Page 48 of Fighting for Lucy

That he believed.

It just wasn’t enough.

Not for the mistakes he’d made. It was asking too much of his twin when he hadn't given her anything in return for so long. Not since childhood. They’d been thirteen when they were first split up, and looking back now, it was the beginning of the end. If they’d stayed together in foster care, he likely wouldn’t have been able to break her heart by joining the military.

“Talk to her,” Lucy said again.

“Okay,” he agreed, it wasn’t like it could make things worse.

Drawing in a breath, he released Lucy’s hand, even though it felt like being out in the ocean and letting go of your life preserver, and crossed the room to where his sister stood with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. But beneath the anger he saw her pain. She wasn’t trying to be mean to him, to hurt him, she’d just grieved him and then learned she’d been lied to. Of course she was angry, it was only natural. He just had to pray that one day she could understand he hadn't wanted to hurt her, he’d just thought she was better off without him in her life.

“Scar, can we talk so I can explain?” he asked.

“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say,” Scarlett said, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. Then her gaze shifted to something behind him, and he knew she was looking at Lucy. “And if I lose someone I care about because you come between us, I’ll never forgive you for that either.”

The threat to end whatever it was he had with Lucy hung between them. It hurt that his sister would try to take away the only thing he had when she already had so many people who loved her, but he had to remind himself that she was acting out of her own hurt.

Still, it latched onto his doubts and compounded them. If he wasn’t good enough for his own twin, how could he ever hope to be enough for a woman like Lucy?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

January 25th

4:38 P.M.

It feltlike something was missing.

So much so that Lucy kept looking around her living room to see what wasn’t there even though she already knew what it was.

Zander.

That was what was missing.

They’d parted ways after the hospital. Not parted on bad terms at all. They’d exchanged numbers, they’d kissed before she got into Ella’s car, and he got into his truck which someone had dropped off for him.

The only thing they hadn't done was make concrete plans about when they would see each other again. As much as she’d wanted to ask, she hadn't wanted to push. Zander was dealing with so much, and Scarlett had been there, glaring at him, and she knew he needed time on his own to process.

She just wanted to be there for him.

But she knew she couldn’t force him to let her be.

If there was one thing she understood, it was being independent and wanting to handle things yourself. This was the first time she’d really been on the flip side of that and it sucked. It definitely gave her insight into what her family had felt all these years when she’d pushed them away because she needed so badly to cling to her independence.

Still, she could be patient. Because Zander was worth it.

It didn't mean she didn't wish he was there though.

When a small sigh escaped, she knew that one of her friends was going to zero in on it. They’d been great as she knew they would be. After the debrief, they’d gone with her to the hospital. They’d stayed while she was examined. When she’d been discharged, they drove her back to her place and stayed with her.

It was nice.

She appreciated it.

But it was Zander that she craved.

Only four days had passed since the crash, which was completely weird because in those four days Lucy felt like she had lived an entire lifetime. So much had happened, she had been so fundamentally changed by what she’d lived through, she wasn’t even the same person anymore.

In that time she’d grown so close to Zander. It was completely crazy because there had been a solid day that they hadn't even been together, which was a quarter of that time. And another quarter of that time she’d been unsure if Zander could be trusted and was actively looking for a chance to get away from him, going so far as to try to kill him.

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