Everything You've Got: Anything & Everything, Book 2 (20 page)

“Where do you want this?” Michael asked his wife, nodding at the box in his arms.

“Over here. We can get things laid out before everyone else gets here.” They headed for the picnic tables at the edge of the grass.

Kat turned wide eyes on Luke. “Everyone else?”

He shrugged. “Family reunion barbecue.”

“We were thrilled to hear you were sticking around,” Connie said, gathering her bags and starting after her sister. “And that you haven’t had lunch.”

Kat gripped Luke’s shirt as he started to follow. “We’re not really
sticking around
.”

“We told them we would hang out for the barbecue, remember?” he said, curling his fingers into her shoulder. He again started in the direction of the picnic tables, tugging her with him.

“What happened to the wild RV sex?” Kat asked for his ears only.

Maybe she could entice him away. This family reunion lunch had the makings of something that could drive her nuts and take hours out of their schedule. She was great one on one, especially in the ER where she didn’t spend much time with the patients, in the hospital where she had the definite advantage of being in a position of authority and in the Justice clinic where she’d known everyone her whole life. But in large crowds, full of strangers, she was definitely not her best.

He stopped and turned to look down at her as his mouth tipped up. “If it makes you feel any better, I can’t stop thinking about how you look and feel and sound with my hand between your legs and how you look and feel and sound on your knees in front of me—”

“Okay,” she interrupted before taking a big, shaky breath.

“I promise we’ll get to the wild RV sex.”

“When?”

“I can honestly tell you that if you head back to the RV and tell me that you’re getting naked, I will—without question—get rid of some of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time.”

Kat’s gaze went from his face to those nice people and then back again. She sighed. These people were sincerely happy to see her, were accepting her into their group and wanted to feed her. And they didn’t even know her. They wanted a chance to show her their appreciation.

She wasn’t a total bitch. At least not usually.

“I guess I could eat something first.”

“I think Donna would be completely devastated if you didn’t,” he agreed.

He threaded his fingers with hers and held on as they joined Donna, Michael and Connie. And Kat let him. She didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned into him a little as they stood and chatted, watching their hosts and hostesses lay out paper plates and plastic silverware, along with container after container of salads and side dishes. Five grills had been pulled into a half circle, and burgers, hot dogs and chicken breasts were placed over the heat. Lemonade, iced tea and beer were poured and everyone talked, laughed and included Kat and Luke in the commotion.

Kat didn’t let them get separated though. Luke was the kind of guy to talk to anyone about anything. He could have been pulled into any of the smaller groups and fit right in. Kat wasn’t as good at that. She was fine in Justice where she knew everyone and knew what to expect from everyone. Not every person in Justice was a fan of hers the way they were of Luke’s, but she knew who to avoid.

Here, it was a free-for-all. It was possible that they would all think she was weird.

Well, no, probably not. She’d “saved Sandra’s life” so that had to get her a few points. Still she wished she’d checked her eye makeup before she came out.

Instead, she stuck close to Luke. Which wasn’t exactly a hardship. He felt great, smelled great, looked great, sounded great.

It was all just great.

About an hour into the party, Kat had gotten Luke within ten feet of the RV and had high hopes for getting him away from the family reunion, when Sandra showed up with her husband.

“Sandy!” One of her many cousins rushed forward. “Are you okay?”

“Better than the deer.” Sandra gave the woman a small smile. “I’m fine. My headache is even better.”

“Oh, my goodness, I almost peed when Lisa called and said you were at the hospital!”

Kat fought a smile and she heard Luke choke a little.

Sandra hugged the woman back and then turned to Kat and Luke. “This is my husband, Dennis. Dennis, this is Luke and Kat, the ones who got me out of the ditch.”

Dennis grabbed Luke’s hand, pumping it up and down, then turned and hugged Kat. “Thank you so much. I don’t know what to say. Can I get you something?” He noticed their empty glasses. “More beer? A margarita?”

The empty plates and glasses had been working in her favor since she was trying to convince Luke the party was over. For them anyway. But Kat could tell Dennis desperately wanted to give them something in exchange for their part in Sandy’s drama.

“I’d love some tea,” Kat said.

“That’s my girl,” Luke whispered. Then he said to Dennis, “A beer would be great.”

“You haven’t tried my brownies yet, Luke.” The woman approaching with the huge plate of dessert was one of Sandy’s sisters-in-law, Peggy.

“You’re right, I haven’t,” Luke agreed. “Dennis, I’ll have tea too. Beer doesn’t go so well with chocolate.”

Peggy’s eyes brightened and her smile was huge as he chose the biggest brownie on the plate, and Kat wanted to kiss him. Luke didn’t like chocolate. But he knew this woman wanted to cater to them for what they’d done and he rolled right along with it.

Kat and Luke ended up seated with Sandy, Dennis, Peggy and her husband and they each ended up having two glasses of tea while Luke ate two brownies, earning him even more beaming smiles from Peggy.

“Tell me everything,” she said to Kat. “Sandy never complains, so she could be bleeding internally and never tell us.”

Kat smiled at Sandra, who gave her an apologetic shrug. Kat didn’t mind. She was blessed with family and friends who loved her and would be similarly concerned if her car ended up in a ditch. She glanced at Luke. He was one of them. He would be at her bedside in the hospital if she was ever there as a patient and he’d want to know all the details of what had happened and her medical status. He’d stay in the waiting room all night during a surgery if he had to and he’d personally see to it that she had any book, magazine, snack or other essential she needed.

She’d known all of that deep down for as long as she’d known Luke but for some stupid reason she was suddenly choked up by it.

Like most people, she took it for granted that she had people who cared about her and she realized that Luke was one of the people who cared most. She did believe that.

And if he got married to someone else, some of that would have to change.

That thought seemed to come out of the blue and hit her directly in the chest.

Dammit.

They’d always be friends, but it would be less appropriate for him to sit by her bedside, bring her flowers, and…kiss her.

Crap.

She’d only kissed him a few times in her life but she would really miss it if he was no longer free to do it.

Shaking her head and focusing on the people around her, she recapped the scene of Sandra’s accident. “She’ll be just fine. Her head might ache on and off for a couple of days, but she’ll have no residual effects.”

“Oh, thank God!” Peggy gushed. She turned to Sandra and hugged her. “Honey, you have to be more careful.”

“These things happen,” Sandra murmured but she seemed to gladly return Peggy’s hug.

Again, Kat was choked up at the sight and filled with a strong desire to hug Luke. And be hugged back.

His future wife wouldn’t like a lot of hugging between them either, she was sure.

“You have to stay,” Peggy insisted as Kat tuned back in.

“It sounds like a fun time,” Luke said. He turned to face Kat. “What do you say?”

“You want to stay?”

“The party sounds like a great time.”

“The party—”

“We planned the family reunion this weekend because there’s a big annual celebration going on this week too. They’re using the party tonight as a fund-raiser.”

How had she missed all of that? Fussing about Luke’s future wife.

But it was a party and Luke was an even bigger sucker for fund-raisers than he was for barbecues. They would be staying for a while. Which meant they’d be together longer. Which sounded great.

“It sounds great,” she agreed.

“We’ll be sure you have anything you need.” Sandra said, sitting up straighter and seeming more animated than they’d seen her.

They’d stay the night. All at once, Kat’s heartbeat sped up. Tonight it wouldn’t be like last night. As much as she’d loved sleeping in his arms, she wanted more. She knew somehow that spending the night with Luke tonight would change her life forever.

It sounded dramatic, but she was certain of it.

“Okay.” Luke stood and patted his stomach. “We’ll be there. I’ve got to get away from this food and get some physical activity right now though. Where do the festivities happen?”

He didn’t look at her but Kat had all kinds of ideas about what kind of physical activity she was interested in.

“Oh, right here in the park,” Peggy said. “Just over the hill. The band will be in the pavilion and the movie will be shown up against the wall of the equipment shed by the baseball diamond.”

“Wonderful.” And Luke seemed to truly think that it was. He was grinning at the two women like they’d just invited him to the Academy Awards.

Typical. Luke loved this kind of stuff, even if it wasn’t happening in Justice.

He put his hand on the small of Kat’s back as they headed for the RV. When they were out of earshot of the Haywood family he sighed. “I love this kind of stuff. Even if is isn’t happening in Justice.”

Kat rolled her eyes but smiled. “I know.”

“This is what it’s all about, Kat.”

“Outdoor movies and barbecues?” She pulled the door to the RV open and started to climb in. Her heart was pounding. Surely they wouldn’t just go at it with all these people right outside. But then again, the door had a lock and the windows had shades—

“People coming together to help after disasters. This is why I can’t imagine living anywhere but a small town. It’s like you have a family that’s the size of a town.”

“Disaster?” she repeated, turning back to face him. Sandra’s encounter with the deer could have been serious but it wasn’t quite to the level of disaster in her opinion. “What do you mean?”

“The tornado.”

“The…what?” She blinked at him.

“They were hit by a tornado here three nights ago. Remember how stormy it was on Saturday?”

There had been a lot of warnings of severe weather that night, all over the northern part of the state. She nodded. “Something hit here?” Wow, she’d missed a lot of conversation today worrying about if these people would think she was strange and thinking about how much she liked Luke. And how much she was going to hate his wife.

“They had a touchdown. It took the roof off the church and blew a tree from one yard through the garage next door. And the nursing home was hit. There are several people in the hospital. One died.”

“Oh, my God. That’s terrible.”

“But they decided to go ahead and have the party, raise some money and make some plans for repairs and cleanup. To keep everyone’s spirits up, come together as a community.”

“How many are in the hospital?” Her mind was already jumping ahead.

He shrugged. “Didn’t say. Several.”

“Maybe I should go up and see if they need some help. It’s a really small hospital. Wonder what their staffing is like.”

Luke smiled at her. And it was a different smile than the many others she’d gotten from him over the years. This one was full of tenderness and…pride.

“I think that would be awesome. I think
you’re
awesome.” He moved close. “It sounds so strange, I know, but that turns me on almost as much as when you talk dirty.”

She put a hand on his chest. “Easy, tiger. I’m a doctor. I can’t help it.”

“No. You’re you. That’s why you can’t help it,” he said.

She stared at him. She had no idea how to respond. Because she wasn’t sure anyone had ever said anything quite that nice to her. And because she really needed to hear that kind of stuff right now. And he was looking at her with tenderness and desire at the same time.

“Will you take me up to the hospital?” she asked, trying to do the right thing
before
jumping on him.

“Yeah. And I might go and see if I can help with any cleanup or anything. As long as we’re here.”

“Right. Might as well.” She knew that they both naturally felt compelled to help if they could. There was really no
might as well
about it. “So, we better go.”

“After I kiss you for a while.”

Kissing. For a while.

She wouldn’t be able to think. She might not do the right thing.

Still, she went up on tiptoe, meeting him halfway as he lowered his lips to hers.

The kiss was sweet. At first. It started with just a meeting of their lips, a silent communication that felt strangely like reverence. They liked each other. They believed in the same things. They understood each other.