Page 1 of No Ordinary Love

Chapter 1

Amara

"You've only been with Amara for two years, and you just started living together; that's hardly a long time, Lucas. You and Kath were together for five. She made a mistake, but now she's back, and she's sorry," I heard Patsy Covington say.

I put my hand on the wall outside Lucas's mother's living room, waiting to hear Lucas's response, aware that I was afraid to hear it.

"I'm with Amara, Mama, so it doesn't matter if Kath is single or not."

Did Lucas's voice sounded hollow, regretful? My heart began to beat fast.

"Just answer me this. Do you still love Kath?"

Silence.

"Yes. I do. I think I always will," Lucas replied, and it broke my heart. "Amara and I are good together. We just moved in—"

"But do you love her?" Patsy persisted.

I should say something, I thought. I should let Lucas know I was here so I wouldn't have to hear him say what I knew he would. In all the time we'd been together, he'd never told me he loved me. Even when I said it, he told me he was so grateful and lucky to have me in his life, but he never gave me the three words, and now he was never going to. I was certain of that. That certainty only solidified when he softly said, "I don't know, Mama."

The words ran through me like a bullet ripping my flesh apart, and the destructive path it took continued because Lucas wasn't done.

"IthinkI do, but it's just…. What Amara and I have is different from what I had with Kath. That was all-consuming."

All-consuming?

"And what's it with Amara?" Patsy asks.

"Comfortable."

Like a pair of old shoes?

"Son, you know what you have to do."

I guess I also now knew what I had to do. Didn't I? Had I suspected this? Yes. But then, I couldn't have imagined this handsome, gorgeous man wanting anything to do with a boring, nerdy professor like me. I was nothing like Kath. She was blonde, built, beautiful. I was…unremarkable. I wasn't tall or short, just average. I wasn't thin or fat, just your regular size eight. I wasn't beautiful or ugly, just your ordinary girl next door.

Patsy had told me time and again that I didn'tdresssuitably for their social status. No matter what I wore, no matter how much I tried to fit in and dress likethem, the Charleston society girls, it was not enough.

I was a jeans and T-shirt kind of professor. I preferred Chucks to high heels. I preferred staying home than going to a party. But I went to plenty with (and for) Lucas, spending money on clothesthat weren't me and getting my hair done and makeup put on so I could look like the poor man's version of Kath. Next to her I was not curvy enough, my waist wasn't thin enough, my hair was too unruly—I was too intellectual, too dull. Lucas had told me he liked that about me. It was apparent now that he'd lied. I'd been…what? A rebound after Kath dumped him? I was the exact opposite of his ex; is that why he gravitated toward me?

I straightened and put some distance between Patsy's living room and me. I was not sure how I was still able to stand or walk because I couldn't feel my legs.

Dazed, I looked around the spacious hallway and nodded at Jerome, the long-time Covington Butler who'd walked me into the Lucas's family mansion before my world fell apart.

"Would it be too much to hope you didn't hear that?" I whispered.

Jerome smiled sadly. "Hear what, Professor Amara?"

"Just Amara," I corrected automatically. He was the only one outside of my students and colleagues who called me Professor. It was his way, and protesting was mine. Well, this would be the last time, wouldn't it?

After two years of wondering why Lucas was with me, not believing my luck, and feeling insecure whenever I was around his family—finally, I'd gotten my head out of my ass. Sure, it had taken hearing Lucas say he didn't know if he loved me, but he did know that he loved Kath and would always love her—but as they said, better late than never.

I licked my lips. My throat was parched. It was hard to get the words out. It was as if all the moisture in my body had pooled behind my eyes.

"I'm going to go," I said hoarsely.

What the hell else was there left to do? I couldn't stay here? I couldn't walk into that room now and have them pretend that they were happy to see me. Well, Patsy wouldn't even do that,but Lucas would. He'd smile. He'd kiss me with that same mouth that he had confessed to his mother with that hedidn't knowif he loved me, which was basically the same as him saying hedidn'tlove me.

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