I wrapped my arms around my middle and tried to stop the pull at my stomach. My eyes raked down Luke’s frame. He looked so strong and so much like a man I could lean on when times were rough. Hell, I had leaned on him when times were rough.
“I’m sorry, Luke.”
His head snapped up to mine. “For what?”
“For not hearing you out.” I sighed. “And for her being a cheating whore.”
He chuckled and I grinned. Then we just looked at each other. For a really, really long time.
My heart was begging to be near him. My entire body was begging to be near him. Everything about Luke pulled me in like the eye of a tornado. I’d been caught up in the Luke storm since the moment I first met him, and for every second after.
“You know I meant it, right?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
I narrowed my eyes. “Meant what?”
“When I asked you to marry me.” My heart stopped and my eyes grew wide. “I was only half joking when I emailed you that. I really think I would have married you.” He looked down at his feet for a second. “I think I…” He stopped himself and an awkward silence filled the air.
Was he going to say he loved me?!
I broke the silence quickly, my heart pounding in my chest. “You don’t want to marry me, Luke.” I paused. “And after everything you’ve been through with Ash…how could you ever want to marry someone ever again?” If I were him, I wouldn’t want to marry ever again. Let alone me, someone who had given up so easily.
He turned his head toward the road, taking a deep breath. “Well, after I got the news about Ash on my previous deployment, I wanted to kill her and kill the guy who knocked her up. I was so fucking angry.”
I felt sick knowing she’d done that to him. I wanted to kill her, too. How dare she hurt him? Didn’t she realize what a worthy man he was?
“Then, after I got over the shock and started to hound her for a divorce, I went back into my Marine ways and set a rule for myself. You know us Marines, we love structure.”
I laughed. “And acronyms.”
Luke chuckled. “And acronyms.” He swallowed and I watched in awe as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I made up this rule that I would never marry again. Actually, I think my exact words were, ‘I will never be committed to someone, ever again.’”
Oh. Okay, then.
“But… life’s all about bending the rules, right, Doc?” He turned away. “A certain somebody taught me that.” My head was spinning. He gave me a smug smile and my heart all but exploded. Before I could wrap my head around what he had said, he walked down my steps and over to his house. I watched him the entire, agonizing time.
The second he was through his door, I melted onto my porch floor. I was caught up in the Luke storm, once again.
Except this time, I was welcoming it with open arms.
Twenty-Eight
“JoJo, why are we doing this tonight? You’re not getting married for another nine months!” I shouted over the dubstep music pounding loudly in the background.
Tonight JoJo had insisted we celebrate her bachelorette party, even though I told her I already had it planned for Vegas in six months.
JoJo ignored me, pounding back another shot. “What has gotten into you?” I asked, sipping on my whiskey sour.
“I just wanna have fun tonight!” JoJo jumped up from the table and grabbed Natalie, one of her employees whom she had also conned into going out tonight.
She tricked us! This was in no way her bachelorette party. I had the entire thing planned. Male strippers, booze on top of booze. We were
staying in one of the classiest casino hotels in all of Las Vegas. This was nothing compared to that!
The night started off like normal: me turning into a peeping Tom and gazing at Luke’s house. It’d been pretty quiet since our last conversation, but I felt like we had begun moving in the right direction again. I thought it was pretty clear that there was still something between us, but now I wasn’t so sure.
He’d been normal, but he’d been too normal.
Something seemed off.