Home > Yanked (Frenched #1.5)(9)

Yanked (Frenched #1.5)(9)
Author: Melanie Harlow

They registered joyful shock. “Mia!” He set down a bottle of wine—a f**king bottle of wine???—on a little side table and rushed toward me. “What are you doing here?”

My heart beat faster at the sight of him—he looked so good, so familiar. The messy dark hair, the warm brown eyes, the black wool coat I’d helped him shop for last time I was here. And I could picture every inch of his skin underneath it. Part of me was dying to embrace him, but I felt something unfamiliar too—anger. We’d never really had a fight.

I stepped back, putting my hands out. “I came here to surprise you.”

“You did?” The joy slid off his face as he glanced at my outstretched arms. It was replaced by confusion, which turned to panic when a hair dryer whooshed on in the bedroom.

I looked pointedly over his shoulder in the direction of the noise and crossed my arms again. “Care to explain?”

Lucas closed his eyes briefly and exhaled. “Fuck. Jessica. I was going to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” I shrugged. “That you’re back together? That you’re f**king her? That she’s moved in again?”

“No, no. Of course we’re not back together.” He tried to put his hands on my shoulders, but I moved away, putting the narrow trunk serving as a coffee table in between us.

“Then why is she here?”

“She’s here because we’re friends. Her tour ended, she just got back into the city and had nowhere to stay while she looks for an apartment. She asked if she could crash here, and I couldn’t turn her down.”

Oh, yes, you could have. “Really. And you couldn’t tell me about her because…”

The color in Lucas’s face deepened and he ran his fingers through his mop of dark, wavy hair, which I usually found attractive.

OK, I still found it attractive, which only made me more irritated.

“Because I didn’t want you to get upset,” he said. “It’s not for very long, and I know how you get about her. I didn’t want to worry you.”

“I’m more upset that you kept this from me than I would have been if you’d told me! I know you feel guilty about the way things ended between you guys, but that doesn’t mean you have to invite her to live with you!” I was loud enough that he brought a finger to his lips.

“Shh. I don’t want her to hear you.”

Anger sizzled beneath my skin. “You don’t want her to know about me, either. She said you hadn’t mentioned me. Why is that?”

Lucas held up his hands. “Don’t make more of this than it is, Mia. She’s just a friend now, but we have history, and I don’t want her knowing the intimate details of my romantic life. I chose not to share you with her because it’s a private relationship.”

“Bullshit!” I exploded. “You didn’t tell her because you didn’t want her to know you weren’t single anymore! You wanted to keep your options open.”

Lucas groaned. “Now you’re just talking crazy.”

“Crazy?” I pointed toward the bedroom. “She’s sleeping in your bed, Lucas. Showering in your shower. Sharing a very cozy little space with you. It doesn’t get more intimate than that. I’m not crazy, I’m hurt! And angry!”

“I’m sleeping on the couch.” His voice was louder now. “Not with her. You think I would do that to you?”

“I didn’t this morning, but now I don’t know.” I looked around again. “If you’re sleeping on the couch, where are the sheets?”

“I put them away in the morning. This place is small enough without sheets and blankets lying all over everything. Mia, please.” He came around the table, contrition in his eyes, and though I kept my arms against my body I let him pull me into his chest. His familiar smell blunted some of my anger. “I’m sorry you walked into this. I didn’t know you were coming. I would have told you otherwise.”

My spine stiffened. “But if I hadn’t shown up, you wouldn’t have told me.”

He sighed and tried to squeeze me tighter. “You’re making a big deal over nothing.”

I pushed him away. “I’m not. You kept a secret from me. And you kept me a secret from her.” I jerked my head toward the bedroom, where the dryer noise had stopped. “You did it on purpose, Lucas, and you’re not even saying you’re sorry about it, you’re just sorry I walked into it.”

He rubbed a hand over his scruffy jaw, closing his eyes and breathing heavily, like I was testing his patience. “I just didn’t see the point in telling you something that would cause you anguish. Something that you couldn’t do anything about.”

“So you’d have let her stay here even if I’d said I wasn’t comfortable with it?” I challenged.

“It is my apartment.” A note of defensiveness edged his words. A slight emphasis on my. “She’s my friend. I didn’t think we had rules for each other that way, Mia. Rules about friends, I mean.”

“I see. So you’d be OK if I let Tucker stay with me in my apartment?”

Lucas pressed his lips together. “Your apartment. Your choice. It would have nothing to do with me.”

I don’t f**king believe this. I pushed past him and grabbed my suitcase. This conversation was going nowhere, and every word he said sliced me to ribbons. “I made a mistake coming here. I’ll go now.”

   
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