Page 59 of The Calendar of New Beginnings
“No, she won’t,” Lucy said in a hard tone. “She’ll treat me like I’m a child and insist on doing everything from driving me around to making my meals. All the while she’ll tell me this is for the best because it was never safe for me to be overseas in the first place. I can’t do that.”
He schooled his features as he left the car, only to realize she wasn’t getting out with him. Going over to the passenger side, he lowered his head until he could see her through the window.
“Are you going to come inside?” he asked through the glass.
She shook her head, burrowing in the seat.
His patience was wearing thin, so he didn’t open the door and cajole her. Kim would have dragged herself out of the car, as much for him as for their son, who had been so young at the time of her diagnosis.
When he opened the door to the café, he reminded himself Lucy wasn’t Kim. He needed to tailor his support to fither. After finding a table, he ordered a Reuben and ate it by himself, mulling over the issue. He was tempted to order Lucy something, but he didn’t want to force food on her. She was already bristling over her version of how Ellen would treat her. No, force wasn’t the way.
He kept an eye on her in his SUV, but she hadn’t moved in the seat. Was she asleep? He doubted it. The sandwich had about as much flavor as gravel since his taste buds weren’t firing this morning, a common effect of stress in the body. He finished off the meal because it was fuel, asked for two to-go cups of water, and then walked back to the car. Barely fifteen minutes had passed.
When he handed her a water, she took it, but she didn’t drink it. He put his in the cup holder and buckled up. “I’m sorry if I’m being too pushy, Luce. I…don’t always know what to do in these situations, and I can’t read your mind. You’re going to have to help me. What do you want me to do?”
“Can you just take me home?” she asked, clutching the plastic cup. “I need to do some thinking. Be by myself.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. If he left her alone, she might fall into a deeper depression. “Please do one thing for me, okay?”
She finally looked at him. “What?”
“Remember I’m your friend.” He had to swallow the lump in his throat.
“I know you are,” she whispered. “I’m just…I need space.”
Nodding, he turned on the ignition and headed to the highway that would take them back to Dare Valley. The ride back seemed as long as the one to Denver. They didn’t speak at all, and she didn’t drink the water. She only sat there, huddled in the seat with the cup clutched in her hand.
When they arrived at Merry Cottage, she crawled out of the car and headed for the front door.
“I’ll text Matt so we can pick up your car,” he told her as he followed her.
“Oh!” she said, stumbling suddenly as she turned around. “I can go with you, since Dr. Davidson said I could drive. Don’t bother him.”
His ire was growing. He hated seeing her this way. And he hated not being able to fix it.
“It’s already organized,” he told her flatly.
“Okay, thanks,” she said, shoulders slouched. “I’m sorry I’m Debbie Downer right now. I’ll snap out of it.”
That did it. He grabbed her shoulders. “You don’t have to apologize to me for feeling how you feel.”
Then, without pausing to consider the ramifications, without planning it like he planned almost everything, Andy Hale kissed her smack on the mouth and released her.
“Now, go inside and rest.”
He headed back to the car, taking deep breaths. Lucy just stood there in the shade of the front door, and he could see her press a hand to her mouth as he pulled out of the driveway. It was then he fully realized he’d kissed Lucy O’Brien for the first time.
“Oh, shit.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
If being accused of being psychosomatic wasn’t bad enough, Andy Hale had just kissed her for the first time. In all the years they’d been friends, he’d neveroncekissed her on the mouth. Friends didn’t do that in the U.S. of A. Sure, they did it in other countries, but Lucy could rattle those off by name. It sure as hell wasn’t ordinary here in Dare Valley.
It had been a fast kiss, driven by reflex or subconscious instinct. She hadn’t seen it coming, and it had been over before she’d processed what was happening.
But even though it had felt a little weird, it had felt a little right too. Her lips were still warm and tingly from the unexpected contact.
She watched Andy drive away, wondering if she should call him and ask him what the hell had just happened. But she was too tired and vulnerable right now. Maybe she’d feel more prepared to face him after she took a nap.
