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He was filthy from his thick hair to the tips of boot-encased toes. The jeans and T-shirt he wore were as far from salvageable as Simon’s baseball uniform had been after trying to slide into home plate half a dozen times.

“Clearing ten years worth of weeds.” He pulled off suede gloves and swiped his upper arm across his sweaty forehead. “Clears my head.”

“Uh-huh.” She hefted the pie plate. “Well, you have had a busy week. I had some extra blackberries. Thought you might like it.” Oh, please, could the cohesive-thought fairies land on her with some inspiration? She sounded like an idiot.

“You baked me a pie?” He looked as if she’d brought him a truck full of gold.

“Charlie and I did,” Holly explained. “She’s been getting a little bored with Simon and his comic books so she asked if I’d teach her to bake. The lattice crust is a little crooked, but—”

He moved toward her, his gaze alternating between what she’d brought him and...well...her. She swallowed, trying not to think about how nervous he made her or the fact that he was most definitely a male of the species. Or that it had been nearly two years since she’d even thought of looking at a man the way Luke was looking at her...pie.

“Thank you.” He tucked his gloves under his arm and took the pan from her. “Come on in.” He whistled. “Cash! Inside!”

The dog came racing along the same path Luke had taken, darting between them and diving into the house before Luke had the door completely open.

“You have him trained.” Holly stopped cold in the doorway. The house was so...gray. She could see a coating of dust on the sofa and coffee table. The ancient TV set may as well have been from a 1950s sitcom and the yellowed flower wallpaper had begun to peel free, as if trying to escape. She didn’t see any hint of a history, no pictures or remnants of the eighteen years he’d lived here. There was nothing except the bare necessities. No wonder he didn’t spend a lot of time here. She was getting depressed just looking at it.

“You can see why I’m thinking about tearing it down.” Luke was watching her with nary a hint of emotion on his face. “Not much to salvage. Definitely not much to look at.”

“It needs some...light?” she mentioned hopefully.

Luke shook his head. “You really do look for the silver lining. The kitchen’s better. Come on back.”

“Oh, I really just came by to bring you the pie. The bonus of having two waitresses now. Paige and Twyla are holding down the diner until I get back. Business is picking up again. Thanks to you, actually,” she added, as she followed his voice. Oh. She blinked against the sun streaming through the windows. The kitchen was definitely dated, with its thin cabinetry and chipped Formica countertops. Did they even make appliances in buttercup yellow anymore? But the room had been given a good scrubbing, from the scarred wood floor to the small kitchen table situated near a bay window beside a china cabinet stuffed to the gills.

“Better, right?”

“Much.” She set her purse on the counter. At least there was some color in an otherwise dreary dwelling. How could anyone, let alone a young boy, ever have flourished here?

“Stay for some coffee. And pie.” He angled it in her direction. “I hear it was made by a master baker. I need to clean up first.”

She shouldn’t. She really shouldn’t... “Sure.” She hadn’t felt this jittery in a long time.

He pulled off the foil and looked at what was clearly a seven-year-old’s first baking attempt. “Perfect.” Luke grinned. “Just the way I like my crust. With homemade character.”

Holly’s heart clenched. He always said the right thing. “You know if I tell her you said that she’ll go all googly-eyed on you for months.”

“That kid won my heart yesterday.” He hit the button on the automatic coffeemaker. “Did she and Simon tell you about the rats we found out back of the center?”

“Simon’s not great with rodents.” Spiders and insects were another story, and hermit crabs...? Holly shuddered. She’d lost count of the number of vacated shells she’d stepped on over the years.

“So I learned.” Luke chuckled. “Charlie went right in and scooped them into a box. Asked me to drive her into the grove on the other side of town so she could let them go. Carpooling rats. Who would have thought? I’ll be right back.”

Holly frowned. “Didn’t she realize how dangerous—” She stopped following Luke when she realized he was headed upstairs, probably to his bedroom. She spun around to search the cabinets for plates and flatware before making quick work of the pie.

The pipes whined and knocked and Holly killed the time by checking her calendar and texting Paige she’d be later than expected. Paige’s reply sent a new rush of color racing to Holly’s cheeks. One day, Holly was going to play matchmaker for her.

“Sorry,” Luke said when he returned, skin freshly scrubbed, hair damp as if he’d run wet hands through it. All sparkly, shiny new. Holly returned her attention to the pie. “You were saying about Charlie?”

“I wondered if Charlie knew how dangerous rats could be?” Oh, boy. Holly swallowed. Since when did Luke take up so much space? Looking at him made it difficult to focus on anything else.

“Hmm.” He poured them each a cup of coffee. “Your father filled her in and made her promise not to go trying to help any other critters without supervision. Those flyers you passed out worked like magic. I can’t believe how many people have turned up to help at the center. Shouldn’t take more than a couple more days to get the place up and running. And we’ve got a dozen sign-ups for the camping trip.”

“A number of the volunteers came into the diner for dinner afterward.” Holly accepted her mug and her pie and wandered over to the table, embracing the warmth of the sun streaming through. “Someone apparently made the suggestion.”

“Just spreading the wealth.” Luke sat across from her. “So. What really brought you by?” He scooped up a chunk of oozing berries and crispy crust and bit in. “Oh.” His grin went from ear to ear. “Well. Okay. Charlie’s got another talent. This is good.” He dived in. “Spill, Holly.”

Holly took a deep breath, her nerves eroding any desire for pie. “The other day, when you told me about the accident. There was so much going on when it happened, what with Dad’s surgery and recovery and me being so angry—”

“Rightly so,” Luke interrupted without looking at her. “Listen, Holly.” He set down his fork and rubbed his hand across his forehead. “It would be really great if we could get past this at some point. Not that I expect you to forgive me or forget, but rehashing the accident every time we see each other.” He shook his head. “I’d like it if we could agree to be friends and let the past lie.”

“No, no. I totally agree,” she said, wishing she’d found a better way to say what needed saying. Friends. Why did that word suddenly seem...disappointing? “I realized there’s something you need to know about the accident. When they brought Dad into the emergency room, they weren’t sure he was going to make it. They thought he might have lost too much blood. They told us he’d be lucky to keep his leg given his injuries. As it was he had kidney damage and lost his spleen, and a pretty bad concussion. Mom couldn’t take it. She walked out on us before Dad came home.”

“If this was meant to make me feel better—” Luke looked a little green.

“Uh, this is not coming out right at all.” She rested her forehead into her hands. “After the surgery, when we were sure he was going to pull through, the doctor said whoever had tied the tourniquet around his leg saved his life. It stopped him from hemorrhaging.” She sighed. “So. Yeah. I thought you should know, you saved his life. I was wrong to blame you, Luke. It was a combination of things, of circumstances conspiring against everyone.” She took an extra beat because he looked as if he needed it. “I’m sorry I held on to the anger as long as I did. I know now it’s been as hard on you as the rest of us, and as much as I wanted to blame you for my mom taking off the way she did, she’d been looking for an excuse for years. Dad always told me to get over it, but I wasn’t ready to hear him, not when I still had to work through my issues with Gray. You were an easy, if not misappropriated, target.” At least that was how her father had put it last night over dinner. In Jake’s typical no-nonsense way, of course. She’d felt like she was a teenager again being reprimanded for sneaking out after curfew.

Holly exhaled twelve years of anger and hostility. She could breathe again. Was that what forgiveness and acceptance did? Was it this...freeing?

“I didn’t know.” Luke seemed as if he couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. “I remember sneaking into the hospital, waiting in the hallway until I heard he was out of surgery, but I never thought I’d actually helped. Not when I’d caused...”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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