Page 31 of Those Who Are Bound

“Well, not yet. I suppose that conversation comes on—what—date two or three?”

“Are you Door Dashing it tonight? Is that what you’re telling me? Dinner delivered by GrubHub?” he teased, heading into her apartment.

Lucy laughed. “I’m sorry, I really will stop.” She stood as well, picking up the laptop. She followed him. “Let me change.”

Lucy’s apartment was basic and small; the living room was open to the kitchen, a bar dividing the space with two stools tucked beneath. The master bedroom and only bathroom were located to one side and the front entry to the other. Her color scheme was bright yellow and floral.

Lucy was the epitome of a “girlie girl”—her words. Her walls were decorated with pictures of friends and inspirational and motivational quotes. She had candles for every occasion, including backups. He knew this for a fact. The woman’s apartment glowed during power outages, a beacon for the Midwest, usually smelling like Sugar Cookies. He loved that about her.

As she headed toward her bedroom, she laid the laptop on the kitchen bar. Jonah stood in the living room and stared at it, resisting the urge to go and look at the picture again, despite his chiding of Lucy for having pried. It was such a graphically unguarded moment, and darkly beautiful; haunting and hurting.That had to have been the most crippling moment of her life, the last of her family gone, and all he could see was beauty; her beauty, her honesty in that moment. “Christ, I’m demented,” he said to himself, that he could find splendor in that moment. But she was magnificent, even while her heart was being shredded.

Lucy came out of the bedroom wearing a white sundress, her cell phone raised up in one hand and a suspicious look on her face. “Why is my boss texting me and asking me for your number?”

Jonah smiled, looking at the cell phone, trying to see the request from where he stood.

She pointed the phone at him. “You were with her all morning and you didn’t give her your number? Do you remember how dating works? Do I need to buy youDating for Dummies?”

Jonah shook his head. “Did you give it to her?”

“Well, duh,I’mnot the dummy.” She snatched up her purse, watching him with a mixture of confusion and frustration.

“Thank you. I wanted it to be her choice,” he said. “Beyond that, she’s not up for discussion.”

Lucy gave him an annoyed expression. “And yet you’re having her text me for your number.” Walking toward the door, she shook her head. “You’re both bad at this; she could have just asked you for it.”

What she’d asked for was sex.The charge of excitement rocked through him yet again at the memory he kept replaying in his mind as he followed Lucy out the door: how Elliott had reached back to the railing, her eyes darkening with desire and indicating he could come upstairs. Her words afterward of how sex could be a thrilling way to discover one another resonated more than she knew.

He most definitely had wanted to go with her; was still kicking himself that he wasn’t there now.

But he wanted more from her.

And he wasn’t sharing the details of the invitation with anyone. That was all his—and hers; their first intimate moment. That she was asking for his number meant she hadn’t taken it as rejection when he’d denied her, and he was relieved. He wouldn’t have known what to do if she hadn’t asked.

Smiling to himself, he knew that wasn’t true. He would have shown up at her doorstep and asked to check if the battery on her cell phone was charged because it would be impossible to stay away.

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