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Right as I was pulling my phone out to dial for help, though, Adele’s eyes zeroed back in on me, confusion knitting her brows. Her eyes jumped to the stuck loveseat. Then down, right where my hand gripped her shoulder. What couldn’t be anything but alarm flickered in her expression.
“Adele?” I tried again, taking my hand back slowly. “Are you okay?”
But the lady in front of me had nothing to do with the snappy Adele from a few minutes ago. This woman was disoriented, looking as lost as someone who had just woken up from a dream.
Crap. Now I was feeling pretty panicky myself. “I—”
“Rosie?” A deep and musical voice filled the hallway.
Lucas.
He was here.
The relief at hearing his voice was so sudden and unexpected that it almost felt like too much. Like I had to close my eyes and take a breath.
I heard his steps approaching us. “What’s going on here?” A pause. “What’s that sofa doing there?”
I turned in his direction, finding him standing only a few feet away from us. “We’re trying to move it out.” Our gazes met, and that bright grin he seemed to brandish so easily fell the moment he took a good look at me. “Or in. I… don’t really know, if I’m being honest.”
Lucas frowned, processing my words, his eyes scanning my face.
“Mateo?” Adele said, disbelief and joy loud in that one single word.
I blinked, my gaze jumping between the woman, who had her hands clasped under her chin, and Lucas, whose expression remained as calm as a millpond.
Mateo?
“Adele, this is Lucas,” I told her as sweetly as I managed. “The Lucas I was telling you about earlier? My Lucas, remem—” I stopped myself, paling the moment I realized what had come out of my mouth. I made sure to look only at the woman. “He’s Catalina’s cousin.”
Adele glanced at me with a small frown. “But this can’t be your Lucas. He’s my Mateo.”
I smiled tightly, not knowing how the heck we had gotten here or how to veer the conversation far, far away.
After what seemed an eternity, Lucas said, “How about I get that thing out of the way, and get you back inside, Adele? I’m all about feminism, but I’m willing to take this one for the team.”
I finally dared to glance at him, just in time to meet his gaze briefly before he started in our direction.
He set a palm on Adele’s back and ushered her out of the way, then he returned to my side. Slowly, he leaned down and said only so I could hear, “Your Lucasto the rescue.”
Your Lucas.
A strange sound left my mouth.
Thankfully, Lucas got to work and a few minutes later, the loveseat was unstuck and back inside Adele’s apartment and my temporary roommate was guiding the frail woman back inside.
“Are you hungry?” Adele asked as they stepped inside the apartment, leaving me behind. “I think I have lasagna leftovers, and you look a little skinny.”
“You think I’m skinny?” Lucas replied so casually and naturally it seemed they’d known each other for a long time. “I’d say I’m in pretty good shape.” He lifted his free arm and flexed his biceps. “Have you not seen how big these are?”
Adele giggled and smacked his arm down. “Oh, you rascal.”
And I stood there, so enraptured by the odd and bittersweet scene—and enthralled by the way Lucas radiated this soothing and commanding kind of energy—that it caught me off guard when he looked back over his shoulder and met my eyes.
You coming?he mouthed.
And I’d never know what he saw in my expression as our gazes remained locked for the next seconds, but when I didn’t move, he said more gravely, in this firm yet sweet tone, “Come, Rosie.” And my two feet pushed forward and I followed them in.
After preparing some tea and chatting for a while, Adele assured us her daughter was coming over later in the evening. And when she eventually drifted off, we returned to Lina’s place.To our place. For now.A part of me seemed to note.
