Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Sixteenth encounter
“You have a lot of ice cream in your fridge.”
“Define 'a lot.'”
“Three tubs.”
“That’s the minimum. I need that in case I’m feeling down,” Anna replied indignantly. “Besides, why are you peeking in my freezer?”
He lifted one corner of his mouth. “Ice cubes. Close your eyes.”
Anna stared at her reflection in the hotel elevator door and took a deep breath. She didn’t know what someone typically wore to meet their father when they hadn’t seen him in almost eight years. Maybe a shirt with a raised middle finger on it?
That might send a different message than the one she wanted to convey. She wanted her father to know she wanted to move on from her childhood trauma.
What she would say to him was probably much more important, anyway.
But she didn’t know what to say outright, either. All she had planned to do was listen to him because everyone deserved a chance to explain, right?
She nervously tugged at her sleeves. Dax would have a different opinion.
Dax would claim that they’d already given him hundreds of chances and he’d wasted every single one.
Anna, though, was an adult. She had her dream job and a group of friends, and she went out more often than before.
And yet, she still felt restless. Still felt like she was holding back, and didn’t know why.
She had the faint, secret hope that a conversation with her father might provide her with an explanation, might help her finally look ahead.
Anna jumped in shock when the elevator doors opened.
Lucas was standing there. Like a damn tree.
He stared at her silently, his face expressionless.
His body, though, was so tense she could have set him like an arrow on a bow and launch him.
Barely noticeable, his jaw was grinding, and his hands were clearly clenched in his pockets.
As always, he only had control over his voice, not his body language.
She exited, looking at him with raised eyebrows. “Oh man, someone’s angry,” she said cheerfully, walking past him and crossing the lobby. She didn’t have time for angry Lucas. Let him take on the person who had provoked the anger.
Then she had the feeling that she was that lucky person, because he started following her.
Frowning, she glanced at him without stopping. “Can I help you with something?”
His jaw cracked.
She sighed. “You know, bottling up all that anger can’t be good for your blood pressure,” she said, stepping out the sliding door and heading toward the parking lot. “So, what happened?”
“What the hell, Anna?” he growled barely audibly.
“I have no idea what the hell is going on. Although this conversation with you is starting to feel like it is heading for a bad end,” she said, unfazed, pulling her car keys from her purse.
She had done nothing to deserve his anger.
“Could you make some less exasperated sounds and use words instead? I know you’re not into them, but sometimes they’re quite useful. ”
“You have a boyfriend?” he spat.
She looked at him, irritated. “What? You’ll have to be more specific.”
“You have a boyfriend you met on Tinder?” he obliged.
She mouthed a silent oh. Damn. “Man, Penny is really bad at keeping secrets.”
Lucas ignored her words. “What the hell, Anna?” he repeated stonily. He looked incredibly angry, but didn’t raise his voice. He never raised his voice. That was one of the things she liked most about him.
“It’s nothing, Lucas,” she replied angrily, glancing at her phone watch. She was running late. “Can we talk about this another time?”
“No! What’s going on? We agreed on no further drama, and now I have to beat up a third guy? Not just your brothers, but a boyfriend too?”
“Nobody fights anyone around here. God, you hockey players really are way too violent.” She clicked her tongue. “There’s no boyfriend.”
“Then why did Penny tell Jack there was?”
“Well, because I told her that.”
“What?”
She sighed heavily. “Lucas, I have an important meeting I don’t want to be late for.”
“I don’t care. What the hell…?”
“Fine! Then get in.” She jerked open her passenger door. When he just stared at her silently, she added, “I want to drive, you want to talk – God, I never thought I’d say this, but Lucas Moreau wants to talk! – so I’ll give you a ride and explain.”
Without waiting for an answer, she walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. She wasn’t going to dance to his tune. If he wanted to talk, he’d have to follow her instructions for once.
Lucas kept standing where he was for a second, but finally, with a sigh, he got in too. Meanwhile, Anna had programmed her navigation system and fastened her seatbelt.
“So, the boyfriend…” he began.
She started the engine. “You’re the boyfriend, Lucas. My goodness.”
“What?”
“That’s your new favorite word, isn’t it?”
In short, concise sentences, she explained to him what had happened that evening at happy hour. Why Penny thought she had a boyfriend. With every word that came out of her mouth, Lucas’ eyebrows furrowed more.
“You talked to them about me,” he finally concluded five minutes later.
“Yes. Is that forbidden? I wanted to know if you can or should be friends with an ex-lover.”
“And what conclusion did you arrive at?”
“That, in our case, it’s perfectly fine,” she said hesitantly. “Because we have no feelings for each other whatsoever and it’s simply a physical chemistry thing between the two of us.”
Lucas remained silent. She wanted to look at him, but she had to focus on the road.
After another minute of frustrating silence, she asked, “Is that all? Should I drop you off at the next intersection? You could take an Uber back. Or walk. We’re not that far away.”
For a few more minutes, Lucas played the silence game they were all trying to teach Leon before muttering, “Where are you going?”
She rolled her eyes. Naturally, he decided to speak up at that moment instead of nodding and leaving her alone. “None of your business.”
“Tinder date?”
“Why the hell is everyone so interested in my Tinder life?”
“We’re friends. Friends ask what the other is doing.”
“Yes, and friends accept it if the other person doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Is that so? Because that has not been my experience.”
She laughed reluctantly. “No. Mine neither.”
“So?”
“No Tinder date.”
“Good.”
Good?
“Then what?”
She pressed her lips together, and this time it was she who remained silent.
“Anna?”
Oh, what a fucking chatterbox he was! “You know what’s absolutely ridiculous?
” she asked loudly. “The thing I find most attractive about you is your voice. It’s always so calm.
And you hardly use it. But whenever we’ve met up, I’ve always hoped you’d burst into a sudden monologue just so I could listen.
Your speech in your living room was a dream!
But, right now, I’m just hoping you’ll get a case of bronchitis so you’ll have to leave me alone. ”
She could have sworn that she saw him smile out of the corner of her eye.
Finally, Lucas murmured, “I like that you talk so much because then I don’t have to. Now look at what I have to deal with: a blabbermouth who refuses to talk.”
“I’m not a blabbermouth.”
“That’s right. You’re a motormouth. The motor can’t keep up with all your talk.”
She bit her lip to keep from grinning, but decided not to say anything else—to challenge his motormouth theory.
For a few endless seconds, nothing but relaxed silence filled the interior of her rental car, and Anna was almost no longer surprised that it was Lucas who, uncharacteristically, broke it again.
“Why are calm voices attractive?”
“Not all of them. Yours is,” she murmured absently, stopping at a traffic light.
Every time he spoke, she felt as if he were cupping his hands around her face and keeping her from running into a wall.
She never flinched when he suddenly started talking because his tone was always gentle, even when he was angry.
“I guess I don’t like it when people shout.
But you never use your voice as a weapon.
Although it would be excellent for that.
You always come into an argument…completely unarmed.
Not with the intention of hurting or shocking. ”
“I may not intend to, but I still hurt people. And I’m not always calm. I yelled at you.”
“No. You were loud. But believe me, you weren’t screaming. I know when someone’s screaming.”
“That’s to be expected from Dax’s sister.”
She laughed again. “He’s not the worst.”
“Who is the worst?”
Hesitantly, she rubbed the soft leather of the steering wheel. Hadn’t she wanted to be more honest? And who could she be more honest with than her only secret? If her current objective wasn’t taken into consideration.
“My parents were the worst. I can’t even remember what my father’s voice sounded like at a normal volume. He was always angry. Angry at my mother, angry at Jack, angry at Dax.”
“Angry at you?”