The Perfect Stroke (Lucas Brothers #1)(36)

“Come on, Gray, give it up,” Maggie says.

I take a deep breath. “Fine. Cooper is smart, funny, beautiful… caring. She’s—”

“What kind of name is Cooper?”

“Cooper?” Cyan interrupts.

“Her name is Claudia Cooper. Everyone calls her CC.”

“Dude, that’s a rough ass name for a girl,” Cyan says.

“Oh please, like any of us could talk,” Maggie says. “Hello? Magnolia tree, front and center here.”

“It was a hell of a Magnolia tree,” Mom says. Maggie holds her head down.

We all laugh, even me, and I don’t really feel like it, especially since talking about CC reminds me of everything I’ve lost.

“If she’s so wonderful, what the f*ck are you doing here without her?”

“White Hall Lucas, watch your mouth!”

“Yes, Mom,” he sighs.

“I still want to see the woman who has one of my brothers all twisted up,” Maggie says. I flip her off without letting mom see me.

“We may not have to wait long, dear,” Mom says.

“Why’s that?” Cyan asks, and I just listen to them chatter while I open my second beer. I wonder how long it would take me to get drunk on drinking nothing but beer.

“Because, unless I miss my guess, the woman in question is getting out of that taxi at the end of our drive,” Mom says.

My heart speeds up at her words and joy spreads through me. CC must have changed her mind! I’ll make sure I reward her later tonight.

“Fuck!” I growl.

“What? What’s wrong?” Mom asks, and she must know something is way off from my tone, because for once she doesn’t bitch at me for my cursing.

“That’s not CC. That’s David Riverton and his daughter Cammie,” I growl.

“Oh, shit,” Maggie whispers while everyone else goes quiet. I hold my head down, wondering how the f*ck life got so complicated.





“Okay, so hit me,” Mer says, staring at me from across the table. If she only knew how inviting that was right now, she wouldn’t tempt me. It’s been five days since Gray left to visit his family in Texas. Five days and I haven’t seen nor heard from him. I mean, I guess we broke up, so I understand it, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought he might try to contact me. I thought I’d get the chance to… maybe rethink things? Get a do-over? Hell, I don’t know. Truthfully, I didn’t think much past hearing from Gray again. “Earth to C. You get about five minutes to start talking,” Mer adds.

“And you’ll what?”

“I’ll throw such a fit they will kick us out of here.”

“That’s not much of a threat, woman,” I grumble. We’re at the new bar that just opened downtown called Drink. It’s a small hole in the wall filled with, from what I can tell, college-aged kids and rich snobs who never had a hard time in their life, unless you include chipping a nail or their daddy freezing their trust fund for a few days.

“I thought we both could use a change of pace,” she defends, but she doesn’t look exactly happy to be here either. “But you’re right, it blows. Which is why you have to tell me about Gray!”

“I told you, there’s not much to tell,” I all but growl, shifting in my seat.

“Oh, please. Last week you couldn’t stop talking about him. All I heard was Gray this and Gray that. Today it’s over, end of discussion. I’m getting whiplash from the change.”

“He went back to Texas to visit his family.” I shrug, staring at my drink and wishing I could just go home, curl up on the couch like I have for the last five days, and sleep until I have to get up in the morning.

“So? That does not constitute a breakup. I swear, C, if you kicked him to the curb just because his vine wasn’t going to be around to swing through the jungle on, I may kill you myself.”

I roll my eyes at her. I decide to talk with her, knowing that if I don’t, this is just going to go on all night, and I really need to talk about something else if I’m going to survive tonight.

“Our last date, he took me to a dance.”

“So? You love dancing!”

“A society formal at the Riverton’s Country Club.”

“Oh, shit.”

“He was very sweet. Even picked out my dress.”

“Okay. So far, I’m seeing no reason to cut the man loose. I mean…”

“It was this beautiful silk and lace, deep red,” I interrupt her, “that probably cost a fortune.”

“Again, C, not making a connection.”

“It was a black and white formal.”

“Oh hell.”

“Yeah, that’s not his fault. I have a very good hunch that it was all Cammie’s fault he picked out a red dress.”

“What? I mean, why would he…”

“He went to the one shop in Addington to buy formal gear. You know, the one where Cammie’s best friend Eliza works.”

“Holy f*ck-nuggets Batman.”

“Pretty much.”

“Someone needs to bitch slap that cunt-a-saurus for freaking days.”

I think about the sprinklers and start to tell Mer, but I just don’t want to get into it right now. As much as I hate Cammie, she’s not my problem. I have this sneaking suspicion that it’s me that is the problem right now. I let my doubts push Gray away, and the truth is… I miss him.