She was smart, like Lucas said. She knew getting involved with him was wrong from the start. She may have been foolish and given in to his charm and good looks and appeal, but she was smart enough to stop it before it went any further. She needed to harden her heart. It’s something she’d done her entire life. She was an expert at it, but it had never been this hard or hurtful. “I’m sorry, Lucas. This is the way it has to be.” She briskly walked away from him as soon as she saw the tears that welled on his lower lids, because if they fell down his cheeks, she would have collapsed.
Lucas fell into his bed and stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t look at Sindy after she rejected him. He couldn’t even be in the same room with her, so he fled upstairs where he’d been immobilized for the last hour in an almost catatonic state. He didn’t realize how much he cared about her until she broke his heart. They were never technically a couple, he reminded himself. Their relationship had been volatile from the first day they’d met, fluctuating between insane passion and intense discord, and he wondered if he had fooled himself into thinking she really cared about him. The thought that he didn’t mean anything to her left him mournful and dejected, feelings he never had before. It was as if she mauled his heart. He rolled over and hugged the pillow to his chest in order to stifle the hollow ache that echoed inside of him, but it did nothing to ease the shock and pain at being cast aside so easily. She didn’t want him anymore. And he wondered if she ever really wanted him at all.
A while later, he recognized Sindy’s lone footsteps walking down the hallway toward Tessa’s suite. At first, it spiked his adrenaline, and he started to jump off the bed, but before his feet reached the edge of the mattress he came to a halt. He had nothing to say to her. Nothing she wanted to hear. He listened to the sound of her walking further away until the door to Tessa’s room closed and sealed off any further noise on the floor. She didn’t put the TV on or play music, and he wondered if she was gazing at the ceiling thinking about him, the same way he was lying there thinking about her.
Sometime around midnight, he picked up his phone and started to text her, then decided against it. He knew she wouldn’t respond, and he couldn’t take another rejection.
He slept fitfully and woke early in hopes of seeing Sindy at breakfast, but she never showed up. According to Tessa, Sindy decided to sleep late this morning, but Lucas knew she was only avoiding him.
After forcing himself to eat a few forkfuls of eggs, he decided to go for a walk on the beach. When he returned home, Sindy’s car was still in the driveway. He entered the house and listened for her voice, but he heard nothing. He went to the kitchen anyway, hoping to see her. Even if they only crossed paths – he going in one direction, she going in the other – that’s all it would have taken to make him happy. But it didn’t happen.
His mom was sitting at the center island drinking a cup of coffee and reading a magazine. She looked up at him when he entered the kitchen. “Everything OK, Lucas?” She had that knowing look in her eyes. That sixth sense that all mothers had. Her raised brows may as well have been antennas on high alert.
“Yeah,” he replied as he slowly exhaled. But he didn’t fool her. Not for one second.
She went to him and cupped his cheek in her hand for a moment before letting out a breath. “She’ll come around.”
“What are you talking about?” His mother had phenomenal intuition, but she couldn’t possibly have known something was going on between him and Sindy. Or could she?
“You might fool everyone else, even yourself, but you’re not getting one over on me. I know my son.”
He didn’t bother to deny it, and he really didn’t want to talk about it, but he couldn’t ignore the concern in his mother’s eyes. “I don’t think so, Mom. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Give her time, baby. Don’t push it. Give her the space she needs. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Her life is a roller coaster right now.”
He nodded, because his throat was too tight to answer. The way Sindy explained it last night made sense. She didn’t see a future with him. His mother also thought he should back off. It was the general consensus that they were wrong together, except his heart refused to believe it was true.
His mother placed a gentle hand on his arm. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, sweetie.”
“I’m OK,” he lied.
“No, you’re not. You can put on the tough-guy act all you want. I know what’s in here.” She tapped the center of his chest. “Your heart is as sensitive as your father’s. Just give her time.”
“I don’t have a choice. That’s what she wants.”
“I hate seeing you like this.” She wrapped her arms around him in a hug that usually made everything all right. But, not this time.
He sighed and hugged her back. “I’ll be fine.”
He went upstairs and paused outside the doorway to his suite and listened to the sounds coming from Tessa’s room down the hall. He could hear his sister’s laughter and Sindy’s voice, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. He knew they weren’t talking about him, and it pained him. Could she really forget about him so easily? Did he really mean that little to her?
More laughter echoed in the foyer, this time Sindy’s. Lucas picked up on pieces of the conversation she was having with Tessa. They were talking about the upcoming photo shoot and making plans to go to the hair salon later that day. He started to take a step down the hall, but his foot never left the floor. She didn’t want him intruding and eyeing her with innuendo. She wanted a professional relationship. Although his heart ached at the thought, he knew she was right. Too much was happening at once right now. There were too many things coming at them from all angles. They needed to concentrate on Prodigy. He’d give her the space she wanted, and maybe, in the future, they’d get a second chance. A real shot at a relationship.
Tomorrow they had rehearsal, so he’d leave her alone for the rest of today. He would give her the space she’s been begging for, and maybe, just maybe, she’d realize that she missed him.
The next morning, Lucas skipped breakfast with the family and stayed locked in his suite until it was time to go down to the studio. He purposely arrived before anyone and killed time by scrolling through text messages and emails. Mason showed up first, announcing his presence by tapping out a beat on the wall as he descended the stairs. Lucas smiled at his best friend. “You’re in a good mood.”
“I’m always in a good mood when we’re making music.” Mason gave Lucas a fist bump. “This is really happening, man. About damn time.” He jumped behind the drums, took a pair of sticks from the bag and started playing beats off the top of his head. He played like a madman. Watching Mason was an inspiration, and it lightened the heaviness that shrouded Lucas’ heart. They were here to rehearse, and he wasn’t going to dwell on the issues that clouded his personal life.
He heard Sindy and Tessa chatting as they made their way down the stairs, just like he heard them late at night sometimes when he’d open his door and listen to see if Sindy was still awake.
“I hope you’re ready to rock,” Tessa said. “Because I’m ready to scream my face off.”
Mason answered with a series of heavy hits on his toms and smashed both cymbals. “Hell, yeah!”
Lucas couldn’t take his eyes off Sindy. She cut her hair. It was shorter and spikey, and her auburn color was now a gorgeous deep red. “I love your hair,” he said in a breathy voice that conveyed how taken he was with this girl. “It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.”
“Oh, man,” Mason called from behind his drums. “You look fucking hot!”
