Page 29 of Honest Boys Don’t Play

God, this woman. She’s infuriating but in the best way. Maybe I’m only seeing what I want, but I think deep down she likes me too and that terrifies her, and considering how her parents behave, and how her last relationship went, I can’t even blame her for being scared.

Lucky for her, I’m a very patient man.

I’ll wait as long as it takes for her to realize I’m not going anywhere and that my feelings are true not transactional.

Letting her go, I say, “Let’s get the last of your stuff.”

It would be easy to call her bluff, to threaten to go back and get that chick’s number. It might be fun to see her puff up with jealousy, but I’m not that kind of guy. I don’t want to play mind games.

CHAPTER 10

BERTIE

I plant my hands on my hips, surveying Luke’s small room I’ll be staying in. “I’ll get a storage unit.” Luke frowns in displeasure. “It makes the most sense,” I go on. “We’ll be moving to Nashville in just a few months and there’s not enough room.”

“I’ll put my stuff in a storage unit before you do that with yours.”

“This is your room and house. You don’t need to move your stuff.”

In my defense, I didn’t think I had that much stuff, but between my closet clear out in Rhode Island and with Rosie having moved out of our shared dorm at the start of this last school year it seems as if I let myself go a little crazy with shopping.

There’s a reason they call it retail therapy after all.

“We can make it work,” he says. “I already cleared out space in my closet and dresser for you. We have an attic so I can store extra boxes up there for now. If that works for you?”

“That’s fine.”

I wish now I had been a little more particular in my packing, and if I had been thinking clearly, I probably would’ve, but since I didn’t get a head start on it and I was running behind I was a little willy-nilly with the whole thing.

“I’ll put your boxes in the living room so you can sort through and condense.”

I almost laugh. Of course, Luke has already figured out that there’s no rhyme or reason to my packing.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Since he already scolded me for trying to carry one of the boxes inside, I sit down on the couch in the living room and let him bring them to me.

I know I shouldn’t, but I keep replaying that moment in my mind when I looked out the window of my room and saw him getting out of his truck. My lips had ticked up at the sight of him, that smile quickly falling when Brianna called out to him. Seeing her check him out had me seeing red, which is insane because despite the baby inside me, I have no claim on him.

I hadn’t been able to stop myself from going downstairs.

I called myself saving him, and to be fair, from his posture it was clear he wasn’t a fan of the conversation, but the truth is my motives were purely selfish.

Luke carries another box in and without saying a word he pulls a pocketknife out of his jeans and hands it to me.

I open the two boxes already brought in and quickly look through them, deciding both of these can go straight to the attic. Hopefully I can have all my stuff put away before his mom gets off from work. The last thing I want is for her to come home tired and find my stuff strewn all over her house.

“There’s nothing I need from these,” I announce when Luke comes in with a third box.

He nods silently and picks one up, carrying it toward the back of the house. He does the same with the other.

Tommy used to talk all the time, mostly about himself or his loser friends, so Luke’s quietness is new to me. But I appreciate the fact that he doesn’t feel the need to fill the air with unnecessary conversation. I like that he takes the time to think through what he says before he speaks.

To be frank with myself, I just like him.

I don’t know why that scares me so much.

Maybe because I know deep down Luke is a very different man from Tommy. I knew he wouldn’t ruin me. I was hurt when things ended, sure, but it didn’t feel like my life was over. I think if Luke and I were to be together it would obliterate me if we broke up.