Fitting the Pieces (Riverdale #3)

“Probably not,” she answered honestly. “I’ll start with simple questions.” She said with a devilish grin on her face.

Three and a half hours later and they were an exit away from Riverdale. Luke looked exhausted and not from all the driving, but from all the questions. She now knew that he could cook, but only three dishes. He was a pro with the barbeque though. His longest relationship was with Ava’s mother, Marie, and that was when they were kids. He hates dating and feels uncomfortable in fancy restaurants. He wasn’t only a baseball fan, but he loved all sports. Football season was his favorite and he was Jets fan. He prefers cotton sheets and didn’t even know they had flannel or satin ones. He likes to work out and since he rarely has time for it, he put a small gym in his basement. Friday night is date night with Ava. Then there was the thing that squeezed her heart. When she asked him what he likes to do for fun, he said rollerblading with Ava and then he invited her to come the next time they go to the roller rink.

Yeah, she thought that was adorable.

Luke turned left when he should’ve turned right, and she looked over at him confused.

“Where are you going?” She asked curiously.

“I need to make a detour.” He said simply. “It’ll only take a few minutes, but I have to pick up my Pipsqueak.” She watched as his lips curved at the mention of his daughter.

“Oh, okay. Where is she?”

“She’s at her friend’s birthday party.” He said as he looked ahead of him. Cara studied him for a moment and then chuckled. He raised an eyebrow when he heard her giggle. “What?”

“You must wreak all sorts of havoc.” She said as a matter of fact.

“I don’t follow.” He said confused.

“Oh come on!” She said and nudged his arm playfully. “I can just picture all the single teachers swooning over you when you go pick up Ava. I’d be willing to bet you fuel a lot of dreams from single moms too.” She said with a big fat grin. His cheeks reddened again, which only caused Cara to grin wider. Her eyes widened with mischief. “Maybe even the happily married ones too.”

Luke groaned and turned an awful shade of crimson. “Okay, you’re not allowed to talk anymore until we get to my parent’s house.”

“I think it’s adorable how embarrassed you get when I talk about your devilish good looks.”

“Cara…” He said in that gruff voice.

“There’s no reason to be uncomfortable. We’re friends, right? Maybe we should set boundaries.”

He slowly drove up a block glancing at the addresses, trying desperately to pretend they weren’t having this conversation.

“For instance, if you get this bent out of shape when we’re talking about you being a Stud Muffin, then how are you going to react when you tell me you had sex with someone?”

Luke slammed on the brakes and looked at her as if she lost her marbles along with his patience. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“No.” She said innocently. “Friends talk about sex, Luke.”

“Okay, first boundary. I don’t talk about sex with you… ever.” He said frustrated.

“So does that mean I can’t talk about sex? I mean not that I’m having any. I actually don’t have any desire too, it’s just too soon. But I mean one day I’d like to again.”

Luke decided to get out of the car at that moment. He couldn’t listen to her anymore. Cara quickly climbed out of the passenger seat jogging after him. Damn him and his long legs.

“Luke! You didn’t answer me.” She said as she caught up to him, and walked alongside him towards the door of Ava’s friend’s house. He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face Cara, abruptly. Her eyes widened when he stared at her with a hooded gaze.

“Boundary number two, I definitely don’t want to hear you talk about sex.” He raised an eyebrow. “Not now, not in six months from now, not ever.”

She leaned closer to him and whispered. “It’s not like I’m going to dirty talk or anything, Jeez.”

He looked at her for a moment, letting his eyes travel to her full lips. “That’s a shame. I bet that’d be something.” He said huskily, referring to her dirty talk. He shook his head as if to shake away the thoughts that clouded his mind and mumbled under his breath that she was going to be the death of him.

She cocked her head to the side and crossed her arms against her chest. “That’s basically saying you want me to dirty talk, and that means I would have to talk about sex. Maybe you should rethink your boundaries.”

He forced himself to turn around and ring the doorbell. He couldn’t believe he was walking up to a kid’s birthday party, to pick up his daughter, with a semi-hard dick.

The door swung open and Nina’s mother greeted them. “Hi Luke.” She said with a smile and turned around. “Ava, your dad is here!” She called out.