AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You tell me,” he teases and takes a spoonful of his ice cream, lapping the belly of the spoon with his tongue and slowly dragging it out of his mouth.
I take a deep breath and lift my chin. “I knew Tara was going to put the moves on you. I mean, you are very attractive. Could it have killed you to get fat or bald over the years?”
He laughs as he takes a bite, and my eyes linger on that damn plastic spoon as his tongue glides along the bottom of it.
“Although I’m glad you’re attractive because …” I point toward Ainsley, who is happily skipping along while humming a tune fromEncanto—a film that shifts the female paradigm and is on my approved movie list.
“Let’s hope good looks are the only thing I passed on to her.”
I scrunch my brows. “Why are you always so cryptic? You’re like a puzzle I’m constantly trying to figure out.”
He points at me with his spoon. “I like tipsy Jilly.”
“Don’t call me Jilly.”
“No problem.” He gives me a smile that has my pulse racing. “Jilly.”
I growl at him, which only seems to please him as we continue our walk. Ainsley makes the appropriate left at the corner and leads us past the movie theater they just went to.
“This town’s cute. Did you go on dates to the movies and ice cream a lot, growing up here?” he asks me.
“George Blinko. Tenth grade. Put the moves on me too hard in the second-to-last row of theater three. I elbowed him in the nose, and that pretty much ruined any chance I had of getting asked to the movies by a boy again.”
He laughs. It’s deep and boisterous. “Poor George. Did his nose survive?”
“His parents had to bring him to the emergency room. They thought it was broken, but he was just being a baby about it. I think he was more upset that he had been turned down.”
“Ainsley’s in good hands with you as a role model. You certainly made me try hard for your affection.”
“Please note: you are the only man who wooed me as fast as you did. I like to give men more of a challenge.”
“I wooed you, did I? I like that I succeeded. Glad I didn’t end up with rhinoplasty and a bruised ego.”
“I blame the palm trees. They make everything more magical.”
He tosses his now-empty cup into a nearby trash can. “If a man were wise enough, he’d plant a thousand palm trees in Connecticut.”
“Too bad the weather here would force them all to die.”
My comment, although meant to be in jest, causes Luke to furrow his brows as he rubs his chest.
“Yeah. Too bad.”
My cup is now empty too.
We stop on the curb outside my house, and Ainsley runs toward the door and waves into the doorbell camera.
“It doesn’t work,” I remind her as I unlock the door and let her inside. “I have to call an electrician to get it repaired.”
“I can take a look,” Luke offers.
“That’s okay. I can have someone out here this week. I’ve just been busy … and distracted.”
Lowering his eyes to mine, he grins. “I’ll sleep better if I know you two are safe. I have a toolbox in my truck. Let me grab it.”
“Of course you carry manly things, like wrenches and screwdrivers, in your truck.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks as he opens his back door and takes out a shiny black toolbox from the floorboard.
