Stand-In Saturday (Love For Days #2) - Kirsty Moseley Page 0,89
as my body temperature hikes up a couple of degrees.
He grins smugly, shrugging one shoulder, and reaches over to pick up a handful of strawberries and some cake pops. “I can’t help it if you have a food fetish.”
More like a Theo fetish. A giggle escapes my lips, and I look down at my plate, feeling my face heat up. Damn it, he turns me so girlie sometimes; it’s ludicrous.
As we stand and stuff our faces with desserts (neither of us even goes near the real food), I look around the room. My gaze lands on Marie and Fred Maitland, Lucas’s parents, who are across the room, talking to another couple I don’t know. I raise my hand, sending them a wave. Marie inclines her head in acknowledgement but doesn’t smile. Instead, she elbows Fred and leans in to say something to him. Fred’s head swivels in my direction, and his eyebrows pinch with reproach. My stomach clenches. I’ve always had a good relationship with them. Even after the split, they’ve been nothing but loving and supportive towards me, but now, their expressions and hard eyes seem hostile. I don’t know why.
“Who are they?” Theo asks, slipping his arm around my shoulders. “You’ve gone all stiff, so I’m assuming we don’t like them.”
I chuckle and bump my hip with his, looking up at him and rolling my eyes. He’s too funny sometimes. “Mr and Mrs Maitland. They’re Lucas’s parents. And we do like them.”
As a waitress walks past, I pick up a glass of orange juice from her tray and smile gratefully. Just as I’m about to take a sip, I look back over to Marie again and see him. Lucas. He’s just stepping to his mother’s side. She leans in and whispers something to him, and the smile falls from his face as he looks over at me. Our eyes meet, and I gulp. The air suddenly feels stifling. This is the first time I’ve seen him since the day I walked out. I can’t move. I feel trapped, like a deer in headlights. Although I knew I’d see him, I still wasn’t quite prepared.
twenty-one
Lucie
Lucas looks good, as always. Smart and professional in his three-piece charcoal-grey suit, black tie, and matching pocket handkerchief. I picked out that suit. I picked out all his suits. His dark blond hair is styled neatly but is a tad longer than normal, curling around his ears and the nape of his neck, in a way he hates. Maybe gym-bunny girl isn’t as good as me at booking his appointments and reminding him to go. His distinctive pale icy-blue eyes bore into mine from across the room, and I feel a cold trickle of something run down my spine. He doesn’t smile, but he does tilt his chin up in a silent greeting.
I nod a silent hello, too, and my hand tightens on my glass. Eight years of my life I spent with this man. I gave him everything of myself, gave up things I’d dreamed of for him. He is such a massive part of me. But … the thing that surprises me is … seeing him doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. During the span of the last three months, I mentally built this moment up, repeatedly thought about seeing him again. I imagined what it would feel like to look at him and know he wasn’t mine anymore, how much it would hurt. I wondered if it would feel as bad as when I walked in early from my spin class and caught him naked with that girl. That day he ripped my heart out, I always thought it would feel like that again, seeing him for the first time … but it’s a bit of an anticlimax.
I feel … okay.
My eyes flick behind him, searching out my replacement, but I can’t see her yet.
When I look back to Lucas, I notice his jaw is tight, and his eyes drag over me in my dress. The disapproval is so easy to see on his face; he might as well be holding a neon sign, announcing it.
He remembers.
And he still hates it.
Good.
His back is ramrod straight, his nostrils flare, his eyebrows pull together, and when his eyes meet mine again, they’re hard and judgemental. I almost want to flinch away immediately, but I force myself to raise my glass and take a sip of my juice before I turn my back on Lucas and look up at Theo.