“Now, we don’t want to keep both of you. Have a good night, kids,” my dad said, gesturing for us to leave.
We walked out and Luke helped me into the car. After he jumped into the driver’s seat, he turned to me and said, “Your mom didn’t seem very happy.”
“My mom has been in a bad mood for a while now.”
“Is it because I’m your mate?”
I shrugged, not wanting to answer his question.
“Well, is it?” he pressed.
“It’s not the only reason.”
He nodded and began backing out of the driveway. He put the car into drive and asked, “Can you please elaborate on why your mom wasn’t happy?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, it does matter. I want to know. I didn’t know that your mom comes from an alpha family.”
I sighed. “It doesn’t matter. We barely even keep in touch with that side of the family. How did you find out anyway?”
“My dad told me. Please, Jasmine. It’s really important to me to know why your mom isn’t happy. I want to fix anything that’s a problem,” he pleaded with me.
I considered how much to tell him and finally settled on being honest. “She’s mostly not happy with me. I’ve been leaving the house without saying anything and there were rumors about Blake and me at one point, which didn’t help. But yeah, she’s not happy that I am mated to someone that she and her friends used to gossip about all the time. I mean, you don’t exactly have the best reputation in the pack, openly dating Lucy. It’s only going to get worse once everyone finds out she’s pregnant.”
Luke let out a deep breath. “Goddess, I really fucked up, didn’t I?”
I didn’t know how to answer. Just then, text messages began coming in, the alert popping up on the console of Luke’s car showing they were from Lucy. He kept hittingIgnoreas the message alerting him popped up. I felt the familiar sick feeling come over me again, wondering why I kept torturing myself trying to make things work with Luke. I started to wonder if I should just let him go be with Lucy. I was starting to forget why I ever even wanted him in the first place. It didn’t seem worth the torture and losing my best friend.
As soon as I started considering giving up on our relationship, Luke reached over and took my hand, emitting sparks and calmness through my arm. I sat back in my seat, enjoying the feeling coming over me.
“Don’t worry, Jasmine. We’ll figure it out. I’m going to step it up and prove to everyone that I’m a good man and worthy of being your mate. Let’s just enjoy the time we have together tonight and not worry about it right now.”
Luke pulled into the parking lot of a bowling alley. He came around to open my door and help me out of the car. He then took my hand and led me inside. We went up to the desk to rent bowling shoes and claim a lane. Once we were seated at our bowling lane, Luke got onto his knees and helped me put my shoes on. He looked up at me and smiled. “See? If you stick with me, you’ll get waited on hand and foot. Now let me go order us some food.”
I quickly looked at my phone to see a text from Blake.
Blake Sexy AF: You looked good out there today, Miss Alpha
A smile spread across my face. I quickly put my phone away before Luke returned. He had two cups in his hand, which he set down on the table. “Sorry, I forgot to ask what you wanted to drink so I got us both Cokes. I hope that’s okay.”
I gave him a thumbs-up. “Coke’s good.”
“So, how much do you know about bowling?” he asked.
“To be honest, not much.”
“Okay, good. That means it’ll be a fair match because I know close to nothing.” He laughed. He let me go first. I picked up a purple-colored bowling bowl, observed what others were doing, and did the same thing, flinging the ball straight into the gutter. I tried again and was able to hit a couple of the side pins. On my third shot, I was able to knock one more pin down.
“Hmm, well, it’s good to know you’re not perfect at everything.” Luke snickered. He went next and didn’t do much better. “Damn, this is much harder than it looks.”
We slowly started to improve as we continued bowling, giving each other high fives as we’d knock over bowling pins. Eventually, a waitress brought over a pepperoni pizza and cheesy fries. I dug into the food while Luke bowled.
“Hey, save some for me!” he yelled from the lane.
“Well, you better hurry up, because this pizza’s really good. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stop eating it.”
He ran over and sat next to me, flinging his arms around me, “Sounds almost like how I feel about you.” He began nibbling on my ear. “Mmm you taste so good. I haven’t tried the pizza yet, but I’m pretty sure you taste better.”