Rocking Kin (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series Book 3) by Terri Anne Browning Read Free Book Online Page A

do. The guy I knew was always self confident enough that he could handle anything life threw at him. Was he that surprised to see me?
    “What are you doing here?”
    That had to be the million-dollar question. What the hell was I doing there? I should have just stayed home and locked myself in my room to avoid Jillian and the step-bitches. I could have put on my Beats and listened to music to drown out their nagging. Fuck that. I should have been back in Virginia with Carter and the twins. I wanted to be back there so damn much in that moment that it almost hurt to breathe.
    “Lucy invited me.”
    Lucy shifted beside me. I could feel her eyes on my face but didn’t look at her. I didn’t think I had the strength right then to keep my emotions in check if I did.
    Jace shook his dirty blond head while his eyes skimmed over my entire body. That I felt his eyes like a physical touch only pissed me off that much more. Damn it. I didn’t want to feel anything for him, not after how he’d shattered my heart into a million pieces. “No. I mean…what are you doing here…in California?”
    That he didn’t seem to remember what I’d been going through with my mother at the time he’d broken up with me was like a slap to the face. I lowered my eyes so he couldn’t see the pain his question had caused me. I’d cried on his shoulder, told him how much I didn’t want to move in with my father when my mom died. “I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to my life story since I last saw you.” I turned away from him, my emotions too close to the surface for me to dare look at him another second. “Let’s go,” I muttered to Lucy.
    “No.” Jace moved quickly and was blocking our path to the exit. One large hand reached for mine and caught it before I could think to pull away. “Don’t go.” He swallowed with difficulty and the thought that he was just as emotional at seeing me again as I was at seeing him had me pausing for a moment. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.”
    The pain those words caused left me hemorrhaging on the inside. He’d missed me? He’d missed me?
    He’d. Missed. Me.
    What-the-fuck-ever. I didn’t believe that for two seconds. He’d missed me, but where had he been when I’d needed him the most? Where had he been when I’d said goodbye to my mother for the last time? Where was he when I’d watched her being lowered into the ground? Where was he when I thought my whole world was over and I had to step on that fucking plane with Scott Montez and leave my real family behind?
    He’d been off screwing some random chick, no doubt. He’d been living it up with his bandmates and partying. Jace had been living his life without me while I’d been falling apart. While all I’d wanted was his arms around me and his voice telling me that it was going to be okay. I didn’t have the patience to stand there and hear him lie to me.
    “Yeah, I could tell from all those phone calls and text messages you didn’t send. I’m not in the mood to listen to your bullshit, Jace. Move or be moved.” I felt Marcus step up behind me and Lucy, and I could have hugged the normally stone-faced bodyguard right then for having my back.
    Jace’s blue gaze went to the man standing behind me and glared at Marcus for a long moment before finally clenching his jaw and stepping aside. Without giving him another look I pulled Lucy with me as I headed for the stairs.
    By the time we got outside and Marcus had passed off the valet ticket to the attendant, I was numb. The shock at seeing Jace again had messed with my head and my heart didn’t know how to handle the things going through my mind right then.
    Lucy tried to talk to me a few times on the ride home, but I was lost in the past. I asked her to drop me off at my father’s house. I’d rather have to deal with their coldness than the caring, motherly love I would have gotten from Layla Thornton right then. If she hugged me at that moment, I was sure I would