like celebrating after the conversation with her father. This was just one more step in the right direction for us and the future I wanted with her. I’d never imagined it would come together so quickly, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to be sorry it was.
“That Peyton chick’s been looking for you, dude.”
My head snapped to my left when I heard Gray’s voice. He’d obviously been waiting so he could tell me that little bit of news. “Peyton’s in my fucking club?”
I was going to have that bitch arrested. She was becoming too much to deal with. She’d done nothing but call me ever since I’d fired her and the Blonde Bombshells had kicked her out of the band. I’d blocked her number, but she’d only gotten another phone and started harassing me with texts and twice as many calls. I hadn’t been concerned about it, though, not really. She was annoying but hadn’t overstepped any lines.
Until that afternoon when she’d gotten into my apartment by telling the super that she thought I was sick and couldn’t get inside to check on me. The idiot man had let her in and she’d spent God knew how long in my place while I was sleeping. I’d woken up to her climbing into bed beside me. In nothing but her bra and panties.
I’d threatened to call the cops and she’d gotten out quick, but I should have known that little bitch wasn’t done trying to drive me crazy with her bullshit. She was seriously unhinged if she thought I wanted her, yet that was exactly what she seemed to think.
“She just went over to talk to the girls,” Gray informed me now. “She’s got serious issues, though, man. She wanted to know all about Lucy.”
Fucking hell.
I hadn’t told Lucy about what was going on because I didn’t want to upset her, but I knew I’d have to explain all the shit Peyton had been doing over the last few weeks. Especially now that Lucy was going to be living with me.
“Where are they?” I bit out, and Gray led the way to the bar.
I saw Kin’s red hair first, then Peyton’s blond head. She was standing right in front of the girls now and I only wanted to snatch Lucy up and get her as far away from Peyton as I humanly could. What if that bitch tried to sabotage things with Lucy and me? What if she filled Lucy’s head with all kinds of trash and lies and Lucy believed her? I wasn’t about to lose the best thing in my world to some vindictive little bitch. I’d kill Peyton with my bare hands before that happened.
As I neared the group of girls, I saw Lucy’s face and knew she wasn’t happy. Her dark eyes were focused solely on the blonde in front of her, her lips turned down in dislike. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and kiss the breath out of her.
“Harris and I have been together for months now and I’m not going to let you ruin that,” I heard Peyton saying. “He loves me.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah?”
I stopped, unable to move another inch for fear of what was about to happen. She couldn’t believe Peyton’s lies. She couldn’t. If she did, and left me, it would destroy me. Lucy was the reason I got out of bed every morning. If I lost her now, that would be the end of me.
“I was in his bed this afternoon and he was complaining about how he couldn’t get rid of you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at Lucy. “I’m only going to say this once. Stay away from Harris. He’s mine.”
Around them, the other girls burst out laughing. If I’d been thinking clearly, I might have laughed too. Beside me, Jace even released a chuckle. This chick was seriously batshit crazy and she couldn’t have spewed a more obvious lie if she’d been trying to. No one who knew me—who knew what Lucy and I had overcome—would ever believe what she’d just said.
Lucy took a step toward Peyton, but it was the grin on her face that had all the air leaving my lungs. “That’s a cute story you got going on in your head, sweetie. But you should probably get your facts straight before you start spewing that kind of crazy.” She leaned in closer as if she was going to tell the other girl a secret. “I don’t know what happened today, but I do know Harris Cutter. He probably loves me more than any other person on the planet, including himself. He would never cheat on me.”
Relief was like a tidal wave washing through me, and I was able to draw a deep breath. It snapped me out of my daze and I moved the last few feet forward. When Peyton saw me, her face paled. She wasn’t what was important right then, though. I wrapped a hand around Lucy’s waist. The feel of her against me made everything in the world right again. I pressed a kiss to Lucy’s temple, breathing in the scent of her shampoo and thanking God she was mine.