They all begin talking at the same time, and then Lex hollers,wait!He clambers out of the van and returns a minute later with a large black duffle bag.
“What the hell is that?” I ask.
“Oh, you don’t wanna know,” he replies with a smirk and pulls out a laptop and…is that a listening device? Who is this guy?
“You’re right. I don’t,” I say as I give Eliza directions.
We stop off at a burger joint, and everyone orders but me because my stomach is churning and I still feel achy all over, and I think this is a very, very bad idea.
When we finally pull into the RV park twenty minutes later, I do my best not to look.
Oh, who am I kidding? I’m pressed against the window, staring like a lovesick child. My nose breath is fogging up the glass, and my tongue is lolling out of my mouth. I can see Luke’s truck parked outside and the lights in the motorhome are on.
If I was a regular, mature adult, I’d just go to the door and knock and ask to speak to him. But instead, I grab the binoculars from Eliza and adjust them to see if I can catch a glimpse of him.
“I can’t see anything,” I mutter in irritation.
“Hold on,” Lex says as he pulls on a ski mask and wrenches the van door open. Before I can protest, he’s sneaking over to the motorhome. He’s very good at this and almost disappears entirely into the shadows.
“What the hell is he doing?” I mutter, and Jane bounces in her seat.
“El, don’t ask questions. Just be glad this psychopath is on our side.”
A minute later, Lex is back in the van, sliding some headphones on and holding the listening device up to the window.
We’re all silent as he bobs his head and fiddles with some knobs, and then he wrenches one of the headphones from his ear and says, “He’s just shooting the shit with someone named Sem.”
“That’s his brother,” I explain.
“They’re waiting for some chick to show up. Couldn’t make out her name,” Lex adds, then puts the earphones back on and bobs his head more.
“What chick?” Eliza whispers, and my heart clenches in my chest.
“I don’t know.”
“He didn’t move on, did he?” Kate asks, and Jane nudges her roughly.
“Of course, he did not. This is Luke we’re talking about,” Eliza says assuredly. “He was head over heels for El.”
But my mind isn’t listening. I’m just envisioning Luke with someone else. Someone who isn’t me, and I feel like I’m going to throw up.
A minute later, a car pulls up, parking alongside Luke’s truck, and a beautiful curvy woman with long brown hair steps out.
Before she can even knock, Luke wrenches the RV door open, hops down the two steps, and envelopes her in his arms.
I remember being in those arms. How it felt.
I blink and blink and damn, my eyes sting.
“I think we should go,” I mutter, and Lex pulls his earphones off again.
“He says they have a date. They’re going to some art gallery.”
My sisters erupt in a cacophony of spoken words that I can’t make out.
I gnaw at my bottom lip and then squeeze my eyes shut.
“I want to go home,” I say softly, but no one listens. I peek to my right and see Luke pressing a kiss to the side of the woman’s face, and my cheeks are wet.