Page 48 of Without You, Scotch and Sammy 2

“He’s okay?”

Not really, no. “We have a truce of sorts.”

Luc’s features turn from confusion to a blinding smile and dancing eyes. He jumps forward quickly, picks me up, spins me around, and he drops a big wet kiss on my lips. “Sammy Soda’s here!”

Angelo chuckles. “Put her down, dumbass.”

Luc stops spinning when Lily lets out the sweetest squeak, then practically dropping me like old trash, he dives for Angelo. “What the fuck is this?”

“Luc,” Angelo grumbles. “Language.”

“The baby mama returns,” Luc says wondrously. His hands reach out to touch Lily, but Angelo snatches the car seat away and looks pointedly at me. Luc’s eyes come to mine pleadingly. “Care to introduce me to your little friend, Soda?”

I look at my watch again, noting we still have twenty minutes before she’ll be expecting that bottle, so with a small nod, I turn to Angelo and begin unclipping her.

“Hold on a sec,” Ang says. Turning on his heel, he gestures me forward and leads us into a coffee lounge inside the garage. Strange faces with various degrees of smudged grease and oil pop up as we walk by, but no one speaks.

Angelo sets the car seat on the table on the far side of the small room, then turns back to me and smiles. “Thought you might like to take it out of the street.”

In case Sam drives by. He doesn’t have to say it out loud for me to hear it. I nod, then step forward and unclip her straps and pull the tiny bundle from the heavily padded seat. I turn back to Luc, but jump back again when I realize his face is already within half a foot from mine.

“She’s cute as a button, Soda.”

I smile with pride. “Luca, this is Lily. Lily is my almost three-month-old future daughter.”

Luc takes her from my arms without asking, and as he snuggles her expertly against his chest, his brows pinch. “Future daughter?”

“She’s up for adoption. I’m going to adopt her.”

“Aww, Lily. You need a mama?” Luc’s plump lips roam all over her cheeks and hair. “Such a pretty girl. Where’s her biological mama, Soda?”

I finish my discreet evaluation of Luc’s tall body, from his heavy lace up boots, up long navy-blue pants and then over an official button up shirt with surprising badges on the front and a radio clipped to his breast pocket. It’s an oxymoron. Luc Lenaghan is immature and crazy, but he saves lives during the day.

His sky-blue eyes lift slowly and sparkle, then and he smiles wolfishly. “I grew up good, huh?”

I laugh. “You really did. You look good. So handsome. You’re EMS?”

He nods. “Yeah, I’ve been out of school for a couple years now. Decided I should probably get a respectable job.”

“You sure did. It’s hard for me to consolidate wild Luc with paramedic Luc. Are you gonna save lives with medicine and CPR, or laughter?”

“Both,” he chuckles, leaning in and buzzing his lips along Lily’s cheeks. “I’ve mellowed in my old age, Soda. I’m not that guy anymore.

“Bullshit,” Angelo coughs into his hand. “Luc’s still Luc. He can just turn it off sometimes.”

I continue to smile and look them both up and down. Four from four, and they grew up nice. “Don’t turn it off, Luc. I loved you just the way you were. Crazy and all.”

“Thanks, baby doll. I loved you too. We missed you when you ditched.”

“I’m sorry--”

He shakes his head, and his twinkling eyes turn serious. “I don’t want the party line. I know you probably have a line worked out now. A generic explanation that forgives you ditching us in the night and never returning.”

“Luc--”

“I just don’t wanna hear the practiced one, okay? I want the real. I want to know why you crushed Scotch into a million pieces and left without a backwards glance. I wanna know why we were family, then you disappeared so quick none of us even knew if you were truly safe. You took his call that last night and un-said everything you and he had been saying to each other for years. For some reason, you figured a two-minute phone call was enough for us all to let you go.”

“Luc,” my voice quivers. “I did what I had to--”

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