Page 10 of Unexpected

Emmy looked from Luke to me, where I still squatted in front of her. She wore a mischievous grin as she leaned forward, cupped her hand around her mouth, and attempted to whisper in my ear. The volume of the music had been turned down slightly, and Emmy hadn’t exactly gotten the hang of whispering yet, so Luke could hear, too, when she said, “He’s looking at you with googly eyes.”

She saw the confusion on my face, so she clarified, “Mommy said that when a boy does googly eyes at a girl, it means he likes her.”

“Is that so?” I asked, deciding to play along for a moment.

She nodded and glanced back up at Luke one last time before sprinting back down the hallway.

“Well, she’s something,” Luke muttered. His relaxed demeanor from just a moment ago was once again replaced with a hard exterior.

“She is, and on that note, I think I’m going home. Thanks again for being my knight in shining armor.” I turned and expected Luke to argue, but he didn’t. I made my way back down the hallway without looking back. I wanted to know if he was following or watching me. I felt like he was watching me because I swore I could feel his eyes on my back. For some reason, Luke watching me didn’t seem to bother me like most men watching me did.Maybe because I’d never witnessed ill-intent in his eyes the number of times I’d encountered him.

I made a right and swerved around decorations until I was almost to the front door. As I reached for the knob, another hand got to it before me and twisted it. Startled, I looked up to my left and found Luke ushering me out of the door with his hand lightly on the small of my back. I let him lead me out of the house and into the cold.

With the door closed behind us, I faced him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Chris was tracking you through the house and was about to follow you out the door. I thought I’d be the lesser of two evils in this situation.”

He was looking out for me. But it wasn’t only that, Luke was looking out for me and was willing to jump in.

“Okay, well, thanks. Good night.” I waved and walked down the front steps, almost stepping in a spider web once again.

“I’d feel better if I walked you home,” Luke said as he jogged up next to me.

“I think I can manage to get from here to my house without a chaperone,” I said, but I didn’t actually tell him no. I knew I should have fought harder and asked that he leave me alone, but I didn’t want to. He was right, he was the lesser of two evils and I wouldn’t put it past Chris to follow me home.

I didn’t argue, and we walked the short distance to my house in comfortable silence. Whether it was intentional or not, I appreciated the several inches he kept between us. I was still very much on edge after dealing with Chris and was already thinking about the shower I would take to remove the lingering feeling of his hands on me.

Luke walked me all the way to the bottom of my porch, and we both paused at the stairs.

“Okay, well, I’m home now, so—”

“Do you have your phone?” Luke asked abruptly.

Not knowing where he was going with the line of questioning and curious to know what he needed with my phone, I pulled it out of my purse. He held out his hand, and I hesitated.

“I promise I’m not going to scroll through your photos or your texts,” he said as he pushed his hand closer.My curiosity won over my hesitation, so I unlocked my phone and placed it in his palm.

My regular-sized phone looked so tiny in his large hands. As he tapped the screen, I watched his face partially illuminated by my dim porch light. His dark brows furrowed, and the deep green of his eyes danced in the phone screen light.He tapped the screen a few times and handed it back to me.

“Now you have my number if ever you need it.”

“You didn’t have to do that. I don’t need to be rescued all the time,” I joked, but when I looked back up at him after putting my phone away, his expression was deadly serious.

“Look, I hope you don’t have to use it, but it’s also good to have your neighbors’ phone numbers,” he sighed. “Why are you always so difficult? I’m trying to be nice and do the right thing.”

“Since when?”

“Since when what?” he questioned.

I nervously shifted my weight on my feet and wished I could have darted inside. “Since when are you trying to be nice and do the right thing? We’ve been arguing for years. What changed?”

He laughed humorlessly and shook his head. “I’m actually a nice person, Hazel. Maybe you just haven’t given me a chance.”

I contemplated his response. I could see his argument—I was probably more of a pain in the ass than necessary—but he drove me fucking crazy most of the time.

“Fine. Thank you,” I gritted out.

“Was that so hard?” he asked, cocking his head to one side and giving me that damn lopsided smile and showing off his one little dimple that was only slightly visible under his facial hair. His condescending look made me want to take it all back and start another argument, but I decided to be the bigger person for once.

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