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‘Forget it. Becau
se now I think about it, that was rather skanky.’
It hadn’t seemed at all skanky at the time. It had been hot, but why boost his ego.
‘Skanky? Gee, thanks.’ The flush spread over his cheekbones.
‘Why are you blushing? You used to boast about your commando status at school.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Then how come everyone knew about it?’
‘Because I got caught without them once in the locker room by Mr Spurgeon, the gym teacher, and he humiliated me in front of the whole class. I guess word got around after that.’
‘All the more reason to try to remember to wear them more regularly, then,’ she volleyed back, suppressing the niggle of sympathy.
Luke had forever been in trouble with the teachers. Mostly he shrugged it off, or played up to it. But she had hated the way they treated him back then, making snide remarks and cruel jokes at his expense. Miss Pickles, their perpetually sour home economics teacher, had gleefully referred to him as ‘the worst of those Best children’.
No teacher would be allowed to talk to a pupil that way now, especially one who came from a family where free school meals were a way of life. But twenty years ago, the PC revolution hadn’t quite found its way to Gallagher Cross Comprehensive.
‘I didn’t forget to wear them,’ he explained. ‘I just didn’t always have any.’
‘Why not?’ This was new.
‘I had four younger brothers, who I shared a room with, and we didn’t have a washing machine, or money for the launderette.’ The blush deepened. ‘You try keeping clean underpants available when you’ve only got a couple of decent pairs and every time you wash them and hang them out to dry some little bugger pinches them to wear himself.’ He scowled at the memory of his pants-thieving brothers. ‘After Spurgeon laid into me, I made clean pants for gym day a priority, but that left the other days pretty hit-and-miss. Mostly miss.’
‘Why didn’t you ever tell me that?’ She’d always thought he had a choice, and he’d chosen not to wear pants so he could be naked, for her.
‘Why would I? I wanted you to think I was cool, not some saddo who only had two decent pairs of pants.’
Why were they talking about his underwear crisis at school? Seriously? He’d paid an extra five grand for this?
He didn’t care if he sounded churlish. He was feeling pretty churlish, so it fit. The way she’d gazed at his crotch had reminded him of how she used to look at him, with that scary combination of lust and adoration and complete and utter trust. Seeing that glazed arousal again had made him feel raw and exposed … and actually kind of hot.
Which was very bad news. He and Halle had always had a strong sexual connection as teenagers, despite a few hiccups in the early days. That connection had cooled off considerably once she’d had Lizzie—because she’d wanted it less and he’d wanted it more. But getting the hots for Halle now was out of the question.
This trip was supposed to open up the lines of communication between them, not turn it into a replay of one of the biggest fuck-ups of his entire life.
‘But I wouldn’t have told anyone,’ she said.
‘I know.’ Maybe he could stop this canter down memory lane by giving her the answer she wanted.
‘Then why didn’t you confide in me?’
She wanted to go there? After twenty years? From the earnest expression, it seemed she actually might. Not gonna happen. ‘Probably for the same reason you didn’t want to tell me about your fear of flying. It’s humiliating.’
‘I do not have a fear of flying,’ she said, far too indignantly to be believable.
‘Uh-huh, which would explain why I had to prise your hand off the armrest before you broke a finger.’
‘Yes, but I’m fine now,’ she declared defensively.
From the glazed look when she’d been staring at his lap, and the pink flags in her cheeks, he suspected that was only because she was high as a kite, and still recovering from that freak-out during take-off.
Truth be told, her freak-out had freaked him out a little, too.
By making him remember the girl he once knew. The girl who trusted to luck, believed the best in people and had always been sure that everything would come out right in the end.
