Luke's #1 Rule

by Cynthia Harrison

  He slumped on the sofa, trying not to think about anything except the job. Christ, had his mother known Chloe had kids? Before he even thought about it, he’d pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and pressed the number for home.

  “Hello, son. How’s it going down there?”

  His dad. Who had no idea what his wife had been up to. They talked about the job for a while, then his dad put his mom on.

  “Honey, everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I just wanted to let you know I got here safe and sound. And the woman you wanted to set me up with? She’s gorgeous.”

  “I, um, well.” His mother wasn’t sure how to respond. The notorious matchmaker usually pretended she hadn’t tried to fix him up and that was the end of things. “I’m glad you like her, son.”

  While his mother chatted about long-distance relationships, and Ursula’s move upstate, Luke mentally willed his boiling blood down to a simmer. It wasn’t his mother’s fault.

  “She’s not for me, Mom.”

  “Really? Why’s that?” She must have heard the tone in his voice, because she whispered her words. A long moment of telephone silence ensued. He’d have to say it. He was so damn disappointed he couldn’t form the words.

  “Luke?” His mother’s voice rose a notch, but still sounded uneasy. She must not know.

  “She’s got kids, Mom. Not a kid, but two kids. Little guys.” Luke’s gut twisted saying the words. They were nice boys. Josh and Tommy. He hadn’t wanted to remember their names, but he did.

  “Honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”

  “It’s okay. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up, that’s all.” He said good-bye and let the phone fall onto the sofa. He wasn’t hungry anymore.

  Chapter Three

  Two hours of tossing and turning later, his stomach growling all the while, Luke gave in and got up. The house sounded absolutely still. He turned on the staircase light and slipped upstairs and into the kitchen, where a nightlight burned. He opened the fridge and saw his plate of meatloaf right away. He pulled it out, ripped off the plastic wrap, and took a bite without bothering to microwave the food first.

  “You might want a fork for the mashed potatoes,” Chloe said. She sat on the sofa in the almost-dark, holding a tea cup in one hand. In the pale light, he saw that she wore the blue nightgown he’d seen on her bed this morning. In his mind, the nightgown fell off. He almost dropped his plate.

  Luke swallowed the bite of meatloaf. “Yeah,” he said, opening drawers at random until he found a fork. Then he put the plate in the microwave. “Okay to nuke this plate?”

  “Yep.”

  She sounded distant and cold. He wanted to run back down to his hole and hide. He’d acted like an idiot around those little boys today. He should apologize right now. She probably thought he’d been angry or annoyed, but that wasn’t it. He’d been trying to swallow the lump of disappointment in his throat, because he’d really liked her, but Luke only had one rule for dating: No single mothers. Been there, done that, had the broken heart to prove it.

  He turned around to tell Chloe he was sorry, but she’d vanished. He sat down at the kitchen table to eat his first meal since breakfast. He didn’t taste a bite. And he felt bluer than Chloe’s nightgown.

  Then she suddenly came back and got right up in his face, wearing a blue silk robe over the nightgown. “I don’t appreciate your attitude toward my children. I’ll do my best to keep them out of your way, but if I ever see you dismiss them or ignore them again, I’ll kick your ass all the way back to Blue Lake.”

  Luke heard her but as if through a veil of gauze. Because she stood in front of the light from the stove and lit from behind like that, he saw an outline of her body.

  “I’m sorry.” He choked out the words and wrenched his eyes back to her face where they belonged. “I never act like that. You have to believe me. It’s just—”

  Chloe must have noticed his wandering eyes, because she crossed her arms over her chest. Her lovely breasts. And she clearly didn’t expect his response, because her mouth hung open just a little bit. Just enough so he could see her white, white teeth and pink tongue as it darted out and did a quick lick around her full lips.

  “Okay, then. Fine.”

  She turned and stalked back to her room. She was fine, she was foxy, but he had to stick to his rule. It would save him heartbreak. Another relationship with a single mom would kill him for sure when it ended. And relationships, for him, always ended.

  He made his weary way down the stairs. Almost all of his friends were married with kids of their own. Hell, some of them had been married twice and had stepkids. What was wrong with him? He must be defective in the love department.

  ****

  Chloe hadn’t slept well. Her anger at Luke’s treatment of her children made her sick. Sure, he’d apologized, but still. What an ass. And now here he came, up the stairs, the clunk of his heavy construction boots exciting the boys. Men. Rob. Spence. Luke. They made her heart hate.

  “Morning, Mr. Luke!” Tommy said. His smile spread over his face like butter on toast.

  Josh didn’t say anything, but his eyes were glued to Luke, who might have mumbled a general hello on his way to the coffee pot.

  “Okay.” Chloe took the empty breakfast bowls to the sink. “Wash hands, then find your backpacks. The bus will be here any minute!”

  The boys took off for the bathroom, leaving her alone with Luke. Her mother took the opportunity to sleep in since Chloe didn’t have a job to go to anymore. And she probably lay wide awake in bed, giving Luke and Chloe some time alone. Not gonna work, Mom.

  Luke found a mug, filled it, and sat down at the table. Chloe ignored him, walking into the living room and kissing the boys good-bye before they ran out to the bus stop just a few doors down.

  Then she turned back to Luke. She stood looking at him, her arms crossed.

  “Sorry,” he said, not meeting her eyes.

  “Yeah, you said that last night.” She wanted to rant further about innocent children and tender feelings and his half-assed apology. But instead she said, “I misjudged you. I thought you were a nice person. You aren’t. And that’s fine. Just get your work done and go back to where you came from as soon as possible.”

  Then she left the room. She checked the weather on her cell. Not a drop of rain in the next week’s forecast. Excellent. He’d be out of here in no time, and she could forget all about him.

  ****

  The next morning, Chloe woke to the sounds of a buzzing saw and two excited boys, half dressed for school.

  “Mommy, Luke cutted down the tree!” Tommy hopped in place as if he were on a pogo stick. “And there’s a big machine pulling out the butt!”

  “It’s a stump, not a butt, butt-head.” Josh’s words were different than his actions, because he scrutinized the activity on the other side of the window as avidly as his brother. “He’s making Lincoln Logs.” Josh elbowed his brother out of the way.

  “Mooommm! Josh hitted me!!”

  “Did not.”

  “Did too.”

  The look of quiet confidence on Josh’s face reminded Chloe of Spence, back in the days when she worshipped his calm serenity. She forgot it most of the time, but she had once been moonstruck crazy in love with Spence.

  “My elbow slipped,” Josh said.

  Tommy seemed mollified by this explanation, and Chloe gave hugs and kisses and said “Good morning.” After a final hug for Tommy, the saw started up again. Josh ran over to her bedroom window and peeked out the curtain.

  “Okay, Josh, let the curtain down. Both of you finish dressing. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  They left the room, shutting the door behind them. As she threw on a pair of yoga pants and shirt, she realized how much she had missed being home with them in the morning. She followed the voices of her mom and the boys discussing Luke in the kitchen.

  “Thanks, Mom,” Chloe said. She scanned the back kitchen window and accepted a
cup of coffee. Chloe sipped the warm brew with one hand and helped Tommy arrange his backpack with the other. Then she set down her cup and gave both boys another hug and kiss before they ran three doors down to the corner bus stop.

  “Rough night?”

  Before her mom even finished asking, the stump remover racket went up a notch. Chloe put her fingers in her ears. Her mom shrugged and slotted cereal bowls into the empty dishwasher.

  Chloe finished her coffee and laced up her running shoes.

  “How long do you think they’ll be doing that?”

  “No idea,” her mom said. “Do you see how much sun the yard gets without that tree?”

  Chloe looked. Luke, stripped down to his undershirt, was cutting logs well away from the stump remover. His hard-muscled arms threatened to tear through the cotton of his shirt. She’d never seen a man so physically fit. That must be why her tummy, like a song she heard once, filled with butterflies and moonbeams and fairy tales.

  “I’m going for a run, and then I’ll take my laptop to the coffee shop.” Chloe popped in her ear buds.

  Her mom started to say something but saw Chloe’s buds in place and simply nodded.

  ****

  After a good long run and a quick shower, Chloe dressed in jeans and a white work blouse. She needed to do laundry but hadn’t wanted to go down into Luke’s lair yesterday. Now she gathered clothes from her room and the boys’ and carried the basket downstairs. It even smelled like Luke down here, like pine and sand and Lake Huron.

  She flew back up the steps so she wouldn’t run in to him, but at the top of the stairs, she peeked out the back window and saw him working some final roots out with a shovel, the logs stacked in a neat pile in front of the garage. She stood entranced by his muscular arms for a full minute until she pried herself away from the window.

  ****

  Luke had worked fourteen hour days all week, and for once, when Ursula came out of the house with a sandwich on a plate in one hand and a soda in her other, he took a break. Ursula’s sandwiches were awesome.

  “Good time for a break?”

  “Yeah, thanks, Ursula.” He sat on the picnic table now situated in the middle of the driveway. Ursula sat across from him.

  “I waited today,” she said.

  “Hmmm?” He already had a mouth full of BLT.

  “I didn’t make your sandwich at noon like I usually do. I waited until I saw you had a good place to stop.”

  He chewed. “Thanks.” She was a good mom. Kind and thoughtful. Just like his own mother.

  “Mom, can I talk to you?” Chloe called from inside the house. Ursula went in and came back out to collect his plate when he’d finished. She didn’t seem happy. The distance Chloe and Luke had kept from each other had ruined the Mom plot.

  “We’ve had good weather so far this spring,” Ursula said.

  “Bad winter, good spring,” he said, quoting his mother, but also something he noticed in his line of work. They’d have a mild, sunny spring this year. He’d bet on it.

  “Well, that works for me,” she said as he drained his can of soda.

  “I’ve got a bit of a situation,” Ursula said. “No doubt you’ll be able to hold down the fort. I just wanted you to know what’s happening around here.”

  Luke didn’t think he needed to know their family plans, but he didn’t say anything. He might be a tiny bit curious about if Chloe had told Ursula that he’d upset her by being rude to the boys.

  “I’m going up to Blue Lake this weekend,” she said. “I’ve got some papers to sign with the bank up there, and well...” Ursula’s fake smile had vanished. “The boys will be with their dad this weekend. That’s not the problem.”

  Ursula stopped as if trying to figure out how to arrange her words. He smelled a setup. Leaving him and Chloe alone in the house.

  “Tell my mom and dad I said hi,” he said.

  “What? Oh. Will do. But this is the thing. The boys are with their dad this weekend, and Chloe won’t be around either.”

  He bet Chloe had smelled another plot and had foiled their mom’s plans.

  “Fine,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Of course you will,” Ursula said. Then she walked back into the house.

  Luke stood there, his work forgotten for the moment. Where was Chloe going? And why? Desperate to avoid him, no doubt. And a good thing. It would help him keep his number one rule.

  It took him all day, but Luke finally pulled the last root from the ground. They’d spread from the back of the yard all the way to the house. His arms were dirty and his muscles ached, but by the place of the sun in the sky, it was still midafternoon. He decided to take a shower and have something to eat. He’d completed the tearing down, time to build back up. He’d start with the new privacy fence.

  He’d cleaned up and taken another of Ursula’s sandwiches to the picnic table, more out of habit than anything. He heard car doors slam out in the street—his truck parked in the driveway out front, blocking his view. Seconds after a cream-colored Cadillac streaked into view and away, the gate opened.

  “Luke!” Tommy and Josh said at the same time.

  “Whoa. What are you guys doing here? I thought you were going to the Tiger’s game with your dad tomorrow.”

  “Bettina’s baby hurts her tummy. Daddy gave us the tickets.” Josh fanned out four tickets and then placed them back in his shirt pocket.

  Okay. Obviously some sort of emergency situation. Chloe’s ex hadn’t even stopped long enough to make sure anybody was home.

  “Where’s Grandma’s car? Where’s Mom’s car? Are you babysitting us, Luke? What are we gonna do? Should we play horse? Can you make us a snack? Or we can help you build your fence!” Tommy acted like he’d been mainlining caffeine. Kid had a boatload of energy.

  Josh hadn’t said anything since he’d stashed the Tigers’ tickets in his pocket. He kept quiet, maybe a little too quiet.

  “Snacks in the house, silly,” Luke said to Tommy. He took the boy’s backpack off his shoulders—the thing was bigger than the kid—and turned Tommy gently around and guided him to the kitchen door. To Josh he said, “Your mom will be here later. Grandma went away for the weekend.”

  He needed to call Chloe and give her the scoop. He hoped that whatever her activities she could get out of them and head home soon. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and realized he didn’t know Chloe’s number. He’d have to call Ursula first.

  “You’re babysitting?”

  Josh, at eight, was more perceptive than Tommy. He’d probably sensed Luke keeping his distance. His behavior toward the boys deeply shamed Luke.

  “Nah,” Luke said to the babysitting question. “You’re big enough to watch yourselves, right?”

  Josh nodded solemnly. He seemed a little scared. It was likely these boys, between their mom and grandma, had never been left on their own for more than a minute.

  Luke got Ursula on the phone with one hand while he opened the cookie jar and set it on the table with the other. She didn’t ask him why he needed Chloe’s cell number, and he didn’t say anything about the situation. As Chloe’s line rang, he pulled a liter of Coke out of the fridge. Tommy’s eyes lit up. Josh opened his mouth, then shut it, like he wanted to say something. Too late, Luke figured out they probably got a healthier after-school snack than sugar layered with caffeine layered with sugar.

  “I been thinking,” Luke said. “If you boys are up to it, after your power snack, maybe you could help me put up that fence.” It wasn’t true. The guy that sold him the fence had a couple of people coming out to do the fencing. He just wanted to be nice. Tommy’s sunny smile broke out over his face. He lifted his cookie in the air and did a fist pump. “Yes!”

  “I’ll pay you of course.” Luke looked at Josh, who cautiously bit into a cookie. “Or if you don’t want to help, that’s cool. You can watch television or play video games.”

  Chloe finally answered her phone, and Luke walked into the living room. He gave
her the details, omitting that Spence had dropped the kids off in the street.

  “Oh, that jerk. Again! And the game tomorrow…” Chloe sounded sad, but she pulled herself together and told him she’d be there in an hour. Then she hung up without saying good-bye.

  Josh had finished his cookie and stood staring out the window into the backyard.

  “Looks like you don’t really need our help,” he said.

  Luke went over to see what he was talking about. The fence guys were on the job.

  “I won’t lie, they do that job better than I do. But I could use some extra hands. For the deck.” Luke could put up decks in his sleep.

  “What ya payin’?”

  “Five bucks an hour. Each.” He didn’t think they’d last an hour. Holding planks in place was pretty boring work.

  “Hm. Okay.” Josh perked up with the swift infusion of sugar and caffeine into his system. “Mom usually makes us show her our homework.”

  “You can do that later.”

  “She wanted us to get it done today, because tomorrow…”

  “We’re going to the Tigers’ game with Daddy!”

  “No, we’re not.” Josh pulled four tickets from his back pocket and put them on the table. “Dad can’t go.”

  Luke beheld the tickets. There was no more avid fan, but he’d never been to an actual game. It sucked that their dad had bailed on such a cool event.

  “Mommy will take us!” Tommy said. “Right, Luke?”

  “Yep. She’ll be here in a little while.” Should he settle them at the kitchen table with their homework? He didn’t know the first thing about homework. Let’s see, an eight-year-old would be in third grade. Tommy, in first grade, couldn’t be too hard. But he really needed to get going on the deck. Daylight savings time hadn’t kicked in yet, and he had a limited number of hours to work.