Un-Shattering Lucy (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series) (Volume 4)

by Terri Anne Browning

We were all happy to be on the ground, although Mom and Dad would have to do it all over again the next day when they went back to California. I felt bad for all four of them, especially Luca. There was nothing more anyone could do to help him through his fear of flying and his airsickness. It was crazy seeing him so vulnerable like that when I was so used to seeing his fearless, mischievous personality any other time.

  Marcus was waiting on us with the SUV that Aunt Emmie had leased for me while I was in the area. In no time he and Dad had our luggage packed into the back and was ready to drive us to the campus. I had a private suite in one of the girls’ dorms. It had two bedrooms, which gave Marcus and me our own personal space to unwind when we needed to be away from each other.

  I wasn’t the only one who had a suite all to myself, but I was the only one with a guy who could pass for secret service bunking with me. I’d gotten envious and dirty looks throughout the spring semester for it, and there had been plenty of whispers whenever I was around. I didn’t care about that stuff, though. It was no different than how it had been for me in high school and I doubted it would ever change. It came with the role of being the daughter of a rock star.

  I wouldn’t trade my dad for any other father in the world, though, so I could live with the looks and whispers.

  Marcus had arrived a few days before us and had gotten the suite in order for me. I had no idea what he’d been doing the last few weeks while I’d been with my parents and Harris, but I figured he’d had a nice little vacation of his own from the tan on his face and arms. His shoulders weren’t as tense as they had been before we’d gone to California the month before and I realized that he hadn’t had a real break from me in years.

  The pantry was well stocked in our little kitchenette and I saw all my favorite drinks in the fridge waiting on me. My bed was already made up and my books were sitting on the desk in my bedroom with my laptop already waiting for me to get to work. The summer term was only six weeks, which meant I had to cram twice the amount of information with less than a third of the time I would normally have to do it in.

  It was going to be a tough semester, but I needed the extra work to keep my mind from wandering. Staying busy would make the next six weeks pass quickly.

  I hoped.

  Once the rest of my things were unpacked, we all went out to dinner and then I went to the hotel with my parents. I wanted to spend one more night with them before they left the next morning. Marcus went back to the dorm, and I settled in to watch a movie with the twins and Mom while Dad took a few calls that needed his attention.

  It wasn’t until the twins were asleep that I finally pulled out my cell and pulled up my text messages. I only had one text from Harris that he’d sent when he’d gotten up earlier.

  Love you, Lucy.

  That text had gotten me through dinner and the movie, but now as I lay down to try and sleep, I started missing him even more. I should have been able to fall straight asleep since I’d gotten zero sleep the night before, but it eluded me.

  Swiping my thumb over his name, I lifted the phone to my ear, needing to hear his voice just once before I could close my eyes.

  Chapter 18

  Harris

  If I thought I could just come back and handle everything with the wave of my hand, I was wrong. Peyton had caused me enough headache to keep me on my toes for weeks, it seemed.

  The friends she had brought in hadn’t gotten into a fight with just any VIP, but one of the biggest names in basketball right then, Greg York. Two of the guys Peyton had with her had jumped the guy because Tiny was going to let him up as he normally would. Peyton, who had promised them all she could get them upstairs with all the other important celebrities she ‘knew’, hadn’t been able to follow through with her promise and they had all gotten pissed.

  Now I was facing backlash from the press because one of my staff had incited the fight on top of the bad publicity from the fans of York’s who was supposed to be playing in the Olympics in a few weeks with the rest of the American team. He couldn’t play with how bad his jaw was broken. I already had one lawyer call me regarding the lawsuit the ballplayer’s agent was trying to make happen and the cops wanted to talk to me as well.

  It was a clusterfuck and one I was not in the mood to handle with the cool head and patience that it needed.

  As soon as I got to the club late that afternoon, the Blonde Bombshells were waiting on me. I’d called Genesis and told her to have her girls in my office by the time I got there or I was going to fire them all. The contract they had all signed had stipulations should anything like this happen and I could cancel it at any time should they defame my club or myself in any way. Natalie had taught me well about making sure my ass was covered on every possible basis business-wise. I had one of the best lawyers in California at my back to ensure there were no loopholes and made any contract I put my name on as airtight as humanly possible.

  The Blonde Bombshells had some serious talent and I had wanted to get them a deal with a manager and a label while they were still under contract with me, but their inability to get along had left even Emmie Armstrong reluctant to work with them. Mostly it had been Genesis and London’s bickering at each other. I figured it was just a jealousy thing and had stayed out of it as much as possible. They continued to come to me and tried to pull me into their arguments, but I wanted nothing to do with anything that didn’t concern the club.

  Roanna and Aubree were great to work with, though. Roanna was the lead singer of the group and her voice left goose bumps on my arms when she hit those damn high notes. She was sweet, perhaps too sweet for the rock world, but then again I didn’t really know her that well. The other girls tended to shelter her from the world and I couldn’t help wondering why. Aubree, on the other hand, was so fierce she reminded me of Kin and I’d come to like her a little more than the other four girls.

  Peyton had always been my least favorite of the girls. She was too conceited, acted like the world owed her something and she was entitled to everything. She had never worked hard for anything in her life and it showed. She was a self-absorbed little bitch who wasn’t happy unless she was making someone else’s life miserable.

  Normally I had a lot of patience and could handle anything thrown at me when it came to work, but this shit had pulled me away from the only person I wanted to be with and I was beyond pissed when I walked into my office.

  Slamming my office door behind me, I watched as four of the blondes jumped while the fifth one just played with something on her phone. I crossed to the chair where Peyton was sitting and swiped the phone out of her hands. Her head snapped up, anger already flashing at me from her brown eyes.

  “What the fuck? I was about to beat level four-thirty-seven!”

  “For fucking real?” I exploded. “You nearly get my club shut down and you’re only worried about beating some level on Candy Crush?”

  She shrugged. “I was on a roll.”

  Biting back a curse, I slung the phone across the room but didn’t feel even a little better when it shattered against the wall. Peyton jumped to her feet. “You owe me a new phone, asshat.”

  “Sit down and shut up,” I roared. What little patience I’d had was completely gone now. She stood there, staring me down, then after a minute flopped ungracefully back down into her chair. I turned away from her, disgusted by the mere sight of her. “You’re gone, Peyton. I’m done dealing with your shit.”

  “Big deal,” she muttered.

  “A big deal is you tearing up all the work I’ve put into making First Bass what it is today. A big deal is you dragging me away from my girlfriend when I wasn’t supposed to be here until Tuesday. A big fucking deal is you shitting on everything that is important to me and not giving two fucks about the destruction you’ve caused.” I was yelling now, unable to hold back a second longer without actually exploding into a million pieces.

  “Girlfriend?” Peyton’s eyes widened and her ears turned pink. “Bu
t…”

  I ignored her as I turned my attention to the other four girls. No way was I discussing Lucy with any of them. It was none of their business if I had a girlfriend or not. I was their boss, and that was the beginning and end of our relationship. “You can all go with her, if you think she’s worth it. I don’t give a fuck anymore. You’ve all been more headache than you’re worth. I can have a new band here Thursday night to fill your spots with no problem at all. There are bands out there that’d kill to have this job.”

  Genesis and London were already shaking their heads, for once agreeing on something. “No. We don’t want to leave with her. We’ve already decided that she’s out,” Genesis assured me, shooting Peyton a nasty look that the other chick only rolled her eyes at. “She’s pulling us down and we won’t sink with her.”

  “Fine. But one more fuck up from any of you other four and you’ll all be gone.” I was done playing nice with them. “Good luck finding a record deal if you fuck with me again.”

  “We won’t,” Roanna was the one to assure me, but I barely spared her a glance. “We’ll be on our best behavior, I swear it. Right, girls?”

  “Yes,” the other three echoed.

  “Whatever,” Peyton grumbled.

  Every eye in the room turned on her. “You’re still here?” I lifted my brows at her. “Did you think I was kidding? You’re out. No one is going to let you in this club ever again.”

  She snorted, still completely confident. To her this was just a game. “You don’t mean that.”

  I didn’t try to argue with her. Instead I went to my desk and turned on my Bluetooth system so I could talk to Tiny. I’d asked him to come in to discuss what had happened the night before. The cops were coming later to talk to me and I wanted him, Nate, and Barb in attendance when that happened. “Come walk Peyton out. If she tries to come back in, call the cops. Tell everyone that she’s banned from the premises. If I see her here I’ll fire anyone who allowed her access into the club.”

  “On it, boss,” Tiny’s deep voice assured me.

  Peyton was finally starting to realize that I wasn’t playing. Neither were the other Bombshells. “You can’t be serious,” she cried as she jumped to her feet. “We have something special here, Harris. I thought we meant something to each other.”

  Had she lost her fucking mind? “What the fuck are you talking about?” I’d barely talked to her during the few months she had been working for me. I could barely stand her on the best of days.

  “All those dates we went on. You took me everywhere and introduced me to so many people. I thought we were going somewhere.” Tears filled her eyes, but unlike when Lucy cried and gutted me, I was completely unaffected by the sight of the sheen in Peyton’s mud-brown eyes.

  “I took all five of you out. I introduced everyone to those people to help get your foot in the door. I played no favoritism and it was only ever business.” There was a sharp tap on my office door and then Tiny was stepping inside. “Don’t go too far, though, Peyton. I’m sure you’ll be cited in the lawsuit Greg York is trying to stick to me. Hope your rich daddy wants to foot the bill, because I’ll be damned if I’m paying out anything for your fuckups.”

  Tiny crossed the room and took Peyton by the arm. She shot him a glare and then turned a pout in my direction. “But I love you.” Her chin started to tremble. “I’m sorry, Harris. So sorry. Don’t send me away like this. I’ll fix it and then we can be together again.”

  “Get rid of her, Tiny.” I didn’t have time for her crazy ass.

  “No. Harris!” Peyton was still screaming as Tiny pulled her out of the club.

  “I’ll see you four Thursday night. I don’t want to hear from you or see you until then.” I moved to sit down behind my desk.

  The other four Bombshells quickly got to their feet and left the office. As the door closed behind Roanna, my phone started making noise. Seeing Lucy’s face on my screen had some of my agitation fading and a sense of loss filled me as I lifted the phone to my ear.

  “I miss you,” I growled as I turned around in my chair and closed my eyes.

  “I miss you more,” she whispered, but I could still hear the catch in her voice. Fuck. Was she crying? Just thinking about her tears drove me crazy. “How are things going?” she rushed to ask, trying to distract me.

  “I’ve got it handled, sweetness.” I lifted the phone and hit FaceTime, needing to see her face. There was a pause while she accepted it and then I was relaxing even more until I saw her puffy eyes. “Ah, Lu, please don’t cry.”

  She gave a strained little laugh. “I’m okay. Really. Just missing you.” She wiped her fingers under her eyes to dry a few tears.

  “I’m sorry, Lucy. I’d give anything to be there with you right now.” Fucking hell, I wanted to be there with her now more than I wanted to breathe. My hate for Peyton only doubled as I watched another tear fall on her cheek.

  “I know,” she murmured. “I’d have been like this on Tuesday when you left too, Harris. It just came a few days early is all.”

  There was another sharp tap on my door, but before I could tell whoever it was to fuck off, it opened and Nate and Barb stepped in with Tiny right behind them. Shit. I wanted to make them go away so I could have just a few minutes alone to talk to Lucy, but a glance at the clock on my desk told me the cops would be there soon.

  “You ready for us, boss?” Barb asked as she stepped farther into the room so Nate and Tiny could join her.

  “Yeah,” I muttered and turned back to Lucy. “I’m going to have to let you go, Lu.” Disappointment filled her dark eyes, but she tried to smile. “I’ll call you when I get home, I promise.”

  She shook her head. “I’ll probably be asleep. I…I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

  I wanted to put my fist through a fucking wall. Fucking hell. I’d have gladly given everything up right then to have her beside me. Knowing she would be home with me soon was the only thing keeping me sane. “Then I’ll call you first thing tomorrow. If you need me, don’t even think about hesitating to call, sweetness. I don’t care what time it is. Call me.”

  “I will,” she assured me and blew me a small kiss. “I love you,” she whispered before hitting disconnect without giving me a chance to return the words.

  Frustrated, I tossed the phone onto the desk and stood. “Let’s get this crap taken care of,” I snapped at my three most trusted employees. “I want to get this dealt with and put it behind us as soon as possible.”

  And then I’d be able to focus on the most important thing in my life.

  Lucy.

  Chapter 19

  Lucy

  It was a little easier saying goodbye to my parents and brothers than it had been Harris. I missed them as soon as they kissed me goodbye and took a cab to the airport while Marcus took me back to the dorm. But it wasn’t the gut-wrenching, can’t-eat-or-sleep kind of missing them like I had when Harris had left on Saturday night.

  I tried not to think about the thousands of miles between us as I settled into my room and started getting some reading done before my classes started the next morning. College wasn’t like high school. The teachers expected you to come to class the first day already caught up on the material the professor would be covering from day one. Slackers didn’t make it far in the classes I was taking, and I’d never been a slacker when it came to my education.

  During the hours I was in my classes I didn’t have time to think about what Harris was doing, but as soon as I got back to my suite I shared with Marcus, he was the only thing on my mind. I tried to keep my texts to every few hours, not wanting to disturb him too much since I knew how busy he was with work and the shitstorm he’d had to go back to.

  The possibility of a lawsuit filed against First Bass by Greg York was making headlines in not just the gossip magazines, but on ESPN and even some of the bigger news stations. I thought Harris was handling it all very well, though. He kept a cool head when he’d done
a press conference addressing the situation and had assured everyone that he was dealing with this incident personally.

  We talked on the phone every night after I’d crawled into bed and he stayed on the phone long after I’d fallen asleep. It reminded me of when we had been younger and I’d be unable to sleep, so he’d talk to me and I’d know everything was okay and would fall into a restful sleep knowing that he would always be there for me.

  My summer classes were even harder than I thought they would be, but I gratefully welcomed the distraction. By week four, however, I couldn’t have cared less about how I was doing in my classes. The distraction of studying and staying busy with the labs I was also taking weren’t nearly enough to stop the feelings of isolation that were starting to swallow me whole. I missed Harris so damn much. It didn’t matter that I only had two more weeks before I saw him again. I was aching to be with him now.

  I would have given anything to just have his arms around me for five seconds. Would have gladly traded a year of my life for one night of Harris holding me. The last few nights when we had talked, I’d had to bite my tongue to keep from begging him to come out for a short visit and I’d avoided his texts and calls that entire day because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop the tears. I missed him so damn much and it was taking every scrap of willpower I possessed to hold it together.

  Marcus was a decent cook and made us dinner that night when we got back to the dorm after my last class on that Friday. The chicken casserole smelled delicious but I couldn’t do more than pick at it. I had no appetite. All the emotions that were crowding my mind were becoming too much and even as I tried to fight the craving to do the one thing I was trying so hard to avoid, I knew I would be spending some extra time in the bathroom once I knew Marcus was asleep.

  I excused myself after forcing down a third of the meal, claiming I had studying to do. Not a lie. I had a crapload of studying to do. Every day in every class I had one test or quiz that I had to be prepared for, not to mention the five papers I had to get written by the end of the semester for my English Lit class that was mandatory for my major.