Lucas flinched and mumbled, “Excuse me.”
Which wasn’t like him.
I mean, he was usually polite.
But he was the type to play into schemes like that, or at least make me pay for what I just did, but hey, at least I’d made him look awesome in front of his sister and protected both of us from shaming in the process.
Instead, he walked from the room without another word.
“Maybe you should go check on him?” She frowned like she was concerned his feelings were hurt. Sorry, honey, that ship sailed long ago. The man had no feelings; he was like an emotionally neutral Switzerland.
But I went anyway—to save face.
What I didn’t expect to find was Lucas Thorn having a full-fledged panic attack in his master bathroom, or for him to be bleeding as pieces of mirror spread across the sink and onto the floor, as though he’d just tried to rip it from the wall, got frustrated, and punched it instead.
“Lucas?” I stepped around the glass to where he huddled in the corner, blood trickling down his arm and onto his jeans. “Holy crap, you’re bleeding! Are you okay?”
“Leave.”
“Lucas—”
“I don’t need your help.” He glanced up, and his eyes were unfocused. “Tell my sister I fell, tell her I saw the devil in my reflection and was fighting my own demons. But I want you out of this apartment in two minutes, or I’m going to fire your ass.”
“What?” I hissed. “I just saved you!”
“No,” he barked out. “You saved you. That wasn’t saving me—that was screwing me over, so thank you very much for ruining my life.”
“Well,” I snorted. “Payback’s a bitch.”
He eyed me up and down and whispered, “You have no idea.”
Chapter Eleven
LUCAS
I was able to convince my sister that I’d accidentally slipped and hit the mirror—it was a lame-ass excuse, but she seemed to buy it.
I thought things were cool until she texted me links to a few websites for anger management.
The very last thing I needed was for the Marysville gossip ring to start its chatter. Or for my parents to call Avery’s parents out of concern that a repeat was taking place—God, I could only imagine. I was a man on borrowed time, because even though I loved my sister, she couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.
Which meant.
I was completely screwed in every single way that mattered.
I couldn’t win.
Either I said I was with Avery and finally make everyone happy by fixing the four-year divide between our parents—or history would repeat itself: my dad’s heart would fail out of disappointment for his only son; my mother would cry herself to sleep every night; and Avery’s parents, who I loved almost as much as my own, would be angry yet again.
The worst part? My sister had cried. Again. After brunch.
I blamed her pregnancy.
She said it wasn’t about the baby but because I’d finally grown up and decided to think about someone and something other than myself and my own personal feelings. Funny, because I thought I was already there. I had a solid job, a nice apartment, a fantastic life, and I enjoyed a different girl every day of the week.
That was grown up.
Unlike taking home a drunk Avery Black and helping her nurse a stupid wine hangover that should never have happened in the first place.
My head hurt. The whole situation was going to end up coming back and biting me in the ass. I couldn’t shake the feeling that bad things were coming.
Chapter Twelve
LUCAS
Three hours later, and I still couldn’t shake the headache or the onslaught of memories I’d kept locked away. They thumped around in my brain like a bad movie on repeat.
Avery didn’t know.
Nobody did.
Avery knew what I wanted her to know, which was enough.
I stared out the window of my apartment. I had to face her at work tomorrow, and I had to make sure that she didn’t get under my skin, or ever find out the truth about that night.
My phone rang.
It was my mom.
Son of a bitch.
Let the games begin.
“Hello?” I always answered my mom’s calls. If I didn’t, she called the police. In her mind I lived in the big, bad, scary city, and even though I was only about an hour away, I basically lived “in hell.” Her words, not mine.
“Honey, don’t freak out.” Her tone was way too elated for this to be a normal check-in. “But I just got off the phone with Erin.”
A rock the size of Texas settled in my stomach as my heart started rapidly thudding against my chest.
“Of course you did.” What were the chances of a meteor hitting the earth? Scratch that, landing smack dab in Belltown, only to take out one single room in an apartment building?
“And don’t be angry with her, but some interesting news just . . . slipped out.”
“Naturally.”
“Because you know Erin.”
“I know Erin.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“I mean, really, it wasn’t her fault at all—I think it’s the baby.”
Damn it! Unfair! You can’t blame an unborn child for her inability to keep her trap shut! Hell, damn, shit, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. With shaking hands, I poured some whiskey into a glass, then stared at the bottle and brought it to my lips.
“Are you drinking?”
“No.” Hell yes.
“Honey, think of your liver.”
HAH! My liver was the least of my worries. If God were just, he’d kill me now, right now. I closed my eyes tight. We were going to have the conversation. The one I always swore I’d never have. Where my mom dug up the past, made me feel like shit, and cried.
“Anyways . . .” She chuckled. “The youngest Black girl? I mean, do you think that’s a good idea? Things are just starting to get back to normal between us and the Blacks. We act like neighbors again, we wave at one another. Why, just the other day your father said hello to them and didn’t get ignored!” She sighed, maybe realizing that it had taken four years simply to exchange a hello. “Well, it doesn’t matter I guess. What’s done is done. And honestly, this may help heal what happened between us.” She started sniffing. “I miss them so much. You know I went to high school with Tess and Stewart.” Yes, I knew. Everyone knew that the minute I’d fucked up, I hadn’t just done it to myself but to a friendship that was known throughout our town. For shit’s sake, our parents used to plan block parties together. Avery’s mom was my godmother! Guilt kicked me over and over again until I thought I was going to puke. “Your father and I are so proud!”
Thud, thud. My heart strained to a painful degree. And there it was.
Proud.
They were proud.
“You’re proud,” I repeated. “The last time you said that I was graduating college with honors. You’ve said that twice to me in my life.” The other time was when I asked Kayla to marry me.
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.” She paused. “Honey, are you sure you’re not drinking? Erin said you had a little incident with your mirror.”