Chapter 9 #3
Luke’s eyes cut to Moore, who was still sitting in the same seat, watching the lively conversations as if he had nothing better to do.
“What is wrong with you?” she hissed. “The big brother act is bad enough when Dennis is home. I don’t need one of my annoying little brothers playing the macho jerk on my behalf. Moore and I are fine.”
“He keeps coming over.”
“So do you!”
“I just…”
“You just what, Luke? Think if you stalk us you’ll prevent us from being together?”
Luke’s head snapped back in shock. “Together? You two are together?”
“No! But you’re annoying me enough to want to sleep with him again just to piss you off!” she uttered between fiercely clenched teeth.
Too caught up in this bizarre conversation, she hadn’t noticed that Moore was now approaching them from one side and was well within earshot of her hasty comment.
He froze.
Then he grinned.
And then he looked at Luke and stopped grinning, the comical erasure of his smile forcing Colleen into a spate of giggles more intense than anything she’d experienced all day.
Luke reached for Moore’s arm, fingers digging into his biceps. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Just don’t.”
“That’s a very broad order, Officer Luview.”
“You know exactly what you shouldn’t don’t.”
“Are you okay? Because that’s some word salad coming out of you.”
“I blame you.”
Incredulous, Colleen watched their conversation. With only one good arm, she didn’t have the ability to grab Luke’s earlobe and drag him across the room like she did when he was twelve and dyed her white Keds with red punch for fun.
“Mrs. Cuomonelli is here and if she heard you say that sentence, she’d make you diagram it and assign you detention homework.”
“I wouldn’t have to speak in such a twisted way if you two didn’t act in such a twisted way.”
“Don’t blame your weirdness on us!”
“I’m only acting like this because of you.”
“Butt out, little bro. What Moore and I do or don’t do is none of your business.”
“Since when?”
“Since the night I learned that there’s no worries about a certain penis being only eight-tenths of an inch longer than desired.”
Luke’s eyes flew open, the whites so stark against his red uniform that he looked like the pre-blood moment in the movie Carrie.
Moore snickered, the sound ending in a strange gulp-hiccup as he realized she might be talking about him.
“We’re grown-ups,” Colleen began.
“We are?” Moore choked out.
“I am,” she clarified. “And I’ve been avoiding you for two weeks.” Ignoring Luke, she gave her full attention to Moore, squaring her shoulders to give herself some added courage, then regretting it as her not-quite-healed side flared with pain. “Let’s talk.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
Folding his arms over his chest, Luke planted himself firmly in place, as if he had every intention of witnessing what she intended to be a very private affair.
Er… conversation.
Private conversation.
So many years of being around Moore made her reaction to him now bewildering. The air between them had changed, and it felt fresh and exciting but chaotic at the same time. Had she misread what happened at the cabin?
After all, she wasn’t exactly her best self at the time.
If he wasn’t interested, then avoidance made sense, but so many mixed signals had turned her insides into a tornado.
Colleen pointedly stepped around Luke, standing next to Moore, who looked down at her with a grin that made her toes curl.
For years, she had hung out at Bilbee’s with him, gone to baseball games, painted the new camp with him, gone on countless coffee runs and road trips, spent holidays together… How had she not felt this every moment?
“Stop,” she said to Luke, whose hairline moved back as his frown deepened.
“I need to talk to both of you.”
“Get in line. Moore and I need to be alone.”
“Last time that happened, look where it got you.”
“Luke.”
“What?”
“Stop it. I mean it.”
“That’s my line, sis.”
“You’re really crossing a line.”
“I’m the one crossing lines?” He let out a huff, eyes pinging between Colleen and Moore, clearly quite certain his outrage was justified.
They both looked back at him with more tolerance than he deserved. Colleen felt deeply connected to Moore, each tick of the clock intensifying her attraction to him.
“MOORE!”
Everyone turned as Moore’s nephew, Joey, jogged into the room. Colleen grinned. She loved Joey.
Moore’s sister Marissa had moved away, but her only child, Joey, stayed in Luview.
Like lots of people there, he was a townie through and through.
Moore’s parents had been thrilled to have a grandchild interested in the business.
Moore would take over when his parents retired and Joey would inherit from Moore.
“The natural order of things,” as Moore’s father, Leander, often said.
Dressed in a well-tailored suit, Joey stood as tall as Moore but without the early-twenties addition of muscle on his frame. With his dark hair and dark eyes, the kid was a Mottin through and through.
“Hey, Joey,” Moore replied, frowning. “Let me guess. Serious jewelry emergency?”
“Life or death,” Joey deadpanned.
Luke just snorted and reached for Colleen’s arm, pulling her away as Joey and Moore looked at something on Joey’s phone. A string of numbers was all she could hear as they moved to a spot closer to the edge of the dais.
“I guess the committee is adjourned,” Colleen said dryly as Luke gave her a look so emotional, she felt her heart seize.
“Colleen. Don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“Hurt yourself.”
She wiggled her cast. “Too late.”
“I mean with Moore.”
“I told you to butt out, Luke.”
“He–he’s not your type.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Looking around the public space, Luke’s mouth twisted with distaste. “We should talk someplace else.”
“We shouldn’t talk about this at all.”
“Think about it. Why now? After all these years, now? You guys don’t want to ruin your friendship just for a quick lay.”
“What makes you think it was quick?”
Luke reddened. “I’m worried about you. Both of you.”
“Because you think Moore will get hit by a bus and land in my ER after our third date?”
“Don’t even joke like that.”
“So you can make fun of Third Date Colleen but I can’t?”
“Because neither of you has the greatest track record with love, and I care about you. How can you possibly think this is a good idea?”
Lungs could seize, too, just like hearts.
“You’re being an ass.”
“I’m being realistic.”
“You can’t tell me who to date.”
“No, I can’t. But I can warn you.”
“Warn me about Moore?”
“About Cammie.”
At the mention of Moore’s ex, Colleen’s blood turned to ice water.
“Cammie?”
“Remember? Part of the reason why she took off with Jordy all those years ago?”
If it hadn’t been for the cast, Colleen would have throttled him.
“That was a decade ago!”
“She meant it.”
“She was delusional! She thought Moore was in love with me–she threatened me! She told me she’d disappear with Jordy if I–if we…”
“I know. She told me, too. Should have realized it wasn’t just some hotheaded venting. She was telling me in advance about her plan.”
“What does Cammie have to do with me and Moore?”
“What if you two get together and she holds Jordy back from visiting?”
“You’re really pulling that old issue out?” Furtive glances told her Moore was definitely out of earshot now. “And shhh. Moore still doesn’t know–unless you told him.”
“I never told him. Unlike some people, I keep my promises.” His eyes cut over to Moore.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Just… you two have a lot at stake if you end up together. And it seemed like you were both pretty cold to each other when it was time to leave that cabin.”
“You–you noticed that?”
“Yeah.”
Ouch.
With a long sigh, she leaned forward and whispered, “Stay out of my life.”
“Don’t kill my best friend.”
“Huh?”
“The last thing Moore needs is a heart attack after your third date.”
If they weren’t in public, she’d have started screaming at him, or worse, banging him over the head with her pink arm cast.
“Do I butt into your love life like this?” she began, the question rhetorical. A long list of grievances was forming in her mind.
“You mean like when you ran into Kylie picking up takeout at Mountain Dragon and you warned her not to toy with my heart? At the beginning of our relationship, when she was particularly fragile?”
The tongue lashing she was about to inflict on him quickly turned into her choking on her own tongue. Damn. He was right. She had interfered.
But that was different! It was for his own good.
“And before you try to claim that was different, it’s not.”
Double damn.
“Moore is my best friend. You’re my sister. This is gross. Don’t make it worse.”
“What’s worse than gross?”
“Having you two break up and force people to take sides.”
“You’re seriously reaching here, Luke.”
“Am I? No. No, I’m not. You know full well how many family feuds in this town started because two people fell in love and then fell out of it. Generations of fury rest on the whim of two lust-filled idiots.”
“Now you sound like Anne Petrinelli on one of her rants!”
“No. I sound like a brother who likes his friend circle the way it is. If you and Moore get romantically involved, when it goes south, it’ll suck for everyone. Not only will you be hurt, but playing darts at Bilbee’s will never be the same.”
“I’m supposed to rearrange my emotional life to make sure you’re comfortable during dart night at freaking Bilbee’s?”
“You’re supposed to think with your head and not with your–” He made a harumph sound.
“What the hell, Luke? I’m not allowed to have the full range of feelings every other grown person in town gets? Is that really what you’re saying?”
“I’m not saying anything like that!”
“It’s exactly what’s spewing out of that sewage pipe you call a mouth!”
“Quit using Mom’s lines on me.”
“Not my fault they’re true!”
Catching a whiff of Rachel’s perfume, Colleen turned around and there she was, looking at Luke like he was a rabid raccoon and she needed a blanket to throw on him.