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Stop it.
Rufus came up, and she rubbed his rough head, then tugged on his ears. He smiled happily and flopped at her feet, and she slid her foot over his stomach for the obligatory belly rub.
“How have you been?” Lucas asked.
“Good. Fine. Great, actually.” She cleared her throat.Think of him as an old friend.“You know. Connor and I bought the pub, and he’s the chef, and I run the place. We love it. Things are good.”
“And your family?
“Just fine. Sort of. Dad and Gail got married, and they have a daughter. Savannah. She’s nine now.” Weird, to be telling him about this. Maybe he knew. Maybe he internet stalked her the way she occasionally looked him up on Google. Well. She hadn’t in a long time. But she used to.
“Is your grandfather still alive?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He’s horrifyingly healthy.” Gramp no longer spoke and hadn’t in years, and he cried most afternoons, but his body was doing just great. One of God’s little jokes.
“How old is he now?”
“Eighty-seven.”
Lucas nodded. Didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t, either. He was the one who wanted to talk, after all.
“Colleen,” he began, and hisvoice,damn it, so deep and rumbly and scraped her in all those special places, and it just wasn’t fair.
She’d talk. It was safer that way. “Lucas, here’s the deal. You’re back for a while, and of course we’ll see each other, and no hard feelings, okay? I mean, we were young and foolish and all that fun stuff. I’m glad you’re doing well, and it’s nice for Joe that you’re around.”
He turned to look at her, and she forced herself to return his gaze, even if her knees were trembling.
“Anything else?” he said.
Why? Why her and not me?
“Nope. Anything else for you?”
“No. Except I’d really like you to leave Bryce alone. Now isn’t the time for him to be involved with anyone.”
“Whatever you say, God. I mean, Lucas. Sorry. I get you two confused sometimes.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I take that as a ‘piss off.’”
“Perceptive of you.”
He sighed. “All right, Colleen. Do what you want. You always have.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” she asked. “After all, you haven’t been around for roughly a third of my life. Not one letter, not one email, not one phone call. You have no clue about what I always do.”
“Did you want me to call you?”
“No. I’m just saying maybe you don’t know everything, Lucas.”
“I think I know what’s best for my cousin. He needs to grow up. He needs to stand on his own two feet and be a man.”
“Oh, I love when you talk all Latin machismo.”
He leaned forward so she had to look at him now. “His father is dying,Colleen. His mother still hasn’t cut the cord, and Bryce hasn’t ever had a job for more than two consecutive months. I’m here to honor Joe’s dying wish that his son grows up a little, and the last thing he needs is another meddling woman trying to run his life.”
