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I wouldn’t feel as if I belonged if Lucy wasn’t there since she and Ava were my only link to the family.
/> She opened her mouth as if to argue with me but then pressed her lips together and bobbed her head, respecting my wishes.
A moment of awkward silence ensued. I suddenly felt as if I needed to apologize because I’d somehow let her down.
Unable to ignore the itching need to get her to smile again, I blurted, “You said I could use the grill, right?”
“Yeah, sure,” she answered immediately. “Whenever you want.”
“Thanks. I, uh…” When she lifted her brows, waiting for me to continue, I just pushed the words out and then held my breath in anticipation after saying, “I have a couple of extra steaks if you want one.”
Usually, she was the one to invite me to eat with her. I wasn’t sure if I was sending some kind of message or just being nice and returning the favor by asking this time. I knew it was dangerous to keep spending so much personal time in her company. But I just liked being around her so much, and Jesus, she needed to eat too.
Pleasure and surprise flooded her features before she said, “Okay. That’d be great. Thank you. I’ll whip up a pasta salad or something to go with them.”
God, her smile was going to be the end of me. “Perfect,” I answered, not caring if I’d stepped too close to temptation with my invitation. I was beyond glad I had made it; her freaking smile was worth the risk.
Backing toward the door, I motioned over my shoulder. “I guess I’ll just…” I cleared my throat. “I’ll go get started on that.”
“See you outside in a few.”
“Yep.” I turned away and rushed from the house.
Being the later part of June, it was still pretty warm out in the evenings, so I changed into some shorts and a pair of flip-flops after retreating to the garage. Then I hunted up my charcoal, applewood chips, a couple of old newspaper advertisements, and my grilling utensils before pulling my steaks from the refrigerator to season them.
I had four T-bones. I’d been hoping to cook all of them to eat throughout the week, but sharing one with Lucy wouldn’t be a problem at all.
After soaking the wood chips in some water, I lugged my shit outside toward the picnic table Lucy had set up on a concrete patio. I’d seen the grill before, sitting under a cover against the back of the house and near the door, so I went to fetch that next.
The only problem I encountered was when I removed the cover and realized Lucy didn’t have a chimney starter to heat the charcoal in.
Anal me, I needed to do this right—especially since I wanted to impress her with my amazing meat—so I returned to the garage and hunted up the starter I’d brought from home.
Fifteen minutes later, I was kicked back in one of her reclining lounge chairs and chilling with a beer, waiting for the charcoal to be heated just right when the back door opened, and Lucy emerged, holding a baby on her hip with one arm and toting a stack of plates, napkins, and silverware in the other.
Glad I was wearing shades so she couldn’t see the way I immediately ogled her legs, since she too had changed into shorts and cooler wear, I paused with the bottle halfway to my lips.
She and Ava made such a cozy, domestic picture together that I should in no way find anything sexual about what I saw. But I ached for Lucy so hard that my teeth gnashed, and dick twitched.
“The pasta’s ready,” she was saying as she moved toward the picnic table, completely oblivious to my lascivious attention and roaring libido. “But I left it in the fridge to chill.”
Finally realizing how full her arms were, I plopped down my beer in the chair’s cup holder and struggled to get up. “Here. Let me help with that,” I offered.
Lucy sent me an odd look since she was literally a foot away from the table already. “I got it,” she stated the obvious as she set the plates down. “But if you want to hold Ava while I run inside and get the playpen for her to roll around in while we eat, that would be great.”
“Sure.” I held up my arms for the kiddo as I plopped my butt back into the chair.
Lucy handed the baby over and disappeared back inside, so I started playing patty cake with Ava’s feet, desperately trying to make her laugh again as hard as she had the first time, when a voice called from the chain-link gate at the opening to the backyard, “Knock knock.”
I glanced over to find Gracen waving a greeting at me.
“Hey,” I said. “Come on in.”
“God, it smells good back here,” he answered as he entered the yard and strolled over before he asked the obvious as he glanced down at the plate of T-bones I had sitting under a layer of plastic wrap, ready to be cooked. “Grilling some steaks?”
“Yep.” I paused my game with Ava since she seemed distracted by the arrival of a new person, anyway, and we both watched him seat himself at the picnic table, straddling the bench and setting a briefcase down on the table beside him.
“Who all are you having over?” he wondered aloud.
