“Salad’s the only thing on the menu I like,” Luke answered, his tone light, and damned if it wasn’t sexy.
The waitress glanced at Ellie as if to say, How dare you bring him here when he doesn’t like seafood? Then she returned her gaze to Luke.
“We have some burgers in the kitchen,” she said, her voice sounding breathy to Ellie’s ears. “Mostly for the staff, but I’m sure I can talk one of the cooks into grilling one up for you.”
“Are you sure it’s no trouble?”
The woman giggled. “Oh, it’s no trouble at all. I’ll run to the kitchen right now with your order.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart?
He winked at the waitress, who giggled again before rushing off like she was running the Boston marathon.
“Wasn’t that nice of her?” Luke said with a lazy grin.
Ellie shook her head. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make every woman fall at your feet. I’ve been here dozens of times and no one’s ever offered to fix me something off the menu.”
She tried not to let her irritation show. She’d seen Luke in action before, how one smile from him made women swoon. She’d always known Luke was a ladies man, and it had never annoyed her before. So why now? Why had seeing Luke flirt with that waitress made her feel all…troubled?
“I bet if you showed up in your dance costume you’d get a thing or two. A free meal. Maybe more.”
She shot him a glare. “Would you stop implying that what I wear during the performance is trashy?”
“It isn’t?”
“No.”
She wanted to wipe that tiny little grin off his mouth. She wished Josh had never sent Luke to find her. She hadn’t minded her brother’s meddling growing up; she knew he was overprotective because he loved her, because he wanted to take care of her since their parents weren’t there to do it. Yet since the car accident, Josh had started to smother her.
The car accident. Everything always came back to that damn accident. She wished she’d never decided to surprise Scottie at his office that day. If she’d just stayed in their condo and waited to tell him the good news when he got home from work, she wouldn’t have been hit by that drunk driver. She wouldn’t have had a miscarriage. She wouldn’t have lost everything.
God, she didn’t even want to think about it anymore. She’d been doing fine in this little town, away from the memories. Until Josh had decided to run her life again.
“Will you just make it easy on the both of us and come home?”
Luke’s quiet voice snapped her from her thoughts. “This is my home now,” she answered.
“You belong in San Francisco.”
She wanted to scream. How did he know where she belonged?
“You should be thinking about settling down, having a family,” he added.
“I’m only twenty-four,” she protested.
“You were ready to settle down two years ago. With Scott.” Luke paused. “Did I ever tell you I was sorry he broke off the engagement?”
“No.”
His eyes softened. “Well, I am sorry.”
“I don’t want to talk about this.” She couldn’t hide the pain in her eyes, but Luke, thankfully, didn’t comment on it.
“What do you want to talk about then?”
“When are you leaving?”
“I’m not. Next question.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest.
She sighed. “Fine. What have you been up to these past couple of years?”
“Not much. Just working.”
“Still a bodyguard?”
He nodded, and she couldn’t control the rush of warmth that flooded her belly. Luke the bodyguard. She’d always thought his profession was so sexy. And it suited him. He was big and strong and masculine. It made sense that he earned his living protecting people.
“Any interesting assignments?” She suddenly smiled. “Taken a bullet for an actress lately?”
She was rewarded by a rumble of laughter from him. “Don’t remind me of that,” he said with a groan.
She laughed, almost as hard as the first time she’d learned that he’d thrown himself in front of Lucy Kincaid on the red carpet of a premiere. A man had darted out from the crowd, holding a gun, and Luke hadn’t hesitated to risk his own life for Kincaid. The weapon, however, had turned out to be nothing more than a paint gun, and Ellie still remembered seeing Luke on the evening news, covered in green paint.
“I was actually assigned to a senator last month,” he said. “Pretty tame. But the guy did have a few strange fetishes.”
“Like what?” she asked, curious.
“He liked feet. Used to drag me to a thousand shoe stores a day to watch people try on shoes.”
She made a face, but laughed again. “I always liked hearing your work stories,” she admitted.
“I always liked telling you.”
Their eyes locked, and for one brief moment Ellie thought she saw a flash of desire in his gray eyes. Then she quickly shrugged away the thought. Desire? No way. Luke had never seen her as anything more than Josh’s pesky kid sister.