“I’m such a dork,” I mumbled.
Luke shook his head. “You’re beautiful, you’re sweet and you’re funny. You’re also bein’ loyal to your friend and tryin’ to take care of her when she’s in a bad situation. You’re dealin’ with this at the same time you’re dealin’ with a lot of other shit, internally and externally.”
It must be said, I loved it that he understood. It made me feel all comfy, snugly warm but on the inside.
This I didn’t share.
His hand tightened on my neck and he brushed his mouth against mine again. “Let me deal with the external shit. You just focus on sorting out your head. Deal?”
I nodded.
He kissed my nose then his hand went away from my neck, his arms went around me again and he (thankfully) changed the subject.
“The bad guys know they gotta work out their issues with Vito. That’s why Zano’s called off Santo. You’re in the clear but I don’t trust it yet. I still want you callin’ into me regularly.”
I nodded again. I had enough dealing with the emotional trauma of Luke and the possibility of bearing him three sons. I didn’t need to get kidnapped again.
“What are your plans for today?” he asked.
“Sort out my Range Rover. Go see Sissy. Workout. Shop for groceries. Maybe Shirleen and I’ll go see Bobby. And I need to go to your place and get my stuff.”
“No.”
I looked down at him. “What?”
“Leave your stuff at my place, you can go there to unpack but leave it.”
“A lot of stuff I need is there.”
“You’re goin’ to the store. Double up.”
Shit.
Doubling up on necessities between my house and Luke’s. Okay, so maybe I needed five hundred and seventeen hours to cope with all this shit.
“Luke, maybe we have more talking to do,” I made a suggestion that I didn’t think was a suggestion, as such.
His arms became tight. He leaned in, kissed my neck and then got up, taking me with him. He turned, set me back in the seat and put a hand on the seat on either side of me so his face was close to mine.
“Life’s too short, I’m through talkin’. This is happening, we both know it, we both feel it and you even admitted it. Ava Babe, stop fighting it.”
I sighed, because in the heat of one of my many freak outs, I did admit it.
I was such a dork.
This meant I was with Luke Stark. I was Luke Stark’s girlfriend. Worse, I was Luke Stark’s woman. There was a nuance of difference between being a man’s girlfriend and a man’s woman, but that nuance was pretty f**king significant.
Fuckity, f**k, f**k, f**k.
This should have made me happy. In fact everything that morning should have made me doing-cartwheels-of-joy ecstatic.
Instead, what I felt was scared. Shit scared to the depths of my soul.
I sighed again and told him. “I need my computer.”
“I’ll get Matt or Jack to deal with it.”
“Luke.”