AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey, boss,” Ray interrupted, appearing from one of the back rooms. “I’m heading out. You want me to lock up?”
Normally, Ray was one of the last to go, but Luke had given him permission to leave early on Saturdays so he could rest up for his Sunday sermons. “Go ahead and take off,” Luke said, placing another chair on a table. “I’ll lock up behind you.”
Terri counted the drawer and packaged the money into a small zippered bag to be dropped in the bank’s safe deposit box on the way home. Luke was right, they had made a substantial amount of money tonight, but she didn’t think it accounted for an entire month’s earnings.
When she was finished with her task, and there wasn’t anything left to do but wait until the floors were cleaned, Terri hopped up on the counter and inspected her manicure. The polish was chipped in a few corners and nearly gone on one nail, but she didn’t really like mint green anyway, so she started picking the polish off, one small chip at a time.
“Well, everyone is gone,” Luke said sometime later.
Terri looked up, surprised to have gotten so lost in her own idle thoughts to not have noticed, and glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, the floors were sparkling. “The DJ hasn’t left yet?”
“I paid him for a full ten hours,” Luke stated. “There’s still five minutes left on the clock.” He held out his hand to help her down. “Want to take a quick spin with me before we call it a night?”
“You mean dance?” Terri said, bewildered.
“That’s the idea.”
She didn’t say no, and Luke took her silence as a yes. As she followed him onto the dance floor, the music grew steadily, and the serene voice of someone she didn’t recognize hit her ears. “Who is this?”
“No idea,” Luke said, pulling her close. They swayed to the soft music and Terri rested her head on his shoulder, allowing herself to absorb the moment, to feel the simplicity of it. It was amazing how something so small could be so significant. They’d shared a kiss, more than once, but somehow this was the closest she and Luke had ever been.
A twinge of sadness tugged at her heart. She and Randy had shared moments just like this one, little snippets of time when everything seemed right with the world, when only the two of them existed. Where had it all gone so impossibly wrong? Even though she knew, she wished it could have been different. Instead, she was hiding in fear from the one person who was supposed to love and protect her.
Her throat constricted and she swallowed convulsively, trying to keep the tears at bay. She was tired of crying, had done enough of it to last a lifetime. As if sensing this, Luke squeezed her tighter to him. She grabbed onto him, grabbed onto the security he offered. If she was brave enough, this could be the start of a new beginning.
