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She went back to her office and brought him out a bottle and then a granola bar. “I won’t bug you too much.”
He nodded his head and went back to work, but a few hours later, he was watching her do her thing. She mumbled to herself, she talked to the herbs she was babying when she was in her office with a lab coat on and safety glasses on her face.
She looked sexy and nerdy at the same time.
“Can you break for lunch?” he asked. “I’m just going to take about ten minutes to eat a sandwich. If not, I’ll sit out here or in my truck.”
“I was going to come and ask you the same thing. Pull up a seat.”
He opened the lunchbox that he’d packed. He normally had more water and snacks in it so he could replenish while on shift. Most others stopped and grabbed food and drink throughout the day and he’d been known to, but he’d rather not waste the money.
Stupid on his part, as it was more than he’d ever had before. But from a kid that had nothing, he was still smart about things.
“You know what you’re doing here,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“No,” he said. “I mean it shows. Really shows. Maybe if your mother saw you she’d understand you as I do.”
Heather put her sandwich down on the table, slid her chair close to him, grabbed his face, gave him a kiss, and said, “I love you.” He was stunned to hear it and he could see she was equally stunned she’d said the words. “Sorry,” she rushed out to say. “I shouldn’t have said it.”
He felt like dog shit on the heel of a work boot right now. “No,” he said. “You should have. It’s never been said to me before.”
Ever. Not from a parent, a friend, a lover. No one. It was not the first he’d heard the words, but the first they were directed at him.
He wasn’t sure how he’d feel hearing them and realized it wasn’t as scary as he thought it’d be.
“I’m sorry for that,” she said. “I truly am. But that life isn’t yours anymore. This one is. And it’s how I feel. If you don’t feel the same, I understand. I just don’t want to feel as if I’ve got to hold it all in anymore. As you can tell, that just slipped out.”
“Why did it slip?” he asked.
She picked her sandwich back up to eat. “Because you get me as no one else has but my grandmother. And I hear her words in my head all the time to be selfish and do what makes me happy. I feel it. But I guess I didn’t know I was showing it for others to see.”
“Totally visible for anyone who saw you,” he said.
“And once you said that, it made me realize you needed to hear how I felt even if you didn’t feel the same.”
“The thing is, Heather, I think I do feel it. But I just don’t know. I don’t want to say something that isn’t true, even if it is true.”
She smiled at him. “That is one of the more confusing things I’ve heard out of your mouth, but surprisingly, I think I understand.”
“Which is why I probably love you too,” he said. “You get that about me.”
She started to laugh. “I’ll take it. Even if it’s only probably true.”
He grinned at her. Any other woman would be annoyed over this conversation, but she didn’t seem to be.
“More than probably,” he said.
She kissed him again. “I know, Luke.”
They were finishing their lunch and he was getting ready to go back to work when his phone rang in his pocket.
He didn’t recognize the number, as it was from Ohio, but then he knew that some people didn’t change their number when they moved so that didn’t mean it wasn’t a local.
He was going to let it go to voice mail, but since he was on call this month if needed, he had to take it. He wasn’t always on call, but with limited numbers in his position he could be called out anywhere in the state at any point.
“Hello,” he said.
