by Kensie King
No. No way. This couldn’t be Elise’s friend.
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Even if it had been an apology on his tongue, I didn’t care. I’d had feelings for Lucas. Crazy, uncontrollable and unexplainable feelings, sure. But they were there nevertheless.
I thought I’d been in love.
And then he’d walked out on me.
Rage shook my entire body. I’d never been more humiliated in my life than when Lucas had vanished, leaving me stranded at a cute B&B without an explanation—or a ride home.
“You asshole,” I said, pulling the lid off the coffee.
I stepped straight up to him and poured the coffee on his head. It splashed down onto his expensive suit and all over the table while he stood there, completely frozen.
Customers around him either gasped or laughed, but I didn’t hear most of them because a loud voice boomed behind me.
“Ronan,” Mr. Steiner snapped.
I spun around and saw his face, as red as a tomato, mortification filling my body.
He pointed to the door. “You’re fired. Get out.”
5
____________________
LUCAS
Oh, fuck. Even through the haze of coffee dripping over my eyes, I could see the rage, followed quickly by the shock and disappointment in Ronan’s eyes.
The entire coffee shop watched while he gathered his jacket and personal items and walked out of the coffee shop, head held high.
How the hell had I not known Elise’s roommate Roe and my ex-lover, Ronan, were the same person? People talked about it being a small world, but this was ridiculous.
I thought I’d never see Ronan again. I thought I’d be spared the regret of dumping him because I figured the issue would never come up. I’d done what was best at the time—what was best for both of us—but I realized that I could have handled it better.
And then I’d shoved it out of my mind.
Except for those few soft memories I let play out behind my eyes before I fell asleep some nights. The curve of his hip as he slept next to me. The soft brush of his lips on mine when he wanted my attention. The wonder of his hands as they explored my body.
Being with Ronan had felt like the first time. Learning together. Experimenting. Letting myself give in to the amazement of truly trusting someone with my mind and my body.
Elise strode by me with a pointed look before chasing after Roe. I couldn’t blame her. I deserved this.
Still dripping, I shook my arms to scatter the rest of the coffee. The manager hurried in my direction with paper towels and rags.
“It’s fine,” I murmured, wiping off my phone gingerly and then wrapping it in a paper towel before shoving it into my jacket pocket.
“I’m so sorry,” the manager said. “You can give me your dry-cleaning bill—“
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him with a forced smile. “It was an accident.”
Though we both knew it wasn’t. I left him standing there gaping and walked out the front door.
Elise stood on the corner, her hands on her hips. Ronan was nowhere in sight.
When she turned and spotted me, she marched straight over. “What the actual fuck?”
Jaw clenched, I straightened my jacket, feeling more coffee running down the back of my neck. This was why I’d walked out on Ronan in the first place. Because it was heading toward becoming a mess, just like this situation. Because feelings had gotten involved and back then, it had been a terrible time for feelings.
“You didn’t tell me you knew him,” Elise accused.
“You honestly think I knew who you were bringing me to meet? He told me his name was Ronan. That’s what I called him.”
She continued to glare at me, though it made sense. I still probably wouldn’t have ever put two and two together. I didn’t want to think about Ronan and the time we’d spent together, and I’d done everything I could to put him out of my mind.
But something had brought us together that first weekend. And then again today.
Soul mate.
The words whispered through my mind like a forbidden melody.
Fuck those words. They haunted me. Because Ronan had been more than just a weekend fling. More than just a quick romp in the sheets. No, we’d connected on a deeper level. Like we’d known each other all our lives.
Like we were meant to be together.
It had scared the shit out of me.
“What did you do?” Elise asked, her voice softer now despite the accusation.
“It’s…a long story.”
Not so long, really, but how could I explain it? It didn’t even make sense to me.
Elise frowned. “Did you hurt him?”
I wiped coffee from my cheek and gestured to my outfit. “It would appear so.”
She gave me a look like a mother might give a child, one that said, Don’t sass me.
“She called you an asshole. Now what are we supposed to do?” Elise blew out a breath and stared across the street for a moment. “He won’t talk to me and I told Jason I’d tell him tonight. That I’m moving out. I can’t do that. Not after what happened in there.”
The sun beat down on us, and the coffee was beginning to dry. And get sticky. I needed to get out of these clothes. Toss them in the trash. And I needed…
I couldn’t help but think back to that weekend over a year ago. It was a stupid party one of my friends was throwing. I’d invited Elise, though I hadn’t seen her in months. I didn’t even remember seeing her during the party.
But that was because I hadn’t stayed long. Not after I’d met Roe. He was fresh and full of hope for the future. Kind of like I’d been before my father died.
He’d completely enamored me and distracted me from everything I didn’t want to think about.
We’d started talking and hadn’t stopped. For four hours.
I might have taken him to bed that night, but it was different. Different from anything I’d ever experienced with another man. I respected him enough to get his number and wait until the next day to call him.
And then I’d broken. I couldn’t keep my hands off of him. He’d met me at a restaurant on the corner and I’d walked straight up to him and kissed him. Then I’d told him we should get away.
His spontaneity and easy-going attitude had blown me away. He’d said yes and we’d driven down the coast to find a cozy B&B in a small town full of tourist shops. I think we’d visited two of those shops before we lost all patience and rushed back to the room.
We’d spent the rest of the evening there, up almost the entire night with our bodies pressed together. Words, kisses, caresses. We’d shared so much that weekend.
When I’d hopped in the shower early that next morning and realized how much he’d consumed me in the span of weekend, it blew me away.
And scared me. I didn’t recognize the feeling that was weighing on me because I’d never felt it before.
But, the longer that shower went on, it felt more and more like something I’d only heard my parents talk about. Love.
A kind of love I didn’t believe I could ever have. Not with my father’s death fresh in my mind and my endeavor to bury myself in work.
I was a hot shot at my office, on the fast track to making partner—at least that had been the goal. Nothing was going to stand in my way. Not even love.
So I’d left. No note. Nothing. I’d snuck past him in the room, glanced over as he slept quietly on the bed, and nearly changed my mind. But I couldn’t. Lucas Stone didn’t fall in love.
I had one-night stands, short-term boyfriends. Flings. But I didn’t fall in love. And I certainly didn’t lose my head over a man.
I’d walked out, gotten in my car, and driven back to the city. And tried as hard as I could to put Ronan out of my head.
Until my partners started their talk about settling down. I wasn’t going to lie. Ronan’s face had flashed in my mind more than once. He was perfect, the kind of man I’d sett
le down with if I had really wanted to settle down.
He was the perfect boyfriend.
“I can fix this,” I said, without really realizing what I was saying until the words were out of my mouth.
Elise blinked up at me. “What?”
“I can fix this. With Ronan—Roe—and you. And your boyfriend. All of it.”
“He lost his job, Lucas. And he clearly hates your guts. How are you going to fix this?”
I was going to fix this by doing exactly what I’d planned on. Exactly what I’d come here for. To find a boyfriend.
I smiled at Elise, my confidence returning. “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
6
____________________
ROE
When I woke the next morning, I stared at the ceiling and tried for a full five minutes to pretend that yesterday had never happened. In my mind, I still had a job at the coffee shop, I’d never seen Lucas Stone, and my dignity was still intact.
Then I grabbed my phone, saw the notification, and the illusion shattered.
Work at 10:30.
Not anymore.
With a groan, I sat up. I couldn’t even go back to sleep now. I was too awake. Too aware that today, maybe the next and the next, was going to be full of applications and job hunts and all those things I thought I didn’t have to deal with again.
At least not for a while.
I had a hefty nest egg in my account, but that was supposed to be for the theater. I couldn’t survive off the money I was getting for teaching the handful of classes at the community center each week.
Or the odd jobs I did to bring in extra cash.
The coffee shop had been my stable job. The one I relied on to pay the bills. Everything else had been bonus money for my dream.
I pulled on a pair of sweats and shoved my hand through my unruly dark hair. I’d grown it out due to necessity. As in, haircuts cost money and I didn’t want to pay every six weeks. So now it was long on the top and I liked it. It made me look more like a struggling artist than a clean-cut barista.
Which I wasn’t anymore anyway.
My jaw clenched. I wasn’t sure what had come over me yesterday, but I was pretty sure it had to do with the fact that I’d shut that entire weekend (and its aftermath) with Lucas out of my head. Meaning, I hadn’t dealt with it.
I’d stuffed down emotions and dove back into life and work, and by the time I’d seen Lucas again—which I’d never thought I would—it exploded.
I had no idea Elise knew him. But it made sense. She was the one who’d invited me to that fateful party. She must have invited him, too.
But I’d hardly seen her that night. Just a brief conversation before I’d wandered off to get a drink. And then I’d seen him.
Lucas.
When people talked about soulmates, love at first sight—any of those clichés that I subscribed to readily—this took the cake. It was the very definition of love at first sight.
To be fair, I spent my evenings watching classic romances and swooning over the great love stories so it wasn’t hard to see the magic of love in that simple meet cute. We’d talked for hours and it had nearly killed me when he’d done nothing more than taken my hand as we strolled around the park. He hadn’t even kissed me and it was the most respectful and the most infuriating thing at the same time.
Until he’d gotten my number.
A perfect, innocent romance.
I hadn’t even expected him to text the next day, let alone call. But he had. Bright and early.
That weekend had been one of the best of my life. I thought I’d been falling in love, which was ridiculous and amazing, and like its own little fairytale.
My parents had only known each other three weeks before my dad proposed. He said he knew he wanted to marry my mom the first night he met her.
I believed in true love, believed in love at first sight, but I’d never experienced it before that weekend.
Then I’d woken up on Sunday morning and Lucas was gone. Not only had he left without a word, I was stranded.
I’d never seen Lucas again and I’d never told Elise about that weekend. I’d been a fool and Lucas had used me.
It made it hard not to be cautious with men and cautious with my feelings. I’d rather live in a Singin’ in the Rain fantasy than put my heart out in the real world and let it get stomped on again.
Glancing at my bed, I debated whether or not to get back in. Pull the covers up and fall asleep again. When I was sleeping I didn’t think about Lucas. I didn’t think about his warm, strong hands all over my body. His breath tickling my cheek and ear before it made a path down my neck, over my chest and abdomen, and then lower.
Sex with Lucas had been an explosion of heat and intimacy and…
He deserved much worse than a cup of coffee on his head. Unfortunately, at the most, it had ruined his suit.
But it had cost me my job.
With a grunt, I left my cell phone on the nightstand and walked from my small bedroom to the kitchen. Elise’s boyfriend was there, standing at the island and eating a bowl of cereal.
How romantic.
But I couldn’t begrudge Elise her happily ever after. She and Jason seemed perfect for each other. So perfect, he often stopped by early in the morning after he got off from his shift at the bar just to see her.
I didn’t mind. I was used to it. But lately they seemed to want more privacy.
He grinned and shook his head. “You look tired. Elise keep you up last night packing?”
I frowned at the box of cereal, wishing for pancakes. Or French toast. Or a chef to make me French toast. “What?”
“You know, packing? She said she was going to tell you…” He trailed off and stuffed another bite of cereal in his mouth.
I stopped my hunt for breakfast and narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
He shook his head and mumbled around a mouthful of cereal. “Nothing.”
Elise walked into the room. “He asked me to move in with him.”
A jumble of feelings hit me all at once. Happiness for her, just a flicker of jealousy that I didn’t have my own Jason to move in with, and sudden panic because I had no idea who was going to pay the other half of our rent.
I forced a smile. “That’s great.”
Elise walked straight over and put her arms around me. “No, it’s not.”
“What?” Jason asked. “It’s not great?”
“It’s not great?” I echoed.
Elise shook her head. “No. It’s not. I got you fired and—you know what? We’ll just wait.” She flashed a smile and turned to Jason. “We’ll just wait until Roe finds a new job and—”
I cut her off at the look of panic I saw on Jason’s face. “No, you won’t. If you guys want to move in together, you should. I’m happy for you.”
“But…” Elise glanced at Jason. “What about the apartment?”
She meant, what about rent. She knew I was barely making it as it was.
“I’ll figure it out,” I said with a nod. “I’m a big boy.”
Elise lowered her gaze, suddenly fascinated by a piece of lint on her robe. “But what about yesterday?”
I ordered myself to keep a straight face. To rein in everything I wanted to say about that asshole and how he’d treated me. Oh, and how I’d lost my job. “It’s fine. I had a setback.”
“I had no idea you knew him,” Elise said, holding up her hands. “I swear. I thought—”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“My humiliating fling with him?” I asked, lifting my eyebrows. If I couldn’t deal with it in a mature way, at least I could joke about it. “Or how his suit probably smells like a vanilla latte now?”
“Fling?” Jason asked, interest in his eyes. He set down his bowl of cereal.
“Jason,” Elise said, warning in her voice.
“What?” he asked. “I want to hear about it. Is this Lucas St
one? That Luke? The one who’s been with almost every man in town? He—”
“Eat your cereal.” Elise pointed to his bowl.
I rubbed my hands over my face to hide my grimace. Every man in town? Which meant, what? I was just another notch on his bedpost. No wonder he’d walked out on me. He’d gotten what he wanted and he had no reason to stay.
No reason to even be polite, apparently.
Elise walked over to me and wrapped her arm around my shoulders again. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened with you guys, but I can guess. I…” She shook her head. “I know Luke has his moments, but he’s a really good guy. He’s been through a lot.”
Part of me was interested, but the other part didn’t want to go there. I’d already moved on, so what was the point?
“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.”
“But he’s really sorry.”
I smiled at her, though it was hard. “Look, I get that you guys are friends. But, if he wants to say sorry, he’s going to have to do it himself.”
“I think that’s the plan,” she said.
“What?”
Elise took my arm. “Come on.”
“Wait—” Alarm shot through me. “He’s not here, is he?”
She smiled. “No. Of course not. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“You brought him to work yesterday,” I mumbled.
“I told you, I had no idea you guys knew each other.”
A thought occurred to me, and I stopped halfway down the hall. “Wait—were you really trying to set us up?”
She didn’t respond, only kept walking.
I hurried after her. “Elise.”
She lifted her hands. “I thought maybe you two…”
“What? No. Why would you think I’d go for someone like that?”
Someone who could and had broken my heart without any remorse.
“I told you, he really is a good guy. And…” Elise blew out a breath. “Okay, just give me a minute to say this. If you don’t ever want to talk about Luke again, I promise I’ll shut up.”
I folded my arms. “Fine. Talk.”
“Luke isn’t like he used to be. He’s ready to settle down and…” She trailed off and shrugged. “Whatever. He feels bad about whatever happened between you two and he said he wants to apologize. In person.”