Page 24 of No Ordinary Love

Mama was right; Amara was not from our world. Right now, I wasn't sure if that was a bad thing, especially when Hugh was insisting that I seal the deal with his daughter. The man had always been insistent, but now he was leaning on me harder than ever to solidify my relationship with Kath. We'd had this conversation before, but this time, it felt different. It was as if he were issuing an ultimatum, thinly veiled beneath that Southern charm he wielded like a weapon.

"Lucas, it's time." Hugh's demeanor was clear, he wasn't offering advice—he was giving me a directive. "You and Kath belong together. It's what's best for both families. You've had your time to think, but now it's time to act. You're not getting any younger, and neither is she."

Kath was twenty-nine, a year younger than my thirty. I didn't think I was old and so she definitely wasn't. Butknowing Hugh and how our world worked, he was talking about Kath having a child soon.

"We're not dating," I told him emphatically, "We're still—"

"What the hell are you waitin' for, son?" He raised his voice, which he usually didn't do, and that struck me as more than insulting. Did he think I was a child and he could pressure me into getting married?

"I'm waitin' to know if I want Kath to be my wife," I fired off bluntly. "She left me for my friend, Hugh, so it's not like—"

"That was years ago, and she made a mistake."

I clenched my jaw as Hugh all but turned red with rage. He still had a full head of hair, albeit now platinum silver. He wore atailored suit, and his signature walking stick with an eagle head leaned against my desk. He'd been in a skiing accident many years ago and had first used the stick for practical purposes and now for both support and the aesthetics of it. Hugh could be vain.

"I don't want to make a mistake."

"Is this about that broad you were seeing? Patsy tells me you got rid of her."

I didn't like how he talked about Amara. Not even a little bit.

"Amarawas my girlfriend, Hugh and we were living together whensheended the relationship," I reminded.

He guffawed. "Patsy told me what happened. Hell, Lucas, you love Kath, and you were usin' that girl to get your rocks off. We've all been there."

My rocks off?I tamped down my anger, now pissed with his insinuation that Amara was some sort of slut who I'd used to fuck.

"We werelivingtogether, Hugh. It might have been for a short few months, but Amara is theonlywoman I've ever lived with." I wanted to impress upon him how important Amara had been to me and still was.

"You love Kath. You've always loved her, and she you." Hugh went from irritation to cajoling in seconds. This was why he was such a good negotiator; he read the room like a motherfucker. But this wasn't a business deal. This was my life.

"I've known Kath my whole life, Hugh, and I'll always love her, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to jump into a relationship with her."

His pushing me was making me even more reluctant to go there with Kath. I knew she was pissed with me for not going beyond a few perfunctory and almost-platonic kisses, not letting her suck me off as she'd tried the night we'd run into Amara and Jax.

Kath was frustrated that I wasn't ready to jump right into who we used to be. She said she couldn't understand my restraint. Truth be told, I wasn't sure what was up with me either. I had thought that once Kath was mine, I'd be on her and in her twenty-four-seven. But every time I thought about having sex, I could only think about Amara. I could only think about the affection and love we shared in bed, the passion. There had never been hate sex the way Kath and I used to go at it. There had been no makeup sex because Amara and I didn't fight nasty like that.

Had what I thought was an all-consuming passion for Kath actually been a toxic relationship? That thought had been running through my mind far more than I ever expected.

"Make some decisions, son." Hugh stood up. "Your mother and I are expecting an engagement by Thanksgiving."

A wave of frustration washed over me at his casual statement. I could feel the tension in my neck, the way my jaw clenched involuntarily. I wasn't just pissed off at Hugh. I was pissed at myself for letting it get this far. For letting them all believe that Kath and I were headed somewhere we weren't.

I knew why he was mentioning my mother; she wasn't as direct as Hugh, but then she didn't need to be. She knew how to nag and get her way. She'd been dropping hints, pushing her agenda, trying to make it seem like marrying Kath was the natural next step, the one that would tie our families together in a neat little bow. It was as if everyone was more concerned about the optics than about what I actually wanted. Or maybe they just assumed that what I wanted didn't matter. But it did. And the more they pushed, the more I realized that I didn't want what they were offering—not right now, at least.

"I'd hate to let you or Mama down, Hugh, but I need you to be prepared for me doin' exactly that."

Hugh's eyes narrowed. "Lucas, think carefully about how you treat my daughter."

"I'm treating Kath with the utmost respect," I informed him, raising myself. I was two inches taller, and I wasn't going to cower like a kid who had been caught with his pants down with Hugh's teenage daughter. "In fact, I have been as respectful as I was when she was with Mercer."

Hugh seemed to consider that for a moment, and his demeanor softened. "Son, she never married him. She wants to marry you. It's always been you."

"Then why the hell did she leave me for him?" I demanded.

Kath had given me the whole spiel ever since she dumped my ass. She and Mercer were friends, and then it became more. She was young and confused. She and I had been together since we were eighteen, and she thought she wanted someone else. Now, she was wiser.

"She made a mistake," Hugh gritted out. "The girl has paid for it. Hasn't she?"

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