by Mary Campisi
“Are you okay?”
Luke opened his eyes, blinked. The vision before him blurred, settled into place. It was a woman: tall, dark-haired, lots of curves. He blinked again, wiped a hand over his forehead. “Bad cold. Can I get some hot-and-sour soup?”
“Sure. Would you like tea? Or an egg roll with hot mustard?” She smiled, and he noticed dimples on either side of her cheeks. “The hot mustard will open you up. No doubt about it.”
He nodded. “Okay. Tea and the egg roll.” He squinted at her, added, “And the mustard.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Luke watched her walk away, noticed the sway of her full hips, the bounce of her long hair against her shoulder blades... He must have dozed off because the next thing he heard was the woman’s voice next to him.
“Here’s your tea, soup, and the egg roll. Make sure you add a healthy dollop of the hot mustard.”
Her smile made her eyes sparkle. What color were they? Amber? Green? Luke tried to tell but the lighting was too dark, and he was too sick. “Thanks.” He dunked the egg roll in the hot mustard, bit into it, and thought his head would explode. Luke snatched the glass of water, chugged it down, stared at the woman. “I could’ve used a warning.”
“I’m so sorry. I guess you have to build up a tolerance.”
“Yeah. Guess so.” He shook his head, sipped the hot-and-sour soup, kept his gaze on the woman. He wished it weren’t so dark in here so he could get a better look at her; she sounded nice and genuine and he wanted to see what that looked like when he wasn’t in hunting mode.
“The soup should help, and if you’ll give the mustard another try, that should, too.”
“So, dip it, don’t coat it?” He lifted the egg roll, dipped the end in the hot mustard. His nose had started to clear and there’d been a few seconds when the stuffiness had disappeared.
She smiled. “Right.”
Luke eyed the restaurant, noticed there was only one other customer. “Can I buy you a drink? Tea? Or maybe an egg roll with hot mustard?”
The woman laughed. “No thanks. I’ve already had my quota for the day.”
He liked talking with her even if it was about how to unstuff his nose and clear his head. “Do you want to sit down for a minute?” he asked, motioning to the chair opposite him. “I mean, if you won’t get into trouble—” he paused, added “—and if you aren’t worried about catching my cold...”
There was a second of hesitation before she slid back the chair and sat. “It’s slow and I didn’t take a break today. I’ll sit for a minute.”
“Good.” He dipped the rest of the egg roll in the hot mustard, popped it in his mouth, and let the mustard do its work. “I’m Luke.”
“Helena.”
No last names but when had it become necessary to attach a last name with the waitress who served him? Hell, there’d been too many times when a woman had delivered a lot more than food and he’d never gotten her last name. There’d even been a time or two when he hadn’t gotten her first. He pushed that last truth away, concentrated on the woman across from him. Damn, but he wished it weren’t so hot in here and his head weren’t so foggy. She fell out of focus and Luke squinted. Almond-shaped eyes, arched brows...what color were her eyes? More squinting, but he couldn’t tell.
She eyed him and when she spoke, her words could have been a lecture if the tone hadn’t been so soft. “At the risk of sounding like a mother, you know you should be home in bed, drinking fluids, and resting.”
He managed a smile, decided he liked the way she delivered a suggestion. “You do sound like a mother.” Pause. “My mother.”
“I like to think of it as common sense, a trait most men don’t have when they’re sick.”
“Ah, a woman with a quick tongue. Sorry, but my brain’s too fuzzy right now to keep up.” He coughed, tried to clear his throat, coughed again. “So, are you from here?”
She shrugged, looked away. “I’m just passing through. You?”
“Same. I’m with a building crew; we travel the country, work projects, and move on.”
“Houses?”
He nodded. “I’ve done everything from roofing to drywall and plumbing. Carpentry’s my specialty.”
“And you just keep moving? No place to call home?”
What to say to that? Maybe it was the cold or the fever that made him extra chatty, but bits of truth slipped out that he usually guarded. “I like Colorado, and I’ve done a lot of work here, but my home’s in Pennsylvania. It’s a small town called Reunion Gap. I don’t get there often but it’ll always be home.”
“Maybe you’ll settle down there someday,” she said, her voice soft, curious.
Luke shrugged. “Maybe.” There was a lot of doubt in that word, considering how he and his sister had dumped their parents’ problems on their oldest brother. Luke should have helped; he should not have pretended he was too busy to do the right thing. He’d been too self-absorbed and unwilling to accept the unpleasantness of his parents’ situation, and now he had to live with those actions. “What about you? Where do you call home?”
He didn’t miss the slight hesitation before she spoke, followed by an extra breath of air that said her next words might not be one hundred percent accurate, or if they were, she wished they weren’t.
“San Diego.”
She didn’t sound happy about it and if he weren’t feeling so miserable he might have poked around a bit for details. “I’ve been there. Nice place.”
“That’s what everybody says.”
But what about you? he wanted to ask. Do you think it’s a nice place? And if you don’t, why? Of course, he wasn’t sick enough to forget his manners, so he let the comment slide and pretended he hadn’t heard the edge in her voice that said the place didn’t feel like home. “So, how’d you end up working here?” That should be an easy question with a simple answer, except it wasn’t. Nope, the answer she gave him wasn’t an answer at all...
“I started working here because of the food.” She met his gaze, held it, finished with “What can I say? I love moo goo gai pan.”
They didn’t meet again until five days later when Luke’s head was clear, and his brain was synapsing. The woman had occupied his thoughts during waking and sleeping hours since he met her, and he wanted to see her again. No doubt the obsession had more to do with his debilitated state and less to do with reality, and he planned to find out. Actually, he planned to confirm his suspicions that the cold meds and the foggy brain were the reason for his altered reality.
But once he saw her again, he had to admit he’d been dead wrong.
The attraction was real and the heat between them had nothing to do with the coffeehouse’s fireplace. The look on Helena’s face when she spotted him said she felt it too and was just as surprised, and from the frown, just as perplexed. Maybe that’s why she’d nixed his offer for dinner and recommended coffee instead. Tame. Easy. Noncommittal. Yeah, that’s what he’d do if he were trying to get a bead on another person and make sure she didn’t get the wrong impression about accepting an invitation. She’d even bought her own coffee before he showed up. Nothing like making sure he understood this was not a date—or anything. Luke ordered a coffee, unzipped his jacket, and made his way to the leather chair next to hers.
“Hey. I could have sprung for your coffee.”
Helena eyed him. “And I could have sprung for yours if I’d known what you like.”
Ah, a woman with attitude. He laughed, sank into the chair, and set his coffee on the table between them. “Black, the strongest they’ve got.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“I’m guessing you’re a sugar, splash of cream kind of girl?”
Her laughter shot through him, made a beeline to his crotch. “Black, the strongest they’ve got.” The laughter faded. “You seem to have recovered from your cold.”
“Back to normal.” Her eyes were amber, like a bourbon neat.
“You were a lot less intimida
ting the other day with your raspy voice and your hair sticking out all over the place. Unshaven, dressed in sweat pants with a cough that threatened to contaminate the whole restaurant.”
He shrugged, tried to ignore the heat creeping up his neck. “Yeah, that was not my best moment.” Luke rubbed his jaw, slid his gaze to her. “And yet you helped me.”
“You reminded me of a stray puppy I once rescued.”
“I see.” This woman was never going to let his head swell, that was for sure. Unlike the usual ones who couldn’t wait to tell him how perfect he was, movie-star handsome and sexy as hell. Of course, it was all a setup for whatever they wanted from him. But this one seemed different and that intrigued the hell out of him.
“I didn’t mean that as an insult; it’s just that I enjoyed talking with you the other night. There was no subterfuge, no come-ons...just talking.” Her smile pulled out the dimples on either side of her cheeks. “When you weren’t coughing or sputtering from a hot-mustard jolt. It was refreshing.” She paused, said in a quiet voice, “And that’s why I accepted the invitation to coffee. Usually, I would just say thanks but no thanks.”
And why was that? He wanted to know, wondered if something had happened to turn her off men. She was probably in her late twenties, a few years younger than he was, but old enough to have gotten blown up by a relationship and a guy. “I’m glad you didn’t.” If they were sharing partial truths, he might as well offer one of his own. “My friends’ wives have been trying to match me up with the perfect woman who they swear will change my life. Not that I’ve asked them to, but they’ve decided it’s what I need.”
“How’s it worked out for you?”
Luke winced. “Not well. I’ve been uninvited to almost all my friends’ houses. Their wives say I’m a bad influence who needs taming.”
“Are they wrong?”
The question slipped between his defenses, hovered like a butterfly waiting to land. “The expectations were wrong.” He met her gaze, admitted the truth. “The women were wrong, too. Finding the right one is the key. I never believed that before, but...the premise has value, I see that now.” Helena sipped her coffee, stared at the fire as though contemplating what he’d said. There was so much he didn’t know about her and for the first time in his life, he was curious enough to want to stick around and find out more. Was that crazy? Was he crazy? He’d only just met her...
“Why are you really here, Luke?” She dragged her gaze to his, offered a sad smile. “If it’s to sleep with me, you’ve picked the wrong person.”
“I want to get to know you, Helena. When I met you the other night, I felt a connection, even with a world-class cold and foggy brain. I think you felt it, too.” He waited for her to deny it and when she didn’t he continued. “You’ve haunted me since that night and I had to see you again to make sure it wasn’t the cold meds or the fever playing games with me.” His voice dipped. “It wasn’t.”
She bit her bottom lip, blinked hard. “That is not what I want to hear.”
“But?”
“You’re right...there was a ...connection of some sort.”
Not a joy-filled acknowledgment, but he’d take it. “Okay, then.”
“Okay, then?” Her brows pinched together. “What does that mean?”
Luke stretched out his legs, crossed his booted feet at the ankles, and said, “That means we’ll get to know each other...nice and slow...you set the rules and the groundwork. I’ll follow your lead.” He reached across the small table, clasped her hand. “And we’ll see where it takes us.”
* * *
Lovers Like Us is available (for pre-order before) 5/22/18 at most retailers.
About the Author
Mary Campisi writes emotion-packed books about second chances. Whether contemporary romances, women's fiction, or Regency historicals, her books all center on belief in the beauty of that second chance. Her small town romances center around family life, friendship, and forgiveness as they explore the issues of today’s contemporary women.
Mary should have known she'd become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she's not working on her craft or following the lives of five adult children, Mary's digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own hero/husband on his Harley Ultra Limited.
If you would like to be notified when Mary has a new release, please sign up at
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To learn more about Mary and her books…
https://www.marycampisi.com
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Other Books by Mary Campisi
Contemporary Romance:
Truth in Lies Series
Book One: A Family Affair
Book Two: A Family Affair: Spring
Book Three: A Family Affair: Summer
Book Four: A Family Affair: Fall
Book Five: A Family Affair: Christmas
Book Six: A Family Affair: Winter
Book Seven: A Family Affair: The Promise
Book Eight: A Family Affair: The Secret
Book Nine: A Family Affair: The Wish
Book Ten: A Family Affair: The Gift
Book Eleven: A Family Affair: The Weddings, a novella
Book Twelve: A Family Affair: The Cabin, a novella
Book Thirteen: A Family Affair: The Return
Book Fourteen: A Family Affair: The Choice
Book Fifteen: A Family Affair: The Proposal
A Family Affair Boxed Set: Books 1-3
A Family Affair Boxed Set 2: Books 4-6
Meals From Magdalena: A Family Affair Cookbook
* * *
NEW: Park Bench series:
Book One: A Family Affair Shorts: Destiny
Book Two: A Family Affair Shorts: Regret
Book Three: A Family Affair Shorts: Love
Book Four: A Family Affair Shorts: Heartbreak
Book Five: A Family Affair Shorts: Peace
A Family Affair Shorts Boxed Set
* * *
NEW: Reunion Gap Series
Book One: Strangers Like Us
Book Two: Liars Like Us
Book Three: Lovers Like Us
Book Four: Couples Like Us
More to come…
* * *
That Second Chance Series
Book One: Pulling Home
Book Two: The Way They Were
Book Three: Simple Riches
Book Four: Paradise Found
Book Five: Not Your Everyday Housewife
Book Six: The Butterfly Garden
That Second Chance Boxed Set 1-3
That Second Chance Boxed Set 4-6
That Second Chance Complete Boxed Set 1-6
* * *
The Betrayed Trilogy
Book One: Pieces of You
Book Two: Secrets of You
Book Three: What’s Left of Her: a novella
The Betrayed Trilogy Boxed Set
* * *
The Best Intentions
Book One: The Sweetest Deal
Book Two: The Perfect Deal
Book Three: TBD
* * *
Regency Historical:
An Unlikely Husband Series
Book One - The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest
Book Two - A Taste of Seduction
Book Three - A Touch of Seduction, a novella
Book Four - A Scent of Seduction
An Unlikely Husband Boxed Set
* * *
The Model Wife Series
Book One: The Redemption of Ma
deline Munrove
* * *
Young Adult:
Pretending Normal