I may never look away for as long as I live.
?
“Are you in love with me yet?” Lukas asks while we sit in the backseat of his SUV. Since the studio where he just finished recording lies beyond the town of Sunset, we passed a strip of main chain restaurants on our way in. And since recording took most of the morning, Lukas decided lunch would be fast food hopping.
I have always wanted to get all my favorite things at half a dozen fast food places, but I have never had the opportunity until now.
Feeding him a fry from McDonalds, I say, “Maybe.”
While I open my salad from Chick-fil-A, he chews and swallows. “What will turn thatmaybeinto ayes? Do I need to buy you more greasy food or write you another song? I have albums in my brain dedicated to you already… Just give me a few minutes to put together the melodies so they match the beat of your heart.”
He might be cheesier than the loaded nachos we got from Taco Bell, with extra nacho cheese, because is there ever enough nacho cheese to go around? I don’t think so.
I like cheese.
When his mouth hangs open, I put my fork down and immediately get him another fry.
“You know something?” he murmurs, licking salt from his lips. “Most women would say I have two working hands by now.”
I crunch my lettuce and eye him, searching for the point.
He puts one of his functional hands on my thigh and leans in before parting his lips.
I get him a fry.
He avoids it. “I want a bite of yours.”
“You want a bite of my salad?”
He nods.
“With or without chicken?”
“You’d give me a piece of your chicken?”
He did buy it. I’m not certain what game he’s playing. My mind is a fog of lyrics and notes. His eyes. His hands. His body. His smile.Him.
As I’m holding a bite of chicken and salad before his lips, I blink out of the daze for a brief instant. “Did you just ask if I loved you yet?”
He chews, nodding. Then swallows. “Yes. You repliedmaybe.”
I flush. “Did I?”
His fingers tease the lace of my dress skirt, above my fleece tights, which protect me from the cold crawling into October…and bar me from the sensation of Lukas’s skin against mine. “You did. I have to say, you are beautiful under my spell.”
“I like the way your spell makes me feel.”
“Really?” His smile broadens. “Tell me about it.”
Mm… “No, thanks.” I reach for my Dairy Queen banana milkshake in a desperate effort to cool down. Perhaps I should take the tights off? That wouldtotallyhelp. “It was such a beautiful song, though.”
“It’s a minute fraction of how beautiful I think you are.”
“I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that you actually wrote me a song.”
He pulls down the frills of my sleeve and kisses my shoulder. “I said I would.”
“I thought you were joking.” My skin vibrates, and the milkshake isn’t helping. “That’s the kind of thing you joke about with someone you barely know.”
