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He made a slight squawk as she grasped the railing on either side of him, her hands brushing against his, and leaned forward, even closer to him.
“I’ve watched you for months now and know you are avoiding me,” Nicolette said, holding his eyes firmly as his mouth worked silently, trying desperately to deny it, yet nothing was coming out of his voice box. “Well, not anymore… okay?”
“Okay?” he said numbly, caught in her lure and felt like a fish flopping around on the banks, slowly succumbing.
“Good,” she whispered to him, leaning forward. “You are going to pick me up from work on Friday night. I get off work at five and we are going on a date.”
“We are?”
“Yes,” she smiled triumphantly. “I’m tired of waiting for you to get up the gumption to ask me out—and so, I’mtellingyou we are dating.”
“But what about your parents or…”
“You aren’t dating my parents – you are going outwith me,” she uttered softly, smiling at him, before leaning forward to whisper in his ear. “I want to see what it’s like to kiss the boy I’ve always had a crush on…”
Luke dropped the crescent wrench, causing it to clatter noisily to the floor.
“And that’s my cue to leave,” she said intimately against his ear, before brushing her nose against his cheek, leaving his heart thumping so fast in his chest that he thought he might expire or have a heart attack, there on the spot.
“Friday at five,” she reminded him, backing away and hurrying down the ladder, before throwing her hair over her shoulder. “And drink your Gatorade. It’s mighty hot where you are standing, Luke Fuller… nice jeans too, by the way.”
Her wink and the double-entendre were not lost on him as he stared in disbelief, watching her walk off into the sunlight, still clutching the railing because his knees were knocking against each other.
“What just happened?” he uttered aloud in a squeaky voice full of disbelief. “Did I bang my head too hard? Breathing fumes? Did Nicolette justtellme we were going on adate?... And did she callmehot?”
CHAPTER2
Nicolette tried to ignore the trembling in her limbs – and the way she was reacting to Luke. She had known him forever, but there was something different there now and she could see it, feel it… and knew he did, too.
He had been ignoring her for months now – and she was heartily sick of it – deciding to corner him today.
… And she hadn’t been wrong.
Oh, that feeling deep within her soul, that sensation of awareness flared to life before her as she stared into his beautiful hazel eyes and saw that simmering flare of interest just before he tried to ‘bury’ it.
He was scared—and that was completely okay… because she was too!
You just didn’t go and start dating a family friend. It was weird, awkward, and well… odd. They’d caught frogs together as children in the backyard growing up, made mud pies together, had chicken-pox together, and this was just all so…
Strangely wonderful.
She sighed.
Just seeing that familiar smile, the way she could ‘read’ him, was in a way comforting to her. Oh, she’d been on dates with other guys but hated all the stupid mental games. ‘Quit playing hard to get’, ‘I might call you’, ‘You’re too pushy’, or ‘There’s someone else’…
Yet, with Luke?
You got what you saw… and he made no promises he didn’t intend to keep. There was something in his eyes when he looked at her. Something that made her suddenly feel like the ‘right person’instead of always wondering ‘what was wrong with her’regarding those boys she’d dated before…
That’s when it dawned on her – that maybe it wasn’ther?
Maybe it wasthem?
Maybe she was sniffing around the wrong person and fighting the growing attraction she had to her childhood friend – Luke.
In the last six months, she’d gone out of her way to befriend his sisters a little more, casually making conversation about the eldest Fuller sibling just to find out more about him. She knew the entire family was exceedingly close, dedicated to family, and deeply religious in a quiet faith that was in everything they did.
He wasn’t allowed to miss church on Sundays. You couldn’t leave the table until the vegetables were eaten. They always had supper as a family with everyone present, no excuses, every evening. When the kids were little, if one of them had a band concert? The entire Fuller family went to support the one who was playing.
