Even though she knew Luke would be in there, she felt her stomach flutter when she trailed slowly after Aggie into the house. She tried to stop it, but as they entered the kitchen and she saw him at the stove with his sleeves rolled up and one of Aggie’s flowery aprons on, the fluttering in her stomach changed from butterflies to elephants.
Why did he have to be so hot?
That had to be the cause of this attraction she felt.
And it had been areallylong time since she had been with a man.
Not since her husband.
Quickly, she pushed away thoughts of him. Going down that road always led to a meltdown, and she was not having one of those in front of her friends and Luke.
“What’s for dinner?” Aggie asked, giving Nick a kiss and then going to see what Luke had on the stove.
“We’ve got tomato soup, chicken pot pies, and chocolate mousse pie for dessert,” Nick replied.
“Sounds delicious,” Aggie said.
“I wanted to make homemade ice cream, but I didn’t have enough time,” Luke said.
Aggie chuckled. “Nick loves homemade ice cream too.”
“Our first foster mother used to make it with us when we were little,” Luke told her.
“Oh, you never told me that.” Aggie turned to Nick, who just shrugged. “Nick hates to talk about his childhood.”
“It’s hard knowing that people we loved could turn their backs on us,” Luke said.
Sometimes it hurts to turn your back on someone you cared about, but you had no other choice, Summer thought to herself. After her marriage ended, she had walked away from every single family member and friend she’d had. She hadn’t wanted to do it, but she’d had to. It was the only way she could survive. She knew she’d hurt them deeply, but she hadn’t known what else to do but leave. If she had seen another option, she would have chosen it in a heartbeat.
Summer hated knowing that she had caused pain to people she loved. It was one of the reasons why she now had her let no one get close policy. She didn’t want to hurt anyone else.
“Summer.”
She blinked and found everyone staring at her.
“Could you help Luke dish up while Nick and I set the table,” Aggie enunciated each word slowly as though she’d already repeated them several times.
“Sure.” She faked a smile although being left alone with Luke was the last thing she wanted right now. Her heart was already beating way too fast, a couple of minutes alone with him and it was probably going to beat itself right out of her chest.
Aggie tossed her a quick smile then gathered plates and bowls and cutlery and ushered Nick from the room. Summer knew it was another attempt to get her and Luke together by leaving them alone.
Looking anywhere than at Luke, Summer began to remove the pies from the oven, setting them on the benches. She could feel his eyes on her, watching her every move. Although he had told him last night that she didn’t want to date him, she knew he would ask her out again.
She was torn.
Aggie’s words echoed through her mind,being alone forever can't make you happy. Summer knew her friend was right.Whatever you think is in your past that means you can’t move forward you're wrong,Luke had said to her last night. She didn’t think that applied to people like her. People who had done what she’d done.
While she wanted to say yes, she couldn’t.
She just couldn’t.
“Summer …”
“Luke, don’t. Please,” she interrupted his attempt to ask her out again.
“I just want to have dinner with you, that’s all, Summer. One dinner is all I'm asking for. After that, if you don’t want to go out with me again then that’s fine. I won't ask you again, we’ll just be friends,” he pleaded.
“I can't.”