Craving Lucy

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Book: Read Craving Lucy for Free Online
Authors: Terri Anne Browning
head in the triage room. “You good, Lucy?”
    I yawned and nodded. “As good as I can be.”
    “I’ll message your mom and let her know that you’re doing okay.” He stepped back and let the door close. I watched as he took up his earlier position, his huge back blocking almost the entire window on the door.
    Fighting another yawn, I looked down at the guy rubbing my feet. “Shouldn’t you be at work? Don’t you have a club to run?”
    “I’ve got a great staff and I texted my assistant manager on the ride over here.” He pressed his thumb into my arch and applied enough pressure that my eyes drifted closed in pleasure. “It wouldn’t have mattered, though. I wasn’t going to let you leave without me. You’re more important to me than First Bass.”
    For the second time that night tears burned my eyes. This time it wasn’t because of the pain in my hand, but in my heart. I watched as he examined the nail polish on my toes, trying to figure him out. How could this guy—this beautiful man—tear me up so easily inside? Why the hell did he get to have all this power over my heart when it felt like I had none over his?
    Swallowing the lump in my throat, I did the one thing I’d sworn I wasn’t going to do. Bring up that damn kiss. “Do you regret kissing me, Harris?”
    His dark head snapped up and those amazing aquamarine eyes caught mine, forcing me to hold his gaze. “No,” he breathed fiercely. “Lu, no. I don’t regret one second of kissing you.”
    Some of the pressure in my chest eased and it felt like I could actually breathe again. He didn’t regret it. But… “So why did you disappear for so long? Why didn’t you text me?”
    His eyes broke our connection first. He turned his head and blew out a long, drawn-out breath. “Tessa caused some trouble between me and Jenna. Jen called me, hysterical, threatening to leave rehab. I flew out the next morning and was there until yesterday, convincing her to stay until her scheduled time was up.”
    My eyes widened. I hadn’t even considered that he’d left town because of Jenna. It made me feel self-centered and spoiled that I hadn’t thought of Jenna very much in the last few months. I knew she was working on turning her life around, and I was proud of her. We’d never been very close, though. Mostly because, until she’d come out to everyone in the family, I’d thought she and Harris had had something going on. I’d been jealous of her even at the age of twelve.
    I closed my eyes. Pettily I’d been kind of glad that Jenna hadn’t been around for the last few months. It had meant that I’d had Harris’s full attention when we were together. Fuck, I was such a mean bitch.
    “I-is she okay?”
    Turning those mesmerizing eyes back to me, he gave me a grim smile. “So far so good. I think I’ve gotten her convinced that Tessa isn’t for her. Time will only tell, though. All I can do is be there for her. She has to be the one to decide who she wants in her life or not.”
    I nodded. “Yeah, she does. I wish she would talk to Drake, though.” I knew that if she just talked to her brother about what was going on, from the bad girlfriend to the drugs, he would understand and maybe even be able to help her through the rest of her recovery.
    Just because Jenna had gone to rehab didn’t mean that she was going to be fine when she got home. Drake had once told me that rehab was the easy part. In there you didn’t have temptation glaring at you around every corner. There were people who understood what you were going through, people who shared your pain and your cravings. Out in the real world, unless you had a good support system around you, your chances of slipping up doubled. Of course, considering how many times Drake had been to rehab before he’d finally taken it seriously, the support system meant nothing unless you were ready to face your addiction head on.
    “I told her she needed to tell her brothers and sister. She promised to

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