Page 85 of Break the Barrier

“Don’t you think you’re ready?”

Lue sighs. “The play starts this weekend. I need to be ready.”

I look at her, and she notices the look on my face, giggling a little. “You’re ready.”

She grabs for the straw in her drink, stirring it around, andseems to lose her happiness for a moment. Lue is a naturally happy kid, but I can recognize when someone needs a minute to gather whatever seems to be bothering them.

Over the last month, we’ve seen a lot of each other. Most nights, even. I go to their house on my nights off, sometimes Lue is there, and sometimes she’s not.

But when she is, we’ve formed our own little family.

We cook dinner, we chat, we dance in the kitchen, we watch movies. I’ve never experienced the type of family life like I have when I’m with Logan and Lue.

Logan and I have only had a few nights together since the first night, but each time it grows more and more special. At least, to me it does.

And even though we don’t get much time alone right now, he still does things that make me feel special. He still comes every Friday night and swings me around the dance floor, he still shows up at some point on Sundays and picks me up for time at the ranch, and he still comes every Tuesday and takes me aside for a moment to check in with me, despite the heckling that comes from his friends.

I feel like I’m living a fairytale, and I don’t want it to end.

“What happens after the play?” Lue’s no-nonsense question drags me out of my thoughts, and I blink at her, clasping my hands together on the table.

“What do you mean?”

She gives me a look only a teen can and rolls her eyes. “I mean…with you and my dad. I know you only started helping me because of my dad.”

I blink at her. “Lue, that is not why I’m helping you.” I pause to think through this. I don’t ever want Lue to think that mypracticing with her has anything to do with Logan. “I love helping you, and I love hanging out with you.”

“But I won’t have a reason to come here after the play starts.”

I let my jaw drop slightly. “That’s not true, you don’t need a reason to come here. But even if that reason is just to hang out with me, isn’t that reason enough?”

She bites her lip, and I see that vulnerability in her eyes. It’s the same emotion I probably wear on my face whenever I give in to something Logan is reassuring me of. “Really? I can just come to hang out?”

I reach across the table, grabbing her hands. “Lue, you are obligated to come and bother me whenever you want. I demand it.”

A slow grin breaks out on her lips, and I smile at her. “Come on.” I shake her hands. “How could you possibly think I’d only want to hang out with your dad?”

She shrugs, going back to her soda on the table, and her blue eyes meet mine. “Because you love him.”

I choke on my spit, my brain and mouth not working to refute her statement. Before I can say anything, Annmarie comes over and plops in one of the chairs at the table.

Lue, unfazed by her ability to completely knock me on my ass, looks over at Annmarie. “You’re coming to my play, right?”

Annmarie, unbothered by being real, groans. “Shakespeare?”

Lue rolls her eyes like she’s been around us girls forever. She fits in seamlessly. “You know it’s Shakespeare.”

“I’m not really a Shakespeare person.”

Lue opens her eyes wide, tilts her head down, and pushes her bottom lip out, pouting at Annmarie.

Annmarie looks at me, a horrified look on her face. “What the shit is this?”

I laugh at her, the look of shock and, well, pure horror nearly undoing me. “That’s your future favorite niece asking you to come and support her,” Lue answers for me. Boldly, I might add.

If I didn’t know any better, I would think she knows more than she lets on. But Logan wouldn’t tell her without telling me he told her, right?

I’m giving myself a headache.