by Bella Scott
He opened his eyes, studying the faint smile her lips remained in even as she slept. He wasn’t about to lose the chance to really win her back. Yes, she’d come into his bedroom, half-dressed and apparently having as much difficulty staying away from him as he’d been having staying away from her. Yes, she’d clearly wanted him, and yes, being inside her with her arms wrapped around him so tightly had been like going home for the first time in years after being stranded out in the middle of the ocean. But still, Luke wasn’t completely convinced. Maybe she wouldn’t want to stay—maybe she was just working through the feelings she still had for him and whatever she felt for Alex, and maybe she would decide that she’d made the right choice by leaving.
He pulled in a long breath and got to his feet as carefully as he could, determined not to wake her. He dressed quietly in dark pants and a button-down shirt and pocketed his phone. After one more look over his shoulder at Rose, who rolled onto her other side in her sleep, Luke started for the kitchen. He wasn’t completely sure of her intentions, but he was determined to keep things as good as possible between the two of them. He’d always been a decent cook, and when his parents had confined him to his home for a few months before law school until his image had been rehabilitated enough to suit them, he hadn’t had much else to do other than practice until that skill had been fine-tuned.
He’d almost finished the first round of pancakes—chocolate chip, as he remembered that was her favorite kind—when his phone vibrated in his pocket. The vibration lasted too long to be a text, and Luke sighed as he resigned himself to having to deal with someone other than Rose.
When he pulled out his phone and found Alex’s name lighting up the screen, he pressed “Reject Call.” He returned to his cooking, his grip on the spatula tightening each time he flipped a pancake and his jaw starting to ache from how tightly he was gritting his teeth. By the time the food was finished, he couldn’t hold himself back. He picked up his phone again to find three more missed calls and a text from Alex.
I know you don’t want to talk to me, but you really need to. I don’t know if you’ve seen her, but please, Luke. This is important.
Luke let out a long sigh. He was sure whatever Alex wanted was going to ruin his day and possibly his chances with Rose, but he had to know.
***
Next to Calvin and Lorenzo, Alex Castle was the last person in the world he wanted to see. The two had been like brothers all through school and had gone to the same college in an effort to keep just as close as they had always been. They’d played on the same hockey team in high school, and though Luke knew Alex had sometimes resented him and envied his position as captain, Alex had still supported him and threatened anyone who’d so much as looked at Luke the wrong way. Luke had always known he’d had someone in his corner no matter what came between them.
Until Rose.
Luke hadn’t realized just how strong his best friend’s feelings for her were until it had been too late. Not long after she’d left Luke, rumors had surfaced that Rose had not only moved on, but that she’d done so with Alex. Luke hadn’t thought he could hurt any worse than when he’d stood on the sidewalk in a downpour with the engagement ring in his hand, but hearing this story buzzing around campus had been enough to send him on an alcoholic binge that had led to him missing his own college graduation.
Now, he sat across from Alex at a café he passed on the street all the time but had never entered before. The smell of fresh coffee hung thick in the air, intermingled with the scent of warm pastries filled with fruit and chocolate. Alex drummed his fingertips against the side of his paper coffee cup as he stared at the table. Luke hadn’t ordered anything. He didn’t want to get too comfortable.
“Thanks for meeting me,” Alex said.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. I can’t really use my phone until you stop blowing it up.” Luke knew he was being harsh. He wished he cared, but Alex had burned up the last of his goodwill long ago.
Alex squared his shoulders and took a drink from his cup. He was several inches taller than Luke when standing, with a short brown beard and eyes a few shades darker. He looked like he was on the verge of tears but was fighting hard to hold them at bay. Luke bit back a sigh.
“In any case, thanks for coming,” said Alex.
Luke nodded stiffly. “So, what’s going on?”
“Rose left last night.” After he spoke, Alex held Luke’s gaze for a few moments too long, like he was trying to gauge whether his former friend already knew this. When Luke said nothing, Alex continued. “I… don’t entirely understand what’s going on, but she left.”
“What can I say? She does that now and then.”
It was all Luke could do not to wince at his own words. He understood why Rose had left him, however much it hurt him to think about it. But if Alex was looking for sympathy from him on that particular matter, it wasn’t going to happen.
Alex shrugged, visibly uncomfortable. “Look, Luke, I know we’ve had our share of… problems, and I’m—”
“Why did you want to meet, Alex?”
A beat of silence passed, and Alex inhaled. “I don’t pretend to know whether you still have any contact with her. But I’m worried about her, and there’s… a complication.”
Luke raised a brow. “What do you mean?”
Alex’s fingers tightened on his coffee cup. Steam was still slipping through the hole in its lid, and Luke couldn’t imagine holding onto it that firmly was comfortable.
“She’s pregnant.”
Luke froze. “What?” he asked blankly.
“I found the test in the trash can, and it was positive. I don’t know what to do. Her phone must be off—it isn’t even ringing when I call.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to you,” Luke said before he could stop himself. His mind was spinning, scrambling to make sense of what he was hearing. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t do it.
“Well, fine, but I think I have a right to be worried about her, especially if she’s carrying my—”
“I’m supposed to believe you?” Luke didn’t know when his hands had clenched into fists, but his fingernails were digging painfully into his palms. He wanted to reject all of this, to walk away and forget he’d ever come to find Alex.
“I don’t exactly have the test with me, but I do have this.” Alex slid his phone across the table to reveal a picture of a small white stick. In the stick’s viewing window were two blue lines. Luke knew what it meant, but he couldn’t bring himself to look up to meet the other man’s eyes.
“I need to go,” he muttered.
“If you know where she is, Luke, please.”
“I’m late for an appointment.”
Without another word, Luke got to his feet and started for the door, ignoring Alex’s pleading from behind him. He didn’t look back.
Chapter Four
When Rose awoke, she felt the brush of cold silk enveloping her body. The familiar sensation brought with it an immense amount of comfort, as did the sight of Luke’s bed and the pictures of his family on the walls when she opened her eyes. She could feel him everywhere, here. She even spotted one of his gold hockey trophies wedged behind a few picture frames on a shelf. Typically, though, when she’d stirred from sleep to see these things before, he had been there waiting for her, either still asleep, the steady rise and fall of his chest comforting, or watching her wake with a smile. Now, he was nowhere to be found.
Rose stretched and sat up, frowning. A note lay on the nightstand beside her, handwritten in what she recognized as Luke’s thin, slanted script.
Had to meet a witness. I made pancakes—they’re in the kitchen. Back soon.
– L
A smile crept onto Rose’s lips. Even though so long had passed since the last time she’d slept here, it felt as though it had been only yesterday. She’d been afraid that coming back would feel awkward, alien, but the house still somehow felt like home. She couldn’t exactly say the same for the room itse
lf—though she’d been too distracted by her desire for Luke and the pleasure of his touch to think much about it during the night, it was strange to be in this room. For the entirety of her relationship with Luke, his parents had slept here. None of their things remained in the room except a small wedding photo on one of the shelves in the corner, which were otherwise filled with books and photos of Luke with his friends and his sister and…
Rose climbed out of bed, pulled on her underwear and long-sleeved shirt from where they’d been discarded on the floor, and made her way over to the shelf. Near the back on the right-hand side sat a small frame with a photo of herself standing beside Luke on Navy Pier. They were both grinning brightly, and her cheeks were pink. A brand-new engagement ring gleamed on her finger, and she held the white rose he’d given her in the same hand.
The flower had been his metaphor for her. He’d told her it represented her beauty and her innocence—she’d laughed at that when he’d explained it—and more than anything else, it was wordplay. When she married him, she would be Rose LeBlanc. His last name, as she’d known enough French to understand even before he’d first made the joke a year or so after they had started dating, meant “white.”
She sighed. She couldn’t decide whether she should be thrilled that he’d kept this picture or sick with guilt. Before she could think about it too much, she turned away and started for the kitchen.
The scent of pancakes led her down the familiar hallway on the first floor, and when she arrived, she found them stacked on a plate beneath a plastic cover. Rose’s smile returned at the sight. She padded across the blue tile floor to the counter, and when she removed the cover, she found that the pancakes were still warm.
He can’t have been gone that long, then. But why didn’t he mention needing to meet a witness last night? I mean, I guess we didn’t exactly talk much about the basics… There wasn’t a lot of room for a “How’s work?” between the crying and the… fantastic sex.
At the thought of everything that had happened after she’d arrived in Luke’s room, Rose’s knees went weak, and she held onto the counter to steady herself. He remembered exactly how to touch her, how to make her need him. If she was being honest with herself, he was the only one she ever wanted to be with again. She couldn’t pretend she’d never loved Alex, but Luke was different. He’d never quite let go of her heart after he’d stolen it during their first year of college, no matter how many times she had tried to tell herself that she was over him. Being near him was enough to melt her, and even after so long apart, he knew her body so well that every touch made her crave more. She knew she shouldn’t be here, imposing on him and throwing his life back into chaos. But she couldn’t keep denying that she still loved him. That she wanted to be with him so much it hurt.
She settled onto a stool at the marble-topped breakfast bar with her food and a fork from the drawer beside the sink—Luke hadn’t rearranged after his parents had moved out, it seemed—and at the first bite of pancake, she let out a contented sigh. The warmth, the buttery flavor, and the generous amount of chocolate chips even in one bite made this feel like any other morning surrounded by the familiarity and comfort Luke’s house held for her. It was a large, three-story, brick-fronted home in Winnetka, Illinois, about twenty miles outside Chicago. Their college had been at the other end of the state, though both of their families were from the Chicago area, and he’d first brought her here on one of their school’s breaks. Though she’d initially found the house intimidating, Luke had worked hard to make it feel like home.
Rose heard the front door opening and closing down the hall, and her stomach fluttered as she shifted in her chair on reflex, straightening her posture and trying to look as put-together as she could in just her long-sleeved white shirt and her lacy underwear. She had more than enough reasons to feel like she wasn’t good enough for Luke already. She didn’t want to add looking like a disaster on her first morning back in his presence to the list. Pulling in a deep breath, she swept her long hair over her shoulder and smiled as the sound of footsteps from the front of the house drew nearer.
“I wondered when you’d be—”
Rose’s next words died in her throat as she processed that the person entering the kitchen was not Luke but a young woman in a navy dress, her white-blond hair hanging perfectly straight past her shoulders and framing her angular face, which bore a strong resemblance to Luke’s. They had the same green eyes and pointed chin. Currently, Luke’s sister’s eyes were wide, and her mauve-painted lips were set in an unspoken question.
“Lenny, I swear there’s an explanation.”
“I would hope so. Are you planning to enlighten me?”
Lenore LeBlanc had been a year behind her brother in school, but that hadn’t stopped her from becoming close with everyone in his circle: Rose and Alex and their other friends Wyatt and Rhys. Rose had considered her like another sister before things with Luke had crumbled, and seeing Lenore tied her stomach in knots. Four years hung in the air between them—four years of news they hadn’t been able to pass on to one another, four years of late-night phone calls Rose had almost made so the two of them could talk for hours about Game of Thrones and the latest bestsellers and how much they missed each other. But every time Rose had started to dial her one-time best friend’s number, she’d stopped herself. How could Lenore forgive her for leaving Luke? Wasn’t it better not to put her in a position to choose which of them to remain loyal to? By removing herself from the equation, Rose had been sure that she was protecting Lenore.
The pain in the other woman’s eyes as she folded her arms across her chest, though, told Rose otherwise.
“Um… do you want some pancakes?”
Lenore shook her head. Determined to diffuse some of the awkward tension as her cheeks burned uncomfortably, Rose patted the stool next to her. With a sigh, Lenore crossed the kitchen, her black heels clicking against the tile as she moved, and took the offered seat. Rose swallowed hard and forced the words past the lump in her throat.
“I’m sorry, Lenny,” she whispered.
“For what?” Lenore asked. “Dumping my brother or dumping me?”
“Both.” Rose closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. “I didn’t mean for either to happen.” She opened her eyes to find Lenore watching her closely, her expression guarded. “What happened with Luke was… complicated, and I didn’t want to put you in a bad position.”
“You don’t think that’s where I ended up?” Lenore frowned, tapping her French-painted nails on the countertop. “I had to try to stop him from spiraling out of control—which, by the way, was damn near impossible—and try to figure out why you suddenly wanted nothing to do with me.”
The words hit Rose like a punch to the ribs, and tears stung her eyes. “That wasn’t it,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you’d hate me.”
Lenore blinked. “What?”
“After Luke and I split up—after I left, I felt like such a terrible person. He’s your brother. It’s a pretty reasonable assumption that you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”
Lenore’s expression softened. She laid a hand on top of Rose’s and gave it a squeeze. “Good to know you’re still ridiculous,” she said.
Rose let out a tight laugh, trying hard not to cry. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you everything.”
“Yes, you should have, and I expect every detail. I’m not happy about you vanishing, and I’m not about to miss out on the explanation.” Lenore grabbed the fork Rose had lain down and took a bite of pancake.
At the sight, Rose couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. She wiped them away as quickly as they fell, hoping the other woman didn’t notice, but she knew it was probably a lost cause. Lenore had always been a good person, and Rose had missed her more than she knew how to put into words. The ease with which Lenore seemed to be willing to give her another chance was a gift Rose hadn’t anticipated. She reached out and pulled her friend close, and when Lenore hugged her back, Rose held
on tightly.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
“I’m glad you’re back,” said Lenore. “Wait, are you back? Like with my brother?”
Rose pulled away and wiped the tears clouding her vision. “It’s… kind of complicated.”
“I’d say so, considering you’re sitting in his kitchen in your underwear.”
Heat rushed to Rose’s cheeks again, but she couldn’t hold back a laugh. “I didn’t exactly plan that part.”
“So how did it happen? I thought you were with Alex.” Lenore crossed her ankles and leaned forward just a little, like she always did when she was about to hear gossip she was particularly excited about.
“I was. I ended things.”
Lenore arched a plucked brow. “Why? What happened?”
Rose inhaled. “I never stopped loving Luke. I just got overwhelmed and scared, and when—”
She froze as he came into view in the doorway, his jaw set tightly and his expression hard. She hadn’t heard the door open or close; she supposed she’d been too caught up in the conversation to notice it. The enthusiastic greeting she’d been planning for when Luke returned evaporated from her mind, and she shifted on her stool, trying to hide as much of her body as she could with her shirt.
Lenore turned in her seat to face her brother. “What crawled up your ass?” she asked, frowning, as she looked from Luke to Rose.
“Are you pregnant?” Luke demanded.
Rose stared at him, words out of her reach. She felt like she was falling, like the floor had dropped out from beneath her and the few bites of pancake she’d managed to eat were about to revolt. She felt Lenore’s gaze boring into her, but she couldn’t look away from Luke. She stared into his beautiful green eyes, which had been so warm with desire for her the night before. Now, they were cold. She had been shut out again.