In Your Honor (11 page)

“
You okay?” Lenny asked, watching her
closely. When Lucy didn't answer she added, “I didn't know Blake
was coming with... you're not upset, are you?”

“
No, I'm not upset.” Lucy smiled at
her friend. “Just a little thrown off. I'll be fine.” She shook off
her discomfort and decided to enjoy the day as much as possible. To
hell with her random insecurities.

After a few minutes of lying in the sun
chatting with Lenny and sometimes Kendra, she relaxed considerably.
She had almost forgotten about the other three individuals who had
accompanied them.

Chad whistled as he rejoined the girls and
got a bottle of water out of the cooler. He flicked an ice cube at
Lucy and she yelped when it landed on her stomach.

“
That's cold!” Lucy cried, brushing it
off quickly.

Chad chuckled and took a sip of his water,
then tossed water bottles to Blake and Sway.

“
You guys should come swimming, the
water is amazing,” Chad said as he took a seat in the sand next to
Lucy.

“
I like it right here, thank you very
much.” Lucy kept her eyes closed, not wanting to see if Blake was
nearby. Though she knew he was, she could feel it.

“
What if... I don't give you a
choice?” Chad asked playfully and Lucy frowned, not understanding
his meaning. She figured it out too late, just as he suddenly
scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“
No, Chad!” Lucy yelled. “I will so
kick your ass!” She smacked his back with her hands as he laughed
and jogged towards the water.

“
Totally worth it!” he shouted
back.

He plunged into the water, letting her go
once they were deep enough. She swam away from his grasp and
splashed water in his face. He was laughing hysterically but she
was not amused.

“
You are so dead,” Lucy threatened.
“Don't forget, I know where you sleep!” She splashed him again and
he reached out and grabbed her wrists.

“
I couldn't help it, you looked hot.”
His eyebrows waggled, “I mean, temperature-wise. You're pretty
average in the looks department.” He laughed when she gasped at his
insult and tried to splash him again, but he held her wrists
tightly.

Lucy switched tactics. She locked eyes with
him, making her face serious as she propelled her body closer to
his, wrapping her legs around his waist. His eyes widened at their
close proximity and he let go of her arms. Then, she grabbed him by
the shoulders and shoved his head under water. While he sputtered,
disoriented, she swam back to the shore.

“
That is so cheating, Lucy Newton!” he
yelled from behind her, and she chuckled as she exited the
water.

She returned to her chair where the others
were laughing, and Lenny tossed her a towel.

“
You always did fight dirty, Lucky,”
Blake said with a wink, instantly eliminating the chills the cold
water had created and causing her ears to heat up.

Lucy impulsively shot him a smile,
forgetting for a moment where they were in time and space.

“
What did he say that made you nearly
drown him?” Sway interrupted their moment, looking half-alarmed at
her behavior.

“
He said I was average in the looks
department.” Lucy rolled her eyes dramatically. “As if.” The others
laughed at her joke, but Blake's eyes got hazy as he stared at her.
She looked away from him, too much intensity in his
expression.

She settled back into her chair as Chad
returned from his dunking. He was going to resume his seat next to
Lucy, but Blake beat him to it. She tried not to read into it too
much, but it was pretty obvious that Blake wasn't going to let Chad
try again.

“
You should probably reapply your
sunblock, chica.” Lenny tossed her the bottle of heavy duty
SPF.

Lucy sighed dramatically and glared at
Chad.

“
I'll do it for you,” he volunteered
with a wide smile, but Blake swiped the bottle from her
hand.

“
I think you've had enough fun for
today. I got this.” His expression was blank as he motioned for her
to turn around.

Lucy exchanged a look with Lenny, who raised
her eyebrows in the way friends do when they think something
amazing is about to happen.

Sway reached out and flicked the back of
Chad's ear, causing him to yelp in surprise. Lucy felt herself
bristle, realizing there was some sort of unspoken rule about
interacting with her. No doubt Blake's own instruction.

She didn't react except to turn her back to
Blake, pulling her wet hair off her neck and holding it in a sloppy
pile on top of her head.

“
Hey, will you guys come with me down
to the water? You too, Kendra, you need to take a break from the
heat.” Lenny looked at Lucy, silently asking her to go easy on
Blake.
Fat chance of that, Lucy thought to
herself.

Lucy waited until the others were out of
earshot before she spoke. “You plan on peeing in a circle around me
to keep the boys away or what?”

She stiffened when his hands touched her
with the cool lotion on his fingers. He chuckled lightly as he
rubbed the sunblock into her skin in slow circles.

“
What are you talking about?” he
asked, his voice just behind her ear.

“
That weird jealousy thing you did
just now with Chad.” Lucy tried to ignore how her heart rate had
increased with just the feel of his hands on her bare
skin.

“
Geez, Lucky, can't I just be a decent
friend? Does it always have to mean something else?”

His words gave her pause. Had she misread
that whole thing? “What about sound check the other day? What was
that about?”

His hands stilled on her back and he was
momentarily silent. “Sorry about that.”

Lucy wasn't expecting him to say that, and
his apology tugged at her heart.

“
You want me to do the front?” His
whisper in her ear took her by surprise, and she gave herself away
when goosebumps rose on her arms.

“
Um, no, thank you,” she managed to
answer. When she turned around, Blake had moved back to his seat on
the blanket to her right. He put his shades back on and stared out
over the water as if everything were normal and her heart wasn't
threatening to beat through her chest.

She reapplied the lotion to her front side
as casually as possible. He didn't look at her at all, and she was
left feeling even more confused by him. A moment ago he had acted
jealous and familiar with her, now he acted like she wasn't even
there. She was right, some things never changed, and they were
apparently still in high school. She rolled her eyes and went to
lie back when the script tucked into the violent storm tattoo on
his left side ribs caught her eye and caused her heart to jolt.

She reached over and pulled his arm up so
she could see it better. She hadn't allowed herself the privilege
of looking at his incredible side piece, but now she couldn't take
her eyes off of it. The storm, the lightning, the horses... it was
like looking at a snapshot of their entire relationship. The words
registered in her brain, but the reaction was slower in coming. She
looked up to his face to find him watching her closely. She
swallowed as she tried to form a question.

“
Blake?” She frowned, unable to ask
the questions that were swirling around in her head.
Lucky scars? Is that what I am? A scar? The
remnant of a wound? A mark of pain?

He sighed and grabbed his t-shirt, pulling
it over his head.

***

What was he expecting, really? He wanted her
to see it. He wanted her to ask about it. But when she finally
turned her deep brown eyes to his, so soft and confused, he
regretted letting her see it at all. When his shirt settled over
his torso comfortably he reclined on the blanket and closed his
eyes, ignoring her.

“
I'll never understand you,” she said
as she turned away from him again.

He thought about coming back with a retort,
something shitty to piss her off. But he didn't. He'd already
pushed the limits too far today. He should have stayed on the
bus.

***

Lenny's family owned restaurants all across
the country and they happened to have one in Myrtle Beach. They
filled the small, private room towards the back, and Luke noticed
that Blake and Lucy sat on complete opposite ends of the table.
They were doing their best to ignore one another, but if Lucy
laughed at something, Blake would look at her and smile.

Luke knew that he should be doing all he
could to keep Blake from having to spend any time with Lucy, but he
really wanted both bands to go out to dinner together. Lenny had
told him that things had seemed all right at the beach so maybe
they could be civil with one another. Luke really liked how the two
bands interacted and encouraged one another. He desperately wanted
this to work out for the long haul, and making sure that Blake
could handle being around Lucy was going to be a key element. They
had nearly six months left of this, they couldn't avoid each other
forever.

Besides, he'd had a very interesting
discussion with his lovely wife about mending fences and not living
in the past. Her exact words had been, “Sometimes you have to leave
your comfort zone in order to see that you're capable of being
amazing. And sometimes you have to be pushed.”

***

Blake could smell the honeysuckle from
across the room. He hadn't been able to get it out of his head
since that afternoon at the beach. The feel of her skin under his
hands had him thinking crazy things. He needed to be more careful,
he knew that. But here she was again, smelling
unfrickingbelievable.

Her laugh was loud and bright. He had missed
it. She had always had the loudest laugh in the room, completely
unashamed. Pure. Like everything else about her.

“
I have to ask, it's killing me not to
know,” Sway spoke up loudly from his seat next to Blake, directing
his question at Lucy. “Did you ever get married, or
what?”

The room grew quiet, people shifted in their
chairs, and Lucy's face turned crimson. Blake almost smacked Sway,
but part of him was thankful someone had finally asked the question
of the year.

“
No, I didn't.” Lucy cleared her
throat and looked down at her hands in her lap briefly before
flitting her eyes up to Blake. He stared back silently.

“
Well, yeah, the restraining order
made that kinda hard.” Chad laughed, and all eyes turned to
him.

“
Restraining order?” Blake frowned and
felt his jaw tense. If that asshole had hurt her—

“
You guys didn't know?” Chad's eyes
went wide and then he doubled over in laughter. “Yeah, Frank filed
an RO after she shot him.”

The group's attention swung back to
Lucy, who let out a heavy sigh and stared at the center of the
table. Blake felt a smile tug on the corner of his mouth.
Shot him?

“
I knew it,” Sway said, slowly nodding
his head. “You tried to kill him, didn't you?”

“
What? No!” Lucy exclaimed, shaking
her head quickly. “It was an accident.”

Chad was laughing so hard he had tears in
his eyes. Lucy gave him a look that was both disappointment and
amusement. She took a long drink of her water before calmly telling
her side of the story.

“
We went hunting... and I... missed.
I
accidentally
shot him in
the leg.” She scratched the side of her neck nervously and then
reached for her water again.

“
Yeah,” Chad nodded in agreement,
“that's exactly what the police report said, too.” He guffawed
again. “What they left out of the report, but was common knowledge
all over town, was that she had walked in on him doing his
secretary like two days before that.”

“
He was cheating on you?” Blake asked,
dumbfounded. His initial impulse was to break the guy's nose again,
but that was followed by overwhelming pride that she hadn't let him
get away with it. She was too good for that rat bastard
anyway.

“
This is the part where you say, I
told you so.” She almost smiled when she said it. Blake saw an open
door and went for it.

“
That's what you get for agreeing to
marry someone named
Frank,
” Blake pointed out with
amusement.

“
Frank is a perfectly
regular name.” Lucy glared at him but there was no fire behind
it.

“
Whatever, the guy was
named after wieners,” Blake retorted, causing Chad to laugh even
harder.

“
You never liked him.”
Lucy shook her head, but that smile was still playing on her
lips.

“
Of course not!” Blake
agreed heartily. “He was always after my girl. And it sounds like I
had good cause to hate him.”

Lucy shot him a look that he was positive
could melt glass, but he gave her a crooked grin.

“
Did you or did you not
try to kill the guy?” Sway tried to get an answer to his question.
Unease and light panic displayed across his features. Sway had
always been more than a little afraid of Lucy and her inability to
tolerate bullshit.

“
Of course I didn't try to
kill him, Sway!” Lucy exclaimed. “You know, if I was a vice
president I don't think I'd be under this much
scrutiny.”

“
Damn, I've missed you!”
Blake slapped his hand down on the table and laughed out loud. He
didn't even care what he was supposed to be doing or how he was
supposed to be acting. She was still his favorite person in the
whole world. She was smart and funny and she didn't take shit from
anyone. How was he supposed to stay away from her at this
point?