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“Lucas?” I said, and whatever he heard in my voice made him retrieve my hand from his knee and take it in his. “Why come here? Are you running from something? From whatever happened?”
He brought our hands to his mouth and placed his lips on my wrist. “I’m not running,ángel. Some days I’m not even moving.”
Ángel. My heart pounded. “What do you need?” I asked, because whatever that was, I wanted to get it for him. “To feel like you’re moving forward again.”
His gaze searched my face. “I don’t know, Rosie. And that’s what scares me the most.”
Something in my chest broke for him. The need to make it better growing by the minute. “I’ll take your hand,” I told him, tightening my grip around his fingers. “And keep you moving. Until you figure it out.”
And I’ll take that ángel, too. And keep it.
Keep it for when he left, and I had these memories instead of him.
He didn’t speak, not right away. Then, he said, “I hope you’re ready for your grand gesture.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Rosie
“Ihave no idea if I got this right,” he said from behind me, his hands covering my eyes.
After leaving the restaurant, Lucas had ushered me into the elevator—the one inside the building where Zarato was located—and took us up to the top floor.
Before the doors opened, he told me to close my eyes and laid both hands over them, saying, “For good measure.”
We walked very slowly now, Lucas guiding me forward. His legs tangled with mine, and I grasped both his wrists to keep myself from falling.
“Is this really necessary?”
“Yes,” he confirmed, bringing me to a stop. “Cosmosaid that the element of surprise was very important.”
“Cosmo?” A bark of laughter left me. “As inCosmopolitan, the magazine?”
“What’s so funny?” he asked, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Nothing.” I let my hands fall from his wrists. “Just that you sound like a guy from a chick flick from the noughties.”
His hands shifted so only one palm was covering my eyes. Then when I felt his other one at my waist, tickling my side.
“Hey!” I squealed, breaking into a fit of giggles. “What was that for? That’s a compliment. It doesn’t get better than 2000s Matthew McConaughey.” I waited for his laughter, but it didn’t come. “It was all innocent teasing.”
“Nothing innocent about it, Rosie. You know how much I like it,” he said. And before I could utter a word, his arm wrapped around me, the tips of his fingers making contact with the bare skin of my back. “Careful with the step,” he added before lifting me up in the air.
And just as swiftly, I was placed back on the floor. And I… was too stunned, distracted, to even say thanks.
Lucas chuckled darkly as he guided us forward again. “Just so you know, I used other sources that weren’t magazines.” We turned to the right, and then stopped again. “Hold on one sec. Keep your eyes closed. I’ll be right back.”
I heard his steps as he walked away.
“I watched a few movie endings,” he said in the distance. “Classics, for the most part. Until I discovered that people put together grand gesture compilations on YouTube.” His voice grew closer, and then, his hands were back on me. On my waist this time. “And I also had your book.”
My heart pounded.
“The ending was a pretty good reference. Insightful.”
My book’s ending. That I’d written. Lucas had read it. He—
“You can open your eyes now.”
