Page 8 of This Much Is True
“Seriously, though,” he says, lifting a brow. “I imagine there’s a pissed-off movie star with a security team straight out of a combat zone searching Peachwood County for a runaway bride right about now. It’s not that I couldn’t take them. I’m just wondering if I need to call for reinforcements.”
I laugh. “If by reinforcements you mean Gavin, you might be better off on your own. I remember when Gavin played dead in the mud pits instead of helping you talk to the police about why we were out there past dark.”
Luke laughs, too, and disappears around the corner. “I haven’t thought about that in a long time.”
“I can’t think of Gavin and not think about it.”
“Serves him right to have that as his legacy. Little shit.” Ice clinks against a glass. “Back to the topic at hand. Does anyone know you’re here?” He pokes his head around the corner. “Whyareyou here, anyway?”
My throat goes dry, and I’m suddenly aware of every rise and fall of my chest. He watches me for the longest time, giving me achance to answer. Finally, a shadow falls across his face, and he disappears again.
“Let’s back up,” he says, rounding the corner with two glasses of tea. “How the hell did you get in my house to start with?”
“Key in the boot.”
“How’d you know about that?”
I take the glass from him. “I’m the one who put the key in the boot the first time. I created that hiding spot. I just took a chance that you are a creature of habit and struck gold.”
“Damn. I probably oughta move that, huh?”
“Might not be a bad idea.”Especially if some of his other exes turn up out of the blue.Can’t say I love that idea. Strangely.
He sits on the chair across the coffee table and takes a drink. I wonder what he’s thinking with that glimmer in his eye, but I don’t ask. I’m not exactly in the driver’s seat.
The sun streams in the windows, filling the living room with a bright warmth that seeps into every corner. This house has always had a tranquility about it. Before Poppy passed away and we’d come here so Luke could help his grandfather in the barn, it was always so peaceful. No matter the stress at home, or drama at school, or worries about whatever deal my father was trying to make on my behalf, it all melted away in this house.
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Luke says. “You’re not getting married and fled the scene. Then you showed up here, performed a felony to get into my house, and now … what?”
I smile sheepishly. “I kind of …don’thave a plan.”
“So you just tied me up in one of your shenanigans that will be one of the year's biggest scandals. Awesome.”
“Oh, don’t act like you don’t love a good shenanigan.”
“Not the point,” he says, grinning. “I also love a good tie-up, but that’s not the point either.”
My stomach muscles contract at the heat in his gaze. “I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Hey, it’s not bad for my ego that I was the only person you could think of when you were running from Tom fucking Waverly.”
I smirk. “I said I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. Notwho else.”
“Okay.” He rolls his eyes. “How many houses do you own again?”
“How did you say it?Not the point.”
We exchange a small smile that fills me with big emotions—namely, comfort.
Luke and I could’ve been a perfect match in another time and place.
I’ve replayed the day we broke up more times than I’ve replayed any other event of my life. That moment impacted me more than any charity work, music award, or concert I’ve ever performed. A sunny afternoon, Luke in black-and-yellow flannel, standing in his parents’ driveway. Luke didn’t ask me to stay with him, and I didn’t ask him to go. It’s haunted me ever since. But after each review, I’m left with the same conclusion: it ended the only way it could’ve.
I rest my glass on my dress as a lump rises in my throat. “I can’t go to any of my homes. Tom’s team is crafting his image-saving statement as we speak, and it will not do me any favors. The paparazzi will case my houses and the airport. They’ll even dispatch reporters to places theythinkI might go.”
“Where are you going to go?”
I gulp. “I don’t know. Maybe I could stay here?”
