Page 25 of Scripted for Love and Poison
“I don’t need you to stay thankful. That’s what friends are for!” Lola didn’t raise her voice, but her words left no room for argument. “What I need is you to remember yourresolutionneverto have anything to do with David again. And now you go and put your partner in touch with him!”
“Luke needed a contact for his case! So that he can return to London!”
“But you didn’t tell him who David was,” Lola argued.
“What do you mean so thatIcan return to London?” Luke said. “Aren’t you also coming?”
“Geoff, this was a lovely dinner, as usual. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go for a walk—alone,” Sol said, standing from the table, then leaving her friends’ place.
She wasn’t sure exactly where she was supposed to be heading. It was dark and cold, and she hadn’t exactly grabbed a jacket, her wallet, or even her phone. But she just started walking alongside the jacaranda tree–lined residential street. And pretended she wasn’t about to break.
···
“Please get inside the car, you are shivering.” She heard Luke’s worried voice from a nearby car, which had pulled over at the curve and stopped next to her.
She didn’t know how long she’d been wandering around the neighborhood. But she’d had time to cry her agitation out, analyze everything that had happened, and even make a few resolutions. She was feeling energized and better. But it had started drizzling halfway through her restorative walk, and she was soaked and freezing.
She turned in the direction of the voice and went to the car, getting into the front passenger side. The moment she was inside, she saw Luke’s face. She’d never seen him wearing such preoccupied features. They didn’t suit him. She didn’t like being the one who’d contributed to his discomfort—or his diminished prettiness.
He took out his midnight-blue bomber jacket and wrapped it around Sol’s shoulders. His hands made circular movements around Sol’s arms and back to warm her up.
“Lola let me borrow her car,” Luke explained, as she was still not talking. “The moment you left, we started arguing about the best course of action.”
“Arguing?”
“Geoff thought you deserved privacy and being left alone and in peace like you had requested. Lola and I wouldn’t hear of it,” Luke explained while he kept heating her skin through his jacket. “By the time Lola and I decided it was me who had to go look for you, you were nowhere in sight. I’ve been driving around Los Feliz for twenty minutes.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Luke said. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I know these past few days haven’t been great.”
“We should have stayed in London,” Sol said.
Luke leaned forward and shot her a half smile. “Believe it or not, I think coming here was a good idea.”
“Has all this driving on thewrongside of the road permanently traumatized you or something?” Sol snapped. “What are you talking about? I thought you hated it!”
“Don’t get me wrong, I do thoroughlyhateit. And there’s plenty of reason for it. We’ve had two cases thrown at us while we were supposed to enjoy some much-deserved downtime. Your luggage was lost. and you’ve been forced to wear my clothes.”
“I like your clothes, they smell of you,” Sol said, getting closer to him.
“You have one editor asking you to write about a movie you don’t care to even watch.” Luke hesitated, then pressedon, his voice clipped. “And one former editor offering you a job you feel you should take.”
“But that I know very much that Idon’twant to take,” she said.
That was one of the conclusions she’d reached during her walk. There had been several reasons that had driven her away from Los Angeles, and not all of them were her ex-husband David. She wasnotreturning to the city. Not now. Not to work with Claudia. And not alone.
Luke’s tone shifted, softer now. “You were thrown out of the four-star hotel we were staying at, haven’t had a good night’s sleep since landing in California, and have had no sex for days.”
“And I’m incredibly pissy and cranky because of that,” Sol admitted. “I also miss you in an almost painful way but haven’t been able to find the way to tell you.”
“You miss me? I thought you were cross with me.”
“You see, I haven’t been able to communicate. But that’s not even everything,” she said. She was finally ready to voice what had been keeping her wrapped up for days. She raised her gaze, holding Luke’s chestnut eyes inside the dark vehicle.
“The next time we go to Barcelona, I’ll introduce you to Miquel.”
Luke blew out a sharp breath through his nose, jaw tight. “Your first ex-husband.”
