“My parents like you.” He laughs lightly. “In fact, I think my mom is ready to plan our wedding.”
I blink at the comment. What teenage boy even mentions a wedding? “You must not bring too many girls home.”
He purses his lips as if he's considering. “Nope, you're the first.”
“What?”
He shrugs. “I don't date much.”
Date? Was this a date, then? “And you bring me in covered with mud. Don't think I'm forgiving you for that.” But my grin takes the sting out of my threat. I'm still reveling in the fact that I'm the first girl Luke's ever introduced to his parents. That must mean
something
.
We stop, Luke searching for his parent's car in the large lot.
“You haven't answered my question,” I say.
“Which one?” He clicks the key fob and a light flashes one row away. “I'll be right back with the car. It has heated seats.” He jogs off before I can say anything. The breeze teases goosebumps over my arms. I glance up at the bright moon, beaming down through the still-racing clouds. The wind whistles around the edge of the brick clubhouse, making the dark green awning slap. Another shiver runs up my spine and I glance behind me into the dark. Somehow, with Luke not right next to me, the night seems threatening, like it's watching me.
I turn back to see Luke's head duck through the open door of a shiny sedan. I hug my arms around my chest. I watch the headlights flash on and the brake lights shine red.
Come on, Luke
. The wind whips at the awning and howls. The distant purr of the engine promises he'll soon be back. With heated seats. My lips soften into a curve as I concentrate on Luke's glossy family car.
Heavy hands fall onto my shoulders, pinning me with panic. “Jule,” a deep voice whispers at my ear.
I twist around, right into the broad chest of Eric Ashe.
9
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
~1 Corinthians 13:2
Panic crushes against my heart, stalling it. I suck in air and try to back out of Eric's grasp, but he doesn't release me.
“Let me go,” I say, breathless.
“Are you okay?” Eric asks, peering into my face. He glances at the clubhouse and then at my odd clothes. “Carly came home without you, your dad doesn't know where you are, and the bonfire is washed out.”
His words sound normal, but I'm completely aware that his fingers are still digging into my shoulders, so I'm unable to escape.
“Let me go, Eric.”
It all happens in an instant. Headlights blind me, a car door slams, and then Eric is flying across the damp lawn. He hits the ground and jumps up, unfazed, storming back. I retreat several steps closer to the car.
“Leave her alone!” Eric yells, his right arm pulled back, fist clenched. What? He thinks Luke's the danger. Well, didn't I think that earlier, too?
“Whoa! Wait!” I yell, hands up.
“Do not touch her,” Luke says beside me with a cold calm that sounds a hundred times more threatening than Eric's thunder. Scary Luke is back, but right now I'm pretty glad he showed up.
“Who the hell are you?” Eric demands, his eyes flashing between us.
“I'm herâ¦date tonight.”
Date? So it
was
a date. Is it a sign of insanity to be thrilled about a simple word when I'm standing between a psycho stalker and a guy who's able to throw huge people around without breaking a sweat?
Eric lowers his arm but keeps his hand clenched. He looks at me. “You went with Carly to the fire.”
I clear the webs of panic out of my throat. “I met up with Luke at the fire. Carly wasn't around then. It sort of became a date.”
Eric stares at Luke, taking his measure. “You go to Cougar Creek?”
Luke doesn't say anything as he studies Carly's brother. Eric returns the stare. “Yeah, he does,” I jump in. “He's new. Actually, your mom sold his parents the house across from mine.” Okay, I'm sort of babblingâanything to stop the fight that could break out at any minute as they continue to stare each other down. Like two dogs preparing to jump at each other's throats at the first twitch.
“Like I said, Jule, your dad's worried.” Eric doesn't break eye contact with Luke.
“I've already called him,” I answer without hiding my growing annoyance. “It's not your job to check up on me.”
“Actually, it is,” Eric murmurs.
“What?”
Eric finally turns his eyes to me. “You'd better get home. I'll give you a ride.”
Like hell!
“Luke's driving me home.” I indicate the running car behind me with a tilt of my chin. “He has heated seats.” God! Both of them look at me like I just told them that I've sprouted wings and will fly home. “I'm cold,” I defend myself, before throwing the passenger side door open and plopping down in the plush leather seats. I slap the leather. “Nice and toasty.” I slam the door shut.
Luke slides into the driver's seat in stiff silence as he revs the powerful engine. “Buckle up,” he murmurs.
I click the seat belt and Luke guns the car, squealing out of the parking lot in one final in-your-face move. I grasp the dashboard. “Was that necessary?”
“Who is he?” Luke's driving way too fast. He's still pissed. And I'm getting pissed that he's pissed, since this isn't my fault.
“Carly's brother.”
Luke looks at me in the dark car. “He likes you.”
I feel a prickle up my neck at Luke's hard eyes. “He's like a big brother to me.” Luke doesn't need to know the guy is obsessed with me. That information might make him turn around.
Luke snorts, his hand gripping the steering wheel. “He thinks you're his.”
“So you can also read minds?” I ask sarcastically.
“No.” Luke takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, as if trying to calm himself. “It's the way he touched you. There was ownership there. Plus⦔ He pauses, as if deciding whether to continue or not.
“Plus what?”
“His smell.”
I don't remember anything weird about Eric's smell. He actually smelled decent, like some popular cologne.
“I've smelled it before.” He glances at me and then back at the dark road. “Around your house.” Softer now. “
In
your house.”
I blink. I must breathe, or stars will start dancing in front of my eyes. “In myâ¦house?” Carly's been the only Ashe in my house for months.
“Are you aware that he's been watching you?”
“Watching me?” My voice squeaks pathetically. Luke slows the car and turns. The uneven terrain makes me grab the overhead handle and look outside. He's pulled onto a gravel side road in front of a cow fence. We're a couple miles from my house. Luke turns the ignition off and stares out of the windshield, either giving me time to think or giving himself time to calm down. I'm not sure which. Perhaps both.
I start when his voice breaks the silence. “Do you like him?”
“Not like that,” I say in a rush and watch him inhale slowly, evenly.
“He could be dangerous,” he says.
You have no idea!
Luke looks at me. His stare has thawed, and relief floods my tight stomach. I nod. “I'm trying to stay clear of him.”
“I'll talk to him,” he says.
“I don't think that's a good idea.” I laugh a little and huff, turning in my seat so I'm facing Luke with my knee bent and braced across the warm seat. I lean against the door.
“Soâ¦is this where you're going toâ¦hypnotize me, make me forget about tonight?” The only hint that my switch in topics has startled Luke is a blink. “Like Carly,” I add. “Am I going to seem drunk to my dad, disoriented?” I clutch the seat with my nails. My overly dramatic mind pictures him leaping across the console to mind meld with me or something. So when his hand slides off the steering wheel, I twitch.
Luke stills. “No.”
I nod nervously. “Okay. Good.” I don't think he's lying, do I? As far as I know, he hasn't lied to me. He hasn't given me answers, but he hasn't lied.
He leans across the middle console, and my hope for another kiss wars with my urge to draw back. Luke stares into my eyes. His are dark, sad almost. I wonder what makes them that way. His hand slides through the shadows to my hair. He brushes it back from my cheek, his thumb trailing along my skin. He leans in and gives me a gentle kiss.
“I don't want you to forget this,” he murmurs. His kiss is soft but urgent, again restrained. I twist my fingers in his hair, trying to urge him closer. But he retreats, his breathing as ragged as mine. He closes his eyes. “I'd better get you home.”
He starts the car. We're in front of my house in such a short time I wonder if he did tamper with my memory. But I still remember Taylin's words, the golf course, falling into quicksand, meeting his parents, Eric's anger, Luke's kisses. Butâ¦I feel disoriented nonetheless.
“Did you mess with my head?” I ask before I open the door. “I feelâ¦weird, fuzzy, kind of.”
Luke smiles lazily at me, the casually gorgeous guy again. “That was all from my kiss.”
“A great cook, super athlete, and oh so humble.” I say and he laughs. “I guess two out of three isn't bad.” He laughs more. I feel like I should continue but I don't know what to say. I grow serious. “I have questions, you know.”
“I know.” His chuckle fades.
“I'd really like answers.”
He sighs. “Yeah, I'd like some, too.”
“You lost me there.”
Luke looks past me at my dad waving on the front porch. “You'd better go. I need to get the car back. I don't want my mom to have to put up with Mrs. Manx driving her home.”
I shut the door and Luke rolls down the window. I duck back in so Luke can see my face. “I need answers. Promise me.”
Luke hands me my plastic grocery bag of muddy clothes. “I won't ever forget tonight. Thank you.” His lopsided grin mesmerizes me. I just stare. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“Yeah,” I breathe.
“See ya,” he says and I turn. As the window whirs up I realize he didn't promise me anything.
* * *
“He kissed you again?” Carly screeches over the phone. “I guess it's a good thing you convinced me to leave you there.”
I know she's still hazy about the night, but she's readily accepted my explanation for her leaving me there to help Matt take Taylin home. It's the truth, just the details are skewed. Carly completely believes that Taylin was already passed out when we found her.
“Yeah, thanks for giving us some time.”
“Well, I felt so bad when I scared your dad. And Eric flipped out when I said I didn't know exactly where you were.”
“I called Dad, so he was fine,” I remind her for the hundredth time. “And Eric needs to get a life.”
“Yeah, I told Dad he'd better talk to him before you get a restraining order.”
“What did your dad say?”
“Not much. He'll talk to him. But Mom's no help.”
“Why?”
“I think Mom secretly hopes you and Eric will get married and have all sorts of grandbabies for her.”
“Ick!”
Carly laughs. “Not to worry, Jule. I caught him texting a girl named Angie late last night. I think she's the one who keeps calling him.”
“He has a girlfriend?” I turn over on my back where I'm lying on my bed. My gaze follows the faint crack in the pale ceiling.
“Don't know for sure, but it's a good sign he's moving on.”
Does a psycho stalker really “move on”? Just because I told him I didn't want to go out? And Luke said Eric is stalking me; at least, that's my definition of someone who snoops around outside and
inside
(I suppress a shudder) my house. There's an awkward pause on the phone where I'm supposed to agree with Carly. Time to switch subjects.
“So, Mattâ¦any goodnight kiss?”
“What?! No!” Carly says with a mix of frustration and annoyance.
“I'd say that Matt's not someone you should waste your energy on, but that's not helpful, is it?”
“No,” Carly says, now sounding gloomy. “Jule, he was soâ¦gentle with Taylin, and with me, actually. He has such a wonderful smile. It reaches his eyes. You know, that's what worries me about Luke, Jule. When I look at his eyes, they're so cold, hard. Seventeen is way too young to look so furious and cynical.”
I sigh and slide my legs over the bed. “I know, but I've seen him different.” I push aside my sheer curtain so I can spy on the Whitmore house way down the street. What is Luke doing right now? Are his eyes sharp like shattered pieces of black shale? Or are they warm and full of laughter? I glance at the pile of borrowed tennis clothes I ran through the wash this morning. “I'm going over there,” I say, more to myself than to Carly.
“To the Whitmores'?”
“Yeah.”
“Now?”
“I have to return his mom's clothes and tennis shoes.”
“God, Jule, I haven't showered yet.”
“I can go by myself.” Actually, I want to go by myself. I don't know what Luke might say about Eric, and I have some pretty specific questions I want him to answer.
“I can be ready in thirty minutes.”
“I'm fine, Carly. I'm not scared of Luke,” I say, and after a brief pause I realize that I mean it. I'm not afraid of him, or at least I feel safer with him than I feel afraid.
“Okay, Jule, but make sure you have your cell with you.”
I laugh a little. “I'll be sure to call you if he's attacking me.”
“I won't shower. Just give me fifteen minutes.”
I laugh more. “Don't.” I grow serious. “Actually, I might want to seeâ¦I don't know. Maybe I'll get another kiss.”