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Whatever Chris was going through, Summer hoped she found peace. Maybe with Zac. If Summer had to give up that dream to anyone, Chris was her first choice. Zac and Eva had been perfect for each other, except there was no sizzle between them.
Outside the wonderful coffee-smelling interior of Slow Pour the air was chilly, though the sun had burned off the morning fog. Summer had walked the three miles to work. Her roommate had borrowed her car last night and hadn’t been back by the time Summer had to leave in the morning. So annoying, especially since once Summer realized Janine wasn’t back, she’d had to rush crazily through her morning routine so she’d have time to walk to Slow Pour in the early morning fog.
Now that the sun was out, she was actually looking forward to the walk home, and she set out at a brisk pace, gleefully imagining all the housework she’d demand Janine do in penance for not returning the car. Maybe she could finally get her roommate to clear her unread magazines off the coffee table and pick up the discarded clothes in her room.
“I said, ‘Hey.’”
Summer yelped and whirled around to find Luke hanging out the driver’s-side window of Zac’s blue Prius. Those hybrids were so quiet she hadn’t heard him pull up next to her with Tori Amos streaming through her earbuds.
“Jeez, Luke.” She put a hand to her hammering heart. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.” He checked the road behind him for cars, then swung those amazing blue eyes back at her, sun glinting off his eyebrow piercing. “You need a ride somewhere?”
She shook her head automatically, heart still beating too fast. “I’m fine.”
“Do you want a ride somewhere?”
Summer pointed ahead of her, annoyed by her immediate negative reaction. She’d come a long way toward shedding her girlhood shyness, but it still hijacked her when she wasn’t prepared. Besides which, Luke set off her internal alarm bell. “I’m going home.”
“And...?”
A brief laugh. He’d called her on her indecision. “And so you don’t need to drive me.”
“But do you want me to drive you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Luke...”
“Oh, I see.” A corner of his mouth twitched. “You don’t want me to know where you live.”
He was messing with her. Probably flirting, which made her feel sort of pumped up and giddy. When guys who came into Slow Pour started flirting or poured on too much charm, she turned off automatically. But something about this guy made it bearable. Fun, even.
A car came up the road. Luke pulled onto the shoulder and got out, slamming the door behind him, grinning that cocky, infectious grin as he crossed the street toward her.
She sighed, heart speeding again, willing her mouth not to smile back at him, wondering how much he’d really cleaned up his life and attitude. Her last boyfriend had turned out to be a meth dealer. It had taken her three months to catch on. Her boyfriend before that had been arrested for shoplifting electronic equipment from a big-box store. In both cases she’d had the good sense to get out immediately, but what she needed was the good sense not to get into relationships with troubled guys in the first place.
“I just dropped Zac off at Slow Pour. He wants me to pick him up in a couple of hours. Want to hang out? We could drive up the coast, we could go into San Luis Obispo, we could stay here and talk...”
“On the side of the road?”
“It’s a sweet spot.” He chuckled, the way Zac did when acknowledging a joke. “Seriously, want to take advantage of this sweet set of geek wheels and go somewhere?”
Summer looked down at the pavement, unable to make up her mind. It wasn’t as if she had important things to do this afternoon. She’d been planning to make brownies to go with studying for her child-development class. Maybe clean a little. But both those things could wait, and this guy seemed to need a friend.
Maybe she did, too. She hadn’t done anything spontaneous or fun in a while. Not since the night she and Chris got their tattoos. “Okay.”
“Excellent.” He gestured toward the car. “I’ve had no one but Zac for company for the past week.”
