Chapter 8
Lucy
In a daze, I left Kin’s bedroom. My head was killing me and my body ached in a way that left my blood singing through my veins. I couldn’t believe that I’d just had sex with Harris. What had I been thinking? This only complicated things that much more.
“There you are,” Kin called out from the kitchen as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “I was about to send a search party for you. Your phone has been going off like crazy. Aunt Emmie is peeved, to say the least.”
“Hell,” I muttered, pushing my hair back from my face. It was soaking wet because I hadn’t taken the time to even attempt to dry it in my rush to get clean and out the door as quickly as possible. “What did you tell her?”
Kin paused to give me a complete onceover, then offered me the cup of coffee she had just poured. “Here, you look like you need this more than I do.”
I shook my head and headed for the door. “I have to go.” I wanted to be gone before Harris got out of the shower. I hadn’t said a word to him as we’d passed in the bedroom. I couldn’t even look at him without remembering what we’d just done.
“Keep the sweats,” Kin told me as I headed for the door. “I’ll burn your clothes. Oh, and thanks for all the vomit I had to clean up last night.”
I stopped with my hand on the door. I’d had no choice but to borrow Kin’s clothes. I wasn’t going to take the time to go back to the guest room for my own clothes and the only other options were the vomit-covered clothes I’d ruined the night before or the shirt Harris had put on me. The one he’d destroyed while trying to get it off me just an hour before.
I glanced at Kin over my shoulder. Seeing that she had followed me, I turned to face her. “I’m sorry, Kin. I messed up last night. Do you hate me?”
She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. “I could never hate you. Cuss your ass while I tried not to add to the mess I had to clean, sure, but never hate you.” She pulled back, her eyes narrowed in concern. “Will you be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s just a hangover.” I tried to play it off, but she saw right through me.
“Yeah, hangover. That’s what they call it these days.” She shook her head and handed over my phone. “Here, you’re going to need this. Tell Aunt Emmie and your parents I said ‘hi’. Call me later and I’ll bring your things over.”
I put my phone in my pocket and headed out the door. It was only a two-minute cab ride to my parents’ house, and thankfully there were several cabs already waiting downstairs. I told the driver where I was going, tossed him a twenty, then sat back. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the pain in my head.
Most people didn’t have a cookout on Mondays, but my family wasn’t most people. They didn’t work the normal nine to five. So I wasn’t surprised when I stepped out of the cab and found not only my parents’ driveway full of cars, but Aunt Emmie’s as well. Knowing everyone would be at the latter’s house, I walked past the house that separated the Thorntons from the Armstrongs. Instead of going into the house, I walked around to the back yard where I could already hear kids laughing and splashing in the pool.
“She lives!”
I tried not to flinch at Nik’s loud voice as he brought my appearance to everyone’s attention. I would have happily murdered someone for a pair of sunglasses and a bottle of aspirin right then. Everyone was there: Mia and Jagger swimming in their pool, Drake and Lana with their four girls, Shane and Harper with Violet and Mason, Axton and Dallas with Cannon and Shaw, Liam and Gabriella with Asher and Piper, Zander and Annabelle with their son Jaco. I didn’t see my mom or Aunt Emmie, who must have still been in the house getting things ready.
“Lu!” my dad’s booming voice called out. “You hungry?”
The smell of whatever he was grilling suddenly hit me as the breeze shifted. I couldn’t control my gag reflexes but thankfully I didn’t puke right there. Trying to breathe through my mouth, I clutched my stomach and shook my head. My reaction only had my dad and the rest of the rockers already spread around the patio chuckling.
“It’s okay, baby-cakes. I’ll get you fixed right up.” I welcomed the warmth of Drake’s arm as he draped it over my shoulders and guided me toward the French doors that led into the kitchen.
“Is this your first hangover?”
There was no use in trying to lie. Drake was the king of hangovers from his days before my sister had tamed him. “Yeah,” I muttered, still trying to breathe through my mouth to avoid gagging again.
My brother-in-law laughed. “Okay, Lu. This is gonna suck for a few minutes. Bear with me. I won’t lead you wrong.”
I just nodded as we stepped into the kitchen. I trusted Drake with my life.
Mom and Aunt Emmie had been talking until we walked in. As soon as they saw me, they both shut up quick, but I was too distracted from the pain in my head and the new aches in my body to focus on that. Drake left me at the island and moved to the refrigerator to pull out random things. Tomato juice, eggs, celery and countless other things.
“You look miserable, baby,” Mom said with a smile as she picked up a knife and started slicing onions.
“Pretty sure I’m dying,” I mumbled truthfully, causing all three of them to laugh out loud at me.
“I’m sure it feels like that,” Mom said with a grin as she hugged me. “Drake will fix you up. Just a small warning. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
I folded my arms on the island and laid my head down. “I’m never drinking again.”
“Good idea,” Drake said with a nod.
“Can I have some aspirin?”
“You won’t need it after Drake is done,” Aunt Emmie assured me as she continued to slice fresh tomatoes. “Just be ready to run.”
That only confused me, but I didn’t bother to move, especially when Mom started rubbing my back. I hadn’t been babied like that in forever, but I wanted to soak it all up. My mom gave the best back rubs in the world.
“Okay, Lu.” Drake set a glass of something that looked like tar in front of me. I lifted my head reluctantly and as soon as I caught a smell of the contents my gag reflex started working overtime.
“No,” I said, backing away from the island. “No way.”
Drake picked the glass up and walked toward me. “Do you trust me?”
“Usually. I’m not so sure about right now, though.”
His blue-gray eyes crinkled with his grin. “I’d never do anything to hurt you, Lu. Angel would kill me.”
“So that’s the only reason?” I crossed my arms over my chest, pouting up at him. “I see how it is.”
“I love you more than life, girl. Now drink this shit.” He pushed the glass into my hand and then took a cautious step back. “Just chug it. Get it all over with in one go.”
“Fudge buckets,” I muttered and lifted the glass to my lips. My stomach churned again at the smell, but I tipped it back and started gulping it down.
It tasted worse than it smelled, the contents both liquid and chunky as it slid down my throat. My stomach protested immediately but I kept drinking until it was all gone.
Thankfully someone was there to take the glass from me as the need to vomit became too much. Slapping my hand over my mouth, I made a run for the downstairs bathroom. How the hell was that shit supposed to help me? I couldn’t help but wonder as I threw up everything in my stomach. Fuck, I was really going to die this time. My stomach cramped so hard that I fell to my knees beside the toilet, moaning and mentally praying that at least one of Aunt Emmie’s gods would take pity on me and just end me then and there.
I felt a rough hand touch my back but couldn’t turn my head to glare at my brother-in-law. Another spasm took over and I groaned as I puked over and over again.
“I. Hate. You.” Sweat was beaded across my forehead, my nose was running and I was pretty sure there was vomit on Kin’s shirt.
Drake kept rubbing my back with one hand and kept my hair pulled back from my face with the other. When at last it seemed like I was completely empty of the poison I’d just ingested, he produced a cool washcloth and wiped my face. A vision of Harris doing just that the night before had me gasping with a new kind of pain, and tears burned my eyes.
“There, now. All better.” Drake tapped me on the nose like I’d seen him doing to his girls when he was trying to soothe them, and offered me a grim smile. “I’m not going to lecture you on drinking so much, Lucy. That would make me the worst kind of hypocrite, but I’m going to ask you to be careful in the future. Don’t overdo it, sweetheart.”
I blinked back the tears and nodded. “Don’t worry. That’s the first and last time I do something like that, I promise.”
He nodded, that grim smile still on his face, his eyes looking almost haunted. “I hope so, Lu. I really hope so.”
I wanted to reassure him that I wouldn’t, but I couldn’t think of anything to say that would do that. I hadn’t been so young that I didn’t remember what Drake had been like when he’d been battling his demons with alcohol. I didn’t need the booze to help me through my own demons.
No, my form of self-medication was a lot worse.