Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Magnolia
Luke had been eyeing me since I’d walked in the door, watching me when he thought I didn’t notice, studying me whenever I spoke.
It was disconcerting. I couldn’t read his mood.
I tried to act is if he was merely a business contact.
Never mind that I’d sneaked multiple looks at him and couldn’t help liking what I saw.
He wore an old white tee and faded, dusty jeans with brown work boots.
I’d spotted a thick flannel shirt draped over the back of a folding chair and guessed he’d gotten hot and shed it.
I secretly appreciated the view of his biceps.
I still hadn’t breathed a word to Presley about the llama night, when he’d come back to my apartment.
I trusted her and considered her one of my closest friends, but I couldn’t bring myself to talk out loud about Luke kissing me.
I was afraid that would give it too much significance.
I didn’t want it to have any significance.
Since I’d kept mum, I’d been on my own to figure out how to handle this meeting. I’d decided to act like nothing had happened between us. Wasn’t that what he’d been doing for the past two weeks?
So maybe I’d had him on my mind this morning when I’d dressed for work, all too aware I’d be seeing him at the end of the workday. I wouldn’t admit it out loud.
The truth? I’d had him on my mind every single day since he’d planted that kiss on my lips and hurried away before I knew what hit me.
I hated that I hadn’t already let it go. I didn’t want any man to have any kind of power over me ever again, whether it was financially or emotionally.
A kiss didn’t have to be emotional.
I’d told myself that a hundred times, but Luke wasn’t some random guy. He wasn’t a stranger. We didn’t have a blank slate between us. There was no way to erase the past, no matter how much I wanted to.
“I’m excited,” Presley said once they’d committed to exchanging their vows here. “It’ll be a beautiful setting for the ceremony. I’m sure we can fit all our guests in the end area.”
“While they’re dining, we’ll remove the rows of ceremony chairs and open it up for dancing later,” Luke said.
“Do you have a staff to handle the transition?” I asked, knowing Luke was one of the groomsmen.
“I figure I can take care of it,” he said.
I shook my head. “As a groomsman, you’ll be at the head table. You can’t miss the toasts or the meal or fold up chairs in your tux.”
Presley looked at West as if this was a problem for the two of them to figure out, but it absolutely wasn’t. This was why they’d hired me.
“We’ve got this,” I told her. “Luke and I will discuss how to staff it. You two aren’t allowed to worry about any of it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Presley said.
“I can get a couple of my crew to work some overtime that night. Some of them are asking for extra hours.” Luke shot me a half grin, and I tried to decipher the message in his eyes.
Was it conspiratorial or smug?
Stop overthinking it.
“That might work,” I said. “We can discuss it later. We’ve achieved our goal for tonight. The ceremony site is decided. I know you two want to get to your date.”
“You got that right.” West put his arm around Presley and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’ve worked up an appetite.”
With the look they exchanged, I was pretty sure I knew what he had an appetite for, and it wasn’t food.
“Any chance you can stay a few minutes, Magnolia, so we can discuss options for some of the barn details?”
I nearly told him I needed to drive Presley home, but then I remembered West had his vehicle, and they planned to ride together.
So much for an easy out.
Just another business meeting, I reminded myself. Surely I could keep up the act that his kiss hadn’t messed with me for another half hour.
I checked the time on my phone as if I had plans for later. “I can do that,” I said, hiding my nervousness. I turned to Presley and West. “You two enjoy your date.”
“Oh, we will.” Presley shared another heated look with West.
“Night, Magnolia,” West said.
“Thanks for the help tonight,” Luke told West.
“You bet. You kids be good.” West grinned.
As the men discussed when West could help again, I gave Presley a quick side hug, then headed to the other end of the barn to think about decorations for Christmas Eve now that we had an actual enclosed space to envision.
I was staring at one of the corners, imagining a multitree display with white lights, silver stars, and thick, gauzy silver ribbon for garland.
“You’re staring at the wall,” Luke said as he came up beside me.
“I’m seeing more than the wall,” I replied. “I’m thinking of a cluster of fresh-cut pine trees in this corner and that one. Maybe five per corner? Would that be feasible?”
His attention was on me instead of the stark, drywalled corner. He chuckled. “We have trees if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What do you think of the idea?”
“I think you’re avoiding looking at me.”
I pointedly pivoted enough to look him in the eye. “What do you think of my idea?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m not the bride.”
“You’d make such a pretty one though.”
“Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?”
So much for keeping up my business front. My gaze wandered to his again and found his intent brown eyes locked on me.
“What elephant is that?” I asked, as if I didn’t know.
He grinned, looking so handsome I felt it in my chest. “That kiss,” was all he said.
“I thought we were discussing barn details.”
Several seconds ticked by as he studied me. I held his gaze for as long as I could, but it was as if he could see into my mind, read my thoughts, which admittedly included something like, God, he’s good-looking.
I looked away first.
“We can talk barn details once we clear up the personal stuff,” he said.
I wish I could say I wasn’t affected by him, but I was.
After all these years, after all the bad blood and the anger and resentment, I wasn’t sure how I could feel any kind of attraction to him, but I did.
All he had to do was look at me with that intensity, and I felt more drawn to him than I’d felt to anyone else ever.
“We can pretend it never happened,” I said.
Luke shook his head. “It happened, and it set me off-kilter for the past two weeks, Magnolia.” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe it. “It seemed like you felt something too.”
I swallowed, feeling something even now, but it was a physical something. Off-kilter? For two weeks? Was he telling the truth? Why would he lie about that?
He wouldn’t, I knew. His admission was a step into vulnerability. Even when we’d been enemies, I hadn’t thought he was manipulative. Just stupid.
“Whether I felt something or not, chemistry isn’t enough for us to disregard the past and pick up where we left off as if almost twenty years didn’t happen.”
He brushed a lock of hair off my cheek, peering into my eyes, making me feel squirmy. “What if it is?” His voice was a low, sensual rumble that did things to me.
I mentally shook myself. “We can’t just ignore that we spent half our lives hating each other. Those feelings don’t just drop away because you kissed me.”
“I agree. Those feelings dropped away because we talked. Because you told me what really happened. Because I figured out I was an idiot. I apologized for screwing up. It seemed like you’d forgiven me, but maybe I read that wrong.”
I thought that over. Had I forgiven him for being an immature blockhead?
He’d admitted to his teenage insecurities, admitted our families’ very different tax brackets had gotten into his head.
I’d known the two of us as a couple would cause people to talk if word had ever gotten out that we were together, mainly because my family was wealthy and his was not.
But when it was just Luke and me, those differences had meant nothing, at least not in my mind. Apparently they had in Luke’s.
Though I couldn’t exactly understand it, maybe because I’d admittedly grown up privileged in many ways, I could respect his admission.
So he’d been a normal teenage boy with lots of insecurities. I didn’t believe he’d set out to hurt me. He’d genuinely believed I’d hurt him first and had reacted. Could I hold it against him now that he’d misunderstood the situation and misjudged me?
No.
“I have forgiven you,” I said quietly. “I’m just not sure if I can forget.”
“We’re adults now, Mags. Adults who are attracted to each other.” He nudged my chin up gently with his finger, forcing eye contact. “Are you going to deny that?”
As I peered up into his earnest chocolate-brown eyes, my pulse quickened. My body responded. I couldn’t deny it. I merely shook my head, entranced by the connection crackling between us.
“I’m not asking for forever, Magnolia. I just want to kiss you,” he said. “Is it okay if I kiss you?”
The spell he’d cast over me had me nodding even as the wise section of my brain screamed, Bad idea!
Luke cradled my jaw with his large palm.
He moved his face toward mine, slowly, ramping up my anticipation with every inch he advanced.
Finally his lips touched mine, solidly, confidently, sensually.
There was nothing of the insecure teenager anymore.
This man knew how to turn me inside out with a kiss.
His hand found its way to my waist. He gripped it gently and guided me backward the few feet to the wall, then pressed his body flush with mine so we were touching nearly head to toe. Once again I could feel how aroused he was. My body softened and ached in return.
I slid my hands up to his neck, then higher, to the back of his head, pulling him to me, wanting an even deeper connection. I dipped my tongue between his lips, and he opened to me. Our tongues collided, shooting an intense shudder through me, eliciting an audible whimper from me. I didn’t care.
The kiss went on, the most tantalizing, sensual, thorough make-out session of my life.