CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Oh. It’s you,” April deadpanned, certain that she must be blushing from the heat rising in her cheeks.
Luke seemed about as thrilled to see her as she was to see him.
Which was to say, not very. He pulled her up off the ground with one hand, and April tried to hide the shiver that ran through her at his touch.
Luke frowned down at her as she brushed off the back of her jeans while she furiously tried to avoid eye contact. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah, sorry. I should have been looking where I was going.”
“You were frowning at your phone.” Luke nodded down to where the device was gripped tightly in her hand. “Someone giving you trouble?”
There was a protective, hard look in his eyes that made her roll hers. “I don’t need you to defend me, Luke. I can handle myself just fine.”
Those blue eyes narrowed. “Oh, trust me, Jones, I’m well aware of how well you can handle yourself.
” She swallowed hard, trying to rein in her shock at his reply.
Thankfully he didn’t elaborate further. “You need a ride?” God, what was wrong with her that she heard a double meaning that wasn’t there?
“April?” he said when she’d been silent, staring at him, for too long. “Did you hit your head?”
“No, sorry, I’m just … A ride would be great. Thanks.”
He nodded and gestured for her to walk ahead of him. “I’m parked just over here.”
The short walk was silent and they stayed that way as Luke placed his bag of food in the back and flipped the ignition. A warm and spicy scent filled the air and April realized it was Indian food from her favorite food truck in town at the same time that her stomach growled.
Luke chuckled. “I’m not prepared to share.”
“That’s OK, I’m fine,” she lied. “I was going to eat while I was out but then things were canceled and Mom needed me—something about a leak, and Noah’s at basketball practice—but we’ll probably just order something in.”
She was rambling. Did he notice it too? It wasn’t her fault, but all she could think about was the last time she’d seen him, the way his mouth had felt when he’d parted her lips and devoured her.
Fuck. This wasn’t good.
It wasn’t Luke, she reasoned. She was just hungry. And horny. Horngry. And Luke just so happened to be there and have food. Her body was confused, that was all.
The drive to her mom’s was short and she jumped out of the car before it had fully stopped when they pulled up a few doors down from her mom’s. Being parked up with Luke? Bad idea.
Except, instead of pulling away and waving goodbye, Luke shut off the engine and stepped out, bag of food in hand.
“What are you doing?” Why was her voice so high-pitched and breathy? Discreetly, she touched the back of her hand to her forehead, more alarmed by the fact that she wasn’t burning up than anything else.
“Do you know how to fix a leak?” He raised a brow as he strode past, and straight up the pathway to her parents’ house, smirking when she just stood there with her mouth open. “Didn’t think so. Come on.”
She followed behind him, making sure to keep a healthy amount of distance between them. “I’m sure Noah will be here soon,” she said weakly.
“Has he replied to you?” Luke asked.
“No,” she admitted after glancing at her screen.
Luke opened the door easily, as though he knew it would be unlocked, and backed inside with his takeout held against his chest. “Then I suggest you say ‘thank you’ and let me help.”
“Thank you,” she muttered and he smirked just as her mom popped her head around the corner and let out a breath of relief.
“Luke! Thank goodness. I tried Noah but he’s not answering. Good thinking, April. Oh, and you brought food? That’s so sweet of you.” Kathy pressed a kiss to Luke’s cheek and he grinned.
“For you, Kathy? No trouble at all. Let’s take a look, then.”
April wasn’t sure what she was seeing, but she didn’t like it. Was her mom friends with Luke? It made some sort of sense—Luke and Noah were relatively close—but this still seemed above and beyond.
“Noah won’t be done with practice for a while yet,” Luke said matter-of-factly as he placed the bag on the kitchen counter and bent down to look at the pipes under the sink.
A small puddle had formed on the floor beneath the open cabinets and when he squatted, April hastily looked away.
Luke’s ass was the last thing she needed on her mind.
Her mom collected plates and had opened the bag of takeout before April could protest. “Well, you’ll have to let me pay you back for coming to the rescue in his place,” she joked, and April felt slightly sick at her mom’s playful tone.
Luke shook his head. “There’s no need, Kathy. I was on my way over anyway, so it’s really no bother.”
April couldn’t fathom why Luke of all people would have already been on his way over to her mom’s house, but she couldn’t summon the energy to interrupt their conversation.
She sat heavily in a chair as their too-familiar chatter washed over her, wondering how many times Luke had done this—helped her mom when nobody else was around to do so.
Did it change her opinion of him as a self-serving, cocky asshole? No.
Well, maybe a little.
But it was hard to hate someone who was on their hands and knees in a puddle of water inspecting a pipe just to help her mom. April forced herself to drag her eyes away from his ass, silently berating herself for apparently having no self-control left whatsoever.
“There,” Luke said a moment later and the water stopped trickling out.
“Just that washer came out of place again. You really need to get Noah to replace it,” he added, confirming April’s suspicion that this wasn’t the first time he’d been there, helping out her mom while she’d been away and Noah had been busy.
“Thank you.” He accepted the plate her mom passed him and set it down to wash his hands before carrying it over to the table where April sat, perplexed as she watched them interact.
A plate was set in front of April and she murmured her thanks as she discreetly watched the man sitting beside her out of the corner of her eye. Was he an over-orderer like Noah? Or did he have plans that he’d abandoned to help them out? But if so, why had he said he was on his way over anyway?
She scooped up a forkful of rice and sauce and groaned when the tangy flavor hit her tongue, and then abruptly felt guilty for eating Luke’s food. “Do you, um, want some money for the food?”
Kathy halted in place opposite them, plate in hand as she gasped. “Gosh, yes! It was my turn to buy. I’m sorry, this was all just so unexpected …” She set the plate down on the table and hurried out of the room, presumably for her purse.
April dropped her cutlery and turned to Luke with her eyes narrowed. “What is going on here? Her turn to buy? Are you seducing my mother?”
Luke choked and his eyes were watering when he looked at her.
“W-What?” Then he was laughing silently, shoulders shaking until he blew out a long breath and tried to talk, lips twitching like he was fighting off more laughter.
“God, Jones. What do you take me for? No. I helped out a few times after your dad died and Noah was busy. Then … I don’t know.
” He shrugged. “I started checking in on her. She was lonely and I had the time.”
April looked up, blinking furiously to keep the prickle of tears at bay. “Thank you. That was really … Just, thanks.”
“Of course,” he said, voice soft, and when her mom appeared back in the kitchen April looked down at her food and tried to ignore the way her vision blurred thanks to the moisture in her eyes. “Kathy,” Luke chided as her mom tried to hand him cash. “Put that away. You can get the next one.”
“You say that every time,” Kathy grumbled and April couldn’t help her small chuckle. Luke Pointer was a charmer. Who’d have known?
Once the food was gone and the plates were cleared away, Kathy shooed Luke out of the house, insisting he’d given up enough of his evening to help them.
“I’ll walk you out,” April said and smiled reassuringly at her mom when she looked questioningly at her. “I’m just going to thank him,” she murmured as she passed.
The air was cooler now, the dark settling around them comfortably, and she smiled when they passed the violas that had started to bloom to one side of the blackberry bushes.
Their color was bright, but the sweet, honeyed scent of them was what drew April in.
They’d always been one of her favorites.
Spring was well on the way and she couldn’t help feeling excited to see the garden in bloom again, even wild as it was.
She caught the gate at the bottom of the pathway and let it close quietly behind her as they walked down a little to where Luke had parked his car.
He stopped when they reached it and turned to face her.
The streetlight above them had just flickered to life but, enclosed on one side by a bush so tall it crested even over Luke’s head, they were cast into shadow.
As she looked at him in the half-darkness, she felt an increasingly familiar pull rising inside her that drew her to him, but alongside it was something new that she couldn’t quite put a name to.
“Thank you for tonight. For all the nights you’ve been here, making sure she wasn’t alone.”
One side of his mouth kicked up as he shrugged. “It’s fine—she’s good company. Plays a mean game of Scrabble.”
April laughed, unbidden, the sound muffled by the dense shrubbery, but Luke heard and his eyes darkened.
“Still, it was kind of you. You’re like the second son she never had,” she teased, and maybe the words were a dare, a small taunt, poking at him to see if he’d say more things to simultaneously shock and intrigue her like he had earlier that evening. Was it obvious? Did she care?