28. Lucas
LUCAS
T he crew was getting through things pretty quickly, which was both relieving and anxiety inducing.
I wanted to get out of here, but I also wanted to stay here forever.
Leaving this job, this house, felt like leaving Olivia.
And I knew actually leaving Olivia was the next step as soon as we finished up.
So, I wasn’t opposed to dragging it out.
“Hey boss, how do you want to leave the bathrooms? There were plumbers scheduled in a couple of weeks, but I’m not sure if they're still coming…” A guy from our crew broke through my thoughts.
“You can seal everything up with plastic. I’m not sure what the client will do moving forward.”
He nodded and left to execute my instructions.
We were probably two hours away from being able to pack up and leave this site for good. I had a task list I’d worked on last night to help distract me from the miserable reality of my life right now. We were probably sixty percent through it.
With my list in hand, I moved through the house, checking to make sure we’d appropriately managed each room based on its progress.
From the planting room, surrounded by windows, I saw my brother Leo’s truck pull into the rough gravel drive.
Good. I’d told him to stay at the office, handling anything that came through for me, but I could use him here.
Since he’d been the foreman on site, he knew more about the progress than I did.
I should have just let him do this, but it didn’t feel right. I needed to be the one. This felt like the first part of breaking up with Olivia and it needed to be me.
I watched as his pickup rolled to a stop, too far away to see him inside.
He didn’t exit right away. Then, just as I’d started moving toward the glass pane door to go meet him, the passenger side door opened.
Small feet popped out and legs I’d memorized, that were wrapped around me a couple days ago, lowered to the ground.
When the door closed, she was there. My Angel. She looked as gorgeous as ever in her loafers, denim, and white t-shirt. Long waves cascaded down her back and my heart squeezed. She was so beautiful it truly hurt to look at her.
She’d started walking toward the house and even at this distance, I could tell something was wrong. She looked sad, but determined. Even so, she radiated a sense of comfort that had my body leaning toward her in response.
But I didn’t move. I remained standing in place, watching her progress toward me. When she was about thrifty feet from the house, she noticed me and changed her course to the planting room.
Liv reached the door and stood on the other side, just staring at me for a long moment. I was frozen in place, my heart pumping too much blood through my body.
When she finally turned the knob and slowly opened the door, my breathing was labored as I attempted to remain calm. This was it. I thought I had more time, but she was here now. I had to let her go.
“Lucas.” She sang my name like the saddest song that ever existed.
“Hi, Angel.”
“You’ve been avoiding me.” It wasn’t a question.
“I’m sorry about that. I had to take care of some things.”
“You mean you had to quit Helen’s project and get out so you could break up with me quickly and not have any loose ends?”
My jaw dropped.
Shit.
Clearly, I wasn’t hiding my plan very well. Fuck, it was hard to muster the courage to do something you didn’t want to do to begin with.
“Liv… look…”
“No Lucas, I’m going to go first, okay?”
She looked pissed. By no means did I want to let her ream me out, but she deserved at least that. So I would. I would stand in front of her and let her tell me what an asshole I was.
“I’m in love with you, Lucas. ”
The air left my lungs. The roar of pumping blood crescendoed in my ears, blocking out all noise. Why was she doing this? Why was life so cruel?
“I’m actually positive you’re in love with me too, so I think what you’re doing here is stupid.”
“Liv–”
“Nope. Going first, remember? You’re usually so good with that concept,” she tsked with a smirk on her beautiful face.
She was trying to kill me.
“I know Callie told you about the show. I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you first. The only reason—Lucas, look at me—the only reason I didn’t was because I didn’t want you to get your hopes up and then let you down if they decided not to use this house in the show.
I wanted to wait until Callie confirmed it and surprise you. They are, by the way. Using the house.”
I tried to force my brain to process faster than it wanted to right now. So she hadn’t been hiding it from me. At least not in the way I’d assumed. That made a small part of me feel better, but it didn’t change the issue at hand.
She continued, “This is happening because Callie told you their angle on the show was supposed to be a young, single woman navigating the world of custom building, right? I need you to know that I asked Callie weeks ago if me not being single would affect the opportunity. Not only did she say no, she was excited at the idea that they could include any of my personal story.”
“Weeks ago?”
“Before we got together. ”
“You wouldn’t have gotten involved with me if she’d said it was important you were single?”
Olivia took a step toward me. My eyes dropped from her face to her feet. I watched as they took another step. Then another. Until she was right in front of me.
She waited until my eyes returned to hers.
“I’ll be honest with you, Lucas. Any other man? I wouldn’t have entertained jeopardizing this deal. But you’re not just any man.” She took my hand in hers. It was so light, barely a touch, but it still made my entire body relax at the familiarity.
“You’re you. We’re us. You told me you didn’t get into this lightly. Neither did I.”
Even though my heart wanted to soar with newfound hope, my head still knew better.
“Baby, this is going to open so many opportunities. Your whole life is going to crack wide open. I can’t ask you to stay here with me.” I forced the words out, not wanting to say them, but knowing I needed to.
Olivia’s small hand reached up and gently cupped my cheek. Her thumb traced a trail back and forth and her eyes watched the motion. Then she centered those big, brown beauties back on me.
“Do you know what my biggest desire in life is?”
I silently shook my head. I thought I had, but maybe, maybe I was wrong.
“To have a family. One like yours that loves each other so deeply that losing one of them profoundly affects the rest. One where a complete antisocial grump drives his brother’s girlfriend to stop him from making the worst decision of his life.
One with love. That’s more important to me than a television show.
More important than my job. It’s everything. ”
She squeezed her hand on my face and the one that grasped my hand.
“I want to make memories with people I love, Lucas. I’m touched that you made this decision because you wanted what’s best for me. Angry, but also touched. You were just wrong about what’s best for me.”
I was a bastard because even though she might be giving up something amazing; I was going to let her do it. Because she wanted to, and I wanted to keep her too badly.
“What’s best for you, Angel?”
A smile spread across her face when she realized I’d conceded.
“You are. You big dummy.”
I couldn’t wait anymore. I leaned down and covered her lips with mine, pouring every emotion from the past few days into a desperate kiss.
Our mouths moved together like they were always meant to, and she followed me right into oblivion. I’m not sure how long we stood there, soaking each other in, gasping for breath around our kiss.
Eventually Olivia’s phone rang with the ringtone we’d both assigned to Helen, hoping to hedge her calls better. She sighed, stepped away from me, and raised her eyebrows in question. Might as well get it over with, so I nodded my head, and she answered the call.
“Liv! Darling, where are you?”
“I’m actually at your house right now with Lucas.”
“You mean your house? ”
Liv and I looked at each other and simultaneously exclaimed, “What?”
“Ah, perfect! Your young man is there too! Lucas, we’ve known each other for years.
You helped make my home with Dalton a beautiful one and we just loved you dearly.
When I met Olivia a few years ago, I thought ‘This young lady is spectacular. She just lights me up.’ It took me a while to realize it was the same feeling you gave me.
I’d been stewing over the best way to get you two together for quite some time.
Then it hit me. You two workaholics would do marvelous on a project together.
And what better project than your future? ”
Olivia was the first to get words out. “What are you talking about, Helen? You’ve been paying both of us, making every decision. This is your home. Customized to your every desire.”
I could hear the smile in Helen’s voice.
“To my desires, Olivia? You’ve been to my home, dear. Who is that home tailor made for? It’s someone, but it isn’t me.”
I was laughing and shaking my head in disbelief, because she was right and I’d said from the beginning that this house and Olivia’s plans for it seemed a bit too… refined for Helen’s tastes.
“Oh, my god.” Liv was connecting the dots. “Helen, no. I can’t accept it.”
“You can and you will. Oh, it’s going to be lovely for that show of yours too. Two lovebirds secretly building their dream home together. I could write movie scripts.”
This woman was truly insane. More so than I ever really grasped. The reality that I’d been building my home set in. My home with Olivia. We’d picked every piece of wood, every wall, every electrical outlet. Helen had told us to do what we wanted. Not what was best, what we wanted.
“Now you can live there or not. I know this is a heavy-handed scheme. If you don’t want it, just finish it up and sell it. Use the money to start your life together.”
Liv was shaking her head in complete disbelief. I ran my hands up and down her arms, trying to ground her as this wild reality unfurled.
“Lucas, we can’t just take this house from her. It’s too much. And what about the grist mill?”
I sighed. “Look Liv, Helen’s not going to live here no matter what we do and the other option is selling it to strangers. People we don’t know, living in the house that we built together while falling in love. How can we let that happen?”
“Here, here!” Helen’s voice echoed from the phone in Liv’s hand.
Tears welled in Olivia’s eyes. She mouthed the word “but” to me with wide eyes.
“We’ll find something else to use the grist mill for. If you’re staying, you’ll need a bigger office.”
I could see her wavering, and I knew we had her.
“Helen, I’m so grateful. We’ll get into how much later. Right now, we need to go.”
I heard Helen’s hearty laugh echo off the tall ceilings as I placed a quick kiss on Liv’s lips before walking into the house and ending the call.
“Everyone out, now! Leave what you’re working on exactly as is and get out!” I bellowed through the house and watched as my crew scrambled out to their vehicles.
Then I returned to Olivia, grabbed the phone still in her hands, and put it in my pocket. Placing my arms under her legs and back, I hoisted her up and carried her to the expansive kitchen.
“You want a family, Angel?”
I deposited her on the wood slabs that were acting as makeshift countertops and stepped between her legs.
She nodded with tears still brimming in her eyes and offered a wobbly, “Yes.”
“You want little ones running around this kitchen? Asking for snacks? Throwing food on the imported, salvaged floors?” The smile on my face was so big and pure.
The tears she was working to keep at bay strangled her laugh. “Yes.”
“Then this will be a practice run. And I’m going to need you to stop your birth control as soon as possible.”
The next laugh was more steady as she shook her head at me. “You’re ridiculous.”
“No baby, just in love. And now that I have you, I don’t want to wait for our life.”
Showing her just how much I meant it, I held her face in my hands and kissed her deeply, with purpose.
She would be my wife, the mother of my children, my future. I held the world in my hands and I was never letting go.