Page 12 of Summer with a Daddy

“I guess I am.”

I grab him by the neck and turn him around to walk him out of the bar. No one else gets up to help me, but they don’t help him either.

Natalie looks at us with shock. “Luke?”

“I’ll be right back, sweet girl. Everything’s fine.”

“Yeah, sweet ass, everything’s good,” the asshole says and I decide that I’m going to punch him once we are outside instead of just throwing him out the door.

But when we get outside there are a couple of cops right there and I just hand him off. He hasn’t done anything illegal, but he starts fighting with the cops and they arrest him. Much more satisfying than hitting him and having sore knuckles for a few days.

I return to the bar and Natalie.

“Are you okay, Luke?”

“Absolutely,” I say as I lean over and give her a quick kiss. Our drinks were delivered while I was gone and I take a deep pull off my beer. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you and that guy was going to cause problems if he didn’t leave.”

“My hero,” she says batting her eyes.

Quickly the asshole is forgotten and Natalie and I enjoy the rest of our time out. We pick up cupcakes at the bakery and Natalie teases me about being sad to not see the hunky Love Beach firefighters. I promise to make it up to her with something even better and then follow through when we get home.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NATALIE

I am in love and I don’t know how to tell my dad. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and my dad is coming back for the week. His plane lands in less than two hours. He’s going to stay here in Love Beach at Luke’s house and I don’t think that Luke is going to go with my plan of pretending we aren’t a couple while he’s here.

“I can stay in the guest room for the week he’s here. It wouldn’t be bad and then he’ll be gone until late August.”

“What’s your plan for then? Keep moving to the guest room every time he visits? Live in two different houses and just have sleepovers every once in a while?”

“Maybe we will have worked out a way to tell him by then and we will have been together longer. I think he might be more accepting if we’ve been together for more than two weeks.”

We are sitting out on the patio having lunch. Luke stands and starts pacing.

His voice is fun of irritation when he says, “I’m not hiding how I feel about you. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m so in love with you and I will not hide that.” I stare at him. He’s never said he loves me before. “What?”

“You love me?”

“Of course, I do.”

“You’ve never said it before.”

“What?” He looks distraught at the idea of never telling me his feelings. I’ve never said mine either, because I didn’t want to get shut down. He falls to his knees in front of me. “Sweet girl, I’m so in love with you. I have been since I saw you at your college graduation party. The last weeks with you in my home and in my bed have been the best in my whole life. I can’t imagine never living a moment without you.”

I go to my knees too and wrap my arms around him. “I love you, too. Luke, you have to know that you are everything to me. That’s why it’s important that you don’t wreck your friendship with my dad. I know how important you are to each other. I can’t choose between the two of you and I’m afraid he’ll make me pick.” Tears are streaming down my eyes.

“He wouldn’t do that to you,” Luke tries to reassure me, but I know my dad. He’s overprotective of me. This summer is actually a great example. He might have acted like my staying with Luke was about having access to the beach for my thesis, which has been helpful, but he also didn’t want me to be alone. He was worried about being out of the country and me having someone to make sure I was okay.

“Luke, can we please do this my way? I promise that we can tell Dad at the end of the summer. I just want this to be a good week and to have fun watching the fireworks tomorrow.”

“Okay, but I can’t promise that I won’t try and sneak a kiss when he’s not in the room. It’s going to be hell sleeping without you.”

“I know, but I’ll give you a huge reward when he’s gone for being so understanding,” I promise.

“You better.”

We both stand up and Luke pulls me up in his arm. I wrap both legs around his waist and he sits me on the table. I know that we need to stop, but I can’t pull myself away from his mouth. Luke thinks it’s going to be hard for him to go a whole week without being with me, but I don’t want to be without him either.

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