AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sighed, watching him fix my coffee exactly the way I liked it. The little diner we ended up at was either a new one or I’d somehow never seen it before. It smelled heavenly, though.
“Look,” I said, over the growling of my stomach. “If you want me to do this, I will. But it could easily make things worse. Elijah could be on the verge of getting bored, like you were telling Tyler yesterday. But if I make this call… well…” I shook my head. “It’ll make him so angry he might never go away.”
“Has he ever worried about makingusangry?” Luca asked casually.
“No.”
“And that’s because we’ve been passive. We’ve been reactive.”
“Luca, I—”
“Jenna, you weren’t there when they shut Aegean down again today. You didn’t see the look on Tyler’s face. The hurt in his eyes.”
My shoulders slumped. I hadn’t been there of course, but I could picture it clearly. It made me sad and angry at the same time.
“I’m done sitting on my hands,” Luca seethed. “It’s time to be proactive. It’s time to kick the fucking hornet’s nest.”
He pushed the coffee my way, until the cup and saucer rested just beside the phone. I watched the brown liquid slosh gently back and forth, reflecting the diner’s 50’s-style neon lights.
“Okay,” I said finally. “I’m in.”
With the decision made, my apprehension seemed to go away all at once. It was like clouds parted and light streamed in. Everything made sense.
All of a sudden, I was as eager as Luca was.
“Let’s do this.”
I reached for the phone. The moment I did, a hand clapped over mine.
“I love you, Jenna.”
A shiver ran through me. A good shiver.
“I need you to know that,” Luca said softly. “This whole crazy thing, the way it started… I always thought it was temporary, that we were just having fun. But I was dead wrong.”
I was still looking down at the table. Somehow I summoned the strength to glance up, and what I saw made my heart melt.
Luca was red-faced and glassy-eyed. And those eyes, I could see now, were full of happiness, full of hope. And most definitely full of love.
“You’re everything we ever wanted,” Luca went on. “The kind of girl we always talked about. Fun. Funny. Beautiful.” He laughed. “Sexy as all fucking hell…”
Locking eyes with him, I smiled back. I wanted to agree with him, just for the sake of laughter. But I’d never seen him more genuine. I didn’t want to shatter the moment.
“I don’t see you as Tyler’s girl anymore,” he went on. “You’remygirl.”
He placed his other hand on top of the first one. It added weight and legitimacy.
“Even better, you’reourgirl. And I never thought I’d say this, but sharing you with my friends is something I look forward to. In every single way.”
A wave of exuberance crashed over me, unbidden. In its wake I felt the intense undertow of even more happiness and jubilation. For a long moment I just floated there, rolling in the surge, letting it pull me back into those glassy, beautiful eyes.
“I love you too,” I eventually managed to murmur. “More than I can even explain…”
The tears flowed and I let them go. I had to lean back, for fear of crying into my coffee.
“But whatever the future holds, you can guarantee one thing,” I sniffed happily. “I willalwaysbe your girl.”
I dropped my free hand on top of his, squeezing it through my tears. For several seconds, neither of us said a single thing. Even so, a whole ocean of thoughts and feelings flowed between us.
