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“Yes,” Luke said. “It’s your birthday. Why are we talking about this?”
They were out to dinner right now. He was going to cook for her but then decided it’d be nice for them to have a meal at a fancier place.
He’d told her to pick and she did. It wasn’t fancy in attire or even their complete menu. But she wanted lobster and she’d said they had the best here.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I’m nervous.”
“There isn’t any reason to be nervous, but if you want me to not come, I won’t.”
“Oh no,” she said. “You aren’t getting out of it.”
He’d asked her after she’d told her mother about their relationship how it went and she said fine. About what she expected as the conversation went back to her job and living here.
He felt bad that her mother was still putting that guilt on her about wanting to stand on her own two feet.
Shit, his mother would have loved for him to be gone most times when he was ten. She only wanted him around because of the public assistance she’d gotten and nothing more.
“Then tell me what is going on,” he said.
“Nothing. I’m sorry. I guess I just get so worked up with my mother at times. I told you before I never feel as if I’m good enough. And then I told my brothers about you. They can’t wait to meet you.”
“Did they give you a hard time?” he asked. She hadn’t said much about those calls.
“No,” she said. “Just that they wanted to meet you and to be prepared, but then they both laughed. That’s normal for them. I think they will be fine. Trust me, they’d probably try to do a background check on you, but since you’re a trooper and were in the military they aren’t going to find anything they need to worry about. You’ll have a clean record.”
“Clean as a bottle of Clorox,” he said.
There was nothing they were going to find on him personally and he never had his parents listed anywhere close to him. That was too much of an embarrassment and he’d wiped them from his life anyway.
He just couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t actually feel as if he’d wiped them away.
“Then nothing to worry about. You’re bigger than them too,” she said.
He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Do I have to worry about them wanting to fight? It’s not like we are kids.”
Luke was scrappy in a fight anyway. No one could best him and hadn’t in years. When you grew up on the streets you knew ways to hurt a man that they’d never think of or see coming.
“No,” she said. “But they might not be as hard as they’ve been with other men I’ve dated. Or boys. My brothers were always bigger than them, but that won’t be the case.”
“Not much intimidates me,” he said.
“I want to say me neither, but we know that isn’t the case.” She picked her drink up and then all but spit it out. “Shit. Why here and why now? Brace yourself.”
Luke turned his head when he heard Heather’s name called. “Hi, Heather. I hardly ever see you out and about or in the stores. How have you been?”
“Hi, Gretchen,” she said.
“And who is this lovely man next to you? He looks like Zane’s best friend. Luke, right?”
He had no idea who this older lady was and how she knew his name. “Yes. Luke. This is Gretchen. She owns a shop across the street from the flower shop. She comes in a lot and browses and chats.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking her hand. She sure was enthusiastic with her greeting.
“So lovely to meet you too. I’d heard all about how you saved Heather from a burning car and just missed her being blown up in it.”
“There was no explosion,” he said, frowning.
Heather snorted. Gretchen asked, “How long has this been going on?” The woman’s hand was waving back and forth between them. “No one has said a word about it.”
