Page 38 of Loyally, Luke
“And my sisters would say I can be high pressure on the teasing side or in competitions. I can get pretty hot during those moments.” Then he gestured toward her with his cup. “So what about this journal?”
“Ah, did we spend too long talking about you, Mr.Edgewood?” She watched a tinge of red creep into his cheeks as she took a drink of her coffee... and, simply put, it was one of the most attractive things she’d ever seen.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “If you don’t want to share, we can just head right back inside.”
“Very well.” She released an exaggerated sigh. “It’s simply that. A journal. From what I can tell, it belonged to one of the former maids of the house and tells of a romance she developed with a local farmer.”
“Of course it’d be about a romance.” Despite his growly response, she almost felt him smile, so she continued.
“I read it all in one night.”
“That gripping of a romance, or were you just bored?”
Her grin spread. “Actually, it was simply beautiful and I mean both of those words. It held a simple beauty. Nothing grand or glorious. No fencing, fighting, torture, or revenge.”
“Monsters?” He raised a brow. “Chases or escapes?”
A laugh burst out of her at his continuing the quote fromThe Princess Bride. “No, but there was true love, it seems, and that was the miracle.”
He scrunched up his nose as if he’d caught a sour scent. “We leave gross talk like that away from the jobsite, Ellie.”
And she lost her laugh again. “Well then, I’ll save the talk for another day and place so as not to sully the jobsite. But there was something incredibly sweet about such a simple sort of love. Straightforward and tender.”
“I reckon the best kind of love is simple in one way.” He looked back out over the horizon. “Choosing each other over and over and over again.”
She stared up at him, the declaration taking her by surprise. And yet it fit him. Direct and tender without any frills. She liked that.
He looked down at her then and shook his head, a new wash of pink coloring his cheeks. Ah, he hadn’t meant to say that.
The sound of hammers and falling wood broke into the quiet, and Luke glanced behind him back into the hall. “Looks like the break is over.” He took a few steps back, his words rushing out as if someone had given him an escape.
And it just made him more endearing.
No, Ellie. No. You promised yourself that the next time you gave your heart, it would be to the right man or not at all.
And American carpenter Luke Edgewood wasn’t an option.
She pushed away from the railing, raising her cup to him in salute. “Well then, I suppose it’s back to being a gofer.”
“I have to say you’re one of the best-lookin’ gofers I’ve ever worked with.” His eyes shot wide and he looked away, clearing his throat as he took a few more steps back.
Oh, she couldn’t let him get away with a sweet comment like that now, could she? “Ogling again, are we?”
His jaw twitched but he leveled her with a look, almost like taking a challenge. “Just stating facts.” And then the resident twinkle reentered his eyes. “And I don’t know how much of a compliment you should make of it. I work with mostly grumpy, seasoned men who smell like sawdust and sweat. Your presence would be an improvement on all fronts.”
With a lift of his own cup, he turned back toward the hall, and to her own dismay—and delight, if she was being honest—she ogled him all the way back inside.
The smile fell from her face as the door closed behind him. What was she doing? She’d worked so hard to move in the direction her family wanted her to go. Spent three years trying to renew her thinking toward solid, wholesome plans any princess should have for her family and country.
And she’d worked hard to earn her parents’ trust and confidence again.
They were finally reinstating her, officially, as a working royal at the Wild Hyacinth Ball, and she wanted that. She wanted to prove to them she was ready.
Her gaze went back to the hall and her heart constricted from a sudden pang.
Which meant another hard lesson of royal life.
Making choices for the greater good.
