Chapter 29
Annie
Saying that the rest of the night, the week, the month, was a dream would be an understatement, and—for once—I am okay with eating my words.
Luke was right.
We will figure it out, and we’ll do it together.
The whole month of September flies by for more reasons than one.
Rotations are kicking my ass. Having a full-time job without the monetary benefits, in addition to hours of work to bring home with me, all to do it all again the next day, but I finally feel like I am using what I’ve learned the past three years.
I’m in my first week of my second rotation, this time at the Milwaukee Zoo, working at the zoological teaching hospital. I know it’s early to be deciding what I might want my main focus to be when I’m finally done with my rotation year, but I knew I would like working with the staff at the Animal Health Center.
This rotation is the one I talked to my advisor about over the summer, and I’m really interested in the AHC program they offer for fourth-year veterinary students.
With the stress of rotations, I thought a new relationship, especially one with someone as clingy—in a good way—as Luke was going to be just one more thing to worry about.
Turns out, having a boyfriend who makes it his goal to help you relax and rest the second you walk through the door was the perfect remedy for maintaining stress-levels.
Luke has spent the past month making sure Lenny’s is running smoothly since Emmett isn’t ready to come back just yet, but he still finds ways to help me manage everything—rotations, meals, getting enough sleep—all while making me feel like I’m being taken care of.
A feeling I’m not used to.
It took a week or two to actually let him help, even with things I don’t ask for, but his reassurance that he’s doing it for me because he wants to, not because he feels like he has to, has been healing in ways I didn’t know I needed.
It’s the last weekend in September, and the Lenny’s crew is together to plan our annual Halloween Party that brings all of us together plus the other people in our lives.
Luke always invites his brothers; Drew invites her brother, his wife, and her childhood friend, Lacey, and her husband; Eddie and Mia invite the Cross My Heart guys and Eddie’s three sisters, and we all dress in costumes that go with whatever theme we come up with.
“I think we should do superheroes,” Eddie says, from behind the bar. Lenny’s is dead for a Friday night, so we’re all just helping ourselves—all of us having bartended here for more shifts than we could count.
“We did that three years ago,” Mia answers, throwing her straw wrapper at her husband from across the bar. “What if we did iconic music videos?
“Like when Luke dressed up as Britney Spears from “Baby One More Time” with pink bows in his hair and everything,” Drew laughs, two-and-a-half-month-old Lennon in her lap, half asleep. She takes after her dad with how much she just watches and observes everyone and everything around her—and usually gets bored and falls asleep which is what I’m sure her dad wants to do.
“Excuse me,” Luke chimes in. “I took creative liberties and did pink pom poms in my hair that year.” He leans to press a kiss to the top of my head before walking back behind the bar to help Eddie make another round of drinks for us.
“I still can’t get used to that,” Mia says to me, resting her chin in her hand as she turns to look at me.
“Luke’s obnoxious amount of PDA?” I joke.
She shakes her head at me, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. “No, smart ass. That you actually let him. Seriously, I never thought I’d see you two together.”
“As if you weren’t one of the biggest advocates for it.” I laugh, taking my last sip of my gin and tonic. “You’ve had a month to get used to it , girlie pop.”
“We were all rooting for it. Just thought your stubborn ass would never let it happen,” Mia quips as if she isn’t one of the most stubborn people I know.
In all honesty, I thought it would takesome time for me get used to it too, but we fell into our relationship so seamlessly, like it was always meant to happen.
We sometimes struggle with that balance of picking up where we left off and starting fresh, but we’ve been able to find a happy medium between the two—making up for lost time while also taking each other as we are now, not filling in the blanks with what we once knew.
When I told Mia and Drew everything that happened between Luke and me after leaving our eventful Sunday Dinner at the beginning of the month, they couldn’t contain their excitement, not only for us but because of how we opened up to each other—and by we , I mean me .
I also had to physically hold them down from leaving Luke’s— my —apartment that night because they were seconds away from finding Devin and holding her down while I beat the shit out of her for what she did to Luke. The three of us spent our whole Saturday Movie Night ignoring Suicide Squad playing in the background—Drew’s pick because of her new obsession with Jared Leto after rediscovering the song “Dangerous Night” by Thirty Seconds to Mars—and talked about how Luke, of all people, is the last person who deserves something like that to happen.
Of course, no one ever deserves to be taken advantage of in the way Devin took advantage of Luke. It’s wrong and hurtful, and I can’t wait for the day that I see her again because I won’t be the Annie she knows the second I get my hands on her.
But Luke is so open, so warm, so willing to see the best in anything around him and everyone he meets, and I don’t ever want him to lose that part of himself.
“How’s living together, like for real?” Drew asks, passing a sleeping Lennon to Emmett to hold.
“The same I guess. Just more sex,” I answer, honestly, getting a chuckle from Mia and Eddie, and Drew blushes. Emmett even snorts out a laugh.
“Why did I think I’d get a real answer out of you?” Drew says, shaking her head at me like I’m one of her students who made a “your mom” joke, one you want to laugh at but have to be the serious one.
“It really is the same,” I add with my own laughter. “I go to my placement; Luke comes here. He gets home and either makes dinner or picks something up. I come home; we eat; we go to bed. ”
“Like an old married couple,” Eddie jokes.
“You would know,” I quip, looking at both him and Mia.
“Okay, okay,” Drew says, waving her hands to stop our antics. Luke sets down another White Claw for her and a new gin and tonic for me, leaning forward on his elbows on the bar across from me. “Let’s table the theme discussion for now. We have to figure out what weekend works best for everyone. It’s our turn to host this year,” she continues, looking at Emmett who gives her a nod, “and we have enough room for anyone who needs to stay the night.”
“We can’t do the first weekend because the band has a photoshoot for their upcoming album,” Mia explains, “which means Mateo, Theo, and Silas wouldn’t be able to do it either.”
“The second weekend?” Drew asks all of us.
Luke and I look at each other. “Annie girl?” he prompts.
“Second works for us,” I answer for the both of us, gaining some knowing looks from our friends, but they quickly recover. We all decide to brush over how Luke and I went from me not wanting him to know any of my business to him now being the first person who gets to know it.
“Us too,” Eddie adds.
Drew claps her hands together. “Perfect. I’ll let my brother and Lacey know, and you guys can let all your people know. The girls and I will try to come up with our theme tomorrow at Movie Night.”
“What’s the pick for tomorrow?” Luke asks me, knowing it’s my turn to pick the movie.
“Well, we didn’t get to really watch Suicide Squad last time, so I think we need a re-do. ”
“Oh!” Mia exclaims, causing all of us to flinch in surprise. “What if we do bad guys for our theme?”
“Like villains?” I ask to clarify, and she nods. I look around seeing smiles from everyone, and it looks like we have our theme.
“What are we dressing up as?” Luke asks me.
“Just because we’re a couple does not mean we are doing couple costumes.”
“But that’s the best part,” Luke whines, and I ignore the laughs of our friends at this silly exchange.
“No, thank you,” I politely say with a smile, batting my eyelashes for good measure, but the way Luke’s eyes darken, he knows I’m being anything but polite.
“Brat,” he mouths to me, our friends too busy talking about their potential costumes to notice us.
“Luke.” Emmett’s voice has both our heads turning. “I’ll be back, starting November.”
Luke nods, but I don’t miss the way his shoulders slightly sink. He still hasn’t figured out what he wants to do now that he officially gave up his place at the firm.
I think Luke surprised all of us with how well he did here at Lenny’s with Emmett gone. He took all the owner responsibilities in stride and kept the place running while training three new bartenders.
I’ve always known Luke was a capable leader. I watched it in high school when the guys chose him to be captain of the hockey team, and I’ve seen it with who he is as a person—he has an aura that people gravitate towards, a positivity and level-headedness that comes naturally to him.
I know he struggles with what he’s giving up at his dad’s firm, and I know it’s easy for people to assume he gave it up because it was too hard or because he wasn’t cut out for it .
But, the guy made it through law school with flying colors.
He didn’t choose Lenny’s or a job as a bartender over being a lawyer because he had to.
He did it because he wanted to.
“The warehouse next door has been vacant since Cross My Heart stopped practicing there,” Emmett adds, and it feels random.
After this past month, Emmett and Drew now own the whole building Lenny’s is in, buying the last space from a business that just moved to a different location, and leasing it out to a flower shop. The warehouse is on one side of Lenny’s, and they lease the other two spots to a pizza place that recently moved in next door and a bookstore at the end of the building that opened this past spring.
Emmett continues, slowly rocking side to side to keep Lennon asleep. “The couple who own the bookstore said it would be a good spot for a coffee shop.”
Luke nods his head again, not quite understanding what Emmett is trying to say.
Mia, Eddie, and I watch as Drew and Emmett exchange a glance before Drew jumps in to clarify, “What my husband is trying to say is that Elsie and Sierra suggested we lease the space in the warehouse to someone who could create a spot where people can read their books or buy a coffee before walking around the bookstore,” she tells Luke. “I’m not sure if owning a café is what you had in mind, but we’d give you full freedom to run it however you want. It would be yours.”
At the word “yours”, Luke’s eyes brighten, and happiness bursts in my chest at this opportunity and what it could mean for him .
And how it means so much more that it would be something he can do with Drew and Emmett, next to a place that means so much to all of us.
“You want to give me the space? To run?” His voice has a slight tremble as his eyes dart back and forth between Drew and Emmett, a mixture of disbelief and confusion but bright with hope.
“We’ve seen how well you handled everything here. We figured you’d be the best person for the job,” Emmett answers matter-of-factly, but we all know that Emmett doesn’t mince words; he doesn’t say much, but he means what he says.
“Again, what Emmett is trying to say is we know you’re the best person for the job, but we want you to be happy.” Drew reaches across the bar to where Luke is now standing, his mouth agape and eyes cloudy. She grabs his hand and squeezes. “We’re already so proud of you, but we know you deserve something of your own to be proud of.”
I feel pressure build behind my eyes watching Luke process Drew’s words and seeing the smiles on my friends faces—Mia, Eddie, and even Emmett all watch as Luke lets go of Drew’s hand to round the bar and wrap her in a hug.
“The place needs a lot of work, almost a total renovation, but we can help however you need,” Drew says as Luke lets go of her to look to Emmett who doesn’t do hugs often but holds Lennon in one arm as he wraps another around Luke.
I feel my heart expanding to the point of explosion at the moment, and I know this is exactly what Luke needed .
“I have my trust and my savings. I got this. I won’t let you guys down,” he tells Drew and Emmett, his voice heavy with emotion.
“We know you won’t,” Drew replies at the same time Emmett says, “You better not.”
“Shots!” Mia shouts, and we all laugh. She rounds the bar herself, pulling the bottle of tequila off the shelf as Eddie grabs six shot glasses and the bottle of gin.
As Mia and Eddie prep the lime for the shots, Luke closes the distance between us, pulling me into his arms and holding me tight, so many words passing between us without even opening our mouths.
I know how much this means to him.
He knows how proud I am of him.
But as he lets me go, I take his face in my hands, looking deep into his ocean eyes, and I tell him anyway. “I’m so proud of you, bartender.”
He raises a brow at me, and his lips curve, his smiling making butterflies—the good kind—take flight in my stomach. “Won’t be able to call me that for much longer.”
“Not when you’re a fancy coffee shop owner,” I answer, bringing my lips to his and kissing him softly, not caring that his PDA tendencies—which are just as bad as, if not worse than, his stalker ones—are rubbing off on me.
“You love me?” he asks against my lips.
“Of course, I love you,” I say back, leaning back to see his grin.
“Say it again.”
“No, I just said it.”
“Please?” he playfully begs, his grin fading and his bottom lip jutting out .
I roll my eyes, but I give in like I always do because it’s like saying “no” to a puppy. “I love you."