Chapter 32 #2
“Thank you all for being here. Jeremiah and I and all of us at Karas Construction are truly humbled by the community’s support for this housing project.
When the town started discussing housing solutions that could help with the seasonal workforce shortage, we were immediately in favor.
We’re honored we won the bid, and so grateful that the community here tonight has generously contributed to the cause, which will directly support our ability to keep rent low and manage the neighborhood once it’s built.
We hope you all enjoy the rest of the event and thank you again. ”
Short, sweet, perfect.
He handed the mic to the band lead, and the din of conversation under the clear tent resumed. He scanned the crowd. His eyes found mine immediately, and a smile spread on his face.
I beamed back at him.
He strode toward me as the crowd continued to disperse, headed for the bars, the food stations, or the tables on the lawn.
“How’d I do?” he asked, standing in front of me looking handsome and relieved.
“Perfect.”
His mouth ticked up. “I need a real drink now. Come with me?”
He nodded in the direction of the bar in the far corner of the tent, extending his hand. I took it, and we navigated through the clusters of people like that, hand-in-hand.
Once we got to the front of the line he said, “I’ll have an old fashioned and she’ll have…” He turned to me, eyebrows raised.
“Rosé, please.” Francesca, bless her, had ensured the bar stocked a good rosé.
Luke smirked knowingly and I shrugged. His hand found my lower back while we waited. I was becoming dangerously accustomed to his little touches.
Once we had our drinks he guided me along the edge of the dance floor under the tent, toward a less populated part of the lawn.
Pink streaks lingered in the sky, the last traces of the sun’s departure a few minutes ago.
A pleasant, tingling warmth emanated through me from the place where Luke’s hand rested on my back as we walked.
At an event among hundreds of people, it felt like a secret just between us.
When we turned the corner around the end of the tent, we nearly collided with another attendee.
“Sorry,” I said reflexively. My stomach dropped when I saw who it was.
Max’s sky blue eyes were a storm as he looked between me and Luke. His gaze stopped where Luke’s hand met my back.
“The nanny sleeping with the single dad, very original you two,” Max said with venom. He looked directly at me. “I thought you were better than that, Val.”
Luke removed his hand and clenched his fist at his side. “Don’t disrespect her, Max,” he said slowly, firmly. Of course he knew exactly who he was.
“Or what?” He must be drunk, antagonizing a man he’d never met like this.
“Or you’ll be heading back to the city with a broken jaw.”
“Like you’d risk an assault and battery charge,” Max sneered.
“Wanna test that theory?” Luke’s tone was steady, almost blasé, but his eyes were damning.
“Whatever, asshole.” Max gave me one more disgusted look before passing by, bumping Luke’s shoulder deliberately. Luke clenched his fist at his side again but didn’t turn around.
“Were you really going to hit him?”
“Probably not. Especially here. But he’s lucky he was smart enough to walk away. I can’t believe he fucking said that to you.”
“It’s okay. I mean, it’s not, but I’m okay. I think he’s just bitter…maybe.” My pulse was still racing.
My eyes drank in Luke’s face. His jaw was tense, but his eyes were clear. We walked farther away from the tent. It was hot, Luke defending me. I realized he never tried to say Max was wrong in his assumption that we were sleeping together.
“Why didn’t you correct him?” I searched his eyes. Please put me out of my misery and say something direct about wanting me—about wanting what Max had inferred to be true.
The look of hurt that flashed across his face stung me like a wasp.
“I’m sorry.” His brows furrowed and his face went from open to closed in an instant. He finished his drink in one gulp.
“I’m going to go grab another one.” He tapped the side of his glass. “I’ll find you later.” He turned and strode back to the tent, leaving me standing on the lawn alone. Stunned.
When my body unfroze, I turned around. Relieved to spot Mimi’s white bob at one of the tables on the other side of the lawn, I beelined in that direction.
The conversation between Mimi and her friends was nothing more than background noise as I stared into my wine glass, puzzled and distracted.
After a while, I excused myself and walked toward the bar near the dance floor.
My head was on a swivel, looking for Luke, trying to figure out what it meant that he’d looked hurt. I questioned whether it was hurt after all. Maybe I made him uncomfortable? Was I too direct?
Our flirtation was a spinning top—it had to fall down eventually. I’d assumed for a while that when it did, we’d fall into place, together.
Not fall apart.
Francesca found me wandering. “I think I saw him slip out the other side of the house, to the garden. He probably needed a break from all the schmoozing.”
I nodded. I should give him a minute to himself, my brain said. But my feet didn’t listen.
I made out his figure in the shadows as I descended the steps.
The lush garden was dark, the only light coming from the streetlights a hundred yards away.
The flower bushes that swayed in the light evening breeze cast long shadows on the ground.
I walked toward him on the narrow brick path carefully.
The only sounds were the dampened notes of the band on the other side of the building, the crickets chirping, the trickle of the fountain in the center of the garden, and the clinking of glasses and plates and metal serving trays just far enough away that we felt alone.
“Hi,” I said.
He turned. “Hey.” His expression was inscrutable.
“Francesca said I might find you out here.”
“Just needed a minute. We can head back.” He started in the direction of the house.
“Hey.” I grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at me. I let go once he stopped and faced me. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry about earlier, Val. Not correcting your ex. I should’ve known you’d be embarrassed if someone like him thought you were dating a townie construction worker.” By the end, he was looking over my shoulder.
My brows knit together. That’s why he’s upset?
That’s what he thinks?
“I was not embarrassed.” His eyes found mine, irises oscillating as he scanned my expression.
I grabbed his forearm again, needing to have some part of me touching some part of him.
“Never say that. I would never be embarrassed to be with someone like you. You’re smart and driven and sensitive, you’re the best dad, the best friend.
You’re, well, you look like that”—I gestured to him with my other hand—“and you—you see me. Not what you want to see, but the real me.”
I held his gaze, sure that my eyes were shiny by now. “If I was with you, I would be so proud.” My voice broke.
“You would?” He brought his thumb to my lip.
“Yes,” I whispered. I wanted him to kiss me so badly I could scream. “Do you…have feelings for me, too?” The question my heart had been chanting for weeks came out so softly he wouldn’t have heard me if he wasn’t standing so close.
He looked at me like I was insane.
“Of course I do.” His face was adamant, incredulous. “Isn’t it obvious? I can’t help myself when I’m around you. I want to be near you all the time, talk to you all the time. Touch you all the time.” My skin exploded with tingles with the way he said touch.
So touch me, my body answered, stepping closer. He stood so close to me now, I could feel his heat, tempering the post-sunset chill in the air.
“But, Val. You just broke up with someone. I didn’t want to swoop in too fast. And with everything you’ve been working through this summer.
It’s a lot.” His hand cupped my chin, giving me nowhere to look except his face, his lips, while his thumb continued to stroke my lower lip. “I—we are a lot to sign up for.”
We.
Him and Luna.
“It doesn’t scare m—”
He replied with his lips instead of his voice, lifting my chin and bringing his mouth down on mine.
Firm. Wet. Uncompromising. I dropped my bag to the ground and pushed my fingers into his hair, pulling his face harder into mine.
His tongue pressed at the seam between my lips, and I parted them for him. His tongue swirled. Took. Claimed.
I claimed his mouth too, exploring and savoring as relief and pure excitement coursed through my veins.
He tasted like whiskey and my favorite fantasies.
His strong hands moved from my back to my hips, clutching them tight and pulling me into him where I could feel he was hard for me. I whimpered into his mouth. Tension spooled low in my abdomen.
He dragged his lips along my jaw, pressed them to the spot just below my ear.
“Luke.” The noise that left my lips was something between a whimper and a whine. I wanted—needed—more.
But we were in public. Any passersby that looked hard enough might see us in the shadows. Any partygoer might find us if they noticed we weren’t back.
That restlessness building below my belly button told me I shouldn’t even care.
“You keep saying my name like that, and I’m going to lose my damn mind,” he drawled.
I pulled his lips back up to mine, my tongue finding his immediately. He gripped my hips so hard through the thin layer of my dress, part of me hoped I’d wake up with little bruises where his fingertips dug into me, evidence that the insatiable longing I felt for him was reciprocated.
Laughter from pedestrians walking up the sidewalk just outside the garden’s fence sliced a hole in our lustful bubble.
Luke pulled back, looking at me. His eyelids were heavy, eyes darker than I’d ever seen them. “We should stop. Someone is going to come out here,” he rasped.
I bit the inside of my lips, resisting the urge to reach up and touch them, to make sure they remembered what Luke’s felt like. I nodded. “But not because we’re embarrassed if anyone thinks we’re together,” I clarified, my voice a murmur.
His flushed cheeks tugged upward. “No. Not because of that.” His hand brushed my hair off my shoulder. He leaned down to whisper what he said next into my ear, his breath hot on my neck. “Because if we keep going, what I want to do next is definitely illegal if done in public.”
I shivered involuntarily, clenching my legs together, silently cursing the universe that our first kiss had to be here instead of somewhere private.
But I wouldn’t change it. Not one second.
Kissing Luke…I wasn’t just in the moment, I was completely lost to it.