Chapter 2
Lucy
LAX was beyond crowded when Marcus and I stepped off the plane. I adjusted my messenger back on my shoulder as I looked around for any sign of our ride while Marcus pulled our luggage along behind him. I’d texted Kin before the plane had taken off to remind her what time to pick us up, but there had been bad weather over the Midwest and the pilot had set us down in Arizona to wait it out.
I’d tried to call Kin to let her know we would be at least an hour late but she hadn’t picked up and I hadn’t gotten a response to my texts. Hoping that she hadn’t given up on us, I continued to glance around for the tall redhead who was my best friend in the world.
Oddly, it was her smaller stepsister who caught my attention before Kin did. Angie was standing with her back to me but I knew it was her despite having only met the older chick a few times. There was something about Angie Jacobson that screamed for people to look at her. She had the face of an angel, but I’d seen her temper at work and knew just how much of a demon she really was. I’d liked her immediately and had even kept in touch with her on social media and via emails.
Right then Angie was standing toe to toe with a guy in a TSA uniform who easily outweighed her by a good hundred pounds. He stood nearly a foot taller than her, but right then he looked like he wanted to shrink to the size of a mouse and scurry away.
“I told you that we’re waiting for our friend. Her plane was delayed and I’m not leaving here until she arrives. Go bother someone else, you vile ass—”
Kin stepped between her stepsister and the TSA officer, cutting off whatever the smaller chick was going to say. “Okay, then.” I stopped and watched as Kin gave the guy a bright smile, trying to defuse the situation. “Sorry about her. Our friend should be here any second now, sir. The plane landed fifteen minutes ago.”
“I’ll give you five more minutes but then you both best be moving on, ma’am. I can’t have people loitering around in here.” He shot Angie a cool glare. “It’s for the safety of everyone.”
Angie opened her mouth to slam him with more insults but Kin put her arm around her with a tight smile for the TSA officer and then quickly covered the older girl’s mouth. “We completely understand, sir. Five minutes and then we’ll be out of your hair. I promise.”
I glanced up at Marcus to see what his take on the situation was, but he was eyeing my friends with his ever neutral expression. The only sign I saw that he was even slightly amused was the small crinkles at his eyes as they tilted up the tiniest bit. For Marcus that meant he was highly amused and I found myself actually trying to smile.
Turning back to the two chicks still standing there while the TSA officer turned and went back to work, I hurried toward them. “Sorry we’re late. Bad weather made the pilot set down in Phoenix.”
Hearing my voice, Kin’s head snapped up and she released her hold on Angie as she rushed toward me, her long legs eating up the distance between us. In the next second I was being wrapped into a pair of arms that tightened around me to the point my air paths were blocked.
The familiar scent of Kin’s shampoo mixed with the warmth that was radiating out of her and into me was so welcomed that I felt tears burn my eyes. I clenched them shut and willed them away, not wanting our time together to start off with me crying. Sucking in a much needed breath, I tried to pull back, but Kin’s arms tightened even more.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much,” she muttered near my ear and my arms went around her, holding onto her just as tightly as she was me.
“I missed you too,” I whispered, no longer able to fight the tears as one spilled over my lashes.
“Maybe ease up a little, sugar bug,” I heard Angie say with a laugh to her stepsister. “The girl is turning purple.”
Kin instantly released me. “Sorry. I’ve just been so excited to see you.”
I found the will to laugh and gave her a tight smile, the best I could offer her right then. “It’s okay. I’ve been excited to see you too.” I hugged her again, then turned to hug Angie. “It’s good to see you. Sorry you guys had to wait so long.”
“We understand. It was that stupid TSA prick who couldn’t get it through his thick skull that we weren’t leaving without you.” Angie tugged me close and started leading us out of the airport.
“It started out with him flirting with Ang,” Kin informed us with a smirk as the sliding doors opened for us and we headed toward the parking lot where they had left Kin’s Range Rover. “He is so not her type, so she sent him running with his tail tucked between his legs. After that he turned into an asshole and would come around every twenty minutes to tell us we had to move along.”
“Guys are idiots,” Angie muttered, then grimaced and glanced up at Marcus. “Most of them at least. Not you, though.”
His eyes crinkled again, but otherwise remained impassive. Kin snorted out a laugh. “Nice save.”
“Shut it, Kin.”
Sticking her tongue out at her stepsister, Kin unlocked her vehicle and handed over the keys to Marcus. “I want in the back with Lucy and I’d rather get there in one piece, so I’m going to ask you to drive and not Angie. “
“I’m not a bad driver,” Angie said with a pout.
“In Virginia you aren’t a bad driver,” Kin corrected her as she climbed into the back seat. “L.A. is another story. Let the dude drive, Ang. I want to walk across the stage at graduation. Not do it in a body cast.”
“I’m never going to live down that fender-bender am I?”
“Probably not,” Kin said with a wink and pulled her seatbelt on just as I got settled.
Angie got into the front passenger seat and put on her seatbelt while sulking. Marcus finished putting our luggage in the trunk and climbed behind the wheel. Angie reached forward, hit the ‘Go Home” option on the GPS already up on the screen and then sat back to continue sulking.
Kin wasn’t even fazed by her stepsister’s pouting and turned to me with her blue eyes bright with excitement. “How was your flight?”
I shrugged. “Uneventful. I mostly read.”
“Good. Did exams go okay?” Her phone buzzed with a text, but she ignored it. “When will you know your scores?”
“They went well, I think, but I won’t know for another week or so.” Her phone buzzed twice more with new messages and I lifted my brow when she pulled the phone out and started to turn it off. “You should get that.”
“It’s just Jace. Caleb is spending the weekend at his apartment and they won’t leave me alone.” She shook her head with a grin. “They’ve been pranking me and Ang all day.”
“When does Jace’s sister graduate? Aren’t you two going out to Virginia for that?” I didn’t know much about Jace’s younger sister except that she was the same age as Kin and me and that she lived back in Bristol with their adoptive mother.
“Kassa’s is next weekend and we leave on Thursday.” She grimaced. “Thankfully Gray leaves on Monday so we don’t have to deal with his ass on the flight out.”
“Has she decided on a school yet?” I knew that Kin had picked UCLA and she and Angie would be moving from their current apartment into one closer to campus over the summer.
“She’s going to UCLA and going to live with Jace and Gray. She’d thought about going to the University of Tennessee but she wants to be closer to the guys, and it’s not like Alicia will miss her. The woman has turned into a serious workaholic.” Kin made a face and shrugged. “Maybe Gray will calm down now. He’s been driving Jace crazy.”
“Nothing new about that,” I reminded her, and she grinned. Gray and Jace didn’t get along and barely tolerated each other. In the short time I’d known the two Tainted Knights rockers, I’d seen them butt heads repeatedly. The only things the two could agree on was their band and Jace’s little sister. To them, however, that was all that seemed to matter.
The ride to Malibu was spent with Kin mostly doing all the talking. I soaked up just being with her after so many months away. It was good to see her so happy. Since she had moved out of her father’s house, Kin had been able to be herself. With Angie living with her, she got to have a part of her family daily and her homesickness had pretty much evaporated. I knew that Jace was the biggest part of how happy Kin was, though. They were great together, even if it had taken me a little while to accept that Jace wasn’t the dickhead I’d originally thought him when I’d first found out he’d broken my best friend’s heart.
At the apartment, Kin wasted no time ordering us some dinner and then getting Marcus settled in his room before coming back to camp out with me and Angie on the couch. As much as I’d missed Kin, I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Back at Georgetown I went to class, studied in the library, ate my meals in the cafeteria and then hid in my dorm room. It was the same cycle every day. Kin’s excitement was draining me and I was ready to crash before our food even arrived.
My eyes were starting to drift shut when my phone started ringing. Kin gave me a dirty look when I reached for it. “This is our time,” she grumbled.
“Sorry. It’s just my parents making sure I got in okay.” I gave her an apologetic grimace as I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hey, baby. You make it to Kin’s?” Layla’s soft voice filled my ear.
“Yeah. I’m here and we’re getting ready to eat,” I assured her.
“Great. I’ll let your dad know. Do you need anything?”
“Nope. I’m good.” Kin let out a huff and I shook my head at her impatience. “I’ll see you on Sunday, okay?”
“Okay, baby. Have fun with Kin.” But she didn’t say goodbye or try to hang up, which had me tensing.
“Mom?”
She let out a long, tired sounding breath. “Sorry. It’s nothing. I’m just glad you’re home, Lucy. I love you, baby. See you on Sunday.”
Before I could even tell her I loved her back she had hung up and I set my phone down distractedly. Something was up with my mom but I had no clue what it was. I hadn’t seen her since she and Dad had dropped me off at Georgetown back in January. We talked regularly, but she could have been keeping things from me.
Just as I was keeping things from her.