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Except I didn’t hate them as much when a certain sexy cop was on the premise.
I’d known it was Luke the moment I saw the SUV parked in the lot as I was driving by.
He always parked in the very back of lots, then backed in. It also had another distinguishing factor about it. I’d stuck a ‘KEEP CALM, I’M A POLICE OFFICER’ trailer hitch cover on it, and I didn’t think he’d noticed it yet. Surely it wouldn’t be there still if he had…right?
It’d been over two weeks since the night we’d made love in his GTO.
Two weeks since he’d spoken to me. And two weeks too long.
I was on the verge of losing it.
I hadn’t realized just how much I relied on Luke until he wasn’t there.
For instance, I hadn’t realized how big Rowen had gotten in the months we’d been together. I hadn’t had to carry her to bed from the car for all that time, and all of a sudden, I did. And it wasn’t nearly as easy as Luke made it look.
I was driving my sister nuts, and rightfully so. I’d spent more and more time with her and her husband in the last two weeks than I had during their whole marriage. I was cramping their style, and if I was being honest, secretly enjoying it.
The dim light of the foyer temporarily blinded me, but as my eyes adjusted, they were immediately caught by the green ones of the love of my life.
Luke was sitting by himself at the very back of the room, he had a newspaper spread out in front of him, and his head was resting on his upraised fist.
He had his glasses on top of his head, and his eyes were laser focused on me.
I went up to the counter and ordered cinnamon twists and a Dr. Pepper.
Once I had them, I took a seat at the table that was the furthest away from him, but I made sure to face him.
Shivers danced down my spine as I felt his eyes on me, but when I looked up, they were gone.
He smiled down at his paper, and I had to really focus on my cinnamon twists instead of launching myself across the room and into the man’s arms.
I was such a floozy.
The worst thing about it all, though, was that Rowen missed Luke. She let it be known on a daily basis, as well.
I missed our daily discussions about the war in Iraq. The economy. The state of affairs in our small town. What was happening that next day at both of our jobs. The conversation about how our days had gone.
Luke stood up and walked to the counter, asking the man there for something.
The man returned with a box full of hot sauce, and I watched in curiosity as he sorted through them one by one, box by box, until he found the one he wanted.
Then, without missing a beat, he walked back to his table and sat down, writing something on the outsides where there wasn’t any print with a red marker he’d unearthed from his pocket, and folded it in half.
Then he gathered his trash, walked to the trashcan, and dumped it all but the paper and whatever was still in his hand.
I watched as he walked past my table, dropping the hot sauce package onto it, before going to the drink fountain to fill up his empty drink.
My eyes went from looking at his back, to staring unseeingly at the tiny little package on the table.
I blinked a few times, making sure I wasn’t imagining things, then re-read it.
“Will you marry me?” It said on the package.
I looked at the package for a few long moments before I looked at Luke.
Had he meant to do that?
When I looked into his eyes, I knew he had. He knew exactly what he was doing when he threw that packet down on the table as he walked by.
I clutched it hard with my hand and watched him walk out of the restaurant with my heart in my throat.
Oh, my God. Was it real?
I got my answer a few minutes later when I unlocked my car and found a black velvet box sitting on my dash.
I sat down, slamming the door to my car hard, before I locked it and stared at the box.
It was a little thing, but there was so very much meaning inside of it that I was scared to reach for it.
If I took it, I knew what it’d have in it, but it still elicited a gasp of surprise from my lips as I took in the large stone.
I put the ring on my finger, admiring how well it fit. Perfectly, of course. I’d expect nothing less from Luke. He was a god and all that shit. A god in the bedroom, mostly, but still.
I started celebrating in my seat, squealing and jumping around with a huge smile on my face.
I knew I had an audience in Nico, and I didn’t care.
It was when I looked up and saw Luke still there, leaning against the truck that I started to laugh.
He’d watched the entire show!
I stared at him and could do nothing but laugh.
He was smiling, too.
Then his face suddenly changed, going from smiling and happy to shocked.
Then, I watched in slow motion as he dropped slowly to his knees.
His hands went to the ground, but they refused to support him, and he fell onto his face.
His head bounced off the concrete, and laid still on the yellow line that marked the next parking spot over from his cruiser.
I screamed.
Fear climbing up my throat, I clawed at the door handle desperately.
However, before I could get out of my car, Nico was there, shoving me back inside and over until he rested in the spot where I’d previously been occupying.
When I went for the other side, he grabbed a hold of my hair, holding on tight.
“Listen to me,” he hissed.
Something in his tone…something made me stop and listen to him.
