Chapter 16
CLARA
After Lenny dropped us off at Luke’s building, we took the elevator all the way up to the penthouse.
“I’ve given you the tour but I didn’t show you the best part,” Luke said.
The elevator dinged open and we went into his place.
“There’s more to this apartment?” I asked, shaking my head.
He nodded. “And I called ahead with the concierge to get things ready for us. Come on.”
On the other side of the kitchen was a little corridor that led to sliding glass doors.
I gaped at Luke. “We’re going out there? In December?”
He shot me a cocky grin. “Trust me.”
Luke slid the doors open and gestured for me to go out first. Heat from the roaring firepit wrapped me in a hug as soon as I stepped foot outside. I also felt heat coming up from the tiles, like they were also radiating warmth. The walls blocked the wind and the cold barely touched us at all.
White lights had been strung over comfortable-looking patio furniture. A table and chairs had been arranged by the fire, and a bottle of champagne was chilling in a bucket beside two glasses.
That was luxury, standing on the rooftop patio in the cold heart of winter and being perfectly comfortable. I didn’t even need my bulky coat anymore.
“This is incredible,” I breathed, looking at the city lights. Each building was its own constellation, filled with people and stories and history.
“It is,” Luke said beside me. “So what do you think? Are you ready to come live out here?”
I nodded. “It’s everything I want. I’ve visited before, of course, and saw some Broadway plays.
This is like the motherland for stage performances.
But this is the first time I’ve been here that it no longer feels like an unattainable dream.
” I looked at him and he locked eyes with me.
“Thank you again for this insane deal. I want you to know I’ll be eternally grateful. ”
Luke’s expression darkened a little and I wasn’t sure why. His pants buzzed and he grabbed his phone, looking at the screen. “Just one second. The food is here. Don’t go anywhere.”
“If you’re bringing food, I’m not moving an inch.” I smiled.
I drank in the lights some more while he was gone. The rooftop with the fire and the lights and the champagne? It all felt romantic and very close to real. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part.
Luke was more than just my brother’s best friend or a guy I had a fake arrangement with. The more time I spent with him, the more I saw beyond his cocky TV persona. Luke was sweet underneath, and he was considerate, thoughtful.
Like tonight, he had thought to make arrangements to have the patio ready for us. We could have just picked up some takeout on the way home, but he had gone out of his way to make the evening more special than that. And there were no cameras around or executives to impress. He had done it anyway.
Luke came swooping back with a big bag of something that smelled delicious. He put the bag down on the table and pulled a chair out. “Come have a seat, Clara. You worked hard today.”
I sat. “Thank you. I had fun decorating, though. Kerri’s team really brought my designs to life. It’s like magic.”
“You ladies worked a miracle in that place,” he said as he started bringing out paper cartoons of Chinese food. The smell made my mouth water and my stomach rumble. “None of the other Christmas parties ever looked so good.”
“Well, thank you,” I said. “And thank you for this food. Oh, my God. Am I allowed to eat an egg roll while you get everything out?”
He chuckled. “Please do.”
I munched on an egg roll and tried not to groan obscenely. “Holy hell, this is fantastic.”
“I love this place, and I tip well, so they make my food extra good.” He shrugged. “Or that’s what they tell me. They might say that to everyone.”
“Either way, I’m in love.”
His eyes locked on mine for a second. Then he started opening up cartons and placing them in front of me. “Wait until you taste the rest.”
We dug in and the conversation quieted for a bit. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable though, and it was punctuated with sighs from me and the occasional appreciative grunt from Luke.
“You know how to spoil a girl,” I said, trying not to chew with my mouth full.
Luke got a serious expression on his face. “So listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about. I was talking to Marshall earlier. He and Kerri love you.”
I smiled. “I’m glad. They’re pretty great. And I know that was the whole point of introducing me to them, to prove you were maturing, settling down. So mission accomplished, huh?”
“Yes, but it’s not just me they’re impressed with,” he said. “Marshall and Kerri showed your Christmas party designs to a friend of theirs. A friend who works with the Broadway League.”
My breath froze in my lungs, and it had nothing to do with the weather. I shook my head, trying to shake the feeling this was a dream. A beautiful one, to be sure, but one that would disappear when the sun came up.
“Tell me everything he said,” I told Luke. “Start from the beginning.”
Luke told me everything Marshall had told him. Everything. I made sure of it.
“I can’t believe it,” I said, still breathless, reeling. “It feels like everything in my life has been lining up since you came back into it.”
Luke smiled and held up his hands. “Don’t give me too much credit. I just introduced you. You’re the one who impressed them.”
I grinned at him. “Crack open that champagne. We need to celebrate.”
“Absolutely.” He popped the cork and poured us both a glass. “To your future.”
We clinked glasses and I drank, feeling giddy even before the alcohol hit my system. “Thank you, Luke.”
“You’re welcome,” he said.
We ate some more and chatted about the decorations for the party. Eventually, Luke got serious again. “I’m curious about something,” he said. “Why did you go to LA? I mean, your big dream was working on stage plays and you wanted to end up here. So why LA?”
“Oh, that’s a long story,” I said, swirling my champagne in my glass.
“I don’t have anywhere else to be right now,” he commented, smiling softly in the firelight.
“I shouldn’t have gone to LA. I know I should have come straight here after college, working my way up at a theater, but I’ve always been a romantic at heart.
” I sighed, deciding there was no harm in telling him about my ex and his dreams in LA.
“It’s so embarrassing to admit it, but it was all because of a boy. ”
Luke’s eyebrows rose. “A boyfriend?”
“Yeah,” I replied, nodding. “I was young, dumb, and in love, a recipe for disaster. We met in the theater department at college, and he was an actor. But he wanted to be in movies, not plays. Theater was old fashioned, he said. There’s no money in it, he said. So we went to LA.”
Luke snorted. “No money in plays? Ask that Hamilton guy how he’s doing.”
I laughed. “I know, right? Like I said, I was acting on emotion, not good sense. He told me LA would be a good start for me too. That I could get some experience, start working my way up the crew. And he swore up and down he would land something immediately.”
“Hmm, I have a feeling that’s not how it turned out,” Luke said.
I took a long swallow of champagne and poured more.
“No, I ended up keeping us both afloat. I found jobs and he didn’t.
Finally, after two years, he finally landed a role on a crappy TV show, and how did he reward me for supporting him all those years?
He immediately cheated on me with his co-star. ”
“Oh, damn.” Luke reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “That’s awful.”
When he pulled his hand away, I wished he hadn’t. His touch was reassuring, steadying. I took another long drink. “It gets worse.”
“No,” he said. “How?”
“Well, obviously, I broke up with him.”
“Obviously.”
“But the people he was working with, they knew me, and from what I heard, they were blaming him for the breakup, so he lied and told everyone I had cheated on him. That I had been sleeping around with directors to get jobs.”
“What the fuck?” Luke shook his head and his eyes blazed with fury. “What a piece of shit.”
I smiled sadly. “I know. He was a liar and a coward and I never saw it until it was too late.”
“So then?” Luke prompted.
“Then no one wanted to hire me anymore. No director wanted to look like they were sleeping with crew members.” I let out a long breath. “It completely derailed my career in Hollywood.”
“You should have sued him for slander,” Luke said. “Say the word and I’ll hire you a lawyer.”
“That’s sweet but I don’t want to drag up all those old ghosts,” I said, shaking my head. “Besides, I don’t want that life anymore. I want to be right here.”
“I’m honored I’ve been able to help with that,” he murmured, gazing into my eyes.
I shuddered and hoped he didn’t see it. Or if he did, I hoped he thought it was from a chill in the air.
“Anyway, long story short, that dickhead left me with an apartment I could barely afford and nothing to show for my time in LA. I went home and took a job at the Helios. I thought things were looking up, too, right before the rug got pulled out from underneath me and they shut the place down.”
“I’m sorry that happened.”
“It was heartbreaking, but then you showed up and put all the pieces back together.” This time, I looked into his eyes, wanting him to see how much it meant. When he didn’t look away, I got shy and went for more champagne.
Luke was intense. My heart kept beating fast when I thought about what it would be like to kiss him like he’d kissed me in the studio. To feel his strong arms around me, his breath on my face, his tongue parting my lips. I shivered again.
I needed to change course or I was going to internally combust. “My story probably sounds pathetic. After what you went through.”
Luke tilted his head. “What did I go through?”
“Um, that knee injury that ended your football career?” I smiled, confused.
“Oh, yeah, that.” He waved it away. “I remember the injury when it rains, because it aches like a bastard, but you know, I figured things out.”
I shrugged. “I’m just saying, you didn’t let that hold you back. And me? I’ve been trying to prove myself my entire life.”
He held up his hands to stop me. “Let me be clear. It was a dark time for me. I struggled and I cursed my fate and my decisions. Just like you, I ended up back home, licking my wounds, trying to decide how to navigate stormy waters.”
“You went back to the ranch?” I asked, sitting up. “I didn’t know that.”
Luke nodded. “Yeah, I never told anyone I was home. Things were too raw. I couldn’t handle the pity or the well wishes and questions.
I thought about staying there. Working on the ranch with my dad.
A simple life didn’t sound so bad to me.
I imagined I’d coach football at our old school. Probably settle down, get married.”
I leaned forward. “So what happened? Why didn’t you stay in Harrison City?”
“I wanted to give the big dream one more try,” he said, staring into the fire like he was looking back into the past. “I knew I would regret it later. The ranch would be waiting for me if I needed to come home.”
“And it worked out,” I said, impressed. Luke wasn’t just a pretty face and broad shoulders. He had suffered and fought through it, earning the magical patio with the heated tiles. “You’ve been more successful after the injury than before it. You’re an inspiration.”
“Good,” he said. “Let me inspire you a little more. My torn-up knee was a setback that led me to bigger and better things. Your shitty LA boyfriend is like my knee. He blew up your whole life but it sent you right here to this moment. And from what Marshall was saying, your future is looking pretty great.”
“I never knew you had this side to you,” I said, staring at him. “I didn’t realize you had feelings.”
Luke cocked a smile. “I’m full of surprises.”
“Like that kiss in the studio,” I said breathlessly. “That was a surprise.”
“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I should have discussed it with you first.”
I was too scared to tell Luke what I really wanted, so I came up with a flimsy excuse on the fly.
“It’s fine. I’m just thinking, if you ever need to do that again, maybe it would be a good idea to do a couple practice ones, so I don’t look like it’s the first time we’ve been that close to each other. ”
Luke nodded thoughtfully. “I can’t argue with the logic.”
He got up, took my hands, and pulled me to my feet. In his eyes, I saw the reflection of the dancing flames, hypnotizing me, drawing me in.
Luke kissed me again and fire scorched my veins.
Time stopped and we drifted together in our own little universe. Then he backed away and reality came crashing down on me.
“Okay, that seemed pretty convincing,” I said, scrambling to keep up the lie instead of facing the truth. I wanted him, every part of him and not just his sweet lips.
His eyes studied my face and he nodded, breathless.
“It was a believable kiss. I think that’s enough practice.
” He cleared his throat, breaking the spell.
“We should get some rest. In all the excitement, I forgot to tell you. We have a gala to attend at the library soon for one of the foundations I donate to. We’ll have to make sure you have a dress. ”
Luke started packing up the food, signaling the night was over. I watched him, wondering if I could go back to normal after the kiss.
Could he?
I said goodnight and went inside, wondering if things would make more sense in the light of day.