Page 120 of Bewitch

“I’ve already been thinking that,” Lucas says, eyeing me.

I took a drink of my water to do something, anything, while she embarrassed the hell out of me, but his saying that has me choking. Better than spraying them both with water, I guess, but I gape at him.

“Um. No. Ah, maybe, but no. Not now. Seriously? We only just started dating!”

“A man knows what he wants. Who he wants.”

“A man can cool his jets,” I retort.

He just winks at me, and my mom claps her hands, and I can tell she’s thinking she’s going to be buying diapers sooner rather than later after all.

Are you kidding me?

“One day at a time,” I say.

“Damn straight.” Lucas continues to grin at me.

“So, Lucas, why don’t you tell me all about yourself?” my mom asks. “Besides how much you adore my daughter, that is.”

“What do you want to now?” he asks.

God, do I love him.

CHAPTER35

“Page three,” I announce, slapping the newspaper down on Lucas’s table.

He hurries over and opens the newspaper. “Amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

“Me too,” I admit. “I didn’t think I could convince them, and at least one of their staff members thought it might be a conflict of interest since my mom’s on the board, but no one could say that it wasn’t unobjective, so… And they did make a few tweaks and edits to it that I didn’t have control over, but I’m so proud.”

“You should be. Your first piece of investigative journalism, and you haven’t even finished your first semester yet. You’re amazing.”

“Thank you.” I grin at him.

“Maybe we should celebrate.”

“Of course we should, but…” I blow out a breath.

“I bet I can guess.” He slowly nods and then gestures for the cough. Lucas waits until we’re both sitting to go on. “You’ve been very patient, and I know you want to know about my parents… my dad…”

“Only if you want to. I won’t ask about meeting your parents. Kelly told me a little about…” I trail off.

He chuckles. “Tried to get to know me any way you could, huh?”

I give him a sheepish smile.

“I don’t mind. Okay, so. My dad was abuse. Mostly verbal. He didn’t like that I was such a fat lard. That was what he called me a lot. Told me to get off my lazy ass all the time and do his chores around the house. I was seven.”

I gasp.

“Yeah. Real father of the year material. He and my mom divorced when I was ten. She got married again when I was fifteen.”

“Was he any better?”

“Yes and no. My mom and I used to fight all the time, and he would normally stick out of it, but one time, she told me that I had to go and spend a week with my dad. I hadn’t seen him since they divorced. He didn’t want part-time custody.”

“Why did she push for that?”

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