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“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For this. For doing all of this. For your concern,” she murmured. “I have to be honest with you, Lucas. It shocked me to see you at the motel where I'm staying. I was like…wow! What are you doing here?”
“As I said before, you're like family. I take care of my family, Maxine.”
“I know.” She twirled her scrambled eggs on the plate.
“Listen, I’ll be upfront with you, too,” he offered. “I had my men look into things for me with that note you received.”
Her eyes widened. But why was she really surprised? She suspected he may have something to do with watching her back, though she didn’t know for sure. She secretly hoped he would. Who wouldn’t want to have a hot, eligible guy watching their back from time to time? Watching over them, sort of? Like a genuine hero. Not that she needed saving. At least that’s what she fed herself daily. She was drowning in debt, overwhelmed with caring for her mom and didn’t know which way to turn at the moment.
“I can’t believe you did that for me.”
“To be honest, it tore me up inside when I heard about it. You’re way too beautiful to be going through that crap.”
“It happens, I suppose. Speaking of which. I’m sorry about what you’re going through,” she said with genuine concern. “That really sucks when people try to make up things about you and tell the press about it."
“I know,” he said bitterly. His expression lightened slightly. “Thanks for caring.”
“Well, why wouldn’t I?”
“You’d be surprised at how many women wouldn’t even care to ask how I’m feeling or what I’m going through. Just what I can give them. Or what I can do for them…or to them.” A wicked grin touched his lips and he rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Oh, that’s terrible. You’ve dated the wrong women!” Maxine squirmed on her seat. Why did she say that? It must have come out awful. “I didn’t mean it like that, Lucas.”
“Oh, no. You’re right. I dated the wrong type of women in the past, Maxine.” The way he looked intently into her eyes caused all sorts of emotions to swirl through her body. Were they connecting? Lucas seemed more mellow than she’d ever seen him. He was comfortable opening up to her. That was good, wasn’t it? She was equally comfortable with him.
“You must have had one woman who was nice.”
Lucas swallowed hard. She knew she touched a raw nerve when she saw the look of pain sting his eyes. Oh, no. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. She should have quit talking when she was ahead.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. It’s okay. I did have a steady girlfriend once. We dated in grade school,” he said putting his elbow up on the back rest and casually leaning back. He was looking off into the distance for a moment as if visualizing this former love.
“Grade school?” she asked. That was so long ago. Was that his only steady girlfriend?
“She was a good girl. It wasn’t anything like that. I was unaware of my…status back then. I’d only…my brothers and I met our grandfather when we were in our teens. So life up until that point had been pretty much like how your life is, Maxine.”
Wow. Normal. So he hadn’t been raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. No wonder he still hung out sometimes with “ordinary folks” and didn’t look down on those struggling to make ends meet. It made sense how they could connect like old friends. He understood Maxine and where she was coming from.
“Your life was like mine.” She smiled appreciatively. Maxine leaned forward, desperate to take her mind off her own troubles and get to know Lucas better. That was what she wanted. Intimacy on an emotional level before anything else.
“So what happened to the lucky girl? Where is she now?” Maxine probed.
Lucas’s eyes grew darker. Maxine flinched slightly. Was it something she said? Was she delving too deeply into a place in Lucas’s life that was off limits?
“She’s, Julianna, Julianna was her name, she's no longer…around,” he whispered almost inaudibly. His eyes glazed over with pain and a deep, horrible anguish she’d never seen on a man and wished she hadn’t. She wanted to reach across the table and hug Lucas. Was that why he hid behind his bad boy exterior and didn’t give a toss what others thought of him?
