I’d never seen that in Luke, that vulnerability, not outside of what little he showed whenever I was around him after he was in a rip roarin’ with his Dad. Never for one of his girlfriends, never for anyone, not even me.
He’d never looked at me with a full on soft look, not when my Dad left, not when he saw one of my sisters be bitchy to me, not even when he was inside me.
I leaned against the bookshelves.
He was in love with her. He would, of course, be in love with her. She looked like a movie star. And I was just Fatty, Fatty Four-Eyes, the girl across the street holding onto a screaming crush.
Okay, so I wasn’t really Fatty, Fatty Four-Eyes anymore, but… I was.
Worse, I always would be.
My phone rang in my hand and I jumped. The display said “Ren calling”.
I flipped it open and put it at my ear. “Hey,” I said breathlessly.
“What the fuck?” Ren clipped into my ear. “Are you okay?”
No! I thought.
“Yeah,” I said but that one word didn’t even convince me.
“Ava –”
I closed my eyes and blurted in a whisper, “I need to get out of here.”
“Where are you?” Ren asked, now he was sounding concerned.
“Fortnum’s.”
“Where’s Santo?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck,” he snapped. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be there in ten.”
“No! Ren, no.”
Santo walked into the back room, his head swung around and his eyes caught mine. Then he walked to me.
“Santo’s right here,” I told Ren.
“Come to me,” Ren ordered.
“What?” I asked.
“Have Santo bring you to me.”
My heart stuttered. “Ren –”
“Do it. I’ll be waiting.”
Disconnect.
I stared at Santo, my mind racing, my heart beating so strong I thought it’d jump out of my chest. That was my only thought. My mind didn’t have the capacity to process any more.
Then Santo’s phone rang, he flipped it open, listened for five seconds and said, “Right,” he flipped it shut and looked back to me. “We’re going to Ren,” he said firmly.
I just kept staring at him. Then, I didn’t know why, I nodded my head.
We walked through the books, the vinyl and down the center aisle of the front room. Luke was walking toward us. His eyes were warm when they caught mine then, immediately, they went on alert. I looked away as I approached him and went to move by him. He caught my upper arm, I came up short and lifted my eyes to his.
“What’s happening?” he asked, brows drawn.
“I have to be somewhere,” I told him.
His gaze moved from me to Santo and I pulled my arm from his hand and kept walking (albeit a lot faster), Santo following.
I was at the passenger door to the Volvo when I heard the scuffle. I turned and saw Luke holding Santo back with a hand at his chest. He gave a shove, barely a movement of his arm but Santo fell back several paces. Luke turned to me and advanced, pinning me against the Volvo.
“What’s goin’ on?” he asked, his voice low and lethal.
“Nothing, Luke. I have to be somewhere. I’ll see you later at the loft,” I replied, my voice small, my eyes skidding away from his.
I tried to slide away but he got even closer, his hand went to my jaw, his thumb splayed on my cheekbone and I looked at him.
“Babe,” he murmured, eyes warm on mine.
At that word pain sliced through me. Against my will and to my total mortification, I felt tears well in my eyes. He saw them and got ultra close. His face softened but not completely. Not even close.
And that hurt even more.
“Talk to me,” he whispered in his gentle, affectionate voice.
I jerked my face from his hand, slid out from in front of him and quickly got in the car.
Santo jumped behind the wheel and we took off.
I didn’t look back.
*
Ren’s offices were a lot like Lee Nightingale’s except the wood was darker and instead of a cowboy motif there was a lot of fancy glass and modern art.
Also he didn’t have a black lady receptionist with a huge Afro and a messy desk. He had an ultra gorgeous blonde receptionist with an obsessively tidy desk.
Her head snapped up when she saw us enter and her eyes narrowed on me in immediate and unconcealed hate which I thought was kind of weird. Considering the fact that I was freaking out, I didn’t have time to confront a bitchy receptionist.
“Ren’s expecting you,” she told Santo and she didn’t sound pleased about it.
“Yeah, Dawn, I know,” Santo muttered, sounding like he thought she was a bitch too and leading me into an open doorway and down a hall. Santo stopped and so did I. He knocked on a door and when we heard Ren calling us in he opened it.
Ren was already moving around his desk. His office was huge and his desk was not obsessively tidy. It was covered with papers and files in a way that it looked like he was really busy.
I walked in with Santo, saw Ren give a jerk of the chin and without a word Santo took off.
Ren stopped in front of me, put his hand to my neck, tilting my chin up with a gentle thumb in the soft spot between my jaws and looked in my eyes.