Page 14 of A Childhood Crush

I burst into laughter. “I do remember that! You told me I couldn’t have mayonnaise because it might spoil.”

He nodded with a bright smile. “Yep. You wanted the cookies but the cook at the time knew we snuck the cookies and hid them on the top shelf.”

“I pushed a chair over for you to climb up.” I reminded him.

“You were always the brains of our little shenanigans,” he joked. “You always came up with these grand plans but you either didn’t want to get in trouble or you needed muscle. All you had to do was smile and bat those big, innocent eyes at me. I could never let you get in trouble.”

“You walked me all the way to the gate that day,” I remembered fondly. “The whole way you kept trying to talk me out of it. You were worried about me. You offered to go with me to keep me safe.”

“I always wanted to take care of you,” he said softly. “Your dad told me once that I was supposed to keep an eye on you. I remember when he told me he was so serious. It freaked me out a little because I felt like he had just put me in charge of the most important thing in the whole world. I took my job very seriously.”

“Don’t I know it,” I groaned. “You thought you were a big man. You were always bossing me around. You wouldn’t let me dive into the pool because you said I might bonk my head.”

“It was true.” He shrugged. “You know your dad. I knew your dad. He’s kind of a scary dude. I was not about to cross him. When he told me to watch out for you, I took it to heart. Not to mention, I also had my dad on my ass. He knew your dad had told me to look out for you. He told me when the boss gives an order, you follow it.”

“And you did,” I said. “I was actually pretty glad to have you watching my back. I might have used it to my advantage.”

“What do you mean?” he asked curiously.

“You and Leo used to always try and ditch me,” I replied with a grin. “I would remind you of your job to watch out for me.”

He groaned. “You were such a pest. That one time we snuck off to look at Playboys and you busted us in the pool house. That was so unfair.”

“I knew it!” I exclaimed. “I knew you guys were up to something. You were being so shady!”

“You were a buzzkill,” he muttered.

He seemed to be relaxing a little, but I was still picking up on some weird vibes. He seemed distracted. Our pizza was delivered a minute later. We both reached for the same slice and started laughing. His fingers brushed against mine. I felt a shiver of excitement and had to remind myself he was Luke, my best friend.

“I can tell something is off,” I said finally. “Are you have woman troubles?” I teased.

“Woman troubles?” he asked.

“You’re distracted, so I’m going to assume it’s because of—” I stopped and tried to remember the woman he’d been dating. “Trina? Tara? Tanya?”

“Tara,” he said. “Tanya was a while ago.”

I laughed. “It’s a little hard to keep them all straight. What did she do? Did you guys have a fight? She wants a ring on her finger?” I was teasing him. We always teased one another about our failed relationships and Lord knew there were enough of them.

He shrugged a shoulder. “She didn’t really do anything.”

“Then, what is it?” I prodded. “Are you guys not getting along?”

“I’m not with her,” he said.

“Tara or Tanya?”

“Either,” he said. “I’m not dating either of them. Tanya was a while ago and I’m never going down that road again. I ended things with Tara.”

“Oh? Why?”

“I just wasn’t feeling it,” he replied.

“Is there another woman?” I joked.

Luke glanced up at me, a slight smile playing at the corners of his lips.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, trying to ignore the flutter in my stomach.

---