Un-Shattering Lucy (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series) (Volume 4) Read Online Free Page B

her list and I was glad to go along. Anything to keep my mind off of the actual graduation ceremony, and more importantly the after party. I found myself smiling a little more easily as the day wore on and by that night as we climbed back into her bed my face didn’t feel nearly as stiff and the smiles came a little more easily.
    I stretched out on my stomach beside Kin and bunched one of her pillows under my head. “Thanks for today,” I mumbled as I fought sleep.
    She turned on her side, propping her head up on her hand. “It was fun, but it showed me just how much I’ve missed you. Are you sure you want to go back to Georgetown for the summer term? I mean, really, summer school?”
    “I don’t want to take a break. It helps to keep my mind occupied.”
    Blue eyes darkened and she scooted closer. Reaching out she pushed a few of my curls back from my face. The gentle touch of her fingers to my cheek had my eyes stinging but I didn’t shy away from her. “I know it’s been hard, Lu, but things haven’t been easy for him either.”
    I turned my face away from her. “Is that why he’s been in the trash mags with a handful of different chicks the last few months?” I didn’t mean to sound so bitter about it, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
    It had been a hard pill to swallow when I’d first seen Harris on the cover of some trashy tabloid with his arm around some blonde with killer legs and an even deadlier body. He’d been grinning down at her like she was his whole world and I’d fallen a little deeper into the black abyss that I’d been in from the day he’d told me we didn’t belong together.
    I’d tried to tell myself that I was happy if he was moving on. If he was happy then that was all that really mattered. Right?
    Wrong.
    It had hurt so fucking bad and I’d resorted to old coping methods.
    The next week Harris had been featured on yet another tabloid with that same smile but a different blonde with legs that went on for miles and a chest that had to have set her back a good ten grand. The gossip magazines had been keeping up with how Harris Cutter had a different beautiful blonde on his arm every week and how much fun he seemed to be having.
    Even though it killed me to see him with so many different chicks, I was still thankful that the media hadn’t gotten wind of what had happened with Tessa after she had nearly killed him. Aunt Emmie had kept me up to date on what was going on regarding Jenna’s ex. She’d pleaded guilty to a few lesser crimes and had gotten five years. It was the best the district attorney could come up with to keep what had happened out of the papers. Aunt Emmie had made sure to tell me that Tessa wasn’t faring well inside, either. The second day of her five-year sentence Tessa had been jumped by five women and had ended up in the prison infirmary with a concussion and a broken wrist.
    I didn’t want to think about the kind of connections my aunt had to have pulled that off, but I knew instinctively that she’d been responsible for what had happened to Tessa. Emmie Armstrong could make anything she wanted happen with just a few phone calls. She was kind of dangerous.
    Okay, so she was very dangerous. That was just one of the many things I loved so much about her, though.
    Kin blew out a heavy sigh. “You shouldn’t read those things, Lucy. You, better than anyone, should know that those things don’t have a bit of truth to them.”
    Maybe the paps who had printed those stories about Harris had gotten it wrong, but the pictures told their own story. Harris was definitely having fun with them.
    That he had been able to move on so easily while I was fighting just to get out of bed each morning hurt more than anything else could have right then. It had been easier when I thought he was just as destroyed as I was—not much more, but some. I’d felt so stupid when I knew he wasn’t. It was more than obvious to me that Harris hadn’t been nearly as invested in us