26. Maggie #2
Last night, I swore I’d never speak to the irritating man again.
I devised an entire plan in my head on how to avoid running into him until I left town.
And less than twenty-four hours later, I was practically drooling over him in my living room.
It was the weirdest kind of whiplash I’d ever experienced.
“Ready?” he asked, nodding at the TV.
I glanced at Ellie who was climbing onto the couch, preparing to snuggle in next to Luke.
That, I was convinced, had more to do with bacon than anything else.
Except, I caught sight of the sock again.
One from the pair she’d picked out at the hardware store last week with marshmallows holding roasting sticks.
She rarely gave out new socks so quickly.
She tended to hoard them, burying them at the bottom of her sock basket.
“Ready?” Luke asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.
“Let’s see if this lives up to the hype.”
Luke held out the remote, pointing it at the TV. “Be prepared for your life to be forever changed.”
The opening credits rolled, and a stream of text appeared on the screen, scrolling upward into the galaxy behind it. “Hey, you didn’t tell me I had to read this movie.”
“Pay attention,” he said, eyes locked on the screen. “And it’s just for the beginning.”
I stared at him a beat longer before returning my attention to the TV. I had no doubt the man could recite the words from memory, but I humored him and read alongside him.
“Galactic Empire is evil. Got it,” I said, proving I was paying attention. Luke nodded, but didn’t look away from the screen, so I kept reading. “So, Princess Leia is a badass right off the bat. Okay, love that.”
Luke glanced at me when the final text faded into the galaxy, flashing me an approving smile. One that caused heat to coil low in my belly. I looked away, biting my bottom lip, and forced myself to keep eyes front as I helped myself to another slice of pizza.
I was enjoying this nerdy, unguarded side of Luke far more than I should.
It was as though his confession out at the lake knocked down an entire wall of fortified stone between us, and ever since, I was having trouble keeping my head on straight.
As long as I didn’t look at him, I might just get through this evening unscathed.
To my surprise—and relief—I was sucked into the movie almost immediately. Luke explained the parts that confused me, but otherwise, we watched in comfortable silence. I didn’t want to admit I was hooked, but I was.
So, when Luke Skywalker was yelling at the C-3PO to shut down all the garbage smashers in the detention level and the living room lights suddenly winked out, it startled me more than a little.
Luke lifted the remote, pausing the movie. Before he could push off the couch to investigate, I heard the metallic rattle of Ellie’s tag on her collar, as though she was doing a full-body shake in another room.
“Ellie’s bedtime,” I explained, chuckling.
“She knows how to turn off the lights?”
“She knows how to do a lot.”
“Like open gate latches?” Luke guessed.
He settled back, leaning his elbow on the arm of the couch. He was close enough that I couldn’t decipher whether that spicy pine scent was coming from the borrowed shirt or from the man himself.
“I didn’t teach her that,” I said, “but yes.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Luke asked. “That first morning when you found her in my kitchen?”
“You’re really asking me that?” I laughed, snagging a miniature chocolate chip cookie from the platter on the coffee table to keep myself from looking at him.
I swore we started with a couple dozen cookies, but unless the dim light of the TV was playing tricks on my eyes, we were down to single digits.
“I was kind of an ass, wasn’t I?” he asked, scrubbing a hand through his hair and messing it up in a way that tempted me to do the same. Down girl.
“That’s putting it mildly.” I took a bite of cookie and swallowed.
“But you’re more than making up for it now.
” I didn’t have to look at him to feel his eyes on me.
I didn’t trust myself to meet his gaze. I didn’t trust what I’d do, so I nodded at the TV and said, “So, do they get squished by this trash compactor or what?”
“I knew you’d like it.”
The movie resumed, and my elevated heart rate returned to normal as long as I kept my eyes on the movie. Because I was invested, I had a reliable distraction. Until it ended.
“What did you think?”
I enjoyed a kind of satisfaction I hadn’t expected. Until now, I hadn’t felt as though I was missing out on anything. “Okay, I have questions.”
“Such as?”
“Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is he dead or alive?”
“He’s part of The Force now,” Luke said.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I said, turning in my chair. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a single miniature chocolate chip cookie left on the platter. “And where was Yoda? Isn’t he like one of the main characters of this whole thing?”
“Yoda makes his appearance in the next movie.”
“Right. You said this was episode four. So, how many more are there?” I asked, mildly excited.
“Two more for the original trilogy,” Luke explained, catching my wandering eyes and following their path to the nearly empty cookie platter. “Three for the prequel trilogy. And three more for the sequel trilogy. And that’s not including all the offshoots.”
Was I a little giddy at the prospect of watching them all with Luke before this vacation was over? Maybe.
I quickly looked at the cookie, then back at Luke. We stared at one another for a long beat before simultaneously lunging for the last cookie.
Luke was faster.
“Hey!” I said, reaching across the end table for his arm. But the jerk yanked it away before I could latch on. “I had my eye on that first.”
“You were too slow,” he said, smirking.
He brought the cookie to his lips. I didn’t know if it was some ridiculous obsession with winning, the cookies that clearly contained some sort of addictive secret ingredient, or just the excuse I’d been subconsciously searching for to touch him again, but I launched myself at Luke.
Because my blanket was still partially wrapped around my legs, I tripped and fell into his lap. He held the cookie high above his head, taunting me with his wildly long limbs. I lifted onto the knees bracketed on either side of his thighs, but the cookie was an inch out of reach. Stupid long arms.
I leaned forward, stretching.
“You’re playing dirty,” Luke said, his words vibrating between my breasts.
Oops.
“I never claimed to play by the rules,” I said, grabbing his wrist as I squished my breasts more firmly into his face, this time on purpose.
At the same time, I inadvertently pressed my body from thighs to chest against him. I nearly had the cookie in my grasp when my center brushed against a steel rod. Fuck me, that couldn’t be . . .
Luke took advantage of my temporary distraction, yanking down his arm and shoving the cookie at his mouth. I managed to snag a small corner of the cookie before it disappeared entirely. He smiled at me smugly as he chewed and swallowed.