Chapter Eighteen
Luke texted Blair the next day, telling her he was getting takeout, and she could come over as soon as the café was closed.
The moment Blair finished climbing the stairs into his living room, she found herself pushed against the wall and kissed like she’d never been kissed before.
It was hot and messy with tongues tangling.
Luke tugged her hair to expose her neck and gently bit then sucked on her skin there.
Blair was glad for the solid wall behind her because there was no way her legs would be able to carry her weight right now.
He stole every thought from her brain, and all Blair could do was melt into him.
Finally, Luke pulled away, his lips red and eyelids heavy.
‘I’ve needed that all day. God, I’ve missed you. ’
Blair grinned, hanging on to his soft flannel. ‘You saw me last night.’
He nodded, then leaned down to plant a gentle kiss on her nose. ‘Still missed you,’ he said.
Blair felt exactly the same way. But also, it wasn’t a very friends-with-benefits thing to say.
‘We should eat, because I want lots of time with you before you have to go home.’
Blair smiled, sliding her hands down his back. ‘There’s no rush. I don’t have a curfew tonight.’
Luke tilted his head. ‘Seriously? Won’t your sisters wonder where you are?’
Blair shook her head. ‘No, they’ll know exactly where I am. Apparently, they’ve known since the beginning.’ Blair laughed self-consciously. ‘We’re not very good at sneaking around. It’s possible everyone in town knows.’
Luke laughed, leaning down to kiss Blair’s forehead. ‘Dinner will get cold. Let’s eat.’
Luke had picked up a feast from Jade Garden, so they made themselves plates of salt and pepper squid, General Tso’s chicken, vegetable lo mein and barbecue duck, and sat on the sofa with their plates and chopsticks.
‘This is good!’ Luke said after his first few bites.
‘You’re surprised?’
He chuckled. ‘I am. The Chinese place that was here when I was a kid was nowhere near as authentic. This tastes like the Cantonese spot near my condo in Toronto. Actually, maybe better. This squid is so tender!’
‘You haven’t turned into one of those city people who think anything from a small town won’t be as good as from the city, have you?’
‘No, not really. I mean, there are a lot of things better in a small town. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a pumpkin spice latte as good as yours.’
Blair beamed. ‘And you never will. I told you I’m the best.’
‘Change your mind about sharing the recipe?’ Luke asked, a glint of competitiveness in his voice.
Blair shook her head. ‘You’re going to have to accept that no matter what you do, Harvest Moon will have the best speciality drinks in town.’
He shrugged. ‘Shirley’s Sugar Mountain will have better croissants.’
That was probably true. ‘Question, why is the bakery called Sugar Mountain? It’s a strange name for a French bakery.’
Luke looked at her, head tilted. ‘You really don’t remember?’
Blair frowned. ‘Remember what?’
‘Back in high school. About a month before graduation, you and I were talking about how hard it was going to be to leave Moonbeam Hollow. We said that if our plan A’s didn’t work out, we were going to come back and open a café together.
We argued about names . . . you liked Harvest Moon, and I liked Sugar Mountain. They’re both—’
‘Neil Young songs.’ Blair chuckled. The full conversation came back to her.
They’d been talking after fooling around in Luke’s bedroom.
The café plan was a bit of a joke – not something either of them seriously thought they would do.
They’d picked names based on Neil Young songs because Neil Young’s hometown wasn’t far from Moonbeam Hollow, so his music was popular around here.
This was before Moonbeam Hollow was christened the Most Autumnal Small Town in Ontario.
When Blair finally opened her café, she’d gone with the name she’d thought of years ago because it suited the town now, and she’d always loved it.
But she’d forgotten that she’d come up with the name with Luke.
Or what was more likely, she’d pushed the memory away because of the pain surrounded by it.
Blair’s mother died about two months after that conversation.
leaving eighteen-year-old Blair guardian to her younger sisters.
Blair dropped out of university before she’d even started and worked at the local coffee shop until she scrounged up enough money to open Harvest Moon, fulfilling her plan B alone.
Blair closed her eyes a moment, remembering that every time she’d missed Luke, she’d chastised herself for thinking of a boyfriend after her mother had just died.
Plan B hadn’t been that bad for Blair, though. The café did well. Her sisters were mostly fine. In fact, until this fall and the sabotage attempts on the festival, she would have said that the life she carved out for herself here was ideal for her.
‘Funny how both places are going to exist now,’ Luke said. ‘Sugar Mountain and Harvest Moon.’
‘Life takes unexpected turns. And Shirley, you said that’s named after your grandmother, right?’
‘No, Mom’s grandmother. She was a force of nature.
You think your drinks are good, that woman could brew a tea for every ailment.
Whenever I’d visit her, she’d brew tea and teach me songs.
She died when I was fifteen.’ Luke paused.
‘Mom always wanted to name her first bakery in honour of her, but we compromised and ended up with Shirley’s Sugar Mountain, using both the names we wanted. ’
‘That’s sweet,’ Blair said.
Luke nodded solemnly. ‘Of course it is. I’m a sweet person.’
Blair rolled her eyes. ‘Modest, too.’
Luke shrugged, that proud smile still on his face while he ate a bite of noodles. Had Luke always smiled this much? Had he always had this lightness that illuminated everything around him? He was the opposite of Blair. He was sunshine, and she was . . . not.
‘Luke?’ Blair asked.
His mouth was filled with noodles. ‘Mmm?’
‘Do you think I’m bossy?’
He raised one brow while finishing chewing the food in his mouth.
‘Like in bed? No. Not at all. You can be bossy if you want to, though. I’m always game for role-play.
We could play sexy master and underling.
Or, oooh, do you have a riding crop?’ The look on his face was pure eighteen-year-old Luke. They’d had so much fun back then.
Blair slapped his arm. ‘Not in bed. Like . . .’ She sighed. ‘My sisters said I’m bossy. We had a bit of a fight yesterday. That’s how I found out that they knew about you and me. They said I still treat them like children.’
Luke tilted his head. ‘I . . . I don’t know. I haven’t seen you interact with your sisters much. I remember you being quite bossy when we were in the same group for our grade eleven biology project, but—’
‘I had to be bossy then! I was stuck in a group with three dumbasses.’ Luke feigned a look of outrage. ‘Okay, two dumbasses and one smug boot-licker.’
Luke grinned. ‘That’s better. I wasn’t a dumbass – my grade in that class was higher than yours.’
‘Yeah, because you stole my textbook before the midterm exam!’
Luke huffed a laugh. ‘No comment.’
Blair rolled her eyes. It was also because she’d missed an assignment after Bianca’s pothos plant had grown out of control, blocking the entrance to Blair’s room the night before a test. That’s when their mother had the greenhouse built in the backyard so Bianca’s experiments could be contained outside the house.
Honestly, between Luke and her sisters, Blair wasn’t sure how she managed to win valedictorian at all.
‘My sisters think I’m overbearing. They were mad I didn’t tell them right away about our trip to the festival grounds.
But they were looking up things about the festival too and didn’t tell me, either.
’ Blair exhaled. ‘Honestly, I just didn’t want to worry them. ’
Luke put his plate on the coffee table and turned so he was facing Blair.
‘Blair, you’re not overbearing, you’re confident.
Actually, you’ve always been the most confident person I know.
You give off this aura of being enormously capable and knowing it.
It’s one of the . . .’ He paused. ‘I mean, it’s kind of why I always wanted to be better than you. ’
‘To bring me down a notch?’
Luke shook his head. ‘No, to reach your level.’
Blair blinked.
‘Seriously, Blair. I wouldn’t have done nearly as well in school if it wasn’t for you.’
‘I should take a cut of your architect earnings,’ Blair deadpanned.
Luke laughed softly. ‘Send me an invoice.’
Blair’s plate was empty, too, so she put it next to Luke’s. ‘I wonder if I was too tough with them. I had to be their parent instead of their sister.’
‘You were eighteen,’ Luke said. ‘They were younger than you, and like you said, they were struggling, but you were young, too. Of course you had to be the responsible one, to be the tough and stable one.’
‘Yeah, but they’re not kids anymore. They said I have to start treating them like adults.’ She sighed. Bianca and Belinda were right – the dynamic of the Briarwood sisters was messed up, and Blair didn’t know how to change it. ‘It’s a hard habit to break.’
Luke took Blair’s hand and sandwiched it between his big hands.
‘You love your sisters and want the best for them. It’s amazing what you did for them.
Give yourself credit where it’s due.’ Blair nodded, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off Luke’s hands completely enveloping hers.
Both on top of her hand and under. Supporting her.
‘Maybe . . .’ Luke paused. ‘Maybe it’s time to prioritize you instead of them. ’
Blair shook her head. ‘I prioritize all of us. We’re family.’