Page 23 of Loyally, Luke
Her words brought his focus back to the nice, predictable wall. Near the bottom, a wood piece, several inches thicker than regular baseboard, cut off a few of the names.
Had someone tried to cover a damaged part of the wall? Could it have been from a previous renovation?
He frowned. That wouldn’t make sense, since the wall was clearly still original to the house. But Luke hadn’t noticed any other such renovations. And it wasn’t a particularly professional job.
“Is it loose at all?”
Ellie gave the wood piece a tug. “It moves a little and I think, well, it’s covering something.” Then she turned, looked up at him, and plucked his hammer right out of his fingers. “Thank you,” she added, with a crooked grin, before pressing her phone into his empty hand. “Would you mind directing the light for me?”
And there he stood, hand in the air like the Tin Man fromThe Wizard of Oz, or maybe he was more like the Scarecrow, because hisbrain went completely blank. She’d just taken his hammer right out of his hand. No hesitation.Hishammer. He looked down at his palm where the pale blue mobile phone sat in its place.
Then... she worked the hammer like she knew how.
Ms.Perfume-Coffee held the tool in her hand with familiarity and hooked the claw to the edge of the wooden slab without a hitch. With a push to leverage the claw deeper between the wood and wall, the board separated a little from its hold.
“Something is definitely down here.” Her volume rose with excitement and his mind still didn’t know what to do with the change.
If his brain hadn’t been muddled, he’d have responded more quickly, but before Luke could warn her about the possible somethings hiding in dark, cold places in old houses, she gave the hammer another twist. The wood popped loose and, immediately, two things happened at once.
Ellie screamed.
And then her arms flew up as she jumped back and the hammer hit Luke square in the eye.
Well, thankfully, his cheekbone and forehead caught most of the impact.
And the claw wasn’t pointed in his direction. Just one of the flat sides.
He grunted and stumbled back, reaching for his head, but only succeeded in hitting it with the phone he still held. Ellie half-turned and fell into him, slamming into his chest as his back hit the opposite wall. His free arm came around her to keep her from toppling over, which meant they both slid together, her head in his neck, all the way down into a seated position... with her on his lap.
Everything stopped for a second, and then his formerly muddled brain shot into overactive mode.Shedistracted any pain in his face. Her scent surrounding him. The softness of her body against his. The tickle of her hair brushing his neck.
And then she buried a little deeper against him, her fingers clutching his flannel shirt, and Luke wondered, for a second, if maybe hehadstepped into one of Penelope’s movies... complete with orange petals invading his senses.
Then Ellie’s grip tightened on his shirt and she sat upright, her face mere inches away. He’d heard some sappy statement at one time or other about a man falling into a woman’s eyes, and had dismissed the idea as something a person like his sister would write... but at that moment, he understood. Maybe it was the head wound or the way the light from her phone shone at just the right angle to reveal a glimmer within the blue, but for a split second, he forgot how to move his eyeballs.
She didn’t release him from his fall immediately. Only stared. Wide eyes so mesmerizing, he didn’t just fall but practically jumped right back into their depths.
Maybe she’d fallen in too, but that didn’t sound right. Women didn’t fall into men’s eyes, did they? Seemed men proved the clumsy ones in that case.
And... he gave himself another mental slap.
“There... there’s something brown and furry down there,” she whispered, a shiver moving through her into him.
His palm instinctively tightened on her back.
And then she seemed to realize their intimate position, because she pushed off him but didn’t go far. Twisting into a seated position beside him, she pressed her back into the corner of the wall farthest from the hole. With an audible swallow, she gestured with his hammer toward the partially revealed space on the other side. “The... the brown something... wasnotsmall.”
Deep in the recesses of his foggy brain, his sense of humor emerged, and he bit the insides of his cheeks to keep from grinning. Life had afforded him a lot of construction experiences, but this was new.
“It’s not funny.” She raised the hammer like a pointy finger.
“Not one bit.”
The tension in her lips loosed ever so slightly from what he could see in the dimness. “I’m serious.”
“Very,” he said, nodding.
Those eyes narrowed as if in warning, so before she could fire back some retort, Luke braced his palm against the wall and struggled to a stand, the pulsing in his face confirming swelling.
