Chapter 22
Lucas
The shout was brief but loud and enough to break Lucas away from Willow. He wasn’t quite sure how becoming entangled with Willow had happened but however it did, it was amazing. He hadn’t wanted to stop. All he wanted to do was pull off Willow’s clothes, push her onto the table and fuck her.
It was almost as if time stood still and everything else was forgotten. It was just the two of them in the room, kissing, holding, exploring and it was going to move onto more. They both wanted it.
Didn’t they?
But then that scream interrupted them, loud and piercing. Willow immediately pulled away, her face pale, her eyes wide.
‘What the hell was that?’
Lucas moved quickly. It sounded like it had come from right outside The Diner. He got up and pushed open the door, his hands fumbling for a second or two on the lock. The stupid stiff lock. His breath was caught in his throat.
The first thing he saw was Mia and immediately heat raced to his head. Was she hurt? But then he saw she was crouched down next to someone.
‘Mia?’ He approached gingerly. ‘What’s going on?’
Willow was right behind him; her body practically pressed against his. She was peering over his shoulder, breathing hard. He still felt aroused and had to move away slightly to try and fight it.
‘Oh my God,’ she cried. ‘Is that Eric?’
Lucas’s eyes were finally able to adjust to the scene in front of him. It was indeed Eric, who was now pulling himself up from a slumped position on the floor. He was rubbing his head and muttering under his breath.
‘He scared me to death,’ Mia said. ‘He was just on the floor there. I thought he was—’
‘Dead? Is that what you thought?’ Eric half shouted as he continued to pull himself up. ‘I’m fine. I just tripped, that’s all …’
Lucas could smell the booze on him as he reached forward and helped the man to his feet. He staggered a little, touching his head as if a bit dazed.
‘Did you hit your head?’ Lucas asked, trying to lean forward to see better. ‘We should take you to get checked out.’
‘I’m fine!’ Eric spat, lurching forward. ‘I just tripped, that’s all. Stop fussing.’
Willow stepped out. ‘Eric, maybe you should let us—’
But Eric was already walking away, moving in his awkwardly slumped way and muttering under his breath. Lucas shook his head, but there was nothing they could do now. That man was beyond help.
‘I’m sorry I screamed, but he really did scare me,’ Mia said. ‘I thought he was dead just lying there like that.’
Willow was still staring in the direction he left. ‘He was around the wagon earlier. He couldn’t have gone far. He must have been drinking near here.’
‘Maybe he had more to say to you …’ Lucas said quietly. ‘Although you’re not the person who should be speaking to him …’
He was going to say more but he noticed Mia was looking at them both with a strange look on her face.
‘So, are you going to explain to me why you were both in The Diner when it was closed up?’
Lucas felt his cheeks heat. ‘I only closed for a little while, before the evening rush. Willow just came to talk through some business stuff.’
‘And we were discussing Sapphire’s social media post,’ Willow added, looking awkward. ‘And how happy we both were that the town at least had some decent coverage.’
He was about to correct her. To say, ‘No actually – I wasn’t happy, and that’s why we had a disagreement and then we nearly had sex’, but then he saw the look in Willow’s eyes. There was a warning there. He pulled back. After all, he couldn’t risk Mia knowing that he nearly made a fool of himself.
‘We talked. That’s it,’ he said, his eyes still on Willow. ‘It was no big deal.’
He just wished he could convince the rest of his body to feel the same, remembering how close they had been made his head rush all over again.
It would’ve been so easy …
But what would’ve happened next? Was it really what Willow wanted? After all, in theory she hadn’t ended things with Jake. Instead, she was on some kind of useless break thing. What did that even mean anyway?
And even if they did break up, he didn’t want to be some kind of rebound option, or a tool used to get back at her ex.
‘I was only teasing,’ Mia said. ‘You guys just looked a little secretive.’
‘No secrets at all.’ Willow laughed awkwardly. Lucas wondered if he was being paranoid, but he swore she was now avoiding looking at him. It was like she regretted what had almost happened. ‘I’m just hoping that Sapphire’s post does the trick.’
Mia clapped her hands together. ‘Well, I’m sorry I interrupted it all with my dramatics. I had actually come back here with news—’
Lucas wasn’t really listening to the conversation.
He couldn’t hide his frustration about the whole situation.
Even thinking about Eric caused a burning rush of rage.
This was another example of Jake being a total screwup.
Oh yeah, he could present a perfect life on the internet, but in reality, he was hiding the fact that he had parents that he never bothered to see.
‘You need to tell that ex-boyfriend of yours to start looking out for his dad a bit more,’ he said bitterly to Willow.
Willow looked momentarily stunned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, he never sees him. I bet he doesn’t even call him either. What’s the problem? Is he ashamed of him being a drunk?’
She frowned. Lucas could tell he had pushed this a bit too far, but he couldn’t help himself.
Seeing Eric had reminded him of Jake and thinking of Jake only made him remember that Willow had chosen him.
She had been with him for years! What had he been thinking about only moments before? He was clearly losing the plot.
‘Not that it’s any of your business, but Jake phones his dad regularly,’ Willow replied. Her words were clipped. ‘He’s a busy man and Eric isn’t exactly the easiest to get along with.’
Lucas could tell from the way she was avoiding his eyes that she was lying. Willow had always been a hopeless liar, even when she was a kid and trying to convince him that it wasn’t her that stole his bubblegum.
He couldn’t let this go. He was too wound up now. He hated the way she was defending that loser.
‘The man has an illness. He needs support, not occasional phone calls when Jake feels like it.’
‘It’s not like that!’ Willow snapped. ‘What the hell has gotten into you anyway? What do you know about anything?’
Mia moved towards him and gently touched his arm.
‘Luc, maybe you need to back off a bit?’
‘No, I don’t need to back off, I need to say my piece. I’ve been worried about Eric for a long time,’ he shot back. ‘Jake should consider himself lucky. He still has parents to worry about. He should think about that a bit more when he’s yakking on about empathy or whatever on his page.’
Willow rounded on him. Her tone was super cool. ‘I think you need to stop worrying about what my ex-boyfriend is or isn’t doing. But when I speak to him later, I’ll be sure to pass on your concerns.’
‘You do that,’ he replied, just as icy.
And then he turned round and walked back into The Diner. He couldn’t stand the way Willow was looking at him. Lucas knew he had gone too far, but he had always been skilled at messing things up before they got dangerous.
It was his self-protection.
But he couldn’t ignore how much it hurt to see how protective she still was of Jake.
‘What was all that about?’ Mia slammed in after him. ‘Willow’s gone. She looks really pissed and I can’t blame her. You can’t be criticizing her about something her ex-boyfriend should be doing.’
‘I wasn’t criticizing her; I was simply pointing out facts,’ Lucas replied, running his hand through his hair. ‘Mia, are you here simply to lay into me? Because I’ve got to open in an hour and I still need to prep.’
‘I’m not here to lay into you; I’m just worried about you,’ Mia said gently. ‘Lucas, you’ve not been right since Mom died. You know that. You keep everything locked inside. It’s no wonder you explode every now and then. It’s not healthy.’
Lucas was pacing the floors of The Diner, trying to settle himself. ‘Mia, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine. I just have a lot on my plate.’
‘You were the same when you came to New York. Look how that turned out. Do you remember how you lost your job?’
‘It was a short-term thing anyway. I never planned to stay,’ Lucas shot back. ‘You know my boss was an idiot. He called me out on every little detail. And he found out about the stupid review online. He never left me alone after that.’
‘And you snapped back, which isn’t like you. Out of the two of us, you have always been the calm, sensible one. I hate seeing you like this. Please Luc, just sit with me for a minute.’
Lucas let out a long sigh, but he slumped down next to his sister. His body felt so heavy.
‘Willow really gets to you, doesn’t she?’ Mia said. ‘I can tell something happened between you just now. You were both acting so jumpy.’
‘It was nothing …’ Lucas shrugged. ‘It was a moment. I thought I felt something there, but I think I’m kidding myself.’
‘She has just come out of a long relationship.’
‘Thanks for pointing out the obvious.’
‘And you clearly don’t like Jake much.’ Mia paused. ‘I remember him a bit from school. He was the loud one, wasn’t he? Didn’t he come here a lot and always act up to get everyone’s attention? I remember Mom couldn’t stand him.’
Lucas was picking at the edges of the table. ‘Jake is a jerk; he always has been. I don’t know what she sees in him.’
‘But he’s not here now, is he?’ Mia mused. ‘I dunno, maybe we need to find out more about this whole situation. Not you though, Luc, because you’ll just mess things up as usual. Maybe I can do some gentle investigating.’
‘Mia, please don’t interfere.’
‘I’m not interfering. I’m clarifying facts and there’s a difference.’ Mia patted his cheek playfully. ‘And one day you might thank me for it.’
Mia stuck around, helping Lucas set up for the evening. The two of them chatted lightly while they worked. Mia was in an upbeat mood.