“Jesus.”
“Yeah.”
I can feel her looking at me, but I keep my gaze focused on the road, too certain I’ll kiss her by mistake. And probably end up crashing the car because she’ll taste so damn good.
“Where are your parents?” she asks.
“They live in Ireland,” I tell her. “Moved over when I was in my early twenties. They own a hotel over there.”
You’ll meet them one day, I almost say,before the wedding.
The GPS tells me to take the next right, and soon we’re driving toward Lucy’s neighborhood.
“I didn’t expect a ride home from my interviewer.”
I smirk. “This hasn’t felt like a conventional interview.”
“No,” she smiles. “Not really.”
“It wasn’t the game,” I tell her.
“Huh?”
“The game. With your Dad. I’m not saying it wasn’t special and didn’t nudge you in the right direction. But a person like you, Lucy, you would’ve ended up helping people anyway. It’s just who you are.”
Careful. Stop.
This is the second time I’ve met her. I’m supposed to have no idea who she is, yet it doesn’t feel that way at all.
“How do you know?” she says, trying for a joke. “Maybe I’m a secret bank robber or something.”
“Oh yeah?” I chuckle. “How do you pull that off?”
“It’s easy. I just walk in there and do my meanest face. I don’t need to say anything else.”
“Your meanest face?” I laugh again. “All right. Let’s see it.”
I glance at her, and she rises to the challenge, sticking her lips out in a pout and furrowing her eyebrows.
“You look more bratty than mean,” I tell her, smirking.
“Bratty?” Her laughter is so sweet, so welcome. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before.”
“First time for everything,” I say. “But I said youlookit when you pull that face. You’re not bratty, Lucy.”
“You talk like you know me or something. Have you been stalking me?”
I grin, shaking my head, focusing on the road. I don’t tell her that stalking her is exactly what I’ve been fighting to resist ever since I met her at the community center.
I’ve wanted to find her apartment, to track her down, to be with her…But now we’re heading to her apartment, no stalking required.
“Do you have a roommate?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says, and I almost let out a sigh of relief.
A roommate means somebody will be there to stop me from acting on these desires.
Once I start with Lucy, I won’t be able to stop, but I don’t want her to think she’s just another woman…or thatother womenare part of it, part of us because they’re not and never will be.