I watched her walk back in before I turned around and went on my way. I was so deep in thought and tipsiness that I almost bumped into someone.
“Easy there,” said a deep voice, catching me gently. That voice…
I looked up into Lucas’s dark, pensive eyes and my heart stumbled a beat. What was he doing here?
“Where did you come from?” I blurted.
“I live close by. My usual route passes by here,” he said. He squinted at my face. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
The rebounding silence was loud as hell. My guilt skyrocketed at his concern. In fact, all of the emotions I’d been bottling up suddenly came to the surface, no doubt thanks to the alcohol still circulating through my system.
But before I could say anything first, Lucas sighed.
“Look, June…about what happened the other day in the boathouse…” he started.
“It was my fault. I chose to provoke you when I shouldn’t have, I pushed it. It was so stupid of me, I’m sorry. If it got out it would screw everything up and I just…I shouldn’t have done that.” The words spilled out of me before I could stop them. My eyes pricked with tears but I refused to cry in front of him.
I had some dignity left.
Lucas put a gentle hand on my arm, a featherlight touch.
“It’s not your fault. I should’ve stopped it and I didn’t. If anyone is to blame, it’s me,” he said. “Please don’t put this on yourself. It was just a spur of the moment thing, a one-time slip that won’t ever happen again. I promise you that. We won’t have anything to worry about.”
I could tell that he was doing his best to put me at ease but for some reason, I felt worse. A deep-set disappointmentset in, which was even more ridiculous. But I nodded, feigning agreement.
“Yeah. Won’t happen again,” I repeated.
He gave me one of his familiar smiles, the sort I received before all of this mess started. The sincere, soft kind.
“Can I walk you back to your apartment? Platonically, of course,” he said, injecting some humor into his voice.
“I’d like that,” I answered.
As we walked together, we made small talk and it almost felt normal, at least it did if I could continue pretending that there was no longer a world of difference in how I at least saw him.
But then my foot snagged in a pothole on the sidewalk, and he caught me before I could crash to the ground. The tipsiness, the smell of his cologne, the feeling of his strong arms around me…it was a recipe for the worst kind of disaster.
His eyes were fixed on mine as he helped me upright, his hands hot on my skin. And for just a suspended moment in time, the excuses and attempts to smooth away the tension between us disappeared.
I don’t know who leaned in first; me, him, both of us at the same time.
But I do know that if it wasn’t for a stream of rowdy partygoers who rounded the corner and came our way, we would’ve been in for a repeat offense. Lucas moved back, then cleared his throat.
“Shall we?” he asked, sweeping an arm out before us.
And with a lump in my throat, I followed.
7
~
June
My phone vibrated on the study table with an incoming message.
Chloe: Need help with this assignment. James is useless.
