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“She was hiding under the couch when I came in.”
Colleen’s heart pulled. “Really?”
“Yeah. Eating cookies.”
Damn. “Gail’s had her on a diet for years already. She has food issues.”
Lucas made a noncommittal noise.
“How could she not? To Gail, everything is about how you look. Savannah’s a little pudgy. Big deal. She’ll outgrow it. I was pudgy when I was a kid.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, I was. A little. Not really. Fine, I wasn’t. So what? What’s it to you?”
His mouth pulled up in one corner. “Nervous, Colleen?”
Damn it! That dark, scraping voice. He used to call her from college and talk dirty once in a while, and my! God! The things that voicedidto her!
“I’m not nervous. I’m just...irritable. I love Savannah, and I don’t want to see her either obese or anorexic or hating the way she looks because she’s got Gail for a mother.”
“Good thing she has you, then.”
She looked at him sharply. “Are you being sarcastic?”
“No.”
He just looked at her, saying nothing more, and a breeze drifted through the window, rustling the maple leaves across from them, ruffling his beautiful, thick hair. His eyes always held so much more than what he managed to say.
Well. That’s what she’d always thought, anyway, and look where that got her. A woman who was the town flirt, who was probably unhealthily attached to her brother and still didn’t trust men, who hadn’t had a real relationship in ten years.
“Wow, look at the time! I’m starving,” she said, reaching for the doorknob. It stuck, so she tugged it, and the damn thing came off in her hand. Huh.
She tried to put it back, but it was one of those old glass things, and the metal rod was still stuck inside. She shoved it in again, but it fell off immediately. Tried again. Wiggled it. Nothing. “Lucas, can you fix this, please?”
He came over—did he stand this close to everyone? Glanced down at the doorknob in her hand and said, “You broke it.”
“No, I didn’t. It slipped out. Just put it back.”
“It’s broken, Colleen.”
“Can you please just try to fix it, Lucas?”
“Yes,mía. I’ll try, just for you.”
He knelt on the floor and you know, sigh. He waskneelingat herfeet,and if she didn’t knock it off with these thoughts, she was going to slap herself. Hard. Lucas pushed the doorknob onto the, uh, shaft, gave it a shove, then tried to turn it. Once again, the doorknob fell to the floor with a thud. “See?” he said.
“Yeah, yeah.” She banged on the door. “Hello? We’re stuck in here. Can you open the door?”
They waited. Nothing. Lucas smiled, as if she’d just agreed to sign over her soul.
He stood in one graceful move. “This gives us a chance to talk.”
“We’re not going to talk.”
“I thought we needed to talk.”
“So talk to yourself, then! Talk away, Lucas! Jeesh! It’s too hot in here. It’s like one of those Swedish saunas where they kill people. Who can talk?”
