When Stars Collide (Second Chance Romance #2) - Sara Furlong-Burr Page 0,17

could to keep it there. Damn it.

“Do you have any idea what kind of frilly, puffy-sleeved abomination you’re going to strap to my body? Or better yet, what shade of blush, rose, fuchsia, or, God forbid, bubblegum, it’s going to be?” I asked, cringing a little more with every shade.

Elle smiled, closing her planner. “If it puts your mind at ease, pink isn’t even one of our colors. And I would prefer the dresses be more 2019 than 1980.”

“Good. I’m not going to have to quit your wedding now.”

She rolled her eyes. “Nice to have you on board. Incidentally, we decided our colors are going to be some combination of tangerine, orange, and yellow, if you’re curious.”

“That’s … actually not that bad. Kind of like a flame.”

“Our thoughts exactly.” Elle elbowed Luke. “See, Mena gets it.”

“There’s a first time for everything.” Luke winked at me.

“Oh, burn! Just like your wedding colors.”

“And a urinary tract infection,” Peter added.

“Seriously, man?” Luke shook his head.

“What? I thought we were all chiming in with our contributions to the things that burn category.”

“Anyway,” Elle stowed the notebook back inside of her purse, ending the impromptu wedding planning session for the day, “we wanted to pick colors that would pop in our wedding photos, and noticed that the three-color combination thing was popular, so we just kind of ran with it.”

“I was skeptical at first, but the more I saw the three of those colors together, the more I began to appreciate the, ah … the a …” Luke moved his hand in hurried circles as the wheels in his head turned to try to come up with the word that, once upon a time, would have come to him just as naturally as breathing. Now, in the present time, his frustration was building with each passing second his brain failed to produce the word he was searching for. “Excuse me.” Exasperated, Luke stood up from the booth and headed in the direction of the door.

“Luke, wait.” Elle made a move to go after him but was stopped short by Peter.

“I’ll go,” Peter offered, standing up. “Stay here with Mena.”

Despite her best efforts to hide it, Elle dabbed a tear from the corner of her eye with a tissue she’d managed to inconspicuously pull out of her purse, staring off into an invisible void.

“Hey,” I began, bringing her back to our booth, “talk to me.”

“I wish I could just wave a magic wand and make him whole again.” She spoke so softly I wasn’t sure whether I was meant to hear it.

“In a way, you already have. Elle, when you left your entire life behind, including Eric, to stay by Luke’s side, you saved him. Without you, he wouldn’t have made nearly the gains he has today.”

“I wish I could say that my rushing to Luke’s side wasn’t entirely selfish on my part. When I left Eric, my intentions were genuinely to help Luke and return home to Indiana. However, there was also a part of me that knew deep down that my marriage was over. In the back of my mind, I knew Luke was always the one for me and that going back to Roanoke was my last chance at happiness.”

“No one forced into your position would blame you for making the decisions you made. Hell, every now and then, I still find myself pouring a celebratory glass of wine in honor of you dumping that steaming, hot pile of human garbage. Of course, if you hadn’t kicked him to the curb, I’d probably still find a reason to drink. Either way, there’s always room for wine.”

Elle leaned back against the red vinyl padding that covered the seating in our booth, appearing a touch more at ease. “Puts new meaning to seeing the world with a glass-half-full perspective.”

“Half-full, half-empty, I don’t care just as long as there’s always something in the glass.”

“Luke has made some great strides in his recovery. Returning to his work with Parkinson’s patients has helped him tremendously. It’s been therapeutic for him. He has some good days; days where I think to myself that his symptoms have abated, and we can put this all behind us after the lawsuit against the driver who hit him is resolved. But then he has a bad day. A day where he has difficulty finding the words he’s looking for, where he becomes overwhelmed when he’s given one too many tasks, or when there’s too many people in the room, or the room is