Book of Luke (Book 2) (21 page)

I took a sip and set the cup down on the
coffee table. “He still won’t talk to me,” I admitted, but I sensed
she already knew that.

“Hmmm,” she said, mixing a cube of sugar in
her cup. “He’s not talking
to
you, but he’s always talking
about
you.” She smiled and tapped my hand. “He loves you,
don’t worry.” Her eyes fell on my ring, and she did a double take,
but she didn’t look surprised.

“What does he say about me?” I prodded.

“Lately, he just mopes,” she said with a
soft smile. “But usually, he talks about seeing you, skiing with
you, moving with you, or about how wonderful you are.” Her eyes
settled on my ring. “He was really scared to ask you, he was afraid
you might say no.”

I stared blankly. “Why would I say no?”

Mrs. Jacobson shrugged. “He’s a silly
boy.”

We chuckled.

“So, when do you plan to get married?”

“Sometime,” I breathed. “As long as that’s
all right with you…?”

She leaned forward and hugged me again.
“There is no one on this earth I’d approve more of, honey!”

My eyes teared as I hugged her back. “Thank
you, Mrs. Jacobson.”

She hugged tighter, and I could hear her
cry. After a moment she kissed my forehead, and moved some hair out
of my face. “Lukasz has good taste in girls. I am very proud of
him!”

I laughed at how silly that sounded,
referring to
me
.

The front door opened. A light draft swept
through the living room. After removing their coats and shoes,
Lilly and Troy appeared, and they looked kind of stunned to see me
there.

“Hi,” Lilly said. “What’s up?” She wore a
light pink tee shirt and black flare jeans. Troy wore blue jeans
and a partially unbuttoned long-sleeve black shirt.

And although I was there, he still couldn’t
seem to peel his eyes off my best friend.

“Where were you!” I asked casually, closing
in for a hug.

She held up a grocery bag. “We went out for
ice cream!” She motioned for her mom, who took it from her and
hurried to the kitchen.

“Lukasz is skiing,” she said as soon as her
mom was out of the room.

“Yeah, your mom said he’s at the Barone’s
restaurant now.”

She furrowed her brow. “Weird. I’d picture
him more at a pizza joint.”

“Do you mademoiselles want to go back to the
restaurant?” Troy offered, grinning at us.

“No!” Lilly blurted, like the idea scared
the hell out of her.

I can’t blame her, since the last visit
landed her in the newspaper.

He laughed. “You think too much, eh?”

“Were you there when we got dumped?” Lilly
asked, half smiling.

He nodded. “Yes, I was quite amused. You are
very creative!”

Lilly and I laughed.

“You don’t look down on us?” I asked, hands
on my hips.

He shrugged. “It was a bit mean, but girls
do it all the time. I knew a few who did it more than once just to
scare their boyfriends. It’s not uncommon.” He ran his hand through
his hair. “And it’s not your fault they threw you a baby shower
before you even saw a doctor. They kind of jumped the gun, eh?”

“Awww,” Lilly said, wrapping her arms around
his bicep. “You’re so sweet!”

He chuckled and licked his lips at her. “Ah,
it’s just my opinion. While it was bad in a sense, it was also kind
of funny.” He winked. “Sorry.”

Lilly let go of his arm when she saw me
looking at it. “Should we go skating?” she asked.

Only if we can skate at an Italian
restaurant.

“Sure,” Troy said, glancing at me.

And that’s what we did.

I could tell those two were digging each
other—it was plain as day. But as I watched them ice skate, she
also looked a bit sad—conflicted—and in a way, he looked nervous
just being there.

At least he didn’t fall into her chest, or
drag her down after him. The guy skates better than we do, it’s
insane!

I sat under a heater in the pizza parlor and
watched them in the rink. So focused on them, I didn’t even notice
Jenna and Karma on the ice; not until Jenna showed up at my
table.

My heart raced when she seated herself,
uninvited, across from me. I bit my tongue.

“Hi,” she said, like she was doing a
chore.

“Hey.” I took another bite of cheese
pizza.

She sighed and looked down for a moment. “Oh
my God, this is
so
difficult!”

I stared at her, hoping she’d get to the
point quick so I can start breathing again.

She rubbed her face. “Karma offered to talk
to a reporter. I’m sorry I even commented, that was like, mean of
me.” She looked solemn. “I don’t like what you said about me in
class, but I think I was also like,
way
out of line with my
comments—a lot of people told me so. And honestly, if gossip ended
up in the paper that I cheat on my boyfriend I’d, like,
flip
.”

“You cheat on your boyfriend?!”

She bit her lip, and her eyes got big. “As
an example,” she added, after some alarm.

“Oh,” I said.

“Karma’s transferring back to her old
school. She went to talk to your ex after class and like oh my God,
it ended in disaster! I can’t even convince her to go back on
Monday, after what Luke said. It didn’t help that you humiliated
her in class.”

“That’s good,” I wanted to say, watching
Karma on ice. She looked really down and alone, and not only did
she deserve it, but I secretly loved it.

“It’s kind of late in the school year to
transfer,” I noted. Then again, she enrolled really late, too.

“This isn’t her area school. They’ll let her
leave anytime.”

Too bad she didn’t leave
sooner!

“So what do you think?” was the next thing I
heard.

“What goes around comes around!” I
blurted.

Her mouth hung for a moment and she looked
up. “Oh my God, like, I get it!”

I cleared my throat and took another bite of
pizza. “I think what she did was rude, hurtful and unforgivable.
And I don’t like him being referred to as my
ex
-boyfriend,”
I added.

Jenna pursed her lips. “Like, isn’t he?”

“Not to me he’s not.” I raised my eyebrows
and showed her my ring.

Her mouth hung. “Oh,” she breathed,
brokenhearted.

“What did he say to her, anyway?”

She shook her head. “If I said it, I would
just humiliate her more, and she’s been through, like, enough.
Let’s just say he wasn’t happy about
anything
.”

“I insist.”

Jenna nervously glanced at Karma. “Well from
what she told me, Luke told her that after what she’s done, she’s,
like, lucky she’s a girl.” She bit her lip. “And he’d rather sleep
with a blender.”

My eyes widened, and I couldn’t hide my
smile.

Jenna sighed. “Don’t tell her I told
you.”

Like I’d want to talk to that slut,
anyway!

“Well thanks for the apology,” I said, and
hoped she planned to apologize to Lilly, too.

I got up, tossed my food and joined Lilly
and Troy on the ice.

~ ~ ~

When I dropped them off at 8:45, Luke’s Jeep was
parked in the driveway. Lilly and Troy hurried towards the house,
and all I could do was sit in my car, staring at his window as he
stared back at me.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Lilly called back
to me, and Troy waved. The door opened and someone let them into
the house.

And Luke was still in the window, looking
down at me.

I don’t know how well he saw me, but at
least he couldn’t see the tears well in my eyes. Why couldn’t he
just come down and talk to me?

I couldn’t bring myself to leave, even as
the clock struck nine; because part of me thought he’d head down
any second, and I’d be driving away on him.

I thought I saw his lips move, like he
uttered something. In my heart it would be, “I love you” or “I miss
you” or “Come to me.” But then I thought it’s probably something
more pressing, more realistic, like,

“
You just missed your curfew, dumb
ass.”

Okay, maybe without the “dumb ass”—I knew he
didn’t completely hate me.

I put the car in reverse, kept on the brake
and still waited, glancing up at him every now and then. When it
was clear he wasn’t coming down, I backed out of the driveway and
left.

Mom wasn’t home at a quarter after nine, and
that really sucked, because Dad can get unruly when she’s not there
with the leash.

“You missed curfew, young lady,” he said
sternly, crossing his arms in the foyer.

I nodded and hung my coat. “Sorry,
Daddy.”

That’s when he did a double take. His eyes
ballooned, because they’d fallen on my ring. “What is that?” he
asked, like he was afraid of the answer.

“It’s a ring,” I stated, not wanting to go
into detail. Surely he would figure it out, with that overactive
imagination of his.

“Why’s it on that finger?” he asked,
practically wheezing. “Did you put that there, or did
Luke
put that there?”

It’s like the man even forgot about
curfew.

Or so I hoped.

“What do you think, Dad?” I said, choked
up.

He looked stunned. Speechless. And clearly
lacking oxygen.

“I want to marry him, Daddy,” I managed, a
tear streaming down my face. And when I could no longer bear his
stare, I turned and went up to my room.

I took my sweet time in the shower, letting
near-scorching water spray me down. It was so hot, the room was
steaming.

After a while I began to feel faint, but it
sort of numbed the pain, so I stood under it until the very last
minute.

Wrapped in a towel, I fell on my bed. The
air was cool, my comforter was cold, and my cell phone beeped. I’d
missed two calls.

I’d missed two calls!

I stared at the caller ID in anguish. He’d
called twice. No voice mail, just calls, a mere three minutes
apart.

I dialed his number, and it went directly to
voicemail. After a long minute I did it again, and it went to
voicemail a second time. Unwilling to leave a message—not knowing
what to say—I hung up. He’d probably turned his phone off.

I laid back in bed and thought of him, so
much that I thought I could smell him. My eyes shut and I could
practically feel him there, his face brushing mine, his mouth
nuzzling my ear, breathing that forceful “I love you” that made my
heart flutter and my knees weak.

Eventually, I found sleep, lonelier than I’d
felt in a really long time.

You’d think Dad would say something in the
morning. You’d think he’d put his caffeine habit aside and question
me. You’d think he’d give me some input along with that stare.

You’d think he’d ground me for
freakin’
life.

He didn’t say anything, though, as he
watched me gather my granola bars and pour my juice.

When it was clear he had no interest in
talking, I went to the foyer. As I put on my shoes, Sullivan
trampled down the stairs. He stopped and looked at me for a moment,
kind of funnily.

“What?” I asked.

“You look different,” he said, still staring
at me.

“How’s that?”

He shrugged. “You look kind of miserable.” A
smile crept upon his lips. “I kind of like it!”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you do.” What an
attitude! And after I bought him forty-eight tooth-rotting
lollipops!

My brother’s
so
ungrateful!

Since Dad still hadn’t talked to me—or to be
more precise,
lectured
me—I gripped the doorknob and said,
“Bye, Dad!’

~ ~ ~

Lilly met me by my locker. I got there early, hoping
Luke would be there, but no such luck.

We looked around warily. To our relief, only
a handful of people were left pointing, laughing, or shooting us
looks. It was considerably better than Friday, and no one was
holding a newspaper.

“Troy can really skate,” I said, for the
sake of saying something. I also kind of hoped she’d tell me if
there’s anything up between them, because I was starting to think
that there should be.

“Yeah,” she said, looking thoughtful. “He’s
really good.”

“So?” I asked, hanging my coat in the
locker. “What’d you guys do last night?”

“We watched a movie. Then he went downstairs
and I went to bed.”

“That’s too bad!” I teased.

She hugged herself, her cheeks growing rosy.
“What else was there to do?”

“I’m sure you could’ve thought of
something
.”

She bit her lip in a lousy attempt to hide
her smile.

“Luke called me last night,” I breathed,
straightening my hair.

“What did he say?”

I shrugged. “I was in the shower and he got
my voicemail. He didn't leave one.”

“That sucks.”

The door opened, and the guys entered, once
again accompanied by Troy. They looked like one amazing trio, and I
wasn’t the only girl in the hall who thought so.

Before long, Gino stopped before us, Troy a
few feet behind, and Luke stopped halfway to talk to one of his
teachers.

“Hey, how you doin’ today?” Gino looked at
me. His hair was sleek, his eyes were fresh, and his clothes were
of a different shade—he wore tan pants, a white tee shirt and his
jacket.

I smiled. “I’m okay, I guess.”

He nodded and turned to Lilly, who hadn’t
even cheered up yet. “Look, I wanted to thank you for what you did
for my parents.”

“
What?”
She furrowed her brow and
looked from him, to me, to him.

He chuckled. “We had to set up take-out this
weekend because we ran out of tables. The waiting line trailed into
the parking lot. Luke had to help out yesterday because it was
chaos. We’re more than tripling our staff… it was just crazy
publicity.”

Her eyes were wide.
“Really?”

“Yeah. It started Friday morning, when
everyone seemed to realize our restaurant
existed
.” He
leaned into her cheek.