AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know, Granddad,” Lucas answered softly.
“Now, what about that nice young girl, Maxine?”
Oh, boy.
Here we go again. Now how did I know he was going to bring her name up?
“Granddad!” Lucas arched a brow. “Please, drop it.”
“But you two looked so happy together at Antonio’s wedding. And she seems like a very nice, thoughtful girl. Remember she helped arrange Lucy and Antonio’s wedding without Lucy knowing? She’s a good friend, Lucas. A true friend. Friends like that don’t grow on trees. I think she’d make a fine—"
“Granddad,” Lucas scolded in a lovingly warning tone. “I don’t think Maxine or any woman is the answer to my troubles right now. Besides, we can’t just get with people because we want to fix things in our lives. It wouldn’t be fair to them or to us. It should be done for the right reasons.”
Whatever those reasons were, of course.
The truth was, Lucas didn’t see himself following in Antonio’s footsteps any time soon. He really didn’t care for marriage or lifelong commitment to one woman. Period.
The thought shot a dagger straight to his heart. He had come close only once in his life when he was fresh out of high school. Then that tragic day...
Lucas blinked hard to avoid tears stinging his eyes.
He wasn’t about to take that solemn trip down memory lane again. Ever. The past was dead and gone.
“Okay, Lucas,” Toni broke through Lucas’s concentration. “Very well. I’ll let it go for now. But I’m not going to let it be buried forever, you know. I saw the way you looked at Maxine at the wedding and Lord knows she has something for you. She couldn’t keep her eyes off you whenever your back was turned. Geez!” Toni feigned shock by shaking his head and slapping his hand on his forehead.
She couldn’t keep her eyes off me?
Lucas thought deeply.
Really? Geez, Granddad, why didn’t you tell me this before?
CHAPTER EIGHT
What a whirlwind the last few weeks were, Maxine thought to herself as she pulled up into the parking lot of the nursing home to visit her mother. Luckily, the dirty hate mail had slowed down to a trickle. The only odd piece of correspondence she’d received was from some foreign prince requesting her phone number, driver’s license and banking information so that he could wire fifty billion dollars into her personal checking account. Yeah, sure! She automatically spammed that with the rest of said type of emails.
The bottom line was that whomever was stalking Maxine seemed to have cooled. At least for now. She wondered if Lucas had anything to do with it.
A smile touched her lips at the thought. In fact, Lucas had dominated her thoughts once too often during the past few weeks. At times she thought she was wide awake in a dream. Lucas kissed her hand. Oh, the silky, erotic touch of that soft kiss. Imagine that! What would she be feeling if he’d done more that day? She was still buzzing for his soft lips on her again. The man really knew how to kiss. She’d dreamt about him, fantasized about him pleasuring her with his lips and with his firm body. But all she had was the sweet memory of his kiss. Would she be treated with more servings of his delicious chemistry any time soon?
Maxine was hungry for Lucas. And with each day that drifted by, she’d eagerly waited for him to call her, to drop by her office. Nada. She’d been left feeling empty again. Was he avoiding her? Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so unresponsive to his flirtatious attempts.
Whenever the tech guy from the foundation dropped by during the last few weeks to help her company set up the e-program online she’d casually question him. How many times had she snuck in questions about Lucas while asking D’Andre about the software program? Was he out of town? In a meeting? Would he be coming back to her office for more follow-up to see how the program was going? Her inquiring mind wanted to know. Lucas seemed to be pretty much out of the media spotlight—for now, at least. She was glad for him that the scandalous story was dying down a bit. Maxine really wished she could have spoken with him.
Heck, she was scared out of her wits to call Lucas’s number and ask him anything. She didn’t want to seem as if she was into him. What did she fear? Rejection? Embarrassment?
