AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With benefits? Lukas had wanted to demand. But he’d managed to hold his tongue. “Friends?” he’d snarled.
“Yes. We go out together. Do things. Concerts. Ball games. I’m trying to get a life.” She gave a vague wave of her hand. Then, at his scowl, she went on, “I’m in a hurry, Lukas. He’s going to be here any minute. But—” and here, damned if she hadn’t given him a bright cheery smile “—it was great to see you and catch up. Thanks again for signing the boat over to St. Bren’s.”
Then she’d waggled her fingers and disappeared inside her building as if she fully intended to never see him again!
We’ll see about that, he thought as he thwacked the paintbrush hard against the wall.
CHAPTER SIX
“I WON’T HAVE IT!” Holly burst through the door to his office, red-faced and furious.
Lukas swallowed his astonishment—and the leap of his heart—at the sight of her. “You won’t have what?” he asked mildly.
It had been a week since he’d seen her. A week in which he’d managed to knock out three walls, paint an apartment, read the best twenty-five grant applications, interview half a dozen gallery assistant applicants, show up at the first session of work on the Promise out at the boatyard and dream about Holly every night—sometimes twice.
He had picked up the phone fifty times at least, to call her “just to talk.” And every time he’d put it down again because, God knew, he and Holly had never “just talked.” But it would have been a place to start.
Now, apparently, he didn’t have to. He looked past her toward the open door wondering how she’d got past Sera. Not that he was objecting.
As he did so, Sera appeared in the doorway. “I’m sorry! I was on the phone and she...she just...zipped past.”
Lukas shrugged, still enjoying the heightened color in her cheeks. “She does things like that.” He gave Sera a commiserating smile. “It’s all right. I’ll handle her.”
“You won’t ‘handle’ me!” Holly slapped her hands on his desk and glared at him. “You can’t handle me, Lukas Antonides! I’m not Matt. You’re not going to ignore me!”
Sera paused in the doorway. “Are you sure, Lukas?”
Lukas, never taking his eyes off Holly, nodded. “It’s fine,” he told Sera. “I’ve never ignored you, Holly.” Couldn’t. Not even when I wanted to.
Holly snorted. But at least Sera believed him. With one last worried glance, she backed out of the room. Lukas waited until the door had closed with an audible click, then nodded toward one of two leather armchairs not far from his desk. “Would you like to sit down? Can I get you a cup of coffee?”
“No, I wouldn’t like to sit down! And I don’t want coffee. I’m not staying. This is not a social call!”
“I gathered that,” he said drily. “So what’s the problem?”
She hugged her arms across her breasts. “I won’t let you do to the kids what you did to Matt!”
Lukas sobered instantly. “What are you talking about?”
“You went to the boatyard yesterday.”
“So?” That was a bad thing? He’d rung up Father Morrison on Monday and asked when they were meeting. He’d been intrigued by the idea of working with them—and tempted by the thought that Holly might be there. She hadn’t been. But he’d still found the kids’ eagerness compelling, and they’d been thrilled to learn about his connection to the boat.
“Why?” she demanded.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re raising expectations!” Holly’s voice began to rise again, too. “They’ll expect you to come every week!”
Lukas tilted his head. “So?”
“So it won’t work. You’ll go a few times. Make them count on you—and then you’ll drop them.”
“No. I—”
“It’s what you do, Lukas,” she insisted, cutting him off. “It’s what you always did. You always started something, then didn’t finish it.”
“The hell I—”
“You did,” she insisted. “Remember the go-kart you and Matt were going to build?”
She’d had to go back a long way for that one, Lukas thought. He’d been eleven.
