Luke groaned and ducked back behind the curtain to put some clothes on. When he emerged again, I noticed he hadn’t bothered with a shirt.
As in, he was shirtless. He didn’t have a shirt on. And also… I could see his bare chest… complete withnipple rings.
Who the fuck would’ve thought that Luke Williams would be hiding piercings under his baggy sweater vests? Not me. But now I was having a hard time thinking of anything else.
Maybe he’d turned the heat on too high when we’d first come in, or maybe Ben Pond’s stupid trailer’s stupid heat was stupid broken. Either way, I was sweating.
Luke grabbed the phone out of my hand. “Mom! Hey!” he said breathlessly. “How are?—”
His mom’s voice snapped me out of my eyeballs’ obsession with his bare skin.
“Luke Guilford Williams. Are younaked?”
CHAPTER NINE
LUKE
Wasit possible to actually die of mortification? If so, I was enjoying my final moments, becauseholy shoot.In my whole life, I’d never felt as awkward and back-footed as I did with Webb Sunday.
I was used to being the person who took care of things—of my mom, of myself. I was used to being the authority figure in a room full of kids. But when Webb was in the vicinity, I seemed to morph into a bumbling fool, and I had only my own stupid, inconvenient attraction to blame.
“No, Mom! Of course not. I just… fell in a snowbank and got wet. Wow, you would notbelievethis weather we are having here?—”
My mother would not be distracted. “You weren’t doing anything dangerous, were you?”
“Me? Dangerous?Pfft.” I forced a laugh and shot a hard glance at Webb, a warning to keep his mouth shut. “Webb and I were just… playing in the snow.”
He lifted an eyebrow, and I blushed even harder than I’d already been blushing.
“Awww. That’s so sweet! Thank you so much for taking care of my boy, Webb,” she called. “You and your family have been so kind to adopt my Lukey!”
“Adopt?” Webb repeated in a voice too low for her to hear.
Mother trucker.I couldn’t make myself look at Webb. “Mom, please?—”
“Hush, Lukey, let me talk to Webb. I worry, you know, Webb?” she said breathlessly. “It’s so wonderful that he won his beautiful house and all that land, but I worried that he might not be happy. Luke’s always been shy except, as I’m sure you can imagine, when he’s around kids—” She sucked in an unsteady breath.
“Mom, seriously. Webb gets it. You don’t need to?—”
“What I’m trying to say,” she continued doggedly, “is that as soon as Luke explained to me that your family would be right next door, helping him whenever he needed it, it set my mind at ease. It really…” She broke off in a coughing spasm. “It really has.”
“Mom,” I cut in desperately. “Where’s Aunt Sue? Is it time for one of your breathing treatments?”
“Sue’s out for groceries, but I’m fine for now. Promise. I’m better and stronger every day, now that I don’t have to worry about you, sweetheart.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed and forced myself to give Webb a pleading look, begging him to go along with my lie. “Mom, I?—”
“Honey, just show me around your fairy-tale castle. You know I won’t judge if it’s not perfect! I fully expect that you’ve got dishes all over your sink and hideous wallpaper in the downstairs powder room.”
“Actually, I, ah?—”
“I know how you are, Sunshine,” she said firmly. “You have no secrets from your mama.”
“No, ma’am,” I whispered miserably. “It’s just that?—”
“It’s just that we’re at my, uh… my camper,” Webb blurted, snagging the phone back from my hand. “Sorry, Ms. Williams. I’ve been letting Luke use my camper as, you know, a… a workshop. For doing his… crochet?”
I scowled.Who ever heard of a crochet camper?
