Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Luke
Luke couldn’t help it.
She made him grin like a kiss-drunk teen on a moonlit pier at summer camp.
And it was one o’clock in the afternoon at work, sun shining outside on a crisp, cold day, so he had no excuse.
“What’re you doing here?” he asked Kylie as Harriet death-gripped his leg and giggled, making Luke monster-walk her over to Nadine’s desk, where she began double-fisting lollipops from the jar the admin always kept on her desk.
“I couldn’t possibly eat all of these myself,” Kylie said, patting her hips, making his blood go from a simmer to a boil in two seconds flat. Those hugs they’d shared had curves his hands needed to study.
Had studied, in his dreams.
Frustrating dreams.
“So I thought I’d bring the extras around when Harriet and I went for a walk.”
“Thank you,” Nadine said sincerely as she finished the last bite of what Luke knew would not be her one and only cookie.
“Give me one of those,” Rusty Drummond demanded, sneaking between Luke and Kylie with a wink sent her way. “I’ve heard plenty about these fairy muffins you make. Are these leprechaun lemon bars? What’s next–gnome brownies?”
A nice-enough guy, Rusty was from Augusta and new to Luview. “New” meant he’d been with the force for about five years, and until the moment he winked at Kylie, he and Luke had gotten on just fine.
Suddenly, Luke was ready to throttle him.
The guy was known around town by the single women as “BCR.”
Booty Call Rusty.
A polite laugh from Kylie set him at ease, her glance at Luke endearing–and clear–as she replied, “Nothing special. Just made with love.”
Her eyes caught his in that moment, and Luke’s breath halted in his chest.
“Homemade is the best,” Nadine said to Kylie with a wicked grin his way.
“Don’t you think? Store bought is never quite as good,” Kylie agreed.
Nadine’s nod seemed to please Kylie. Luke’s radar pinged.
There was subtext here, and he couldn’t quite read her.
Kylie was genuine and sweet, but there was an edge to her that he knew came from an innate intelligence, a way she read people that was different from his own.
Pattern matching was his superpower, an intuitive sense that made him a great cop, and right now, the pattern he was studying was her.
What was going on?
“I love that painting behind you, Nadine. The light is perfect.” Kylie’s words made Nadine puff up with pride.
“Thank you. I painted it myself.”
“Really? You have an eye for composition.”
Nadine looked like she was considering adopting Kylie. Boy, had he underestimated his old first kiss, his new nanny, his–whatever Kylie was to him these days.
A charmer, that one.
“You know your art terms,” Nadine replied.
Kylie shrugged. “A little. I took some art appreciation workshops at museums in New York.”
Suspicion fell like a veil over Nadine’s face. “New York?”
“I lived there for nine years. College, then grad school, and a little after that.”
“You went to graduate school for art?”
“Oh, no! I can’t paint anything more complicated than a stick figure. I just went to museums on the weekends for fun.”
Tension released from Nadine’s shoulders. “Oh. Nice.”
The older woman evidently had no idea how to handle a hometown girl who’d left, lived in the heart of metropolitan sophistication in the U.S., and come back to become a nanny.
A nanny with an eye.
Luke felt the two halves of Kylie, sharp and distinct, through Nadine’s watchful gaze. On the one hand, she was born and raised in Luview, which meant she belonged. Raised here until the age of fifteen, being part of the town was her birthright. No one had to explain how Luview worked.
Wasn’t her fault her mom skedaddled at the first whiff of scandal.
On the other hand, that was fifteen years ago. The Kylie Hood who returned wasn’t the sweet Maine girl she’d been. She was a sophisticated New York City woman who had urban experience, a city sense of morality, and worse, the thick skin of a survivor.
Of course Nadine Khouri didn’t know how to handle her.
Because people like Kylie weren’t supposed to exist here.
That’s what Luke found so damned appealing, the combination of the familiar and the new. Kylie was both, and he couldn’t pull away. Every day, he fell just a little more for her, and that was bad.
And not just because of Number 14, Part A, either.
Because this wasn’t just lust. If it were primal attraction, he could fight it.
This was more.
“Hey, bro.” Luke, Nadine, Rusty, and Kylie looked up to find his younger brother, Kell, standing there, sweating like a pig, brown hair half standing on end and half plastered to the side of his head.
A thick brown beard, neatly trimmed and shining, covered his face.
He wore a lined flannel shirt, snow boots, jeans, and worn leather gloves, which he peeled off as he reached for a paper coffee cup.
Then he did a double take.
“Kylie?” His voice cracked a little, like he was going through puberty.
Hearing her name out of his brother’s mouth would have made him growl if he didn’t know how happy Kell was now. His little bro was in a committed relationship with Rachel, now the town's director of business development.
“Yes?” Nervous laughter made her even more appealing. “Sorry, do I know you?”
“Kell Luview.”
Her jaw dropped. “Kell? Little Kell?”
Those words were an oxymoron as she looked straight up–and Kylie was 5’5”. Luke’s brother had four inches of height and a good fifty pounds of pure muscle on him.
There was a reason they called him Bunyan.
Nadine giggled. “No one’s called him little since he was fifteen and had his big growth spurt!”
“He was fourteen when I left Luview! Only a year younger than me, but at that age, it seems like more,” Kylie retorted, but with an affectionate grin. “Anyway, you were little compared to this!”
She let herself be swallowed by Kell’s tree-trunk arms. Luke couldn’t help but join in the smile, remembering those long days on the lake the summer before Kylie left. He was a counselor at the camp, and Kell would tag along with his group of friends half the time.
Kylie had been a junior counselor that summer, working with the little ones, while Kell was in no-man’s-land, too old to be part of the kiddie crowd and just a little too young for the teens to accept him.
“I’m an adult now,” Kell laughed as he set her down.
“You might have grown, but I’m not so sure about the adult part,” Luke joked. He knew Kell had a huge crush on Kylie when they were younger, which was amusing then.
Now? Not so much.
Easy, boy, he told himself. Kell’s head over heels in love with Rachel. Where is all this protective jealousy coming from?
Never felt any of this with Amber, the voice continued.
Luke let out a snort, meant as a response to his stupid inner voice, but everyone thought he was teasing Kell, who shot him a glare.
“I run my own business and manage to get dressed every day, Luke,” Kell shot back, eyes on his brother. “And in something other than red and pink.”
“Hey!” Rusty and Nadine snapped.
Kell smirked. It was an old joke.
“What do you do?” Kylie asked Kell.
“Poison ivy puller.”
“Huh?”
“I pull poison ivy.”
“That’s a job?”
“Sure is. In the off season, I climb trees. I work with Dad at the tree service.”
“People get paid to climb trees for a living? How did I not know this? Where do I sign up?” she joked.
“He’s being obtuse,” Luke cut in. “Kell’s a tree guy. The poison ivy’s a side gig. He's slowly taking over from Dad.”
“So you’re working with your parents at Luview Tree. That’s great!”
Kell nodded. “Yes and no. I help with the tree stuff, but the poison ivy’s taken off.”
“How do you pull poison ivy for a living?”
“Very carefully,” Luke, Rusty, Nadine, and Kell all said together, the joke ancient.
“You looking for a job?” Kell asked, eyes sparking with mirth. “Bet I pay way better than Luke.”
“You’re sniping my nanny?”
Kylie winced when Luke said the word nanny.
Oh, no. Something in her eyes reflected pain, which she clearly struggled to hide. Already, she was more than a nanny to him, but in public, he couldn’t say that.
Seconds ticked by as Kylie looked at Kell, mulling over his words.
“Do you have a cute six-year-old I get to spend time with all day long?”
“I’m cute, but I’m definitely not six,” Kell shot back with a grin flirtatious enough to make Luke’s fists curl involuntarily.
If it weren’t for Rachel, he'd be dead lumberjack meat.
“Hah. I think Luke told me you have a girlfriend, right?”
“Yes, Rachel.” His face transformed when he said her name, calming Luke’s strange inner beast. “We just got back from visiting her family in L.A.”
“How’d that go?” Luke asked. “Meeting the parents for the first time…”
“I’ve met Portia before. Remember? We all have.”
“Porsche?” Kylie asked. “Like the car?”
“Portia Starman,” Nadine interrupted, excited. “The television star–she’s Rachel’s mother!”
Kylie turned to Kell. “You’re dating the daughter of a TV star?”
“It’s a long story.”
“And Luke said you met her in D.C.?”
“I worked there for a year. We were both fellows at an environmental think tank.”
“Fancy! Good for you!”
He shrugged. “Eh. City life didn’t agree with me.”
“So she gave up L.A. and D.C. for you?”
Nadine let out a sound of judgment so strong, Luke thought immediately of Judge Judy.
“Rachel,” Nadine said pointedly, “still has a few things to learn about living here.”
Kylie reared back. “That sounds ominous.”
“She’s nice.” Nadine’s condescending sniff made Luke wonder how long it would take for some locals to truly accept outsiders. “But she is crazy about her electric trolley idea.”
“Trolley?” Kylie asked. “Like I remember from Old Orchard Beach?”
Right answer. Nadine beamed at her, reaching to touch her shoulder, turning to Kell.
“See? That’s the difference between a hometown girl and an outsider. Kylie knew instantly about the OOB trolley. Rachel didn’t.”