Luke’s Interlude #3
There’s a fleeting moment where Luke thinks this night might not actually end in flames. Chloe is quiet, in her head like always, but she takes Luke’s hand when he offers it, squeezes it as they walk to the door.
His parents’ house is larger than the one he grew up in, and not half as homely, and rather imposing, but with Chloe next to him it doesn’t seem as cold and impersonal as it usually does. Her hand is a comforting weight in his, and in the breeze he gets just the barest hint of her shampoo.
He takes a deep breath to steel himself, then knocks on the door.
‘Any last minute tips before we go in?’ Chloe asks lightly. ‘Tips? Tricks? Helpful comments?’
Luke snorts. ‘Just be yourself. If they don’t like that, then fuck them.’
The corners of Chloe’s mouth tug down, but the door opens before she can say anything.
That moment where he thought the night might not be a disaster dissipates as soon as he lays eyes on his mother. Lorraine Waters is, not unlike Regina, a storm of a woman. Her very presence is commanding.
It takes all he has not to drop his gaze and cower in front of her.
Chloe, though, brightens when she meets his mother’s eyes. She sticks her free hand out to shake, a bright smile on her lips.
‘Hi, Mrs. Waters,’ she greets, ‘it’s so nice to meet you! I’m Chloe, but, uh, I’m sure you knew that already.’
‘You’re late, as usual,’ Lorraine says, her gaze sliding right over Chloe and over to Luke. ‘The food’s going to be cold.’
She turns on her heels and walks off into the house without so much as a nod in Chloe’s direction. Luke feels the wind being knocked out of him. How could he have imagined this night going any other way?
His mother hasn’t had a nice thing to say about him since he dropped out of high school at seventeen, even though he did so to follow his dream and open an international tour. She always saw it as nothing but him wasting his “potential”.
Potential for what, he could never get her to say. If he points out his successes, he’s bragging. If he doesn’t, well then it’s just proof that his life would have been better if he’d followed her plan.
Somehow, he thinks he’s just always found himself surrounded by control freaks—his mom, Regina, Quinn. Any deviation from their plans always blows up in his face.
Chloe clears her throat. ‘We should go in,’ she says quietly.
‘Chlo—’ Luke starts to apologize, or offer to leave, or something. Because this night isn’t going to get better and the only thing he wants to do is save it for them both.
If nothing else, he wants to save her from all this.
Chloe just squeezes his hand and, with her head held high, leads him into the lion’s den.
The food is already spread out across the dining room table and, as loathe as Luke is to admit it, it smells amazing. Luke doubts his mother cooked it. He can’t remember the last time he saw her in the kitchen, but he compliments it all the same.
‘It smells great, Mom.’
‘It really does, Mrs. Waters,’ Chloe agrees. Luke’s dad is sitting at the table already, but doesn’t acknowledge either of them; he’s too engrossed in his phone. Luke doesn’t follow sports enough to know what game he’s watching, but whatever it is, holds his attention well.
Chloe tries to introduce herself, but only receives a grunt in response. She glances at Luke, who can only shrug. On the one hand, this is exactly what normally happens whenever he sees his parents: his mom is overbearing and judgemental of every little thing and his dad is completely checked out.
On the other hand, they usually make more of an effort to look better in front of company. Instead, they seem to have decided Chloe’s not worth the effort.
The thought makes his jaw clench.
‘Well, go on and sit,’ his mom says, waving a careless hand. ‘The food’s only going to get colder.’
‘I’m sorry we were late,’ Chloe apologizes, though Luke knows they were exactly on time. Made sure of it, in fact.
‘Punctuality says a lot about a person,’ is all Lorraine says in response. Chloe’s smile falters at the bite in her tone, but she nods in agreement. Luke grabs Chloe’s chair and pulls it out for her, which somehow earns a scoff from his mom. Chloe pauses for a moment, like she’s afraid she’s done something wrong.
The food is organized in expensive dishes placed neatly across the table—a tossed salad, sliced ham, mixed greens and a basket of bread rolls. It really does smell good, so Luke takes the initiative and starts to serve himself and Chloe. His parents follow suit, his dad putting his phone down long enough to share a charged look with his mother.
‘So, Chloe, is it?’ Lorraine asks, as if Chloe hasn’t introduced herself twice in the past five minutes. Chloe nods. ‘What do you do for work?’
Chloe hesitates, then says, ‘I’m sort of…between jobs right now,’ she admits sheepishly.
‘I see. And did that happen before or after you “fell pregnant”?’ Lorraine asks icily. She serves herself some of the salad, but her eyes are on Chloe.
‘Mom, I’ve been to the doctor’s appointments—’ Luke starts, but Lorraine isn’t done.
‘Chloe can answer for herself, can’t she?’ she asks. ‘Or is that another thing you have to do for her?’
It’s almost heartbreaking to see Chloe keep that smile on her face and brush off Lorraine’s comments.
‘It was after I found out I was pregnant,’ she explains softly, using her fork to toy with some food on her plate. ‘I knew I was going to need a better job anyway, for the baby. I’ve already got an interview for a new job lined up.’
‘Hm,’ Lorraine hums, clearly dissatisfied with that answer.
‘Food’s great, dear,’ Luke’s dad says, looking up from his game. Clearly, he has no idea what they’ve been saying, but waves his fork in the air anyway. ‘Eat! Don’t let Miranda’s hard work go to waste.’
‘Miranda?’ Chloe asks, glancing at Luke.
‘The chef,’ he answers. Chloe’s mouth forms a silent “o”, and she listens and digs in.
But even a plate full of food isn’t enough to stop Lorraine Waters. Oh no. She’s just getting started, and the questions and comments keep coming.
Luke just holds Chloe’s hand under the table and hopes it gives her half as much comfort as it gives him.
But still, the look on his mother’s face says that it’s not enough.
About halfway through dinner, his mom stands up.
‘Dear, I’ll be right back,’ she says to Luke’s dad, who grunts and doesn’t look up from his phone. Luke wonders if he’s got money on whatever game he’s watching, but bites his tongue.
Lorraine picks up a couple empty dishes from the table and heads to the kitchen, calling over her shoulder for Luke to come help. Luke glances at Chloe.
‘You okay?’ he asks her in a whisper. She nudges his knee with her own.
‘I’m fine, go.’
He doesn’t believe her, but listens anyway and heads into the kitchen. He silently prays that his dad will be too preoccupied to say anything to her while he’s out of the room.
His mom’s back is to him as she arranges some dishes on the counter. They click and clack aggressively—her way of conveying just how pissed off she is.
‘What do you need help with, Mom?’ Luke asks, and she whirls around on him.
‘Use your brain, Lucas,’ she snaps. She points to some food on the stove. ‘If you used your head for once, you wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place.’
Luke hasn’t lived at home for years now, but he’s still far too used to his mother’s moods. He shuffles over to the stove and starts spooning out the food onto new dishes to bring out to the table. Lorraine moves the old dishes to the sink, rinsing them off.
She doesn’t need to be doing them; his parents have housekeepers who could take care of it all later. But Luke knows this move. It’s not the first time she’s used dishes as an excuse to drag Luke into the kitchen and berate him about his many failings.
‘Tch, I just don’t get how you could make such a horrible mistake, Lucas,’ she says loudly over the faucet. Luke pauses, glancing her way.
‘I thought you wanted the food out?—’
‘I’m talking about that girl, Chole,’ she snaps, slapping at the handle to turn the water off. She turns around. ‘You have so much more to do with your life, do you even see that? So much and what? You’re just going to throw it all away because you don’t know how to use a condom and trust the first girl who claims to be pregnant with your kid?’
Luke shrinks under her words. ‘I’m not throwing anything away,’ he says, hating how timid he sounds. Hating how he can never stand up for himself—not to Maverick, not to Regina, and definitely not to his mom.
‘You’re making a mistake, Luke, and pretty soon you won’t be able to undo it.’
With that, she takes the plates Luke has filled and carries them back into the dining room, leaving him alone. Finally, she’s succeeded in making him feel about two inches tall.
Chloe sends him a questioning look when he reenters the room, but he pretends he doesn’t see it. He keeps his eyes on his plate and prays this dinner will be over soon.
‘So, Chloe,’ Lorraine says tightly, ‘what exactly are your plans for your future? Or do you intend to keep mooching off my son forever?’ The look on her face is quite possibly the world’s most disdainful look, and Chloe just wilts.
He sees the moment Chloe breaks, and something breaks inside him too.
And honestly, Luke starts to see red.
His blood is boiling, he’s so hot he might actually catch fire, so indignant over his mother’s treatment of Chloe. It’s one thing for her to treat Luke like this, but Chloe?
Chloe is—fuck, she’s everything good in the world. Luke’s been living his dream for the past seven years or so, touring the world and playing to sold-out crowds, and yet he’s never felt happier than he does when she smiles at him. A real, genuine smile from her can turn his entire day around?—
Oh. Oh.
It hits him like a ton of bricks. He’s in love with her. He’s absolutely in love with Chloe Cameron. He glances at her, feeling alarmingly like the world is shifting beneath his feet. And the crumpled look on her face is enough to spur him into action.
This whole situation with Chloe might have been an accident, but it sure as hell wasn’t a mistake. If anything, it’s what gave him the chance to find her. To love her.
‘Mom, enough.’ Luke snaps, surprising just about everyone at the table. All eyes fall to him, and it takes just about everything in him not to shrink under the pressure.
‘Lucas—’ His mom starts, but in Luke’s opinion she’s already said enough.
‘No,’ he says. And maybe he doesn’t quite meet his mom’s stare, and instead focuses on her wine glass, but he still barrels on. ‘You’ve made it very clear what you think about our situation and about Chloe in general. You’ve made your opinion about me and my life choices abundantly clear, and I don’t want to hear it anymore, okay? Chloe isn’t mooching off of anyone. She’s here by my invitation. I want her here. I want to be present in my child’s life, in Chloe’s life?—’
‘If it’s your child,’ his mom cuts in.
‘It is, and you insinuating otherwise isn’t going to change that. You are going to have a grandchild soon, do you get that? But you’re not even excited, you haven’t even asked how far along Chloe is! Or how she’s feeling, or anything. You’re just putting her down again and again.’
‘Luke,’ his father begins, actually placing his phone down on the table and giving the current situation his full attention. It’s a rare sight indeed. ‘Your mother and I are just worried?—’
Luke shakes his head, an incredulous laugh slipping from his lips. Worried? About their own image, perhaps. About their old-money, Wealthy-with-a-capital-W, friends seeing what a fuck-up their child really is. But not about Luke. Never about Luke.
As soon as it all settled and Luke had accepted that he was going to be a father, he promised himself he would be eons better than his own parents were. And this is where it starts.
‘Chlo, you ready to go?’ he asks. Chloe’s eyes widen—her stunningly green eyes shimmering behind unshed tears is enough to make him want to go off on his parents even more—and she nods. She accepts his proffered hand, giving his parents a small smile.
‘Thank you for having us,’ she says quietly, making Luke scoff under his breath.
‘Now, wait just a minute,’ Luke’s dad tries again. Luke’s mom waves him off.
‘You’re being ridiculous, sit down,’ she says impatiently. With a sour twist of her lips, she adds, ‘Both of you.’
‘No, thank you,’ Luke says, gently pulling Chloe away from the table. She may be hardly showing—just a small bump visible under her shirt—but Luke can’t help but treat her like glass. Somewhere deep down he thinks he would feel this way about her even if she weren’t pregnant. Like she’s too precious to handle roughly.
It isn’t until they’re inside the car with the door shut that Luke feels like he can breathe again. He sighs, a small laugh on his lips. He feels light, giddy almost, and beams.
‘Well, that was a disaster,’ he says. Chloe snorts.
‘Understatement of the year,’ she says. She’s relaxing, though. He can practically see the tension leaking from her body as he puts the car in drive and puts as much distance as possible between them and his parents’ house.
‘You were pretty great in there,’ Chloe says after a few minutes. She stares at the shadowy trees as they pass instead of looking at Luke. ‘Thanks.’
Luke shrugs. ‘I’m sorry it took me so long to say something.’ Chloe shakes her head. She turns to face him, placing a hand on his elbow.
‘Don’t do that,’ she says, her gaze serious and stern. ‘I know how hard that was for you. Don’t lessen it because it took you some time to work up the nerve. Just take the “thank you”, okay?’
Luke doesn’t know what to say to that. Those hot, sticky feelings bubble up again inside of him. He’s in love with her. Now that the dust has settled, it’s all he can think about. He just wants to lean across the center console and kiss her, to pull her close and show her exactly how he feels.
Fuck.
Luke takes a bit more of a scenic route home, and by the time they make it back to the hills, the neighborhood has long-since gone to bed. It’s quiet and calm, the dark wrapping around them like a blanket. Luke pulls up in front of the house that’s enveloped in darkness because he forgot to leave a light on.
They sit for a minute, neither of them moving. Chloe’s clearly thinking of something, and Luke can almost see her brain whirring, but she doesn’t speak.
‘Penny for your thoughts?’ he asks jokingly, though he really does want to know.
Chloe’s lips quirk. ‘My thoughts aren’t worth that much,’ she tells him.
Luke frowns at that. He’s noticed over the past few months that she does that a lot—puts herself down in small ways. She acts like they’re jokes, like they don’t mean anything, but he can see it in her eyes.
‘They’re worth much more than that,’ he tells her. The look on her face says that maybe, just maybe, she’ll believe it coming from him. ‘So, tell me.’
She shakes her head. Her hand rests on her baby bump, her thumb caressing it softly. ‘It’s nothing, really. I’m just being silly.’
Luke knows it’s a stupid move before he does it, but he leans in closer. She’s just as beautiful as the day they met, and it’s just as easy to get drawn in all the same. ‘Please?’ he asks.
Chloe looks at him, the emotion in her eyes indescribable. Or maybe not, maybe Luke just doesn’t want to get his hopes up.
She swallows and says softly, ‘I’m just thinking…about the future. You and me.’
She doesn’t say more, and there’s a million questions Luke wants to ask. He wants to know if the future she’s envisioning is the same as the one he imagines—them, together in this too-big house in LA, with little feet pitter-pattering on the hardwood floors. Chloe is no longer in the guest bedroom and no longer living out of a suitcase. Maybe, one day, another kid on the way.
But that’s too dangerous to say. So, he kisses her instead.
It’s everything their first kiss was, and yet a million times better. Fireworks burst from every one of his nerve endings, every kiss he’s ever had before her pales in comparison. Nothing has ever felt as right as this. Cradling her face with his hands, he kisses her deeply, again and again.
She responds immediately, turning towards him fully and burying her fingers in his hair. She pulls, just a bit, and Luke can’t stop the groan in his throat. He wants her to do it again, but telling her as much would be pulling away from her, and that just won’t do.
It’s awkward, being in the car, but they make it work. They unbuckle themselves, and Luke pulls Chloe into his lap.
Everything feels like it’s on fire, the inside of the car heating up as Luke takes her shirt off. He pauses, carefully assessing her face to make sure he’s not going too far.
‘What?’ she asks. She tilts her head and blonde hair spills out over her shoulder, dancing across the front of her pink bra.
‘You’re stunning,’ he says honestly. Her cheeks darken, hardly visible in the dim car. Her gaze falls to her stomach. The baby bump is small, yes, but clearly visible. Luke places his hand there with a smile. ‘You’re stunning, Chlo,’ he repeats, and this time she believes it.
She leans down over him, her lips half an inch from his own. ‘Prove it.’
After, they lay together for a long, long time. Chloe is still on top, her chest pressed to Luke’s and her head resting on his shoulder. His fingers brush her back softly, drawing invisible patterns along her shoulder blades.
It’s peaceful, he thinks. The world’s gone quiet around them, and they’re just…together. It’s pretty much perfect, in Luke’s opinion. Which is why, of course, it comes to an abrupt end.
As Chloe’s post-sex brain clears, she becomes still in his arms. Frozen. Luke’s eyebrows furrow.
‘You okay?’ he asks, trying to look at her. She pushes herself up off of him,= and his heart falls at the expression on her face.
Her eyes shine with unspilled tears and her bottom lip is quivering. She’s looking at him like he’s everything she’s ever wanted but can never have.
Won’t let herself have.
‘Chloe,’ he says slowly, sitting up carefully as if a sudden movement will scare her off. He lays a hand on her shoulder, hoping it might steady her. ‘Hey, Chlo, it’s okay. We’re okay.’
He wants to keep saying it until she believes it, until she believes in him. He lifts a hand to cradle her cheek, and her eyes fall shut as the tears spill down.
‘Luke—’ she starts, a wobble in her voice that sends a knife through Luke’s heart. He knows her too well at this point; he knows all the words she isn’t saying. And though she doesn’t actually say them, it doesn’t make it hurt any less.
‘Don’t,’ he pleads softly. His blood is roaring in his ears, but still it doesn’t drown out her sniffles.
‘Luke, we can’t,’ she whispers. Luke sits up quickly, holding her hips to keep her from falling into the steering wheel.
‘Why not?’ he asks, his voice low to match hers. ‘Why not, Chloe?’
‘We’ve talked about this?—’
‘It’s different now!’ he exclaims, begging her to see. Why can’t she see what’s so clear to him? ‘This isn’t like back in Atlanta, when we didn’t know each other and had no idea if we could work together. We’re great together, and I know you know that.’
Chloe shakes her head, looking out the car window as she wipes her cheeks. Anything to keep from looking at him, from seeing how true his words are.
She’s a coward, he can’t help but think. She’s a coward, and she’s going to push him away. The thought should make him angry, but all he can feel is desperation. His. Hers. Somehow, in this moment, they’re desperate for both the same thing and the exact opposite.
‘Please,’ Luke says, as if it’s the only word he knows. He rubs his thumb on her cheek, brushing another tear away. ‘We can make this work. We could be?—’
‘I-I think this was all a bad idea,’ she cuts him off, still looking anywhere but at him. ‘Coming here, telling you. My mom was right; I was only setting myself up for heartbreak.’
Luke can’t help it. He scoffs, harsh enough to surprise Chloe. She finally looks at him, her green eyes wide. Her expression would be adorable if it wasn’t driving Luke fucking crazy right now. ‘No one’s breaking your heart but you, Chloe. And you’re breaking mine too.’
Chloe nods, her face twisting with whatever emotions are warring inside her. Luke can’t see inside her brain, but he’s got a pretty good guess.
She can’t guarantee that this won’t, someday, end up like her parents’ relationship. And she’s willing to break both of their hearts in order to protect the baby.
‘I-I’m gonna go,’ Chloe says after a long, horribly silent minute. It’s awkward, her reaching for her clothes while still on top of Luke, but he hands her the shirt he’d tossed into the back seat and numbly waits while she climbs out of the car and runs away from her problems.
He’s starting to think that’s a habit of hers.