It's a Love Thing (16 page)

“
Hungry?” Lucas inquired
after we'd been at it for I didn’t know how long.

We seemed to be chewing up the miles
with no particular destination in mind and I had absolutely no idea
which direction was home, but it felt sort of freeing.

“
Starved,” I realized as I
said it.

“
Let’s take a break.
There’s a good spot just ahead.”

I continued after him for a bit longer
until we broke into a clearing. If I thought the trail up until
this point was beautiful, this spot was absolutely stunning. The
sun beat down on the long grass and a small stream trickled
through. Someone must have positioned a wide log across the stream
where it cut through the path. It wasn’t exactly like you couldn’t
wade through it without getting your knees wet, but who wants to
hike in soggy boots? Lucas dropped his pack and opened it. I
watched as he pulled out a blanket and spread it in the sunlight.
Next he produced a couple of water bottles and handed me
one.

“
Here. Make sure you drink
enough. You don’t want to get dehydrated out here. I have more if
you need it.”

I cracked my bottle and dropped my
pack beside his. He settled down on the blanket and I joined
him.

“
The food is in your pack,”
he explained.

I unzipped the bag and peeked inside.
There were sandwiches and several small Tupperware containers. I
pulled them out and arranged them in front of us. The containers
held cherry tomatoes, grapes, melon slices, and potato
salad.

“
Did you make all of
this?”

“
Just the salad and
sandwiches. Oh, and I cut the melon I guess. The grapes and
tomatoes sort of came that way.”

Smart alec, but still
impressive.

“
Well, it looks
good.”

“
Who cares how it looks?
Let's see how it tastes,” he said, pulling out a couple paper
plates and some plastic ware from his bag.

Everything tasted as good
as it looked and I told him so, ego be damned. I was reaching for
one of those yummy tomatoes when I felt the light brush of Lucas’
hand against my cheek. Taken by surprise, I glanced up to find him
staring at me, studying me like
I
confused
him
. When he caught me looking he
stiffened and pulled away.

“
Sorry. Your hair . . . it
was . . . about to go in the food,” he explained and strangely
enough I found myself a little disappointed.

“
Oh . . . thanks,” I
muttered, awkwardly.

Lucas looked like he wanted to say
something more, but then decided against it and only
nodded.

“
So tell me something,” he
said, stretching out on the blanket. Apparently we were staying a
while.

“
What?” I asked, stretching
out my sore legs beside him.

“
Anything. Something about
you that I don’t already know.”

“
Hmm, I’m not that
interesting. What do you want to know?”

“
Let’s see. I already know
you moved here from California because of your mom’s job . . . at
the museum right?”

“
Yeah.”

“
So, something
else.”

I thought long and hard about what he
could possibly be looking for but came up blank. Instead I offered
him a little known fact about myself. I’m honestly not sure
why.

“
I had a boyfriend back in
Cali.”

“
Oh, really? What was his
name?”

“
Marcus.”

“
What happened with Marcus?
Are you guys still . . . ?”

“
No. He broke it off when I
told him I was moving. Apparently I wasn’t going to be able to
‘provide what he needed’ long distance. Whatever the heck that
means.”

“
Sounds like a class-A
jerk,” Lucas observed.

“
You know, he kind of was,”
I laughed. “I just never noticed while we were
together.”

“
Then it’s a good thing
you’re not still together. A real good thing,” he added, rolling to
his side to face me.

“
Your turn.”

“
Hmm,” he thought, closing
his eyes against the sun’s rays. “When I first met you, I really
didn’t want to like you.”

Okay, not what I was expecting, but
then again I should be used to the unexpected when it came to
Lucas.

“
And now?” I
inquired.

“
You’re growing on
me.”

“
Growing on you, like
mold?”

“
Just as stubbornly, but a
little less gross,” he commented with a smirk.

“
Just a little less?” I
laughed, smacking his arm.

He caught my hand deftly and pinned it
to the blanket, opening his eyes to look at me again. And what eyes
they were. Man oh man, I could get lost in that blue like falling
into the sky or the ocean or something.

“
So what about your dad?”
he asked.

His hand still clutched mine, making
it hard to focus.

“
He left when I was a
kid.”

“
That stinks. I’m
sorry.”

“
It’s okay. It was a long
time ago.”

“
How old were
you?”

“
Seven.”

“
Your dad left when you
were seven and it’s okay?” He sounded genuinely
confused.

It was hard to explain the way I felt
about my dad. Even hard to explain why I felt that way.

“
Yeah, it is. He had a
problem. He was addicted to gambling. He couldn’t help it, it was
like a disease. He would bet away our money most of the time and he
just couldn’t stop. So instead he did the best he could by us and
left. At least that way he would stop hurting us. I’m sure it was
hard for him, too, but at least he stepped up and did what he could
instead of dragging us down with him. You know what I
mean?”

Lucas looked stunned and I wondered if
any of that had made any sense at all. It wouldn’t be the first
time I had lost basic cognitive abilities in his presence, and
lying on the ground next to him was doing nothing for my mental
stability.

“
So let me get this
straight. The guy gambled away your family's money for seven years,
and then abandoned you and your mother, and you think he’s a good
guy?”

“
I think he’s a guy who was
in a difficult position and did the best he could with it. By
leaving us, he showed us how much he really did care about us. He
was willing to sacrifice his family to keep them safe.”

“
Do you ever talk to
him?”

“
No, mom said that if he
knew how to reach us he wouldn’t be able to help himself from
asking for money, and knowing her she’d give it to him, so they
both thought it would be best to make a clean break. I haven’t
heard a word from him since he left. I don’t even know where he is
anymore.”

“
That’s . . .” Lucas
trailed off, squinting out over the stream.

Crazy? Insane? Naïve? The stupidest
thing he had ever heard?

“
Amazing. You’re sort of
amazing, you know that?”

“
Hardly,” I laughed,
relived he didn’t think I was an idiotic pushover.

“
No, really. That kind of
compassion is almost unheard of these days.”

“
If that’s true then I feel
bad for other people.”

Lucas smiled looking . . . I wanted to
say in awe, but that couldn’t be right. I doubt Lucas Prescott was
in awe of anything, least of all me.

*****

A couple hours later, after a
well-deserved snooze, we packed up the remnants of our picnic and
headed back towards home. The sun was almost on the horizon by the
time we reached my front door.

“
Oh, hey, look what I
found,” Lucas said just before I went inside.

Color me surprised when he whipped my
cell phone out of his pack. What. The. Hell?

“
Where did you get that?” I
asked, eyeing him suspiciously. “I’ve been looking for it
forever.”

“
I found it in the bush out
here while I was waiting for you to get your boots earlier. I put
it in the bag and forgot about it.”

“
Oh, that’s weird. I
thought I looked everywhere out here.”

“
Well at least you got it
back right?”

“
Right. Thanks.”

I still couldn’t believe I'd missed it
in all of my searching as Lucas handed it over. The battery was
dead but it looked to be in one piece.

“
Sure. And here,” he handed
me a small slip of paper.

I unfolded it and found his number
written in unusually elegant handwriting for a guy.

“
Just in case,” he
said.

I stared at the numbers on the paper
like they held some kind of answer to the puzzle that was Lucas,
but nothing came from them. When I glanced back up he was already
halfway across the yard.

“
Hey, Lucas,” I called
after him.

He paused and turned back to
me.

“
Thanks . . . for
today.”

“
No problem.” He offered a
smile and a nod before heading back toward home.

I took my cell upstairs, plugged it in
first thing and then switched it on. Three new voicemails and a
text. Not really caring to hear them I dialed my voicemail and let
them play. The first was from Jason inviting me to the carnival. I
deleted it and waited for the next. Also from Jason, this one just
said, ‘We need to talk. Call me.’ I listened to the date stamp; it
was from the day after the club incident. We need to talk? Really?
No ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me, it won’t ever happen again?’
Unbelievable. The last message was from mom and it was from this
afternoon. When I checked the text it was also from mom asking me
to call her back. What was the point in leaving a message, text or
otherwise, if all you were going to do was tell the person to call
you back? Couldn’t you just say what it is you have to say in the
text or voicemail and get it over with? Unreasonably frustrated,
more because of Jason’s message than mom's, I dialed her number and
listened to it ring. Just when I was sure I was going to have to
leave some stupid useless message of my own because I had no idea
what this game of phone tag was about, she answered sounding out of
breath.

“
Oh, hi, honey. Glad you
called. Listen I can’t really talk, but I’m coming home early
because the museum is hosting a function tomorrow night to showcase
the new exhibit I put together. My flight gets in around three. I
just wanted to give you a heads up. We’ll have two tickets each in
case there’s someone you would like to bring along. Maybe at least
one of us won’t have to look pathetic.”

“
Mom, you’re not pathetic.
You’re a hard worker,” I pointed out.

“
That’s sweet of you to
say, honey, but do you have a date you could bring?”

Mom never was one for small talk. A
date? Did I have someone I could take on a date? My boyfriend, if
that’s what Jason had been, and I weren’t talking and Lucas . . .
well, Lucas was Lucas. Could I really ask him on a . . . date? But
mom sounded so hopeful and I hated to let her down so I agreed to
invite someone if they could make it. The pleased tone in her voice
as she said goodbye almost made the next call I would have to make
worth it.

Figuring it would just be too lame to
call Lucas up so soon after we parted ways and invite him on a date
for the next evening, I decided to put it off until later. And
okay, yeah, so maybe I was a tad bit nervous. I mean just because
the guy offered to keep me company over the summer and we had
actually managed to have a nice day together didn’t mean he was
ready for formal events . . . with parents no less. That was not
what he had signed up for.

Putzing around the house for the next
several hours, part of me wished time would move faster just so I
could get the call over with and another part of me wished it would
stop entirely so I would never have to make it at all. Finally
seven o’clock rolled around along with the pizza delivery guy—turns
out the town did have a pizza place—and I just couldn’t stand it
any longer. I dialed his number and pressed send.

“
Hello?” his deep voice was
even sexier over the phone. Yeah, this was gonna go
well.

“
Hey, Lucas? It’s Mel from
next door.”

Uh duh, like he was likely to know
another Mel. Jeez, what was wrong with me?

“
Do you ever eat anything
but pizza?”

“
Huh?”

“
I think I see the pizza
delivery car in your driveway more often than your car,” he
teased.

He was watching my driveway? Why did
that flatter me instead of freak me out? I had problems.

“
Um, yeah, well my mom
works a lot and when she is home she could literally burn water so
that pretty much leaves pizza or starving to death.”

“
I see. Well, I cook every
night and it’s not easy to get the proportions right for just one
person. I almost always end up with leftovers. Why don’t you come
over here?”