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Elise
Lucas’s mood has been dark ever since he picked me and Sophie up this morning.
Despite my insistence that we could take the bus, he simply closed the phone and showed up a half hour later.
I hadn’t wanted to say yes to him but he’s getting under my skin and it’s getting harder and harder to resist this man. He makes me laugh at one minute with his over the top antics, then melts my heart the next minute when he does these small gestures for me. Next, he shows me a side of him that makes me weak in the knees when he’s forceful and dominant.
If I’d considered him a friend before, now that image has been scrubbed clean and I don’t know where he stands.
He’s made his position very clear, as to what he wants from me, but I’m still fearful, my heart not quite trusting yet. So, I’m trying to contain these feelings growing inside of me. But today, there seems to be something troubling him and I’ve never seen him wear such an expression on his face.
It tears at me, makes me want to soothe him to push his troubles away. “Lucas?”
He glances up at me from where he had been staring at Sophie in an absentminded way. “Huh?”
“What’s wrong?” He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds and I push, “You’re so nosy about my life; I think it’s only fair that our friendship goes both ways.”
He flinches and I didn’t know it was possible for his expression to turn even gloomier. “Friends, huh?”
Starting to feel annoyed, I say, “Yes. So, tell me what’s eating at you. You look like somebody ran over your dog.”
He studies me and then sighs heavily. “It’s complicated.”
Seeing Sophie get her leg stuck in the small blanket in her carrier, I lean over to fuss over her, glancing in his direction. “You could always try uncomplicating it. Maybe I can keep up.”
The last part is said with some derision and he flinches. “Everybody says you’re sweet as a cupcake but man, do you show your teeth when you get mad.”
I sniff, indignantly. “I am as sweet as a cupcake.”
He laughs at that and then winks at me. “Well, I don’t know about that but I’m a little sweet on you.”
The line is so utterly corny but yet, I blush. I also don’t let him change the subject. “You going to tell me what’s the matter?”
“Family drama.” He gestures with his hand in the air. “My sister had a fight with her fiancé last night and she ca
me crying to me but then he came to fix everything, she wouldn’t let me beat him up. This morning, she called me and asked me to RSVP by the end of the day.”
“Oh, the wedding,” I recall. “So, you’re upset about not getting to hit him or about being told to RSVP?”
“Both,” he grumbles. “Maybe if I had hit him, I wouldn’t feel so pent up.”
“Have you decided on a date?” The minute the words leave my lips, I regret them, because he immediately looks up, that gleam in his eyes again accompanied with that half smile that has me catching my breath.
“Maybe.”
Forcing myself to not look too much into his words, I say nonchalantly, “Well, you need to hurry up and meet that deadline.”
He leans forward, his previous bad mood having suddenly evaporated at the mention of a date. “So, how about—?”
“Lucas?”
A surprised female voice from behind me has Lucas looking up and his eyes widen slightly.
I turn around as well, to see a woman with long brown hair, blue eyes, and features that resemble Lucas’s. She’s very attractive and she’s standing next to a tall man with owlish looking frames that keep sliding off, hazel eyes and rumpled brown hair. He’s wearing a tweed coat and has a very schoolteacher vibe about him.
Are they-?
“Debra!” Lucas sounds startled. “Why are you here?”
