“Yes. It’s a newer building with underground parking and video surveillance.”
Jessica opened her mouth to speak, then closed it before the words came out. She wanted to remind her father that she had the skills to take care of herself, but once Claire died her father trusted no one, not even his own daughter.
“Well, I hope you two are happy and maybe someday you’ll make a real commitment beyond just playing house.” Grant tipped back his tall glass of beer, keeping his eyes on Luke.
“So … shall we get the waiter back over here to take our order?” Sunny, God bless her, she knew how to save the day, even if she was the one to first mention marriage.
*
They survived dinner, just barely. There wasn’t much to say on the drive back to Jessica’s. Luke shut off the engine and they both sat in more silence.
“I’m going to marry you.” Luke kept his eyes trained on the parked car in front of them.
“You don’t have to say that. It doesn’t matter what they think. I’m not waiting for you to get down on one knee.”
He climbed out of the car and opened her door, offering his hand. She took it and let him lead her up the stairs. Before she could fish out her keys, he kissed her. His touch healed her more than anything. Luke gave her strength, he gave her hope, he gave her life.
“I won’t get down on one knee,” he whispered over her lips. “I’ll get down on both knees because I won’t ask you to marry me, I’ll beg you to marry me.” Feathering his lips down her neck, he continued to whisper, “But for now, I need to give you back the life you lost. I want you whole … complete. When I marry you, I don’t want to share you with your past. I want it to only be us and our future.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and held onto him like her life depended on it, and maybe it did. “I love you … I love you … oh my God I love you so much.” She hung from his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist.
He chuckled and kissed her on the lips at the same time. “Pack an overnight bag and we’ll get the rest tomorrow. We need to get home and let your mutt out of his kennel.”
Home.
They were going home. Really, Jessica was already there. Luke was her home. He would forever be her home.
Chapter Thirteen
Knight
Forty.
Over the hill.
The view was good from the other side. The forty-something had a birthday date with her twenty-something daughter and thirty-something boyfriend. Boyfriend? While the term implied something more than friends, “boy” screamed cradle-robbing cougar.
Jackson Knight had become more than a fun-banter-role-playing fantasy. She fell for him for one reason: he loved his sister. Who falls for a guy because he loves his sister? Someone who lived her entire adult life wishing a man would wrap her in his protective arms, kiss her on the head and say, “You’ve got this,” in her darkest hour.
That man deserved to see Ryn in a new dress, one that said, “This is how sexy you make me feel.” As an unexpected gift, Maddie rearranged her work schedule to spend the day with her. Though instead of a spa day, they decided on shopping, but only after Ryn agreed to buy Maddie a new dress as well.
The new adult age was a difficult time. She remembered it all too well. The early twenties felt like legal freedom without the maturity to go with it. Too old to justify holding onto the selfishness of adolescence, too young to really let it go. At least that’s how Ryn saw it from the outside. She went from child to mother and skipped the wild freedom of her twenties.
“So tell me about this Jackson guy,” Maddie asked as Ryn slipped into her black strapless dress that showed a lot of leg and too much cleavage that was not perky enough to hold it in place well. Maddie assured her she looked hot “for a mom.”
As expected, she regretted caving to Maddie insisting she buy that dress. It didn’t make her feel young, it made her feel like a forty-year-old woman trying and failing to hold onto her youth. But once she saw past her insecurities to the woman in the mirror, she had to admit the reflection had a little sex appeal going on in that dress.
Ryn turned, letting Maddie zip it for her. “He’s from New York and he teaches piano lessons.”
“Piano lessons? Really?” Maddie wrinkled her nose. “What is he like … eighty?”
Nerves hijacked her body, starting with her heart pounding in her chest. They’d had dinner several times since she last cleaned his house, and each night ended with kissing that felt more like mouth fucking and Jackson’s hands making bolder moves exploring her body, but always on the outside of her clothes. Wound tight and ready to self-combust was an accurate assessment by that point.