by Taylor Hart
She held her ankle and already knew it was the same ankle she twisted every couple of years. She cursed.
Luke was back, hovering over her, breathing heavy and looking at the ankle. He shook his head. “Shoot.”
She pointed up at him. “This is your fault, Freestone,” she accused. “If you hadn’t been making the zombie noises, I wouldn’t have looked back.”
“Oh, so I made you look back?” he challenged, but he took her ankle and tugged it out of her hands. Gently, he pulled back her sock.
“You know I hate horror stuff. I always have, and when you act like an idiot …” It was pointless, because it couldn’t change the fact that her ankle was swelling.
Luke was tapping the ankle, squeezing it. “Stupid seventh grade basketball. Who was that crazy coach you had?”
“Mr. Wall.” It was funny to her that he knew exactly when the injury had started.
She opened her eyes and found Luke shaking his head, then leaning back on his haunches. “If he wouldn’t have had you guys practice in that stupid gym with carpet on the floors.”
“Right?” she agreed, feeling her anger from seventh grade. She moved to sit up.
“No, I’ll get ya.” Before she could even protest, he’d picked her up.
“Luke.” She wanted to argue and demand that he put her down, but she knew the treatment now: ice, ice, ice, and keeping off it.
Luckily, they weren’t far from the car. It didn’t matter, though, because he didn’t seem fazed carrying her. He flashed her a grin. “Sadie Hawkins dance when you sprained your ankle and I ended up carrying you out of the gym.”
She could barely get a breath, he was so close. Too close. The feel of him next to her was putting her more off balance than the actual fall had. “I was just thinking about that dance.”
“Were you?” He seemed amused.
She felt caught, like somehow he’d been able to read her mind. “What?”
He ran faster, as if he wasn’t carrying her at all. “Let’s get you down before the swelling gets too bad.” He snorted. “I think you’re going to stick your ankle in the ice bucket.”
Thoughts of shoving her ankle in an ice bucket for five minutes, then out for five minutes, distressed her. “No, I’m not doing it.”
“I know, Sav, but it looks like you might need to.”
Sav. It’d been a long time since anyone called her that. So casually.
“What?” He grinned down at her. “Do you hate it that much?”
She focused on her ankle, not the fact he’d used his old nickname for her. “Yes, I hate ice buckets.”
They got to the car and he unlocked it and pulled open the door, then slid her inside. Running around, he jumped in and started back down the dirt road they’d come up.
“How did you know I was thinking about Sadie Hawkins?” For some reason, this all made her nervous.
Without warning, he pulled the car to the side of the road and opened the glove box, pulling out a bottle of pills. “You should probably take some ibuprofen.” He lifted a water from his cup holder for her.
She studied him. Yes, he was the same Luke, but now he carried ibuprofen in his car?
“What?”
Taking the water, she smiled. “You’re just … responsible now.”
“Hey, I think you might be giving me the weirdo look.”
“Am not.” She smacked his hand, then opened the water and took the pills.
He laughed and went back to driving.
She didn’t speak for a few moments, just staring out the window, wondering at how things felt so the same and yet so different between them now.
She sighed. “Well, Luke Freestone, we’re going to teach how not to be a weirdo.”
“You’re going to give me lessons, then?”
“Yeah.” She laughed a little. “Yeah, I like that. I’ll give you lessons.”
He pulled up to her house and gingerly ran around the car, not even letting her entertain the idea of walking into the house. “Sounds good, I’ll take them.”
To say that her mother wasn’t happy to see Luke would be like saying she was disappointed her Postum was gone. No—she was mortified. “What. Happened?” She glared at Luke.
Luke pushed past her, knowing exactly where to take her.
“How?” Her mother was still in a bathrobe, curlers in her hair. “What is going on?” She fluttered next to them.
“What’s happened?” her father barked as he came out of their bedroom.
“Mr. Loveless.” Luke nodded, took her straight to her room, and set her on the bed.
“I want to know what happened,” her mother insisted.
“We went for a run and I turned that ankle,” Savannah said.
Luke turned to her mother. “The one she always turns. Do you want me to grab some ice for her?”
Her mother’s nostrils flared. “You, Luke Freestone, can get out of my house.”
Even though Savannah knew her mother was partially still defending her, she sighed. “Mom, stop.”
Luke put up his hand in resignation. “No, Savannah, it’s fine. It’s her house and if she doesn’t want the boy who practically grew up here in her house, that’s fine.”
Savannah’s mother frowned. “Don’t start with me, young man.”
He nodded at her, then turned back to Savannah. “I’ll call you later to talk business.” He turned and left her room. She heard the screen door fall into place as he left the house.
Both her parents stood over her, looking completely bewildered. “What?”
Savannah resigned herself to the fact she had to tell them the truth. “Luke hired me to find him a wife and to give him lessons on how not to be a weirdo.” She couldn’t help but smile.
15
Luke stared at Savannah’s house, admittedly feeling … at least like a stalker. He had parked down at his old house and walked over. It was almost ten at night and he hadn’t been able to get a hold of Savannah all day.
At around noon, after going to the office and putting in a couple of hours at work, he’d wanted to bring her lunch, but she never texted back.
So he’d done the non-weirdo thing and worked some more, driving to the various construction projects under way and checking in with the foremen. Damon would be gone another week and he wanted to stay up on everything.
It honestly felt marvelous to him that he could go project to project and do check-ins and know everything was pretty much handled. Even though he was still waiting on Nathan Pennington to get back to town so they could go over all the final details of the resort he wanted to develop, everything was on track. Having good people in place also meant he had a lot of time on his hands.
After checking on the projects, he wondered if he could bring Savannah dinner, so he’d broken down and tried to call her. No answer. Of course, she would be resting. What if something had gone wrong? Duh, her parents were there. She didn’t need him. Also, she had Beth.
So he did what he always did when he got really bored: he chased down Nick.
“What’s up, bro?” asked Nick.
Luke could hear the television in the background. “I’m coming over with dinner.”
“Oh, sure, but don’t come to my house. Come to Pineapple’s.”
Luke swerved to head to Pineapple’s. “Okay.”
Five minutes later he found Nick, as usual, in the center of a mixed group of firefighters and cops, chatting away, watching some baseball games. Nick waved him over, and Luke sat down and ordered a sandwich, salad, and lemon water. “So how’s the billionaire?”
“Not a billionaire yet,” Luke corrected.
Nick smiled and leaned back into a makeshift type of recliner. “Still no deal?”
“Nope.” It surprised Luke how much he hadn’t thought about the deal. Normally, he would be obsessing over it. Luke cocked an eyebrow. “They brought in this chair for you?”
Nick grinned. “My guys hauled it over so I could hang with them while I’m recupe
rating.” He pointed to the donut pillow beneath his butt. “I’m just hoping I can one day not have the stupid pillow.”
Luke grinned and sipped the water the server handed him. He liked that his brother could go through something pretty humiliating for a cop and keep smiling. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty good. What can I say? I’m dying to get back out there, but the doctor says another week, at least.” Nick winked at him. “Maybe my big bro could go use his magic negotiation skills on the doc to get him to release me quicker.”
Luke snorted. “No way. You won’t even let me sue the guy who did this.”
“Ugh. What’s the use for you, then? And no, no suing.” He shook his finger at him.
Luke’s food showed up and he and Nick fell into a companionable quiet, watching the various games.
Nick snorted. “So how goes the first day of wife hunting?”
Luke wanted to talk about it. Of course he did; that’s part of the reason he’d sought Nick out. He shrugged. “She got hurt today.”
“What?” Nick gave him a sharp look.
“Oh, it’s not, it—we went for a run this morning and she sprained her ankle.”
Nick grunted, but looked confused. “Why’d you go running with her?”
Luke sighed, hating to admit it. “I picked her up this morning and we went for a run.”
Nick cleared his throat, his detective face in place. “Hold up, you just barely hired her, then you showed up at her house at six-thirty this morning, didn’t you? Pushing like you always do.”
“How do you know she didn’t want me to?” Luke put on his attorney voice.
“Did she?” Nick asked, already knowing the answer. He grinned.
Luke didn’t answer for a minute, then sighed. “No.”
Nick hit the table and shook his head. “I told you, don’t push her. Don’t. But you couldn’t stop yourself, could you?”
Luke closed his eyes for a second. “No, I couldn’t stop myself. And now all I want to do is go check on her. And she won’t answer the phone.”
Nick put his hand roughly on Luke’s shoulder. “Just leave her alone for a bit, okay?”
So now, here he was, staring up at her house and wondering at his sanity. It was pointless to just stand there. His plan was to get close to her, be her friend, and let it happen naturally, as Nick wanted him to. Still, if he didn’t do anything, then how could it happen naturally?
So he did what he’d done when they were younger and she was grounded. He walked around the back of the house, cutting close to the side of the house her room was on, and grabbed on to the tree closest to the deck by her room.
Feeling ridiculous, he hoisted himself up the tree, climbing up to the branch that would drop him in the exact spot he needed.
Her light was still on, even though her curtains were pulled. He sprawled himself closer to the deck, then carefully positioned himself for the drop, hoping he wouldn’t sprain his ankle.
16
Savannah heard the thud crash down outside the double doors that opened onto the deck. For a second she tensed, worried someone was breaking in. Carefully, she pushed her laptop off of her lap. She’d been glued to it all day, using her software to merge files from all the major dating sites of the profiles she’d put together for Luke. It had been a strange task for her, because it was Luke and she knew him way better than she knew most of her clients.
She shoved herself off of the bed, not putting pressure on her ankle, and hesitated.
There was a knock at her door. “Sav, let me in.”
Dumbfounded, she nearly fell over. It was Luke. Once again, all the memories from all the years past she’d snuck him or Sean into her room took her back with the force of the past. She limped to the window and unlocked and opened it.
There he stood, wearing all black. Black sweats, black hoodie. “What are you doing?” Simultaneously, it made her want to laugh and it made her want to shout at him. “Go away!” she whispered forcefully, not wanting to draw attention to her parents. Not like her parents would be pulled from the news program they were watching, but still.
He leaned in. “Can I come in?”
Hesitating, her heart began beating quickly. “No. Go. I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Are you okay? I feel so bad.”
Sighing, she found herself backing up. “Fine, come in, be quiet.”
Gracefully, not unlike how he’d moved in whatever sport she’d watched him play, he easily held to the top ledge of the window and pushed in feet first, landing on his feet. He grinned.
She just shook her head. “You are twenty-eight years old, sneaking into my parents’ house. Kinda pathetic?”
Looking coy, he pulled the hoodie off his head. “Hey, you snuck out last night.”
“We’re not talking about me. I’m not looking for a wife,” she said snarkily.
He nodded, a grave expression clouding his face. “Right. So lesson number one—don’t sneak around people’s houses?”
Annoyed at his charm, she scowled at him. “Actually, no. Lesson one was don’t give women zombie looks. Lesson two is don’t break into people’s houses.” She sighed. “How come I feel like this should be something on a pre-teen blog?”
His grin widened and she hated the fact there was still this pre-teen stomach fluttery thing that happened to her sometimes when he was around. “Your mom still hates me.” He pointed to the next room. “I seriously felt twelve today.”
“True. She was kinda scary today when she kicked you out.” She put her hand on her hip. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged, then looked at his hands. “I wish she didn’t hate me so much.”
Savannah’s heart rate picked up and she turned away from him. No, she would not tell him her mother knew he’d gotten her pregnant. No.
She would focus on getting him a wife. To make up for the past. To make up for the lies. To help both of them move on!
“I know she should hate me for breaking your heart that summer. But she seems to have this, like, curse she wants to put on me or something. I see it in her eyes around town.”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, hating herself for lying even more.
Luke surveyed her, like he was trying to pull thoughts out of her brain. “What are you thinking?”
She’d been right. She pointed at him. “Ah-hah, you were trying to read my mind.”
He let out a sigh. “Well, we used to be able to do that, remember?”
Of course, she thought of playing Taboo with him as a partner and how everyone, especially Sean, accused them of cheating. Part of the reason they laughed about it so hard was that they never cheated. It was just there.
“Taboo,” he said quietly.
Incredulous, nervous jitters assaulted her. “Just don’t, okay? Just … this isn’t a trip down memory lane anymore. I … I don’t know if I can do this.” She turned away and limped back to the bed.
“What? Wait. Fine,” he agreed quickly. “No past talk.”
Pausing, she let out a breath. “We’re just friends.”
“I … I tried to text and call. I was worried today,” he continued, ignoring the fact she wasn’t sure she wanted to do this.
For a few moments she didn’t say anything.
“Sav …”
“And don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Call me Sav. That’s not who I am now.” In her brain, she knew that it was stupid, but it bugged her the way the nickname made her feel different from who she was now. “And you act like we’re teenagers again. But we’re not, Luke. It’s not like it was before, all Sadie Hawkins and swinging in the yard and … the game Taboo.”
“Okay.” He spread his hands. “Then what should I call you?”
Her heart beat rapidly, and emotions rushed to the surface. It felt like she’d actually been normal for a short period when she’d come home, before she’d run into Luke. “How about a widow?” she asked, feeling vulnerable but want
ing to remind him. “How about a military wife? How about a nomad who has moved every two years? Or … how about infertile?” She looked away, wanting to cry but demanding she wouldn’t cry. She didn’t know why she was doing this. She sat halfway on the bed, not wanting to expend the energy to hoist herself up all the way and keep her ankle up. “Luke, I’m not her—the girl you fell in love with all those years ago. Okay? And all day I just kept thinking how we’re reliving the past every second, and I don’t want to do that. I can’t.” She looked away.
He held his hands up. “Let me help you get comfortable.”
“No.” Internally, she winced at how she sounded like a little girl.
“Savannah.” He gave her a look. “I didn’t call you Sav …” he said, almost proudly. “C’mon, let me help you because, as you pointed out, I did this to you.”
Annoyed that he could do that—break the tension, make her smile—she resigned. “Fine.”
Picking her up, he moved her closer to the center of the bed, placing her down easily, then helping her organize the pillows to hold her foot up.
“I did the stupid ice bucket,” she told him, trying not to notice how good he smelled.
A slow smile played at his lips, then turned to a frown as he looked at her. “I’m sorry.” Gently, he put a hand on her head.
She batted him away. “And stop that.”
“What?”
“I don’t know … acting like a fluttery woman.”
He sputtered out a laugh. “Honestly, no one has ever called me that before.”
This made her smile, and she felt some of her nervous energy drain away.
He shrugged, then frowned. “I’m sorry.”
Glaring at him, she didn’t like how her emotions were so out of control.
Neither of them spoke for several seconds. Finally, she sighed. “We’re just friends, Luke, right? You want a wife. You want me to find you a wife. That’s it. This…left over residue between us is just…a non issue.”
Looking confused for a second, he flashed a grin. “Hey, I only want the best matchmaker from Texas.” He said the last word with a southern accent.