35. Luke
THIRTY-FIVE
LUKE
“It’s my year to drive the tractor,” Phil insisted.
“I always drive the tractor on even years,” Bernie fired back. “I’m driving the tractor this year.”
The two had been bickering about the damn tractor for the past thirty minutes, and for once, I didn’t really care.
I had a belly full of Maggie’s chili—not the recipe yet, but one she felt was close enough to share with the veterans for lunch today—I slept like a damn baby for a full eight hours, and I was fifteen minutes late to the Legion Hall this morning because I had my lips suctioned to Miss Mayhem and my hand down her skinny jeans.
I could still hear the cute, desperate way she panted my name when she came.
And no one, not even Phil or Bernie, was going to spoil my good mood.
“Chief, you got to settle this,” Phil demanded.
“Me?”
Maggie looked up from her laptop, amusement dancing in her blue eyes.
“You’re in charge,” Bernie added.
“So is Connor,” I reminded them. It was a weak argument considering my brother was helping Dad at the hardware store today.
“You outrank him,” Phil said.
It was not lost on me that the one thing they agreed on was that I needed to insert myself in the middle of their petty drama.
“You could flip a coin for it,” I suggested.
“Or,” Maggie said, touching my arm as she joined the conversation.
Her intoxicating floral scent lifted to me, and I nearly forgot about the argument happening in front of me.
“Luke could drive the tractor this year and you both could sit in the front of the float. You’ve earned your right to take it easy.
And I think it’s so wonderful these younger vets are getting involved, don’t you? ”
“It has been nice having some young blood,” Phil admitted, almost reluctantly.
“Guess it’d be fair to pass the torch,” Bernie agreed.
“I think that’s a fabulous idea,” Maggie said, both hands on my arm. “You want to make sure they keep showing up. If you give them such important jobs, they have no choice.”
“Looks like the job’s yours, Chief,” Phil said, winking at Maggie.
“What just happened?” I asked no one in particular as Phil and Bernie beelined for the bar, toward the crockpot of chili.
“I think you just got permanently promoted to parade float leader,” Beckett said, laughing.
He wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve.
He’d been in the back, working on the trickier cuts for a float design that got so far out of control I couldn’t backtrack it to normal if I tried.
I just prayed it looked cohesive when it was headed down the main strip this Sunday.
“I’ll let you boys get back to work,” Maggie said, dragging her fingertips along my arm as she dropped her hand.
I hadn’t even been inside this woman yet, and still the lightest touch could bring me to my damn knees. I watched the sway of her hips as she returned to her laptop too soon. Ten feet had never felt shorter.
“I haven’t seen you smile this much . . . ever,” Beckett said, folding his arms and flashing me a smug grin. “And I’ve known you for a long damn time.”
“Shut up,” I warned, my tone low.
My best friend wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t need him to clue Maggie in to how slippery the slope of falling was becoming for me.
I knew she’d leave. It was as inevitable as breathing.
I also knew it’d hurt like fucking hell when she did.
What I didn’t need was Maggie realizing any of this.
If I only had another seventeen days with Miss Mayhem, I was going to make the most of them.
“I didn’t think you knew how to do anything but scowl.”
Maggie bit back a laugh, but I caught the way her shoulders shook.
“Hey, you have some free time this week?” I asked Beckett, hoping to redirect the conversation.
“I might. Did the dog eat your baseboards again?”
Maggie didn’t even bother to hide her laughter this time, probably because Ellie was sprawled out on a flannel blanket Bernie brought to the Legion Hall just for her.
She was sleeping on her back, all fours in the air, oblivious to everything around her.
She looked like the most unlikely threat to baseboards that existed.
“I was hoping you could take a look at the duplex. Let me know which walls are load-bearing and shit like that.”
“Sure. I could swing by the day before Golden Days kicks off? Kira has me committed for the whole three-day festival.”
“And you want to give me shit,” I mumbled under my breath.
“You planning to renovate or something?”
“Maybe.”
Beckett glanced at Maggie, who was focused on her laptop screen, then back at me. “You want to knock down the common wall.”
“I’m considering it.”
Maybe Maggie wouldn’t stay in Bluebell Springs, and that was going to gut punch me when she left. But I no longer clung to this idea that I’d live out the rest of my days as a bachelor.
I wanted a wife, kids tearing through the backyard with laughter, and a dog causing just the right amount of chaos.
It might be years down the road yet, but I was ready to make space for what I’d always wanted deep down.
Maggie helped thaw the layers of ice around my heart, and there was no going back to the chronically grumpy pain in the ass I’d been since Raquel jilted me at the altar.
I was moving forward with life, one demolished wall at a time.
“You’re that sick of renting, huh?”
“Tenants are exhausting,” I said, my voice purposely loud. Maggie rolled her eyes playfully in response. “I always planned to make it one unit. It’ll take some time to pull the permits, but I figured now is as good a time as any to get a plan put together.”
“I’ll come by Thursday and take a look,” Beckett agreed.
“Thanks, man.” At the sound of a circular saw firing up, I glanced at the door in the back of the hall. I asked Beckett, “We low on anything? I was going to make a run to the hardware store.”
“I called your dad about some hinges and wood screws.”
“I’ll go pick them up.”
I looked back at Maggie, catching her gaze already on me.
Blood rushed south, and I adjusted my jeans before things got awkward.
When she came this morning with my hand between her legs, I promised we weren’t done.
I’d been thinking about getting her home since we showed up at the Legion Hall hours ago.
“Need some fresh air?” I asked her.
“I could definitely use a walk.”
Ellie instantly rolled onto all fours, tail swishing. Maggie reached for the leash, and as I predicted, the pup swatted it away three times before letting out a dramatic sigh and giving in.
What would it be like if this was every day?
But it wasn’t, of course. Not only because Maggie and Ellie would leave town. But because my own forced vacation was up in a few days. I swore a duty to serve and protect the town of Bluebell Springs, and once the badge went back on, this illusion would already start to fade.
“Ready to go?” Maggie smiled at me, and the decision became easy. For a few more days, I would pretend the clock wasn’t ticking.