5. Luke
FIVE
luke
T he smell of perfectly seasoned roast wafted up the stairs pulling me from sleep—followed by the complimenting scents of potatoes and mac and cheese.
I knew Janine, who insisted I never call her ma'am just as Olivia predicted, was a great cook, but damn if that food didn’t remind me of home. I lay fully dressed in the guest bed, and Olivia returned to her childhood bedroom to rest after the exhausting flight.
Her scent still hung all over me. I already missed being inside of her. Olivia was the most precious thing to me, and I’d long known I went and fell in love with her. But I couldn’t say it yet. It was too soon.
Wasn’t it?
Rapping at my door brought me back to reality. “Luke?” Her sweet voice called out to me as she creaked it open, just enough to peek in. “I think dinner’s ready.”
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. “It smells amazing.”
I kissed her cheek tenderly as she led me back down to the dining area, where Janine immaculately laid out the food .
“I hope you guys are hungry,” Joel patted his modest belly as he took a seat across from Olivia and me.
“Starving,” she said, plopping down in the chair next to me.
I loved that my girl loved to eat. I looked at her and felt her parents' eyes on me. I stole my glance away, not caring that I got caught admiring her but not wanting to be a fucking pig about it.
“Let me.” I patted her hand that softened under mine and started fixing her a plate.
“My, oh my,” Janine purred. “Are all southern gentlemen as charming as you?”
“Well, you know what they say,” I said, piling Olivia’s plate with roast, mac and cheese, potatoes, and a roll. I split it open and buttered it for her before setting the dish down in front of her. Her eyes widened to saucers as if she’d been emaciated.
“Southern men are sweeter than sweet tea and twice as charming.”
I spoke the words as I finished dressing my plate, settling in next to Olivia.
I could’ve sworn I saw her swoon. I didn't intend to flirt with my girl's mother. But every fiber of my being wanted them to be as certain as me, to know that I was the right man for their one and only daughter.
“So,” once we all had steaming plates in front of us, Janine set us into comfortable conversation. “Tell us about yourself, Luke.” Her dark eyes reminded me of Olivia’s.
I cleared my throat before speaking, “I work for the Seattle Police Department as one of their FTOs.” Confusion briefly marred their features before I clarified—“Or, field training officers. I’m also a Sergeant, which is just a fancy way to say I’m a supervisor. ”
Joel’s eyes widened in what I hoped was approval at my career choice, and Janine quickly shared a look with Olivia that I’d caught the tail end of. She snapped her composure back as she beamed at me.
“A man in uniform! Ya know,” she started, her voice trailing off long enough for Olivia to slip in a groan.
“Oh, no,” Olivia muttered as she shoved a forkful of roast in her mouth.
“When Olivia was just a little girl”—her mother ignored her intentionally and carried on with the story—“every Halloween, she’d dress as a princess and chase after the boys that dressed as little cops. Olivia always pointed to them and said, ‘ Mommy, mommy; they have the handcuffs’ .” She and Joel exchanged telling glances as they burst into tears, laughing.
“There it is,” Olivia groaned from next to me. “Seriously,”—she turned her playful glare on me—“you couldn’t have been boring like a calculus professor?”
I rubbed her leg from under the table. “Sorry, sweetheart.” My lips tugged in a sly grin as her mother dramatically wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Oh, Olivia, we’re just teasing, honey,” Joel chimed in, “I’m sure Luke’s parents will tell you all types of embarrassing stories about him growing up.”
Olivia cocked her head to the side, and her brows scrunched. “Actually,” she opened her mouth to speak. I gave her thigh a little squeeze, and she glanced at me.
The slight shake of my head was all she needed. “Never mind.” She smiled. “I guess we can make this entire weekend about spilling all my deep, dark secrets.” She bounced back immediately.
I loved seeing her happy with her family. She glowed in a way I’d never seen before being in her childhood home. Watching her was like seeing a kid at build-a-bear, but instead of wearing the strong urge to pick out an outfit that didn’t even match and leave, I wanted to stay and watch her be this blissful all night. The moment was drenched in a serene atmosphere.
The last thing I wanted was to swallow the evening in awkward side glances and the pity shoulder taps by talking about how I never knew my dad and how my mom’s since passed away from her drug abuse after a hard career of working the streets in South Carolina.
My heart was at home with Olivia.
She was my family. I loved her.
And I hadn’t said shit to her about it yet, either. I wasn’t sure when I was going to. Every time the words bubbled up in my throat, I froze like Frosty the fucking Snowman. It wouldn’t change anything for me if she didn’t say it back, but fuck, I wanted her to.
“And he was in the Marine Corps for a while, too,” Olivia’s voice singing my praises brought me back to the moment.
I’d been staring at her with heart-shaped eyes the entire time, and her parents’ mischievous glances were laced with sly smiles on their lips every time our gazes latched.
“Sounds like you’ve had quite the set up for the career you chose,” Joel said to me as he finished off the last bit of food on his plate.
The food tasted amazing. Every bite I took exploded in flavor on my tongue. The more I ate, the better it became. Janine was a fantastic cook.
“I never planned to end up in law enforcement,” I told him as the girls cleared the plates and made room on the table for dessert. “It ended up that way after I tried civilian life. I guess I am technically working in the civilian world.” I thought about how to articulate what I wanted to say, “But four walls and a computer just wasn’t for me.”
“You think about going back to the military?” he poked curiously. “Ya know, deployments, getting stationed far from home.”
His implication was clear.
Are you gonna drag my daughter across the country or die and break her heart?
I shook my head. “No, sir,” I kept my tone even and maintained eye contact with him. “I have other goals and priorities.” Without blinking, I flicked my gaze over to Olivia and back to him.
His approving smile crinkled the corner of his eyes as they warmed over. “That’s what I like to hear.”
“What is dad?” Olivia set down cookies and a scoop of ice cream in front of us, both with two spoons stuck on each side.
“Nothing.” He blinked, breaking eye contact, and started into the dessert that was both sweet and delicious. “We were talking about his military days, that's all.”
The evening went on, and her parents directed the conversation to themselves, telling me about their lives and how they met. Her father worked in courthouses in the city, and her mother worked for a local library as a librarian. I never knew how complex the Dewey Decimal System was until I listened to her talk about work.
Even my brain was spinning.
“Alright”—her father stood, slapping his thighs as he did so in typical dad fashion—“we ‘ought to turn in for the night.”
We’d moved the conversation into the living room, filling the silence with laughter and conversation.
I almost wondered if this is what my life would’ve been like had my mother made different choices. My gaze focused on Olivia, who’d been fighting sleep since after dessert. It was nearing midnight, and while she was used to late nights, traveling took it out of her.
I rubbed a tender hand down her back. “You should turn in, too, angel,” I told her. Her body molded to my touch as her parents pretended not to see the intimate moment between us. “You’ve had a long day.”
She yawned right on cue. “Yeah.” She stood and stretched up on her toes and pressed her soft body against mine. “I don’t know why I’m so tired.”
“Yes,” Janine’s voice cut through our moment, “you kids get some rest. Oh!” she exclaimed. “We never asked how you guys met!”
She clasped her hands together in front of her chest, bundled in a cardigan. She was ready to hear the love story of a lifetime.
Olivia immediately sagged in my arms at the question. “How we met.” She stated the words as if she wasn’t sure of the meaning.
“Well, yeah,” Joel joined in. “You had to have met somehow.”
The innocent question was a normal one. I was surprised but pleasantly relieved when it hadn’t come up earlier in the evening.
“Long story short, it was a bad time,” Olivia giggled, trying to diffuse her own emotions that were probably in turmoil. “I was with the wrong guy. But now”—she snuck her eyes to mine—“everything is okay. Better than okay, actually.”
Olivia’s genuine smile was the most radiant thing to me. Her happiness was the epitome of my being and son of a bitch, I loved her so damn much.
Her parents seemed to accept that without prying much as they shooed us off to the second floor. We climbed up the stairs in silence, fearing the noise as if we were teenagers sneaking off to her room when the parents weren’t looking.
“I was hoping they wouldn’t ask,” her whispered voice reached my ears as we stood at our respective doors for the night.
Olivia’s tan skin glowed in the dimly lit hallway, and I wondered if her pussy was still damp with my cum. Mentally, I shook my head, refusing to act like an adolescent boy who’d tasted pussy for the first time.
“Yeah, I was a little surprised they didn’t ask earlier.” I stepped closer to her, watching her breathing pick up.
Her eyes scanned the empty hallway, and both of us strained our ears for any signs of her parents. I wasn’t going to disrespect their daughter under their roof, but the images that played in my mind of her might discredit that statement.
“So”—she nibbled her lower lip—“I guess goodnight.”
I pressed my palm against the side of her face, loving how she closed her eyes and veered into my touch.
“I guess.” I leaned down and kissed her soft lips passionately. My tongue barely flicked into her mouth enough to leave the ghost of passion on her tongue. I pulled back, rubbing my thumb across her cheeks. “Goodnight.”
“I—” she started, stumbling backward into her door with a noisy thud. “I—” her voice was like a beautiful broken record. “Goodnight.”
The words catapulted from her lips the exact moment she tumbled through the bedroom door and closed it. The soft click of the knob fitting in place left me alone in the hallway.
I turned to the guest room just across the hall from hers. Just heartbeats away, but the distance felt vast given the way I needed to be close to her .
With the taste of her lingering on me, my eyes drifted shut, lost in the intoxicating desperation for her presence.