Page 115 of Green Flag
He placed the smaller one in my hands. “Try this. This is my favourite present.”
I ripped apart the wrapping paper and found some black, lensless glasses. Connected to a rubber nose.
I pulled it out of the wrapping with my finger and thumb, letting the paper fall to the floor. “Luca, what is this?” I laughed.
“For all your detective work,” he laughed and brushed my hair back before taking them and putting them on for me. “Hot damn, Everly Bacque.”
There was no way he was being honest. I grabbed my phone from Dad’s desk to look at myself in the front camera.
And cackled. A complete, body-rolling laugh until my stomach hurt.
“Hot damn, indeed,” I managed to wheeze, brushing the tears out from under the glasses. “Surely I’m irresistible like this?”
His smile was soft. “Of course.”
Where was Fia with that mistletoe when I needed her?
Then I imagined how that would look and laughed again. My fake, plastic nose brushing his. The black frame of the glasses pressed into my face.
His smile grew.
“I don’t deserve this symbolic treasure,” I said and tapped the frame. “We haven’t been very successful in our snooping.”
Leaving Texas, we’d got the plane back with Dad to England and managed to snoop through his luggage again, only to find nothing other than an extensive collection of hotel soaps. Not a drug dealer, but indeed a thief.
And that had us laughing until others joined us on the plane.
Laughing was easy with him.
“Your laugh sounds weird with the nose thing,” he said and even though he was staring at the long schnoz, I really wished he’d been looking at my mouth, wanting to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss him.
But that stopped me.
My laugh was gross. I knew it, I didn’t need someone else to tell me.
“Just that it sounds different,” he said quickly, reaching out. “I love your laugh.”
My brows came down. “You do?”
He nodded deeply. “It’s a good day when I manage to get that laugh out of you.”
Luca Mendes was too good for me. He always would be. There was no planet where he and I would ever be together.
Where he’d want to kiss me outside of sex or publicity.
“We, er, could snoop in here?” I said, looking around and stepping back. “He’s so old school, I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept receipts of all the drugs he had for his finances.”
Luca’s chuckle was false, but I took it. Whatever he would give me, I’d take.
“You check the filing cabinet,” I said. “And I’ll get the desk.”
We both went into action, looking through papers, the adrenaline kicking in.
When I realised, somewhere along the line, I’d lost touch with what we’d been doing. Revenge felt so far away when I wasn’t sure I actually wanted to find evidence of my dad’s wrongdoing.
Because he wasmy dad.
Because it would mean I’d lose Luca.
