Un-Shattering Lucy (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series) (Volume 4) (16 page)

Mom and Dad had both been asleep when Harris had left the night before, so when Dad got up to make his usual coffee, he wasn’t prepared to find me crying on the balcony.

“What’s wrong, baby?” His voice was almost scary as he crouched down beside me, his big hands reaching for my ice cold ones. “Where’s Harris?”

I shrugged, trying to keep my voice from cracking but failing. “There were problems at First Bass. He didn’t tell me what was going on, but apparently it was a PR thing that he had to deal with himself.”

“Ah, Lu. I’m sorry.” He sat down in the chair beside mine and pulled me onto his lap. Tucking me close like I was still a little girl, he kissed my temple and hugged me tight. “It’s going to be okay, though. Six weeks is nothing. You guys have gone longer than that without seeing each other…” He trailed off, remembering exactly why I’d spent so much time away from Harris. Blowing out a harsh sigh, he tightened his arms even more. “It’s going to be fine.”

I could only nod as I rested against his big chest and welcomed the steady beat of his heart. If I couldn’t be in Harris’s arms right then, this was the second best place. My dad meant the world to me. Maybe it didn’t make things better, but having him hold me and make me feel like no matter what I’d always be his baby, made the pain a little easier to bear.

By the time Mom and the twins got up, I was no longer crying. We had a quick breakfast and then got ready to leave. Our flight to D.C. left at noon and we had to wait an hour in the airport. The first-class lounge wasn’t crowded and I found a corner to text Harris. He’d told me Nate was picking him up from the airport and that he was going to go home for a few hours of sleep before he went into the club to deal with everything. First Bass wasn’t open on Sundays but this would require him at the office.

Miss you already.

It was still early in California, so I wasn’t expecting him to text me back. When my phone buzzed with an incoming text less than ten minutes later I was surprised to see his name pop up.
Miss you more, sweetness. Miss you more.

Knowing I wasn’t the only one hurting made it a little easier to get on the plane.



The flight to D.C. was just as bad as the one to Panama City Beach with the boys. Luca spent the majority of the time with his head in one of the airsickness bags or in the bathroom, despite the motion sickness meds Mom gave him. Lyric passed out halfway through the trip, which left me free to help with Luca.

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. “But…”

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.