Lucy: Part One: An Anniversary, A Date, And A Bar by Brewer Melissa

Author:Brewer, Melissa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

Isa

Her eyes opened to daylight and a strange room, head pounding, and sat up to take in her surroundings. A split second of panic took her, but then she remembered Nate took her home after that strange man cornered her in the bathroom.

Bathroom.

Isa scrambled from beneath the covers and scurried across the hall to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She sighed with relief when the job was done, and then checked her reflection in the large mirror above the sink as her hands worked the soap in the water. Sleep hadn’t smeared her make-up too much, but she had to wipe mascara from under her eyes. On her head, her hair mocked her, knowing she didn’t have the products to untangle it, although she tried.

In the living room, Nate stirred and sat upright when she walked in. He eyed her and shook his head, but he smiled anyway. “Your dad’s been hounding me all morning. Tell him you’re alive, would you? Maybe mention that I didn’t kidnap you?”

Isa watched him approaching the kitchen table, confused. Her father didn’t think Nate would do something like that, did he? Still, when Nate slid the phone across the table to her, she sent the man a message, then silenced her phone on the off-chance her mother called to yell at her.

“Your mom’s coming today. She asked me to keep an eye on you, but I’ll take you to your grandmother’s if you—”

The sadness his voice carried hurt, so she cut him off in a quiet voice. “No, I want to stay here.” The most surprising part of that statement was its truthfulness; Isa would rather stay here with Nate than go to either her grandmother’s or her father’s house, and not only because she didn’t want to hear the lectures while her head pounded. “Um… Thanks, Nate, for helping me last night.” Unexpected tears crept up in her voice and behind her eyes, clogging her throat. Shame, anger, relief; it didn’t matter what caused them, they faded when Nate circled the table and enveloped her in his arms again, resting his chin on her head.

“I’m just glad you’re okay. Now,” he pushed her away, “how about breakfast?”

The kind offer almost brought the tears back, but she smiled up at him instead, and they headed off to the diner.

Breakfast tasted amazing and did wonders for her gurgling stomach, but having to sit across from Nate’s new girlfriend put a sour taste in the back of her throat, although she didn’t understand why. Until then, she’d only seen them in passing, and that allowed her to smile and wave like Nate was never part of her family. Like he was never her father-figure. She never realized how deep the pain of his absence ran, because her mother filled every gap.

Lucy Hawthorne could never be the person who threw offensive men across bars or offer that masculine sense of safety, though. Not even her father brought the same security with his embrace. Oh, how Isa missed her family being together.

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