Luca: A Chicago Blaze Romance

by Rothert, Brenda

  I park in the garage and barely get my feet on the ground when the kids mob me.

  “Did you bring me a sculpture?” Emerson asks excitedly.

  “A sculpture?” I ask. “No, sorry, peanut.”

  “Did you bring us pasta?” Jack asks.

  “Uh, yeah…” I grin and laugh. “I’ve got some day-old spaghetti in my pocket, you want some?”

  “Eww.” He wrinkles his entire face. “Really?”

  “No, man.”

  I hug them all individually. It’s so good to be back home.

  “We talked about things that are Italian,” Abby says from a few feet away. “They were wondering if you might bring back some of those things with you.”

  “Ah, I wish.”

  My gaze goes to hers, and I search for a sign of her feelings. She doesn’t have bags under her eyes and her arms aren’t crossed the way she does when she’s feeling guarded. Abby looks as relaxed as she did during our weekend in New York.

  When I cover the steps separating us and pull her into my arms, she returns the hug, pressing her cheek to my chest.

  “Thank you,” I say softly.

  “It was good. We had fun.”

  Cora whispers not-so-subtly to Jack, “She’s Uncle Luca’s girlfriend.”

  Abby looks up at me and smiles as I give her an inquiring look.

  “She asked me and…I didn’t know what to say,” she explains.

  “I like your answer.” I wink at her and her cheeks turn a hint of pink.

  “Uncle Luca, come see!” Emerson grabs my hand and tugs, trying to pull me toward the sidewalk.

  She’s beaming as she leads me to the chalk drawing they were all working on. It says, “Welcome home Uncle Luca” in rainbow letters surrounded by stars, rainbows, and I think, hockey sticks.

  “I love it, guys. Thanks.”

  Jack hugs me again, looking up at me as he says, “Don’t forget my baseball uniform needs to be washed for my game tomorrow.”

  “Got it.”

  “Can I go play with Adam?”

  “Yeah, but you need to come ask me if you want to go anywhere else.”

  He races off and the girls come inside with me and Abby. I want to talk to Abby alone, so I ask the girls to sort out the dirty clothes and toiletries in my suitcase and put stuff where it needs to go.

  Alone in the kitchen with Abby, I give her a solemn look. “Did you really do okay?”

  She nods. “I really did. I’m kind of surprised. Taking care of the kids kept me grounded.”

  I exhale with relief. “I’m so glad. I was worried about you.”

  Walking over to hug me, she says, “Jack’s uniform is already washed. It’s hanging in the laundry room.”

  “You’re an angel. Seriously. This meant the world to me.” I kiss her forehead.

  “I was glad to help, Luca.” She looks up at me. “So your dad’s doing better?”

  “Yeah, much better. He’s ready to get sprung but they wanted to keep him one more day.”

  “Good.”

  I nuzzle her neck, her closeness and her sweet, familiar smell making me feel frisky.

  “Hey, I brought you something from Italy,” I whisper in her ear.

  “Oh, really?” She laughs as my whiskers tickle her tender skin.

  “Yeah, it’s in my pants.”

  She hums her amusement. “You may have to wait to give me that package, Luca.”

  I run my hands down her back to cup her ass. “I don’t know if I can.”

  The sound of little footsteps pounding on the front staircase makes us each take a step back.

  “All your stuff is put away, Uncle Luca,” Emerson says. “What do you want to do now?”

  Honestly, I want to go to bed. I’m fucking jet lagged and horny, and there’s no help for the latter. At least not until tonight. But the kids won’t be ready for bed for a few hours, so I have to rally.

  “You guys want to go out for dinner?”

  “Can we go to the place with the big pretzels?” Cora looks at Abby expectantly.

  “We went to the pub downtown with the big patio the other night,” Abby explains to me. “They have the most amazing soft pretzels and cheese dip.”

  “Sounds good to me. We can pick Jack up on the way.”

  “You’re coming, too, right Abby?” Emerson goes over to her and takes her hand.

  Abby gives her a tender look. “I’d love to, but I need to get back to New York.”

  “No!” Me, Emerson and Cora all protest at the same time and Abby smiles.

  “My board is meeting in the morning and I really need to be there. We’re acquiring some property in Texas and I’m really out of the loop on all the details.”

  “Come on,” I say. “You have your own plane, can’t you fly back later tonight?”

  “You have a plane?” Cora’s eyes widen and her mouth drops open.

  “Sort of.”

  “Can we go on your plane?” Emerson pleads. “Please, Abby!”

  “We can plan something,” Abby says, looking at me. “Do you guys want to go somewhere together?”

  “Yes!” the girls are answering on repeat, both jumping up and down.

  “We’d love to,” I say. “As long as it’s soon since I’m in my off-season.”

  Abby turns toward the laundry room. “Okay, let’s plan something. I’ve just got one more load of laundry to fold and then I’m getting an Uber to the airport. I’ll have the rental place come pick up the car I rented tomorrow.”

  I follow her, putting my hands on her shoulders to steer her in the other direction.

  “You aren’t folding any more laundry. You’ve done more than enough.”

  “But I don’t—”

  I cover her lips with my fingertips. “Nope.”

  She sighs and gives me a look. “Okay, fine.”

  “And we’ll take you to the airport, babe.”

  “No, it’s okay.”

  “I insist.”

  “I insist, too,” Cora says.

  Abby smiles and there’s a flicker of concern in her eyes. “I really appreciate it, you guys. I couldn’t have asked for better kids to spend the past few days with. I had the best time. But I’m catching an Uber to the airport. You guys go enjoy your dinner.”

  I see it now. There’s something about us taking her to the airport that would be hard for Abby. I wish I could immediately tell the difference between her stubborn independence and her need for space as she lets us into her life.

  “Okay,” I say, pulling her close for a hug.

  I hold her tight, wishing she could stay. She brings something to this home we’ve never had before. Something maternal that’s also stable and warm. When Danielle lived here, we all knew she was slowly dying. Abby has breathed a new kind of life into me, and I don’t want to let it go. She’s my ally. More than that, actually. She’s becoming my best friend.

  Cora and Emerson hug Abby, too, and Emerson tries to hide the two tears that slide down her cheeks. I’m surprised how upset Cora is about Abby leaving; I figured she’d be a tough nut for Abby to crack.

  But that’s what I get for underestimating her.

  When her ride comes and we all say our final goodbyes, Emerson asks me to pick her up for the first time in a while. When I do, her soft, wiggly presence reminds me just how much I missed her.

  “Ready to get some dinner?” I ask the girls.

  Cora nods glumly and asks, “When will Abby be back?”

  “Soon,” I say, hoping like hell it’s true.

  It’s possible this whole thing freaked Abby out. It was a lot, way faster than we would’ve done things without my dad’s health scare.

  But my gut tells me I’m right. Abby enjoyed her time here, but she’s behind on work and needs some space to process her feelings.

  I probably need to process mine, too. I wasn’t expecting to fall for Abby so hard and fast once we decided to make a go of it. Seeing her in my kitchen and watching her hug my girls did
n’t freak me out at all.

  I’m ready to do it all over again, and hopefully soon.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Abby

  I suck in a hard breath as I sit up, jolted awake by a nightmare. It was the one on the highway, but I saw brown curls inside the flaming wreckage this time.

  My screams on the side of the road this time were for Chloe and Emerson both. I was clawing at the ground not only to save the girl in the burning car, but to figure out which one of them it was.

  After a deep, calming breath, I swing my legs over the side of my queen-sized bed, deciding 3:10 a.m. is a good time to start my day.

  But when my feet touch the wood floor, I don’t stand up. I just sit there, still sweating and breathing a little heavily.

  “I just feel it.”

  Cora’s voice sounds softly in my subconscious. I’ve been trying for three years to outrun the feelings, to stay ahead of them by focusing on something—anything—else.

  They catch me, though. The feelings just wrapped themselves around me in a nightmare, the horror of losing my daughter seeping into my soul yet again.

  I lie back down, kicking the covers away since I’m so hot. Clenching my fists at my sides, I close my eyes in the darkness and feel it.

  “Mrs. Daniels, I’m afraid your husband and daughter have been in an accident.”

  The phone call that made me jump off the couch and race into the kitchen in frantic search of my car keys.

  “Chloe is alive, but her injuries are severe. We have to keep her in an induced coma for now.”

  That first look at my tiny, helpless three-year-old lying in a hospital bed, dried blood matted in her hair and tubes running into her body for the machines to keep her alive.

  “I’m so sorry, but it doesn’t look good. She’s not showing any brain activity.”

  The endless tears I cried with my hand covering hers, still warm and alive even though my daughter was gone in every way that matters.

  “Abby, can you sit down? Something’s happened to Tim and we need to talk to you about it.”

  Realizing that my personal hell could actually get worse, and that I just became a widow hours before watching my daughter take her last breaths in this world.

  “She’s gone.”

  The agony that threatens to break me on a daily basis. Wishing with every fiber of my being that it could have been me instead of her.

  I cry. Not because I can’t hold the tears back, like usual. This time I cry because I want to. I take the advice of a beautiful ten-year-old girl who’s been there. I just feel it.

  After about ten minutes, the tears dry up. I turn to my good memories—Chloe’s enormous blue eyes as she blew out the candles on her third birthday cake. The time she got to pet a giraffe at the zoo. Our bedtime ritual of two stories followed by five kisses and five hugs.

  Eventually, I fall back asleep. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that after a nightmare. And when the alarm sounds for my workout and I drag myself out of bed, I groan at my reflection in the mirror.

  My eyes not only have dark circles beneath them, they’re puffy and red, too. A shower helps soothe them slightly, but I can still feel how swollen they are on the trip to the gym.

  As soon as Percy lays eyes on me, she lowers her brows and shakes her head. It’s the first time she’s seen me since she left my apartment the day after my breakdown in Chicago.

  “Girl…I’m not sure you’re ready to be back.”

  I smile. “I actually am.”

  “You look like shit, Abby.”

  “I know, but I need a good workout. Let’s do it.”

  She tilts her head and gives me a hesitant look. I walk over to stand next to her.

  “I lost my three-year-old daughter to a car accident three years ago,” I say softly. “And my husband to suicide at the same time.”

  Percy’s expression morphs into shock and sadness. “Oh, Abby.”

  I sniff, trying to clear the tears pooling in my eyes. “It’s horrible. I work so hard to fight feeling anything just so I can survive, but this morning…I didn’t. I felt the pain and cried, and now I’m here. And as crazy as it sounds given the way my face looks right now, I feel better than I have in a long time.”

  Percy opens her arms and wraps them around me, enclosing me in a hug. A few more tears slip out as we embrace, but again, I don’t flight them.

  “I’m proud of you,” Percy says. “I hope this means you’re going to try to give Luca a chance. He seems like a good guy from what I’ve seen.”

  “He is, and…I am.”

  She nods her approval. “Okay. How about some HIIT and pilates today? I’ll work out with you.”

  We stretch to warm up and I think about the day ahead. Anthony sent me a comprehensive email about this morning’s board meeting that I reviewed on the plane last night. He’s always been a great assistant, but he stepped up in the couple weeks I took off. I’m excited about telling him later today that I’m giving him a bonus to thank him for his hard work.

  On a water break, I wipe my face with a towel and look at Percy as she sips from her stainless steel water bottle. She’s absolutely stunning, not to mention smart and supportive. I imagine men flock to her, but she’s single.

  “You know my story now, but what about you?” I ask her. “Are you seeing anyone?”

  She shrugs. “I went on a date with a finance manager last week. It was okay.”

  “Huh. Are you going out with him again?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Well, what are you looking for in a man?”

  She considers. “Not crazy. Not looking for a free personal trainer. And not married.”

  I laugh and set my water bottle down. “Let’s maybe set your standards a little higher than that.”

  “It’s a jungle out there, girl.” She walks back out onto the exercise mat. “Okay, another round of HIIT.”

  I stand across from her, following along as she does burpees.

  “Give me high explosions at the end,” she commands.

  “Ugh…how about low explosions?”

  “Come on,” she calls in her trademark-Percy tone, which is somehow encouraging and threatening at the same time. “Go hard, Abby.”

  I push myself to keep pace with her and jump as high as I can. The thirty minutes of HIIT we do are merciless, and I’m wiped out by the time Percy brings over two yoga mats for pilates.

  “Hey,” I say as we arrange our mats, “thank you for everything you did for me. Going to Chicago, helping me get home, staying with me…and not expecting me to tell you about things until I was ready.” Tears pool in my eyes yet again. “It meant a lot to me.”

  Percy’s expression softens. “I think the world of you, Abby. Anytime you need me, I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks, and the same goes here.”

  “Okay, stretch your arms down to the floor, and sweep back up.”

  Following along with the workout, I say, “Hey, I was thinking, and I’d like to set up a do-over girls’ trip for you and me.”

  “Oh yeah? That’d be cool; I love Chicago.”

  I sweep my arms up and glance over at her. “I was actually thinking of Fiji.”

  “Fiji!?” Percy gapes at me. “As in, Fiji, Fiji? The island?”

  “Yeah. We could get in some sunny R&R. Get a couple of those beach huts right on the water.”

  “Ohhh, girl.” Her eyes widen. “I appreciate it so much, but that would cost a fortune. I can’t let you do that.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “It’s not even a thing, trust me.”

  “Yeah, but…that stuff’s expensive, Abby.”

  “I’ve got it, okay? So do you want to go?”

  She hesitates, then says, “Hell yeah, I want to!”

  “Great. Maybe in August or September? I’m planning a trip with Luca and the kids soon, and I just missed two weeks of work so I don’t want to take back to back trips.”

  “I’d love to go anytime
.”

  “Maybe you’ll meet a hot Fijian guy.” I give her a teasing glance. “Is that what people from Fiji are called?”

  “No idea, girl. But I can’t wait to find out.” She gives me a wide grin. “A trip with Luca and the kids, huh?”

  “Yeah, we’ll find someplace fun for the kids.”

  I think about them as we finish our pilates. I miss them. All of them. Coming home to a quiet apartment was a big change after five days in a house with three kids.

  I may get my heart broken if Luca and I don’t work out. But for now, I’m taking things as they come and hoping that maybe, this new uplifting brightness in my world is here to stay.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Abby

  Blue water laps at my toes, which are half-buried in wet sand. The sun seems brighter and warmer here, and life is definitely quieter and simpler.

  Luca, the kids and I landed in Kauai six days ago. We’re flying out tonight, and hopefully everyone will be able to sleep on the plane until we land in Chicago.

  I doubt it, though. The kids were so impressed by the plane on the trip here that they hardly stopped talking. The flight attendant served them apple juice, ice cream, sandwiches and crackers as they asked about the function of everything in sight. Their excitement was contagious.

  “I wish we could stay here forever,” Emerson says, sitting down beside me.

  All the kids are bronzed from their week in the sun. We’ve hiked, fished and paddle boarded, but most of our time has been spent right here, on a private beach. We swim until we’re all hungry, and then we go into our beach house and make something simple for lunch. Every night, we order in dinner, play board games and watch movies.

  “I kind of do, too,” I tell Emerson. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful place.”

  She looks up at me, adorable in her bright green bikini and sunglasses with purple star-shaped lenses. “Did you bring my water bottle?”

  “Yep. On your beach towel under the umbrella.”

  Luca and Jack emerge from the water, both dripping wet and smiling. They come over and sit down by me, and when Luca puts his arm around me, the cold water from his arm feels good on my warm skin.

  “How you doing?” Luca asks me.