Exactly As You Are (Love in Louisville #1)

Chapter 30

30

“ D ad wants to talk to you.” Jacob hovered over Lucas, spotting him.

Lucas lifted the bar back to its position on the weight bench. They were in his garage, the only place he had room to stow his exercise equipment.

“He’s going to be disappointed, then.”

“I said I would pass along the message. He texted me a few times.”

“So you’re talking to him again, I take it?” Lucas straddled the bench, feeling sweaty and grumpy. He used a towel to mop his forehead.

“A stray text here and there. He said you weren’t responding at all.”

“Don’t plan to.” Lucas gritted his teeth.

Jacob held up his hands. “I get it. For me, it’s been the bare minimum, and even that’s an effort. But I told him I would pass along the message.”

Lucas felt like Jacob had taken the news of their father’s indiscretions with more composure than he had, despite being the one to suspect problems. Lucas thought his own anger stemmed from how alike he and his father were. It frightened him to consider that he could act with such impulsivity and lack of empathy.

“There’s something else I found out, too. I wanted to run it by you,” Jacob said.

Lucas stared at him, but didn’t say anything. He held his breath, imagining awful news, something worse than his dad nearly getting another woman pregnant at sixty like some aging rock star.

“It’s not about Dad,” Jacob said, and Lucas exhaled. “I got an offer to switch agencies for work.”

Lucas laughed. “God, you scared me there.” Things had changed so quickly it felt like he was in a car with defective brakes, barreling downhill. He kept bracing himself for more terrible news.

Jacob offered the rundown of what his new job would entail, along with some pros and cons of leaving versus staying where he was.

“I mean, you know I don’t mind change,” Lucas said. “But it does sound like a good opportunity. I think I would take it if I were you.”

“That’s how I’m leaning, I think.”

He switched places with Jacob, handing him the weighted bar. He grunted as he lifted it. Jacob lay there after his set, panting.

“What’s new with you, man?” Jacob asked when he had gotten his breath. “I haven’t talked to you about anything besides this drama.”

Lucas hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he should reveal anything to Jacob. In the end, he trusted his brother.

“I’m kinda seeing someone,” Lucas said. He wasn’t sure that was how he would put it, but he wouldn’t reveal the actual situation. That was too private.

Jacob sat up. “Are you?” He grinned. “I’d like to say that’s big news, but I feel like this is pretty standard for you, right? Even though you swore you were staying single.”

“This is a little different.” He scratched absently at his arm. “It’s Joan.”

“Holy shit.” Jacob’s eyes widened. “Wow. That’s huge.” Then he grinned more broadly than before. “I fucking knew it, though. This train has been on the tracks for a long time.”

“How do you mean?”

“Seriously? I mean, I thought you guys really had decided to be only friends, but back in high school, you always stared at her with this goofy look on your face. I wondered if you just got better at hiding it.”

“No, we were only friends. Honest. No romance. I mean, yes, I did have a tiny thing for her for some of high school. I got over it, but now this happened.”

“Well, I’m happy for you then. She’s a good woman.” He laughed. “And hot, obviously.” He laid back down on the bench for his next set. “How come you didn’t make a move in high school?”

“I never thought she was interested.” He wasn’t going to tell Jacob about Joan’s condition.

“And is it serious already? Since you guys have known each other for so long? Seems like you could skip all the early dating stuff.”

Lucas hesitated again. Now that he had brought it up, he almost regretted it. He should have known his brother would have questions. How would he describe the situation?

“It’s mostly, uh, physical right now,” he said.

Jacob sat up again after Lucas replaced the bar. He frowned at Lucas. “Oh? Whose parameters?”

“It’s mutual.”

“Bullshit. You’re a relationship guy.”

Lucas cursed his impulsive decision to spill. “It’s complicated,” he said. Though in truth, it wasn’t. Sure, he was entertaining dangerous visions of Joan and their future he needed to derail before they got out of control, but he would get over that.

“Okay,” Jacob said. “But be careful, I guess. It’s not worth ruining a friendship over a fling, if that’s all this is.”

“We know. It’s under control.”

They traded again, and Lucas huffed through his set.

“I’ve got other news.” He kept his back flat against the bench, looking up at Jacob from his upside down position.

“Something more newsworthy than Joan?”

“Maybe not, when you put it like that.” He sucked in a breath. “That school that’s been courting me for the assistant position has been looking more serious. Crescent, I mean.”

Jacob froze for a moment. “Yeah?”

Lucas slid off the bench and straightened up to standing. He took a swig of his water before responding.

“It almost sounds like a done deal, the way James talks. He’s a friend of a friend, kind of, but he also says he’s been following my career.”

“Wow.” Jacob propped his elbows on the bar and looked at Lucas. “So what are you going to do?”

“I have to consider it, right?”

“I definitely would, yeah. What does Joan think?”

“That we would miss each other, and I agree wholeheartedly. I’m just not sure I can pass this up.”

Jacob’s face slackened. “Wait a second. You’d leave Joan behind? When you guys have a thing now?”

“I told you, it’s not like that at this point.” The thought of leaving her did feel like it’d be cutting out half of his beating heart, but he couldn’t very well ask her to move with him, could he? That sounded nuts for a friend to ask.

Jacob rubbed his jaw, deep in thought for a moment.

“That doesn’t sound right,” he said. “Is there, like, an expiration date on you and Joan? You’re already planning to part ways in a few months?”

He didn’t say the quiet part about how Lucas’s girlfriends rarely lasted more than a few months, anyway.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, honestly. I’m living day to day right now.”

“Yeah.” Jacob nodded. “Just, I don’t know, be careful. I know how close you and Joan are.”

Lucas wanted to say he was being careful, but he wasn’t sure that was true. Instead, he grabbed his towel and headed in to shower.