Page 20 of Backroom Boy
“What?”
“Tell us!”
“I’m happy for you, Delta.”
They all talked at once. I beamed, realizing I’d missed this. Having good friends to share everything with. Sure, Lukas and I were a team, but it wasn’t us versus the world, like it seemed. I had girlfriends too who’d back me and not ask questions.
I swirled what was left of my ice water, buying time just to annoy them. “Well…we’re keeping things a secret since he works for my dad, but he’s pretty amazing.”
My eyes filled with tears, surprising even myself. I hadn’t truly realized what Lukas meant to me until this very moment. I’d never felt like someone’s most important person. My parents had always had each other and the winery to take all their attention, and though I’d had good friends in high school and college, I’d never had a true bestie. Lukas and I felt like an extension of each other.
And I’d left him in my driveway by himself.
“Ahh, Delta,” Anna oozed, leaning over to give me a hug.
I set down my glass and stood quickly. “Guys. I gotta get back and talk to Lukas.”
“Okay, honey. Let’s go.” Natalie stood too and grabbed her purse.
Suddenly, there was nothing that mattered more than getting home and talking things out with Lukas. He needed to know me leaving him standing there hadn’t been because I didn’t think he was worthy of meeting my friends. It was because I was jealous and afraid they’d flirt with him and he’d dump me for someone prettier and new. I should have trusted him more, which meant I had some apologizing to do.
When my car pulled into my driveway, my friends yelled at me to go find Lukas while they got settled in our guest bedrooms. They’d be here through the weekend, which left plenty of time to talk. I threw them air kisses and ran as soon as my feet hit the ground. I flew down the path leading to the pool house and grabbed the door handle, only to find it locked. I knocked and then called out to him.
There was no answer. And no light on.
I went out back to the tree, thinking maybe he was working out, but there was no Lukas, no speaker, and no sign of him anywhere. I retraced my steps and realized in my race to find him, I’d missed the fact that his motorcycle was gone.
Oh, shit.
I spun in a circle, my hands in my hair.
He was gone.
9
Lukas
I wasn’t the type to rage hot and fast, getting over it in the next breath. I stewed on things far longer than was healthy, letting it fester and build into something more than it was. And this little situation with Delta was no different. The second she dismissed me like the dust covering her fancy shoes in front of her girlfriends, I’d wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of Merlot.
Not seeing any other choice, I called in sick for the following day, and if truth be told, I was definitely feeling off. Seeing Delta shrug me off like that after I’d started to come to rely on her and think that maybe we really did have a chance together, put me in a permanent funk. I packed a small bag and hopped on my motorcycle to head home for the long weekend.
My parents, as conservative and as strict as they were growing up, were everything I needed to ground myself again. My dad was the town pastor and my mom was the stereotypical housewife. I didn’t want to live my own life struggling to make ends meet like they did, but I had to admit, they had a fantastic marriage that had served my sister and me well throughout the years. Mom fed me heaping plates of all my favorites over the weekend and Dad even took the afternoon off on Saturday to have a family beach day.
My sister, Lenora, and her husband, Jayden, and their son, Red, met us down at the cliffs. Once their umbrella was pitched and Red had been slathered with enough sunscreen to stunt his growth, they settled down and joined the conversation. Their constant teasing and cajoling finally broke me out of my funk.
“So, now that you’re speaking more than one word at a time again, want to tell us who the girl is?” Lenora shot me a look like she dared me to deny all this angst wasn’t about a girl.
The thing is, Lenora looked all sweet and proper, but she ran a sex toy shop here in Auburn Hill and had the characteristics of a bulldog sniffing an unwatched cheeseburger. Denying my issue had to do with Delta wasn’t an option. Better to just be out with it now.
“Her name is Delta and she’s the daughter of my boss.”
“Oh, son. Really know how to pick ’em,” Dad muttered, his gaze firmly looking out at the sea. He didn’t like conflict, what could I say?
Lenora whipped off her sunglasses. “Must run in the family, this attraction to bosses.” She winked at my brother-in-law and I tried not to vomit. He’d been her boss for all of a day before he’d fired her. He apologized, of course, and then gave her the whole company right after he asked her to marry him.
“This is different though. Her family has owned this winery for decades. They’re one of the wealthiest families in Merlot. They’re not going to turn a blind eye to the poor guy renting their pool house for the summer dating their precious daughter.”
Jayden sat up from where he was sunning on a beach towel. “I don’t know, brother. If they can’t see what a good guy you are, then maybe that’s their issue, not yours. Do you love this girl?”
