Raging Heart On (Lucas Brothers #2)(10)

“Are you willing to do the same?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I give up White and the rest of the family, what are you giving up, Tommy?”

“This isn’t a game, Kayla, where you give up something so I do too. This is life.”

“What about Cynthia?”

“What about her?”

“I don’t want her in our lives.”

“She’s the mother of my child, Kayla.”

“Then where Arie is concerned, it’s fine to work with her. What’s not fine is her being at a dinner for our engagement, or the way she talks about me.”

“Cynthia is—”

“A bitch.”

“Kayla…”

“Can we agree that she stays out of the marriage, this agreement that you and I have?”

“I can’t guarantee that. As the mother of my child, I naturally will have to take her into account with anything to do with my life,” he says, and something clicks into place. He expects me to do all the giving in this relationship, all the allowances. While I’m in love with White and was up front with him about it, he’s always going to be in love with Cynthia, but he won’t admit it. Maybe even to himself. I can live and settle for a lot. Tommy and what he’s offering isn’t one of them.

“Then I guess it’s over,” I whisper, my stomach in knots. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I want a child, but the more time I spend with Tommy, the more I know marrying him would be a mistake.

Without another word, Tommy walks out. My emotions are all out of whack. I’m not sure what I feel. I think I should feel panic, but right now all I really feel is what I felt on the days before I accepted Tommy’s proposal.

Alone.





CHAPTER 8


WHITE




“C’mon, Kay. Let me in,” I yell, pounding on the door. It’s been two days since I’ve heard from her. She’s not answering my texts, she’s not returning my calls, and I can’t take the silence any longer.

“Go away,” I hear from the other side of the door, a mumbled reply.

“You either open this door or I break it down.”

“I’m going back to bed, you freak. It’s not even eight in the morning! And it’s Sunday!”

“Kay, I’m warning you!”

Silence.

I should walk away. I know I should. Give her space or whatever the f*ck it seems to be she’s wanting. The problem here is that I haven’t gone so much as one day without contact from Kayla in fifteen years. Hell, even at the height of football season and during the big games, we still managed to text or call. Two days may not seem like a lot to some people, but it feels like a f*cking lifetime to me. So like an idiot, I don’t walk away. I don’t back off and give her time. I kick her door down. Okay, well I kick it until the cheap little lock she has on the front door gives. As it breaks with just my second kick, I make a mental note to install a deadbolt in her apartment. One I have the key to. Key… Motherf*cker!

“Tell me you did not just break my door in!” There’s not much I can do to answer Kay’s accusation. Denying it would be pretty stupid since it’s hanging awkwardly away from the doorframe beside me. Stupid even to a dumbass who broke a door into his best friend’s apartment when he has a motherf*cking key on his key ring—a key ring that just happens to be in his damned pocket. “White Hall Lucas! Tell me you did not just break my door!”

I shrug, walking further inside. I try to close the door behind me. There’s nothing for it to latch onto since I broke the lock frame on the door. But it does go together for a second—right before it opens about two inches as if to say, “Hah, motherf*cker, you f*cked up.”

“Why in the hell did you break my door!?”

“It could be because you haven’t been answering your damned phone, or your texts. Maybe it’s because you knew I was out here and you weren’t letting me in. Maybe it was all three. I warned you!”

“First of all, it’s not even eight in the morning!”

“It is now,” I interject, causing her to give me a look that, if possible, would kill me dead.

“Second of all, White Hall, you have a damn key!”

“Why haven’t you been answering my texts?”

“I didn’t want to.”

“You didn’t want to?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Why the f*ck not?”

“Stop cursing me.”

“Then tell me why you didn’t answer your damned phone!”

“I told you! I didn’t want to!”

“That’s not a real reason.”

“It’s the only one I have.”

“Then you better come up with another one real soon, Buttercup.”

“Or what? You’ll break one of my windows? You’re fixing that door, White Hall! I am not calling my landlord to fix your stupidity.”

“Kayla, I’m warning you.”

“White, I’m ignoring you.”

“Tell me now or I’ll paddle that ass red.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“One.”