Page 143 of Anyone But Her

"Yeah, but that was before you talked to your dad. It sounds like you guys worked some stuff out but I think if we stayed, things would get even better between you two. And I wouldn't mind spending some time in San Diego. You can show me around. Show me all your favorite places. We'll make this our vacation."

"You'd really be okay with that?"

"Yeah, I think it'd be fun."

He hugs me. "God, I love you."

"So what should we do first?"

He lets me go. "Are you hungry? There's this sandwich place around the corner where Albert and I used to go. It's the first place he ever took me. It was the day we moved in. My parents were too busy to make dinner so Albert took me out."

He sounds excited just talking about it. He loved Albert so much and misses him more than anything. I thought it'd be hard for Luke to be back here, surrounded by memories, but he seems happy. Maybe that's because I'm with him, making those memories not so sad.

"Sounds great!" I say, matching his excitement. "Let's go. You want to invite your parents?"

"Not now. I want this to be just you and me. Maybe we'll go to dinner with them tonight."

The fact that he's open to having dinner with them is proof that Luke and his dad had a major breakthrough today. I think things will be a lot better between them now.

After lunch we head to the lawyer's office. We don't have an appointment so I'm sure the guy isn't going to meet with us but I don't tell Luke that. He's really happy right now and I don't want to say anything that might bring him down.

"We're here to see Mr. Pascall," Luke says to the receptionist.

"Do you have an appointment?" she asks.

"No, but he's been trying to reach me and every time I try to call him back he's on the phone or in a meeting. I stopped by to see if he could just give me a few minutes."

"What's your name?"

"Luke Sydel."

"I'll be right back."

A few moments later a man in a suit walks up to us. "Luke. Good timing. I've got about five minutes before my next client shows up. Come back to my office."

I follow them back there.

"And who are you?" the lawyer asks as I walk in his office.

"She's my girlfriend," Luke says.

The lawyer stares at me as he goes around his desk to sit down. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"

"No, but you might know me if you follow golf. My dad is Lou Tuckerman."

Mr. Pascall smiles. "One of my favorite players. Tell him I'm a huge fan."

"Taylor is also a golfer," Luke says. "She's on her college team. And her brother, Cal, played pro for awhile."

"Yes, I remember. It's a shame it didn't work out." He takes a folder from a stack. "I hear you're turning pro soon."

"That's the plan," Luke says. "Although it might be delayed. I need to get a job and save some money. Right now I don't even have enough to pay rent."

"That shouldn't be a problem going forward." He opens the folder and takes out a sheet of paper. "This is the change Albert made to his will. We had it on paper but it didn't get transferred to our computers because it happened when we were moving our offices. I apologize for the mistake." He sets the paper down in front of Luke and points to the second paragraph. "This states that the house transfers to you."

"And his kids know that I own it?"

"Yes, they've both been told."

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