Lucas looked over his shoulder, as if someone much better suited to handle this situation would be standing there. The hallway was empty.
Should he leave? Just tiptoe away and leave her to her sorrows?
And if he stayed, what could he possibly say to soothe her?
Before he could move, she lifted her head, and her bright blue eyes met his. She’d piled her hair on the top of her head into a messy bun, and her face was tear-streaked, but he still recognized her.
Julie Paige.
Lucas froze to the spot, his heart hammering in his chest as he continued to stare at the gorgeous woman who was very clearly in emotional peril. She had not tried to text or call him again after he’d blown her off, almost three weeks ago now.
“Hey,” he said, committing to seeing this through. He took a step and moved onto the carpeted waiting area from the sterile tile in the hallway. “Can I do something…or…?”
Julie swiped at her face, but she couldn’t get rid of the evidence of her crying so easily. “Hey, Lucas.”
The energy between them soared, and Lucas wondered why he’d chosen to ignore it. It felt like a living, breathing thing that only came to life when the two of them existed in the same space, and it did not want to be ignored.
He sat down on the same couch as her, and it whined as if it couldn’t hold his weight. “What’s wrong?”
Her chin quivered, but she shook her head.
“Oh, come on,” he said as kindly as he could. “I promise to be a good listener.”
Julie wore pale blue scrubs and a pair of expensive running shoes. Her makeup had mostly been wiped away, but she was still beautiful. Her bright blue eyes and blonde hair were siren’s calls to Lucas’s male side, and he found himself wanting to shelter her from anything hard or bad in her life.
He reached over and took her hand in his, and a legit bolt of lightning shot up his arm. She pulled in a breath and looked at him, her eyes wide.
“It’s my family,” she said. “I just can’t…I can’t do another holiday meal with them.” She swiped at her eyes with her free hand.
Lucas’s curiosity shot toward the sky. “You don’t get along with them?” That would certainly make a relationship with her easier, and he startled at his betraying thought. There was no relationship with her, and he told himself sternly that he didn’t want one.
“We get along,” she said. “Everyone is just so sad all the time. We don’t talk. Everything is just superficial, and I just—” She took a long, large breath. “I can’t stand how we can’t talk about what’s really going on. Or what might have happened. Or any of it. It’s just stuffed with silence and tension and so much sadness.” Another tear leaked from her right eye. “I’m so tired of being sad.”
Lucas wanted to know why her family was so sad, but he didn’t want to ask. Julie was so sad it poured off of her in waves, and he once again wanted to make all of that go away. Somehow.
“Do you have to go?” he asked.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she said. “And who voluntarily spends Christmas alone?” She searched his face as if he could tell her it was perfectly okay to stay home alone on Christmas Day.
“You could come to dinner with me,” he said. The moment he finished talking, he flinched. Where had those words come from?
The brightest hope filled her eyes, but she shook her head. “I couldn’t.”
Lucas wanted to leave it at that, but something told him he couldn’t just walk away from this woman.
And he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t crazy-interested in knowing why the Paiges were so sad. From his recollection, Lawrence had been wildly popular, good-looking, and successful. He had everything going for him, with the world in the palm of his hand. Lucas had had some rough years, granted, but he thought he’d know if something dire had happened to the Paiges.
He wanted to know more about why she was in a remote waiting room, crying. What had happened to make her so sad. Maybe a tiny, vengeful part of himself wanted to know that Lawrence wasn’t as perfect and popular and happy as he’d seemed.
“Really,” he said. “It’s just my roommate and his girlfriend, and one of her friends and her boyfriend. And me. I’m already the fifth wheel. You’d be saving me.”
Julie squeezed his hand, but he wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. “Really?”
“Really,” he said.
“Do you cook?”
“Not really,” he said.
“Then you can’t just say I can come. Don’t you need to ask someone first?”
“It’ll be fine,” he said with a smile. “Now, are you working today? Or are you off?”
“I got off a couple of hours ago,” she said. “I was just visiting someone who used to be on the third floor, and then I….” She trailed off, and Lucas realized there was so much more to this woman than just a beautiful face, a big dog she couldn’t control, and vanilla lattes.
And dang if he didn’t want to get to know how much more. See just how deep she went.
He stood up, dropping her hand, and so did Julie. “So dinner is at three-thirty on Christmas Day,” he said. “Do you have to work?”
“I’m off at six in the morning,” she said. “What about you?”
“It’ll be my last week on the first shift,” he said. “Thus, the dinner at three-thirty. I’m not done until three.”
She started walking toward the elevators, and Lucas was glad she’d calmed down. “Christmas isn’t too bad,” she said. “A lot of visitors, but usually not anything security is needed for. It’s quiet.”
“Honestly, every day is pretty quiet,” he said, smiling as he ducked his head.
“But you got the job,” she said brightly.
“Yes,” he said, wondering if he’d gone completely crazy. “I got the job.” He approached the security desk, and he paused. “I’ll text you to get your address for Christmas dinner, okay? Are you adverse to riding on the back of my motorcycle?”
“On Christmas Day?” she asked, her eyebrows flying up. “It’s freezing.”
“Wear a coat.” He smiled at her, glancing over as Noah approached.
Julie looked his direction too, and then said, “All right.”
“Great,” he said. “See you then if I don’t see you around here.” He wasn’t sure why he would. It seemed they were on opposite schedules, with him beginning his day at six o’clock in the morning and her finishing it then.
Noah stepped to his side as Lucas watched Julie walk away, and he said, “What’s going on there?”
Lucas wasn’t entirely sure, and he had a very distinct feeling that he might have just made the biggest mistake of his life. So he said, “Nothing.”
“Yeah, stick to telling the truth.” Noah laughed as he clapped Lucas on the shoulder and went behind the desk. Lucas watched Julie until he couldn’t see her anymore, and then he joined Noah at the desk.
The dark-haired man didn’t say another word about Julie, but Lucas quickly pulled out his phone and tapped out a message to Vice.
I may have just invited someone to Christmas dinner. How upset is Felicia going to be?
Thankfully, Vice used his device like a third appendage at his job, and his reply came quickly. Depends on who it is.
Lucas pressed his eyes closed in a long blink and tapped out, Julie Paige.
He couldn’t believe it himself, so when the phone rang and Vice’s name sat on the screen, Lucas sent the call to voicemail.
I’m working the desk, he sent quickly. We’ll talk when I get home.
You bet we will, Vice said, and Lucas put his phone away, wishing he could shelve his traitorous thoughts of Julie just as easily.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Felicia hummed along to the Christmas music playing through Jordan’s and Lucas’s house. She’d arrived just as Lucas was leaving for work at the hospital, and he’d apologized one more time that he’d invited another guest without consulting her.
“Luc
as,” she’d said with a smile. “We’ll have enough for sixteen. It’s no big deal.”
Jordan had told her that Lucas had invited the same woman who’d asked him out a few weeks ago. He’d canceled with her for a reason Jordan wouldn’t say, but now he’d invited her to dinner.
Which was almost ready. She was working through crunch time, where everything happened at once to keep the food hot before it was time to eat.
“What can I help with?” Jordan asked, coming into the kitchen and wrapping his arms around her from behind. She giggled as he pressed his lips to her neck. “It all smells great.”
Before she could answer, the doorbell rang, and Felicia squealed. “That will be Pearl and Jack,” she said. “Now you behave,” she added as Jordan kissed her neck again.
He chuckled and stepped back. “It is my house. I’ll go get the door.”
Felicia turned back to the gravy, stirring with the whisk while she lifted the lid on the creamed corn. That was ready, and she reached to flip off the burner so it wouldn’t scorch on the bottom.
Jordan didn’t have the best cookware in the world, and she barely had enough pots and pans to put together a turkey dinner with all the fixings. The gravy thickened, and she turned off that burner too.
They’d stay warm on the electric burners while she mashed the potatoes. Pearl’s voice filled the house, and Felicia smiled over at her friend. She stepped away from the food quickly to say, “You’ve met Jordan. And you must be Jack.” She beamed at the sandy-haired man that looked like a perfect fit for Pearl. He wore a wide smile and when he took off his coat and handed it to Jordan, he had on a sweater vest.
A legit sweater vest, which totally fit with the kind of man Pearl liked.
“And your roommate is coming too, right?” Pearl asked.
“And he’s bringing a woman,” Felicia said, smiling at Jordan.
“They should be here soon,” Jordan said. “He got off work at the hospital at three.”
“I just have to mash the potatoes,” Felicia said, moving back into the kitchen. “And when Lucas shows up, we’ll eat.” A timer went off, and she called over her shoulder, “ Pearl, come take the rolls out of the oven.”
She did, and Felicia experienced another wave of happiness. The past month since she’d shown up in the parking lot outside Cornerstone Books had been the happiest of her life. She and Jordan had talked about marriage only once, and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to put a ring on her finger.
They hadn’t shared gifts with one another yet, as he’d said he wanted to do it when Lucas could participate, and Jordan didn’t like getting up earlier than he had to.
Smoky started barking, his loud voice covering the music and the hubbub in the kitchen. “That’s Lucas now,” Jordan said after shushing the dog. “Smoky knows when his favorite person is here.”
Sure enough, a moment later, the side door opened, and Lucas entered, followed by a blonde woman that seemed too perfect to be true. She tucked her hair nervously behind her ear, and Felicia knew exactly how she felt.
She stopped the mixer and stepped out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Pearl set down the brush she’d been using to butter the tops of the rolls and followed her. Felicia put her hand in Jordan’s and faced Lucas, keeping the smile on her face.
“Brother,” Jordan said, doing his biker handshake with Lucas, complete with the half-hug and back patting.
“Vice.” He cleared his throat and stepped back. “Or Jordan,” he said. “This is Julie Paige. Julie, Jordan Waterhouse. He’s my roommate.”
“A pleasure,” Jordan said, shaking her hand. He turned to Felicia. “This is my girlfriend, Felicia Cheswick.”
Julie looked like she was about to throw up, and Felicia drew her in to a hug and whispered, “They’re just big teddy bears.”
Julie giggled slightly, and Felicia stepped back and introduced Pearl and Jack to both Lucas and Julie. “And now I just have to finish the potatoes, and we’re ready.”
“I’ll put the gifts out,” Jordan said.
“Gifts?” Lucas asked, bending to pat Smoky. “You didn’t say—”
“Yes,” he said loudly as he took the few steps to the Christmas tree. “I said we would do gifts after you got off work.”
Felicia finished the potatoes while Jordan in all his boyish enthusiasm for the holidays, put the gifts on the place settings on the table. She’d done those after she’d made the stuffing and gotten the turkey in the oven, and that was where Jordan had found her when he’d finally woken up that morning.
Lucas stepped over to Jordan and said something, but Jordan just waved him away.
“All right,” Felicia said. “We’re ready to eat. Because the table is a little too small, we’re going to do things buffet style. All the food’s up here, and you come get what you want.” She looked at Jordan, who turned off the music and smiled around at everyone.
“Welcome everyone,” he said, his emotions storming across his face. “I’m so glad you’re here. Lucas and I don’t entertain very often, and there have been times in our lives when we didn’t even know people had dinners like this.” He exchanged a glance with Lucas, and the put their arms around each other.
“So Merry Christmas,” Jordan said, his voice catching on itself. “I’d like to do gifts first, if that’s okay, Leesh.”
“Totally okay,” she said, coming around the counter and finding her place at the table as everyone else did too. She looked down at the package there, and she knew instantly that it was a book.
They hadn’t bought anything at Cornerstone all those weeks ago, but Jordan had clearly been back. She glanced at Pearl’s gift, and it was a book too.
“Open them,” he said.
“Where’s mine for you?” Felicia asked. “You have to have something to open too.” She jumped up and hurried over to the tree, plucking the slim package from the branches of the tree. She handed it to him, and he looked at her with that edge of love in his eyes. “Now we’re ready.”
She sat down again and started tearing off the wrapping paper. A book emerged, and she sucked in a breath. “Jordan,” she said at the same time Lucas said, “You didn’t.”
Felicia looked over at him to find him holding a paint-by-number book that boasted that it came with fifty bonus stickers.
Lucas started laughing, and he got up to give Jordan a hug. “Thanks, brother.” There was definitely a story there that Felicia didn’t know, as she’d realized more and more with Lucas and Jordan. They had a past that was as vast and deep as the ocean, and Felicia loved their friendship.
“This is great,” Pearl said, holding up a book devoted completely to doughnuts. “Thank you, Jordan.”
Jack held up a hollow book with the words, “I’ve always wanted one of these. How did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” Jordan said with a smile.
Felicia looked at Julie, who was staring down at small book Felicia couldn’t quite see.
“What is it?” Lucas asked, and Julie finally looked up.
She picked up the pale pink tome and said, “It’s a five-year gratitude journal.”
Jordan watched her, and Felicia flicked her gaze back and forth between the two of them.
Julie’s chin trembled for only a moment. She calmed it so quickly that Felicia thought she might have imagined the movement. “Thank you, Jordan.”
“Just you, sweetheart,” he said, looking at Felicia.
“No,” she said. “You haven’t even opened yours.”
“All right, all right.” He grinned at her and started unwrapping his gift. Felicia looked down at the book he’d bought for her, and love filled her whole soul.
“What did you get, Felicia?” Lucas asked.
She held it up for everyone to see, and Pearl said, “Oh, that’s perfect.”
“Isn’t it?” Jordan asked, pausing in his opening his gift.
Felicia read the cover. “Her Only Forever, a love story in two parts.” She couldn’t c
ontain the smile as it moved through her. “I think the best love stories are in two parts,” she said. “Or more.”
She didn’t care that there were four other people at the table with her and Jordan. She loved him, and everyone should know it. “And you are my only forever,” she said. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” They leaned toward each other and shared a quick kiss, heat filling Felicia’s face.
“Okay, open yours,” she said. “The food’s getting cold, and I’m pretty sure we just freaked everyone else out.”
“Not me,” Pearl said. “I think you two are so cute.”
A glance at Lucas told Felicia he was definitely freaked out, but Julie was smiling too.
“New gloves,” he said, finally getting through her terrible wrapping job. “I’ve needed these, and I can never find a size that fits.” He started unboxing them.
“I know,” she said, grinning at him. “And these are the best kind, and I had them special-ordered to fit your hands.”
“Special-ordered?” He chuckled. “You make me seem like a freak.”
“You’re just tall,” she said. “With huge hands and feet.”
He put on the first glove, and said, “These are amazing. Where did you get these?”
“Oh, and I got something for Smoky too,” Felicia said, dashing into the kitchen to open the cupboard. She pulled out the white-chocolate dipped dog bone she’d picked up at the bakery and bent down to give it to him.
With the dog’s tail wagging and all the gifts open, Felicia finally said, “Let’s eat.”
Everyone got up and chatter broke out, and Felicia stood back and just watched. She loved that she had people to care about and who cared about her.
Jordan put his arm around her and pulled her close. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.” It wasn’t the first time he’d said those words to her today, and Felicia was so glad she was here, in this moment, to celebrate the good, happy times with him.
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