Wait for Me (21 page)

It didn’t take much to pull her back into his embrace and Lucas just let himself feel for a moment before speaking again.  “Let me ask you something, why did you quit Montgomery’s?”

“Who said I quit?”

“Are you still working there?”

She rolled her eyes.  “You know that I’m not, Lucas.  I couldn’t possibly cater this event if I was.  And what does that have to do with anything?”

“Why’d you quit?”

“It was time to move on,” she said simply, wondering when the hell the band was going to finish the damn song so she could get out of his embrace. 

“Liar,” he whispered up against her ear and smiled when he felt her shiver.

When she went to pull away Lucas merely held her tighter.  “Let me go,” she demanded quietly.

“No.”  He felt more than heard her sigh. 

“Lucas, now is not the time for this conversation now please let me go.”

“Tell me why you left Montgomery’s.”

“You’re not going to let this go are you?”

“The band was told to keep playing until I told them to stop,” he said lightly, rubbing his cheek next to hers.  “So really, the quicker you talk to me, the sooner those poor guys can get a break and people can have their dessert.”

“You’re a real bastard, you know that?”

“I never claimed to be otherwise.”

“Fine,” she huffed.  “I heard your entire conversation with your father that day.  I was horrified that he would do something like that and use me that way.  I couldn’t work for him anymore.  I don’t respect him.”

“And why wasn’t I allowed to know?”  Lucas leaned back and looked into her face, amused at how her blue eyes, normally so full of joy, were now shooting daggers at him. 

“Because it wasn’t about you and it didn’t concern you.  I left because of what he did to me,” she said adamantly.  “And your ego is so huge that you would have thought that it was all about you.”

“True enough but a lie is still a lie, Em.”

Now she looked at him with confusion.  “Excuse me?”

“You’re standing here right now, in my arms, and you’re lying to me.”  He turned them again on the dance floor and smiled at the band before giving her his full attention again. 

“How am I lying to you?” she demanded, struggling to put some distance between them. 

“I think that you were angry with my father and rightfully so.  But I think that you could have forgiven him.”

“Then you don’t really know me.”

Lucas leaned in and nuzzled the side of her neck before whispering
in her ear, “Oh, I think I know you better than you think.  I believe that had I not gone off and had such a temper tantrum at you before talking to my father and if I hadn’t accused you of such horrible things, you would have stayed on at Montgomery’s.  You would have made dad grovel, but you would have stayed.  I’m the real reason that you left and you didn’t want to add more fuel to the fire between me and dad.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged and lifted his face so that he could look into her eyes.  “But look me in the eye right here, right now, Emma, and tell me that I’m wrong.  Tell me that I’m not the reason that you left.”  His voice was low but fierce and Lucas felt that his entire future hinged on this one moment.

“What difference will it make?  I’m done with Montgomery’s; the company and the family.”  Emma wanted to come off as sounding confident but her bravado faltered slightly and the longer she looked into Lucas’s eyes, the more lost and confused she became. 
Lucas continued to watch her and Emma felt as if all conversation around them had stopped and the band kept playing and all she wanted was to run and hide.

What was one more lie?  Everyone else seemed to be okay with lying to her, why should she feel guilty about speaking one of her own.  “You’re not the reason that I left,” she said firmly and nearly fell to the floor as Lucas released her.  His eyes were fierce, burning into her and she immediately regretted her words.

They stood there like that for what seemed like an eternity before Lucas turned toward the band and nodded his head.  “Thank you for the dance, Emma,” he said softly and then turned and walked away.

And that’s when she noticed it.

“You’re not limping,” she said out loud before she could stop herself.

Lucas turned and looked at her.  “No, I’m not.  I don’t plan on limping much in the future either.”

Emma took a step toward him.  “Why not?”

“I had the surgeries done,” he said matter-of-factly.  “I’ve got a lot more rehab to go through and there are still times that my knee gives me some trouble but unless I really overdo it, I don’t limp.”

She was stunned.  “Oh, well…good for you.  I’m happy for you, Lucas.  Really.  Maybe now you can finally be happy.”  Knowing that at any moment she was going to burst into tears, she said a hasty goodbye before fleeing the room. 

Running blindly down a hallway, Emma didn’t stop until she found an empty conference room.  Quickly shutting the door behind her, she collapsed into one of the chairs and tried to catch her breath. 
She’d just pretty much made a spectacle out of herself in the middle of the party.  She’d been in Lucas’s arms and it had felt so good and had been something that she’d ached for and she’d gone and walked away.

“I’m a damn idiot,” she mumbled and slouched further into the chair.

“No, that’s me I’m afraid,” Lucas said from the doorway. 

Emma spun and looked at him.  “What are you doing here?”

He chuckled and shut the door behind him.  “I thought we already covered that.  Twice.  The anniversary party?  My parents?  Any of this ringing a bell?”

“I mean in here, Lucas?  Why are you in here?  In this room?” she asked, full of exasperation.

“Because it’s where you are, Em,” he replied.  “That’s where I want to always be, where you are.”

No words had ever sounded sweeter but she was afraid to just give in. 
“I’m still mad at you, Lucas,” she admitted weakly. 

“I know,” he said softly as he came to kneel in front of her
and placed a finger over her lips when she went to protest his position.  “I said some pretty hateful stuff that I wish I could take back and erase.  Do you think that you might be able to forgive me some day?” 

Emma stared deeply into his eyes and knew that she already had.  The man had that effect on her.  “Why did you have the surgeries?  You were so against them.”

Leaning forward, Lucas rested his forehead against hers.  “I was scared to.  It was safe to stay injured because I knew what to expect.  I was afraid of being disappointed again; having the surgeries and still not being able to do the things that I wanted to?  It was too much for me.”  He raised his head and looked at her.  “Then all of the things you said to me came to mind and you were right; I wasn’t really living.  I was going through the motions and not very well.  I wanted to be able to do all of the things that we did together without having pain.  There were more things that I wanted us to do together but couldn’t because of my limitations.”

“Oh, Lucas, I don’t want to be the reason you did this!” Emma cried, a lone tear streaming down her cheek.  “You needed to do this for you!”

“Without you, Em, I’m nothing.  I wanted to do this for us.  I want to be the man who takes you dancing or hiking or skiing or on endless shopping sprees to furniture stores that are way too big for any normal person to go through on the average day,” he teased.  “I want to see what this new life has to offer me now that I’m okay with no longer being Lucas Montgomery, football star.”

“I heard that guy wasn’t all that,” she said. 

“He was certainly lacking in the most important part of his life.”

“What part was that?”

“His heart, Em.  For all of his athletic skills, he didn’t have a heart and he certainly didn’t have you.”  Not wanting to wait another minute, Lucas claimed Emma’s lips with his own.  It had been too long and he needed to taste her more than he needed his next breath.  When they finally resurfaced, Lucas took a steadying breath.  “Tell me I’m not too late, that I didn’t wait too long.  Tell me that we still have a chance for a future.”

Emma ran a hand over his cheek, down the strong column of his throat and just studied
him; unable to find the words to tell him how much she was feeling.

“I love you, Em.  I have for a long time and I know I should have said it before; I should have never walked away from you or doubted what we had.  I’m so sorry for that.”

“I love you, too, Lucas,” she whispered, completely in awe for how much she actually did.  “You scare me to death with how strong my feelings are for you and it nearly killed me when you walked away.”

“I’ll never leave you again, I swear it.  Tell me you forgive me,” he pleaded.

Emma leaned in and kissed him again.  “There’s nothing to forgive.  We both needed time to be able to get to this place.”

“I don’t know about that.  I’ve been miserable without you.  So many times I wanted to come and see you but I didn’t want to do it until after I’d had some time to heal.”

She sighed.  “I wish I had been there to help you,” she said sadly.  “I would have helped you, Lucas.  Who was there for you?”

“My brothers.  It took me a little while to get things right with my father but pretty much as soon as Jason took you to get your car, he came to my house and pretty firmly put me in my place.  I couldn’t even argue with him because, like you, he was right.  I made the call the next day and got the surgery scheduled.”

“But your mom said…”

“I know,” he said, stroking a hand down her cheek, wanting nothing more than to keep touching her.  “The truth is that I didn’
t see them for a long time; mainly because I went to New York to have the surgeries and didn’t want anyone coming to see me.  They were just respecting my wishes.  So I missed Christmas and New Year’s but all with a good reason.”

Emma shook her head.  A lie by omission, she though, thinking of
Monica’s words to her so many weeks ago. 

Lucas knew her well enough to know where her mind had wandered to.  “Don’t be mad at them.  They didn’t mean to mislead you; they were just letting me handle this my own way.  You know that I’m not good with social graces,” he said with a smile, reminding her of the time she had accused him of that. 
“I promise to get better.”

“I don’t want you to get better, Lucas; I love you just as you are.”

Standing, Lucas held his hand out to Emma and helped her to her feet.  “I would be honored if you’d accompany me back to the party, Em.”

She turned and glanced out the wall of windows.  “Oh, look, it’s snowing!” she said with wonder. 

Lucas led her to the window and then stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle.  “Then I think we should head to your place.”

Emma turned her head and looked at him questioningly.  “Why?  I don’t think it’s supposed to accumulate too much.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, holding her a little tighter.  “The thought of possibly getting snowed in together is too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Unable to help herself, Emma grinned. 
“Well then, we better get going; I’d hate for one of us to end up in another ditch and have to spend any time recovering.”

“Darlin’, the only recovering you have to worry about is from our making up for lost time.”

Emma totally liked the sound of that.

“You’re looking pretty smug over there, Dad,” Lucas said as he adjusted his tie.

William lifted his champagne glass to his son and smiled.  “I’m not going to lie to you, I’m feeling pretty smug.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…We’ve already thanked you enough for your interference.”

“You make it sound like a bad thing; all I did was give the two of you a little push in the right direction.  You may have figured it out eventually but I’m not getting any younger and I want grandchildren.”

Lucas rolled his eyes.  “Really?  You’re going to start with that today?   It’s our wedding day; we’re focused on getting down the aisle and going on a much needed honeymoon and you’re starting the grandchildren guilt trip already?  Isn’t that mom’s job?”

“Oh, don’t worry; she’s chomping at the bit, too.  I just beat her to it.”

“Lucky me.”

William stood and helped Lucas finish with the tie he’d been fidgeting with for almost ten minutes.  “You’re not nervous, are you?” he finally asked.

“What if I hurt her?”

For a moment, all William could do was look at his son with a combination of amusement and sympathy.  “We all get hurt at some point in a relationship, Lucas.  It happens a lot in a marriage; even the best ones have someone getting hurt at one point or another.  The key is to learn to apologize when you do hurt her and learn from your mistakes.  No one expects you to be perfect.”

“I want to be perfect for Emma; she deserves that.”

“Son, do you know your future wife at all?  Has Emma ever asked for perfection?”  Lucas shook his head.  “All she wants is you.  Be yourself and that will make Emma happy.”