His Lover to Protect - Katee Robert Page 0,42
cut that shit out.”
His attitude grounded her, the same way it had at the top of Pulpit Rock. She put on a brave face, though it felt a little fragile around the edges. “I know this might come as a shock to you, but you can’t just glower your way in and demand that people’s thoughts stop offending you.”
“The world would be a better place if I could.” His green eyes were filled with concern. “We don’t have to do this.”
He was so much easier to deal with when he was snapping at her, even if it was a surface-level attitude, and he was offering her a way out. She hadn’t anticipated how raw she’d feel just staring at the bus. What was the tour itself going to do to her?
Desperate for a distraction, she blurted out, “Are your parents alive?”
“Yes.”
Just that. Nothing else. “But you never talk about them.”
“There’s nothing to say.” He shrugged. “I never knew my dad, and my mom was more concerned with her freedom than the well-being of her only child. She bounced when I was seven, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Oh God. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” He hesitated, then seemed to resolve something. “I didn’t go without. My Aunt Rose raised me, and I had a pretty decent childhood. What more can a kid ask for?”
Two living, loving parents. But he was right, in a way. At least he’d had family to step in and take care of him. “Tell me about your aunt. You mentioned her last night, but didn’t really go into detail.”
She needed this distraction. People had started filing onto the bus, and the closer they got to the door, the harder her heart pounded.
For a second, she thought he might turn her down flat. Luke had never had a problem doing that before now, but he sighed. “She’s a nice lady who looks as sweet as the apple pie she bakes, but she ran a tight ship. Still does. She never hesitated to take me to task for tracking in dirt or screwing around in school.” A soft smile curved his lips, and it changed the look of his entire face. He’d been attractive before, but with the obvious love there, he was absolutely stunning. “I was a little hell-raiser, but she was really good at letting me run amok and being there to help me set things right. She was the one to offer the military as an option when I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and she was the one to pick me up and start to put me back together when they sent me back broken.”
What would her life have ended up like if her family was more like that? Nâinai loved the family in her own way, but she bowed to Yé-yé’s will in all things, and Alexis’s grandfather could barely stand the sight of her these days. She’d failed the family in every way that he thought counted.
Dad had done his best, and he loved her and Avery beyond a shadow of a doubt. He’d been by her side, the same as her sister, every step of the process, even though it’d torn him up in ways she could only imagine to see his daughter go through the same thing that had killed his wife. It meant that sometimes he needed to check out for a few days, and she’d always respected that, because she knew what it was like to have the past rise up and kick her in the teeth.
I did have support and love. What happened that I let my grandparents’ and ex’s negativity block that out?
She cleared her throat. “Your aunt sounds amazing.”
“She is. One of a kind.” He urged her toward the bus with a hand on the small of her back. “You haven’t lived until you’ve had her pie and sweet tea.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. It wasn’t likely that she’d ever meet the woman. Hell, she wasn’t even sure how long Luke would stick around. Yes, he’d accompanied her to Austria, and the sex was even more outstanding now than it’d been in Ireland and Norway—and who would’ve thought that was possible?—but that didn’t mean much in the long run.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
He spoke as they boarded the bus and made their way to a pair of seats halfway back. “Tell me about your family.”
It was the last thing she wanted to talk about—especially with the confusion of thoughts