Page 76 of Falling Backwards
I nod.“I’m glad to help.”
Strange and awkward though this agreement is, I think she knows I mean that.
With a sigh, she starts heading out of the living area.“Okay.Let me get changed real fast, and then…I guess it’ll be time to start pretending for everyone to see.”
Yeah, I guess so.
I take a seat on the couch.A fresh wave of exhaustion hits me, but there’s no denying I feel more at ease than I have in many long hours…
…even though the reason why is overwhelming in its own way.
The thought of it both has me rubbing a hand over my eyes and has my stomach flipping.
I never thought I’d say it, but it leaves me along with my own sigh.
“I’m dating Maggie Moss again.”
M A G G I E
What a day this has been.
Even after entire hours of my and Luke’s…relationship…have ticked by, the way I feel is still so weird.
I guess that makes sense; we’ve gone a long time thinking we were done with each other.Half a day can’t do much in the way of erasing what we’ve been through.
But ithasdone something to the dread I’ve felt over Kyle.
If I’m being completely honest, that effect was damn near instant—as stunned as I was by Luke’s idea, no part of me tried to turn its nose up and stubbornly refuse.Mixed with my questions and concerns was the most bizarre sense of being soothed.And that was at the mere mention of Luke committing to helping me, before he’d even begun putting in real work.
I still feel bad about the fact that thiswillbe a form of work.
Well, not including the attraction part, I guess.I hadn’t expected him to say what he said on that topic, but he seemed genuine.Painfully so.
It sounded like he just might still think I’m beautiful.
I’m trying not to think a lot about how that makes me feel.
At least I won’t have to fake attraction either, though it’ll be quite a change to let those kinds of thoughts shine through.I’m used to focusing on other parts of who he is.
In any case, yes, it’s weird that over the last few hours, I’ve been hoping hard that Kyle won’t show up at Lucent and I’ve also been breathing easy knowing that if he does, Luke will be here to steady me in some way.And even for those times we don’t share a shift, I won’t be on my own—the first thing I did after I clocked in was find Mr.Polk and tell him about Kyle.He was immediately on my side, said he’d let Ronald know, and, aside from seeming surprised, didn’t mind my news that Luke and I are together.
“Just don’t let it get in the way of work,” he said with a breezy smile.
An easy oath to take.
Still, another weird thing is how I don’t mindsomuch that Luke keeps looking over here to me.
It doesn’t seem like he minds so much that I’ve been looking back.
I mean, there haven’t been any lovey-dovey gazes, obviously.But we also haven’t cut glares or exchanged,‘What are you staring at?’eyebrows.I haven’t called the bar phone to ask him to quit distracting me with his childishness, which means he hasn’t had to fire back any snark about my shirt being inside-out or something.
A handful of guests enter the restaurant.I smile and get ready to greet them as if this is an unremarkable work shift—as if my world hasn’t flip-flopped in the last twenty-four hours.
After I’ve seated them, I run my hands over the smooth, dark surface of the hostess stand and think about the conversation Luke and I had earlier.
It had my skin tingling.
Especially the rules about touching.
