Page 3 of Luke

She took it, grateful to wet her throat, and smiled at the man. “Thank you,” she said when she finally got her coughing under control for the moment.

“I will be back with medicine. Anything else?” he asked.

Paisley started to shake her head before stopping herself. This man was going to go to the store for her no matter what she said so she might as well be honest.

“Can I get cough medicine and cough drops please? Maybe some of that chest rub stuff?” she asked.

He nodded and helped her set the groceries just inside her apartment. “Lock up, miss. I’ll be back soon.”

She nodded and closed the door, flipping all the locks. It wasn’t as unsafe here as most people assumed though. It wasn’t “leave your door unlocked” safe, but the extra locks she’d installed were unnecessary.

The groceries had extra things this week: new clothes for Garrett in a bigger size. She hadn’t told Luke he was growing, but then simple math might have made that easy to know. Luke had put effort in on this one. She pulled out pens and notebooks, markers, sticky notes, all things she loved.

It made her smile to think that he remembered anything that had happened between them. It had been a running joke of Luke writing things on random sticky notes and her coming across them later. It was entirely possible that Luke had just told someone that she liked those things and they’d gotten them for her.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t resist flipping through the sticky notes, looking for a message from Luke. Shock caused her to drop the pad on the floor, and it took her a moment to find the one that Luke had written on again.

I remember this, too.

That was all he’d written, but it confirmed that Luke had gotten some of these things for her and that his mind was in the same place hers was. It was hard not to remember when things had been going well. Then they’d fallen apart.

Pushing that from her mind, she carried on putting groceries away. If there was anything a small baby might need, Garrett had it, just in case.

No sooner than she’d put it all away did the knock return to her door. Sure it was the delivery driver back with her medicine, she opened it without looking and nearly fell over at Luke standing there.

“Why didn’t you message me?” he demanded.

“About what?” Her voice was hoarse even to her own ears.

Luke arched a blond brow toward the ceiling. “Your medicine will be here soon. Let me in, Paisley.”

She opened the door wide and backed away for him to come in. “You probably shouldn’t stay long. I think it might be the flu.”

He nodded but didn’t acknowledge her. Looking around her apartment, he saw something and moved to the counter.

“You got my note,” he said.

She had peeled that one off and stuck it on the fridge. Now her face flamed at being caught.

“Go shower, Paisley. Take your time. I’ll answer the delivery guy when he gets back with your medicine.” Luke urged her away from the kitchen. “I’ve got this.”

“Garrett,” she reminded him.

“Is he asleep?” Luke asked.

Paisley nodded.

“If he wakes up and I can’t handle it, then I’ll let you know. Please go take some time for yourself.”

Some time alone where another adult would let her know if Garrett needed her sounded like heaven. She was at the point in life where she thought she heard him crying while she was in the shower all the time. He never was.

Maybe with Luke here, she could relax for a change.

“Promise you’ll get me if he wakes up?” Paisley asked.

“I’ll get you if he needs you,” Luke amended. “I’m not going to come get you right away if he doesn’t need anything.”

“You won’t leave?” she asked cautiously.

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