Page 51 of Voyeur Café

“Fuck me. This looks incredible,” I say, popping off the top of the macaroni. “Thank you so much for doing this. I’m sorry you had to go out of your way.”

He chuckles at my response. “I like helping you.”

My cheeks heat at his statement. “Seems like I’ve been needing a lot more of it since I met you.”

He smirks, taking a seat next to me on the couch and pulling out his own tub of mac ‘n’ cheese. “No, you’re just more likely to accept it from me.”Dammit. He’s right.I keep finding myself in situations where Luke is helping me, and rather than fighting it, I’m leaning into it.

Luke sitting on my couch, eating takeout in the middle of the day, shines a light on how segmented my knowledge of him is. How does he know about the deli down the street? Is it close to his house, too? Where does he even live? We don’t sell mac ‘n’ cheese atTurbine, so I didn’t know he eats it with a fork instead of a spoon.

I know how he treats strangers. But what about his family? He’s so good with Betty, but how did he get her in the first place? I know the hours he keeps at work, but what time does he go tobed? I know what he looks like, polishing stuff and twisting tools around.I should really learn more about his actual work.But what does he look like laid back after a long day, drinking a beer?He has to be a beer guy, right?Does he like to grill?

Looking up at him, I see that he’s watching me, with a grin on his face, not a smirk, nothing cocky about it, just genuine pleasure. “Something on your mind?” he asks.

Well, shit. I’m just staring at him. How creepy of me. I land on the least invasive of my questions. “How did you end up with Betty?”

“She found me. Four years ago, she was sleeping in the shade under my truck when I was leaving my friend Rick’s house. She was underfed and a little skittish,” He reaches down and wraps a thick arm around her neck, kissing her on top of the head, “but already such a sweet girl. Instead of running away, she wagged her tail and whined. I stood and waited, and after a few minutes she came and leaned up against my legs. I checked for a tag or a microchip and asked around to the neighbors, but I already knew she was mine.”

He pulls out his phone, and I lean in close as he shows me pictures from their first few days together. She’s thinner, scarily so, but the same dog with the little ‘socks’ of white fur on her front feet and already looking at him with adoration in her eyes.

“Maybe someday a dog will find me, too,” I say.

“Would you like that?” he asks, setting his phone on the coffee table, but not leaning away from me.

“Hopefully, someday. I’m so busy withTurbine, it wouldn’t be fair to one now. They’d be home alone all day.”

“You’d be great with a dog. Too bad you can’t tell the FDA to eat shit and get one, anyway.”

Or, it could hang out at Luke’s with Betty all day.The idea crumbles as soon as it materializes. In three months, Luke and Betty will both be out of my life.

Chapter 19

Luke

“Pay attention to this idiot in the hat, and you’ll learn what not to do to keep a lady interested.”-Grandad Ernie, pointing out a guy crashing and burning on a first date at the bar.

“Dude. I can’t believe you made me get out of bed this early,” Skye complains. “And without coffee. You’re a monster.”

“It’s ten o’clock,” I say, holding open the passenger side door of my truck for her, “and we’re going for coffee right now.”

“It better be as good as you said.”

“It will be.”

As I’m pulling onto the road, she asks, “Are we gonna talk about mom?”

“If you want.”

“She’s doing better than you think.”

“I know how she’s doing. Just saw her a few weeks ago.” I reach across the truck cab to point the vents so the A/C hits her, but she bats my hands away.

“I can adjust my own vents. Did she tell you she madefriends with the new neighbors? And she adores the handyman you hired to work on her bathroom? I know she’s always trying to guilt you into coming home. She even asked me to help convince you. I told her to get the fuck over it, by the way. She’s not being fair to you.”

“I’ve always been the one who takes care of her.”

“Do you hear how fucked that sounds? She’s your mother. She should have been the one to take care of you.”

“And she was, in every way she could manage.”

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