I laughed and kissed him hard. “Let’s get that fire started.”
We started plenty of fires the next couple of days, both in the fireplace and in the bed. Luke seemed determined to spend the minimum amount of time with his family. He even convinced me to attempt to ski, but after falling for the fifth time, I called it quits. Just a few minutes after I returned to the house, Luke showed up. He claimed that the runs were too icy, but eventually confessed that he missed me. We both knew that when we got back to Chicago, we had to resume our real lives. Luke would go back to being my boss and our relationship would be a secret again.
On our final night in Montana, I forced Luke to stay downstairs with the rest of the family. His family might hate me, but they loved him. And I suspected that deep down, Luke loved them, too.
I backed into the far corner of the room, nursing my glass of wine and watching the Donovans behave in a semi-functional manner. Simon and Andrew were watching a football game on television. Alexis was buried in her phone like always. Luke was crouched on the floor, playing a made-up game with his niece and nephew. The game involved both monster trucks and dolls, and as I watched Luke tickle his niece, I felt a little weak in the knees. If I hadn’t already admitted it to myself that would’ve been the moment that I realized I was madly in love with Luke Donovan.
“It’s not fair, is it?” Lola snuck up on me, waving a full bottle of wine. I held out my glass for a refill.
“What’s not fair?”
“Him.” She nodded at Luke. “He’s smart. Funny. Runs a ridiculously successful company. And even though he’s my little brother, I have to admit he’s decent looking. On top of all that, he’s probably the best guy I know.”
I took down half of my wine glass. “Tell me about it.”
Lola smiled. “You’re in love.”
I glared at her, but her smile was contagious. “I didn’t stand a chance against the charming Luke Donovan.”
Lola looked at Luke, then at her mother. Virginia had been sitting quietly in a chair near the window, watching her grandchildren. At least, that’s what I had thought. But now that I looked closer, I saw that she was actually watching Luke.
“I know Virginia has been terrible to you, and there’s no excuse for that. But she’s more damaged than anyone knows. I’m sure Luke told you about our father? He was an abusive prick and his death was probably the best thing that ever happened to our family. But Virginia wasn’t always so unbearable.” Lola took a swig out of the wine bottle. “What happened with Colin, it nearly destroyed our family. We were all a mess, but our mother lost her son. Her little boy.”
She looked at me earnestly. “To make it so much worse, she still had Luke, this exact duplicate of the boy she lost. A painful reminder every day of what had been taken from her. For years afterward she would mess up and call him Colin. It would just slip out of her mouth. It traumatized Luke, but it nearly killed Virginia.”
“That’s horrible. I hadn’t thought about it that way.” Poor Luke. For the last 25 years he had been living with the shadow of his dead brother hanging over him. I even began to feel sorry for Virginia.
“I catch her watching him,” Lola said. “Even now, it’s like she can still see Colin sitting there next to Luke.”
Luke sensed that he had an audience and he glanced up, a perfect smile on his face. I smiled back, wishing we were alone so that I could take him in my arms and work to erase those years of pain. I suddenly felt that I was being watched as well, and when I looked at Virginia, she wasn’t glaring at me. She caught my eye and very slightly nodded her head. For Virginia, it was the equivalent of a giant bear hug.
I crouched next to Luke and he ran a tender hand over my cheek. “What’s with the grin?” he said.
“I think your mother is warming up to me.” He raised an eyebrow at that. “Plus, you look adorable holding that doll.”
Luke actually blushed. “I’m getting in touch with my feminine side.”
“Uncle Luke, stop talking and put this dress on my doll.” Luke’s niece, Maddy, thrust a pink dress into her uncle’s handle. Luke frowned and stared blankly.
“What’s wrong? Were you hoping for something strapless instead?” I couldn’t help but tease him.
Luke lowered his voice and leaned close. “I’m really only good at the undressing part,” he said with a wink. “This isn’t exactly playing to my strengths.”
“Men.” I shook my head at his niece and took both the doll and the dress. “They are so helpless sometimes.”
Maddy giggled and rolled her eyes at him. “You’re helpless, Uncle Luke,” she agreed.
After the kids had gone to bed and the adults were done playing nice, Luke cornered me in the kitchen and made me pay for my teasing. “You turned Maddy against me,” he said with exaggerated seriousness. “That really hurt.”
“I had no idea you were so sensitive.” I feigned remorse. “I promise to never tease you for playing with dolls again.”
“I think you are missing the point here,” he said.
“Just be glad our relationship is a secret at work. Otherwise I would totally have taken a picture and sent it to everyone at Maverick.” I smiled sweetly.
“Oh, is that how we’re going to play this?” Luke’s smile was pure evil. “I’m pretty sure I could have taken some incriminating photos of you as well.”
“Point taken.” I held out my hand. “Truce?”
Luke looked at my hand and shook his head. “No handshake. We’ll seal this deal in a much more enjoyable way.”
With that, he grabbed me and tossed me over his shoulder. After climbing two flights of stairs, Luke was slightly out of breath. Once my feet were back on the ground, I felt brave enough to resume my teasing.
“Maybe you should sit down for a bit. Take a break,” I suggested, only half-joking.
“You think I can’t handle this?” Luke asked defensively.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “If you think you’re up for it, prove it to me.”
Luke’s eyes sparkled and he smirked. “Challenge accepted, Kasey Maxwell.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Luke’s family left the following morning and we had a few blissful hours to ourselves before we had to leave for the airport to catch our flight. It was a Monday, and I should’ve been at work, but Luke assured me that Maverick could survive without me for one more day. It didn’t hurt that the boss was playing hooky with me.
We made it to the airport in good time and by the time we boarded the plane, I was thinking about how good it would be to go home. I also discovered why Luke always flew business class.
“I’m not a snob,” he insisted as I teased him about our upgrade. He waited for me to take the window seat. “I just don’t like flying.”
“But you fly all the time.” I shook my head in awe. His newly exposed vulnerability only made him even more endearing.
“That doesn’t mean I like it.” He glanced around nervously. “There are less people in business class and therefore less people to see me have a panic attack.”
“You’re joking, right?” But one look at his face said that he was dead serious. “I can’t believe you’re a nervous flier. This is so fascinating.”
“Well, I’m glad I could entertain you.” Luke’s face grew very somber and he actually looked slightly sick.
As much as I wanted to continue to tease him, his obvious discomfort tugged at my heart. I took his hand and kissed his cheek. “I guess I have to add this to the list.”
“What list?”
“The list of surprising and adorable facts about Luke Donovan. I think it goes above your phobia of the color yellow and below your inability to dress a Barbie doll.” This time I kissed his lips and then rested my head on his shoulder.
“I don’t have a phobia of the color yellow. I just don’t like it.” Luke leaned his head against mine and sighed contentedly. “I think I wouldn’t mind flying if it could always be like this.”
He chan
ged his mind pretty quickly once the plane started its takeoff. I felt his breath catch in his throat as the wheels left the tarmac. It wasn’t until we were in the clouds that he began to breathe more regularly. He finally settled in a little once we reached our cruising altitude and started working furiously on his laptop. I was completely exhausted and dozed next to him for most of the flight. Occasionally, I would open my eyes and catch him gazing at me. He would smile and rub my leg and I would drift back to sleep.
“We made it,” I said, stretching sleepily as the plane touched down. “Did you have a good flight?”
“Funny.” Luke smoothed down my sleep-hair. “I would ask you the same thing but based on how loud you were snoring, I’d say it was a successful flight for you.”
“I don’t snore.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Mr. Donovan,” the flight attendant interrupted us. “I hope you had a nice flight.”
“It was fine, Courtney.” Luke took the coats that she handed him. “Thanks.”
She smiled at him and then shot me an annoyed look before walking away. I disliked her immediately, with her perfect hair and fake smile. “Courtney? First-name basis with the stewardess?”
“Just because she’s a stewardess, I shouldn’t know her name?” Luke shook his head. He stood and waited for me to step into the aisle. “That’s pretty snobby of you, Kasey.”
I laughed. “Please. You aren’t that oblivious.”
He started at me blankly.
“She totally wanted to screw you. Probably against the wall in the tiny airplane bathroom.” I headed down the aisle, stopping when the man in front of me bent to tie his shoe. For the record, I did realize that I was being a little crazy. But Luke said he liked a little crazy.
Luke scoffed. “Don’t be crude, Kasey. Jealousy isn’t an attractive trait.”
“So you’re saying I’m not attractive?” I had to fight to keep back a smile. The traffic jam had been cleared and I continued to move away from Luke. He caught up with me at the gate.
“What just happened?” Luke pulled me to the side and ran a frazzled hand through his hair. “Are you seriously mad at me right now?”
I couldn’t keep the smile away any more. “Not even a little bit. But I love messing with you.”
“Christ, Kasey. That wasn’t funny.” Luke’s eyes flashed and I no longer found what I had done to be at all funny.
“I’m sorry, Luke. I was just screwing around. You were so tense after the flight.” I stepped closer to him and looked up at him innocently. “I should be punished for this.”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Luke tried to step away, but I already had my arms around him. “This isn’t going to work.”
“It isn’t?” I pressed my body against him. “It sure feels like it is working.”
“Fine, you win.” Luke smiled reluctantly. “Let’s go home.”
“Yes,” I agreed, loving the sound of that word when it came from his lips. “Home.”
* * *
When Luke dropped me off at my place the next morning, everything between us was perfect. He carried my bag to my door and we kissed goodbye for ten minutes. Even though we would see each other at work in less than an hour, neither of us wanted to let go. But we did. I didn’t know it then, but that was the end of perfect for us.
Luke had reluctantly agreed for us to take on Daniel Johnson and his recent embezzlement fiasco. Back at work, I spent hours digging through his financial records, searching for some way to explain his blatant crime. By the end of the day, I was exactly where I had started and it was clear that Mr. Johnson was headed to jail.
“Bad news,” I told Luke at the end of the day. He had called me into his office to discuss the next steps. “He’s screwed.”
“I figured as much.” Luke was kicked back in his chair with his feet on his desk, tossing a stress ball into the air. “What options do we have?”
“Legally or from a P.R. standpoint?”
“Both.”
“Legally, Johnson is going to jail. As a lawyer, I suggest he accept the plea bargain. He should liquidate his assets and pay back whatever he can. But Johnson doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who admits he was wrong. Short of an apology, the best thing he can do is keep his mouth shut. We can circulate pictures of his family, and it would probably be good if the news cameras could see him with his wife. Maybe even the grandkids.”
“His family hates him.” Luke’s feet landed on the ground with a thud and he tossed the stress ball onto his desk. He started pacing the length of the room. I could tell that he was deep in thought and he stopped in front of me abruptly. “We need the apology. He needs to take the offer on the table.”
“I agree.” I glanced at his desk. “Speaking of ‘on the table’…”
Luke glared at me. “Not now, Kasey.”
My face grew hot at his rebuke. He had never spoken to me like that and I wasn’t sure how to respond. Normally, I would have given attitude right back to him, but at that moment I wasn’t sure if he was Luke my boyfriend or Donovan my boss.
“I’m going to meet with Daniel again tomorrow. You should probably be in that meeting.”
“Fine.” I waited for him to say something else about the meeting, or perhaps apologize for snapping at me, but he kept his lips pressed into a thin, harsh line. “If that’s all, I’ll be going.”
Luke nodded. “Tomorrow is likely to be intense. You should go home.”
“Which home?” I wasn’t trying to challenge him, but I honestly didn’t know if he was talking about his place or mine.
“Your home,” he said. “I’m going to be working late tonight.”
“Fine. Good night, Luke.” I was hoping he would at least give me a kiss, but I had too much pride to wait around for him to make a move.
He stopped me with my hand on the door. “Kasey.”
I knew after one look at his face that what had happened between us in Montana was over. He couldn’t look me in the eye.
“What, Luke?” It was hard for me to speak around the knot that was forming in my throat.
“Good night.” He turned away from me and I kept my head high as I left the office.
I was in bed by nine o’clock that night- alone. Yet I managed to not get a single minute of sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about Luke and how much he had changed in just one day. The playful, considerate, damaged Luke from Montana had been replaced by a cold, abrasive imposter. Or maybe Montana-Luke was the imposter. Either way, whatever fantasy I may have had about a happily-ever-after with him had been erased.
Our morning meeting with Daniel Johnson was brutal. He screamed at us for two hours when we suggested he take the plea deal. Luke tried to reason with him, but that only made it worse.
“I don’t understand why I’m paying you money to give me this ridiculous advice. It’s clear to me that you haven’t spent any time at all figuring out a solution to this problem.”
“Listen, Daniel.” I had no patience left to put up with his bitching. Luke had cut off my previous attempts to interject, but I wasn’t going to let that happen again. Johnson needed to hear the truth. “You are a wretched human being. You took money from your clients. Money that people were depending on for college funds, dream houses and retirements. You deserve to go to prison.”
“Kasey,” Luke barked my name, cautioning me that I had crossed the line. I didn’t care.
“In fact, that’s exactly where you are headed. You are guilty, and nothing we do is going to change that.” I shoved a stack of papers at him. “Here’s the proof. The best thing you can do right now is take the deal. Plead guilty and make a public apology. If you’re lucky, you’ll spend the next ten years in prison and get out in time to see your grandkids graduate from high school. But if you continue to be a stubborn ass, you’re going to spend the next 25 years in prison, and you’ll miss everything.”
Johnson’s eyes burned in anger, but I could not have cared less. I pushed back my chair and stood up.
“Either way, we’ll cash your check and move on. You’re the only one that has something to lose, and right now, you have the ability to minimize the damage.”
I waited for Johnson to scream at me, or for Luke to order me out of the room. Neither of those things happened.
“Donovan, I don’t know where you found this woman, but I’ve never been spoken to in such a direct, rude manner.” Johnson continued to stare at me, but I no longer got the impression that he was picturing me dead.
“She’s not wrong,” Luke said quietly.
“I know.” Johnson turned to him. “I’ll take the deal.”
I considered the meeting to be a success. We had convinced Johnson to do the right thing, and his victims would get some closure. Luke was less impressed when he ordered me into his office.
“Don’t ever do that again.” He slammed the office door shut behind us.
“I did what you were too scared to do.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him straight in the eye.
Luke returned my stare and eventually sighed. “Maybe so, but I’m the boss.”
“I know. Trust me, I know.” I tried to step past him to leave, but he grabbed my arm. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was trying to figure out the best way to deliver bad news. “What’s wrong, Luke? You are clearly mad at me for some reason, and I doubt it has anything to do with Daniel Johnson.”
“I’m not mad at you,” he said, but he couldn’t meet my eyes.
“You’re ending this, aren’t you?” I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice.
Luke finally looked at me, and I could see that he was hurting, too. “It’s for the best, Kasey.”
I jerked my arm away and laughed despite the tears that filled my eyes. “You’re a coward. Just admit that you have been playing me this whole time. Admit you are like all the others, that you’re exactly the guy I thought you were the night we met. Because I know you’re not the man you pretended to be in Montana. That man was just a big lie.”
“Kasey, please, try to understand.” Luke reached for me again, but I backed away. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’m trying to save you from what’s going to happen.”
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