Chapter Ten

“I’m depressed. I need a cookie.”

-Sophia Petrillo

“Who’s up for a little Marco Polo?”

Oliver’s question was answered with a resounding round of no’s and groans and then, since they were all hanging out in the pool, a chorus of splashing in his general direction.

“No one ever wants to have fun with me,” Oliver said.

“I’ll have some fun.” Gwen jumped up. “Let’s race.”

Oliver grinned and rose up in the five feet of water. The sun glimmered off his tanned skin and muscled body. “You think you can take me?”

“I know I can,” Gwen said.

“But you’re a girl.” Oliver stated this fact in a manner similar to a five-year-old. It had the desired effect though. Gwen gritted her teeth and stared him down.

“Let’s go, fly boy. Prepare yourself to be embarrassed by a girl.”

Mia clapped her hands together. “Yes. Lola can be the judge. She’s the only impartial one here.”

“I don’t know,” Lola said. “I didn’t care for the girl comment,” she teased.

Luke emerged from the house, looking hot as hell in his blue swim trunks. He threw on a pair of shades and strutted toward the pool. Lola was pretty sure he’d hate that description, but she didn’t care. She was having too good a time watching him.

“Earth to Judge Lola. Stopping ogling my brother.”

Lola snapped to attention. Ugh. “I plead the fifth.”

“We’ll let it slide. This time,” Mia warned with a smile. “Go sit over there on the steps. You are the eyes and ears of this race. Your final word is the word.”

Lola half swam and half walked to the steps. “That’s a lot of power. Hope it doesn’t go to my head.”

She made herself comfortable on the steps, enjoying feeling the hot sun on her skin, while she was halfway submerged in the cool water. Luke made his way to her.

“Hey, Lo, want to—”

She stopped him with a hand in the air. “Shh, I’m busy right now.”

Laughing, he leaned down and placed a kiss on her shoulder. “So I don’t need to be worried about you being alone with my family?”

“Stop distracting me. The race is about to start.”

Luke perused the scene. “Ollie and Gwen are racing? My money’s on Gwen.” With that prediction, he rounded the pool and went to sit with his mom, who was under the large umbrella at one of the tables.

The race was fast and furious. Luke should have put money on it, because he’d been right. Gwen started off slow but when she made her move, Oliver didn’t stand a chance. After that, Oliver needed to reclaim his man card by racing Mia, who did a doggy paddle across the pool.

Lola was still sitting on the steps of the pool, enjoying watching everything go down and partaking in her second—or was it third?—piña colada. Gwen swam over to her and perched herself next to Lola.

“Having fun?”

“So much. You guys are great. And it’s fun to spend the day in a pool. We have one at my apartment building, but we always have to fight over getting a lawn chair and then there’s always some kid screaming and then someone gets yelled at for having their music on too loud.”

“Hashtag, first world problems,” Gwen said with a wink.

“Totally.” Lola laughed.

Gwen pushed her hair back and took a moment to glance around the backyard. Luke was still talking to his mom and aunt, Oliver and Mia were engaging in some kind of competition that Lola couldn’t identify, and she had no idea where Winnie had run off to.

“I’ve been meaning to get you alone,” Gwen said.

Uh-oh. Lola’s mouth suddenly went dry.

Gwen didn’t waste any time getting to it. “What’s the deal?”

“The deal?” Lola repeated.

“With you and my brother.”

“What do you mean? We’re, you know, dating.”

Gwen tilted her head, studying Lola. Then she swiveled to take in her brother across the patio. Finally, she shook her head. “Nope. I don’t buy the whole meeting on a dating website.”

“Lots of people meet online,” Lola said, trying to divert the conversation.

“True and I have absolutely nothing against them. It’s just…I can’t see Luke going on one.”

Good thing she was already in the pool because Lola would be sweating bullets about now. Instead, she wrung her fingers together. “How do you think we met?”

Gwen considered the question. “I’m not sure. But I do know it wasn’t on Match or Tinder or whatever. The question is, why are you guys lying about it?”

Lola frantically tried to make eye contact with Luke. Clearly, he wasn’t receiving her psychic message for help.

“So you don’t think we’re really dating?” Lola asked in a quiet voice.

“To be honest, no, I didn’t think you were really dating. At least, not at first.”

Lola shot her a questioning look.

Gwen shrugged. “You’re not my brother’s type. No offense, by the way. His type is usually heinous.”

Finally, Lola chuckled. “Thanks for that.”

“No prob. If I had to guess, I would say that Luke isn’t your type either. Yet, I see the way the two of you look at each other.” She gazed off in the distance for a long moment before blowing out a long breath of air. “There’s something there, I know it.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“But there’s a secret here, too. I can feel it.”

Lola was torn. More conflicted than she’d been in a long time. On the one hand, she wanted to jump up and dance at the suggestion that she and Luke had something. But on the other, watching Gwen question her was horrible. She really liked Luke’s sister.

She could feel the other woman’s stare on her. Once again, she tried to silently beckon Luke to her side. And once again, it didn’t work.

She was on her own.

“The truth is, Gwen…” Gwen leaned forward, her eyes intent on the next words out of Lola’s mouth. “The truth is that I think it would be best for you to ask your brother any lingering questions. He’s your family. I’m just some girl you met a week ago.”

Clearly not the answer she wanted or expected, Gwen scrunched up her nose. “That’s just it. This is only the second time my family has met you, and we all really like you.”

“Thank you,” Lola said around a throat thick with emotion.

“I like to make fun of Luke and give him hell. But the truth is that I really love my dumb brother. I don’t want to see him get hurt. You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

Ever since she first met Gwen, Lola had been abundantly aware that she was the tough sister. Full of confidence and bravado and passion. But her question now was anything but. It showed her vulnerability.

“You know about my dad?” Gwen asked.

Surprised to be asked that question, Lola nodded.

“I think we’re all still trying to get over that in our own way. Luke especially. Please don’t hurt him.”

Lola gulped down a large lump. “I wouldn’t consciously hurt him. Please trust me on that. I wouldn’t hurt any of you.”

Only she’d just lied. She was going to hurt all of them when the truth came out. Her only hope was that Luke would change his stance on relationships.

Her mind wandered back up to his bedroom. Sure, they’d had sex. But it had been more than that, too. It had been special and magical.

The other morning she woke up cocooned in his arms. And he sent her texts throughout the day. Just checking up on her and saying hi. Little things that added up to one big gesture of caring.

They weren’t being truthful to his family. But maybe there was a way out of it. Maybe they weren’t pretending as much as they claimed. Maybe she could help Luke realize that a relationship with her wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Maybe she was fooling herself. But damn if she wasn’t going to try.

…

Hell of a party.

Luke was having a great time. Maybe because it started off with some fun with Lola up in his bedroom. She was wearing the most appealing little pink bikini. He’d love nothing more than to snap his fingers, make everyone disappear, and then have his way with Lola in the pool. On the patio furniture. In the garden.

He caught her eye across the pool where she was talking to his sister. He offered a wink and she blushed.

Damn, he loved when she did that. He loved the way she looked. Loved the way she laughed. Loved…

Luke’s grin faded, and he felt like he’d just been slammed against a brick wall. No way. He couldn’t be in love with Lola or anyone else. He didn’t allow himself to experience that emotion. No matter how great a girl’s smile, laugh, body, heart was.

“What’s with the frown?”

He snapped to attention at the sound of his mother’s voice.

“What? Oh, nothing. Some stuff from work popped into my mind.” He hated lying, but he didn’t want to reveal to his mother that he wanted to make love to Lola all over her pristine backyard. Not to mention, he had no idea what to do with the feelings he was experiencing for her.

“More chips and guac?” his aunt asked.

“That would be great. Thanks.” His mom watched his aunt make her way inside before turning to him. “I really like Lola.”

“Ma, don’t.”

“Don’t ‘Ma, don’t’ me. I really like her.”

“Stop.”

“Nope,” she said with a mischievous grin. The same expression he’d seen on his sisters millions of times.

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

“I’m your mother, and you will do what I say. Now, I think Lola is very sweet. Plus, she’s just gorgeous.”

No argument there. “She is.”

“I can’t believe she wasn’t taken already.”

He turned to watch her again. Lola and Gwen seemed to be in the middle of something serious. Their heads were close together, and they seemed to be speaking in hushed tones.

“She recently got out of a relationship,” Luke said as he remembered Captain Douche Canoe who’d dumped her.

“That man’s loss was our gain.”

Luke felt his eyebrow rise at his mother’s statement. “Our? How about my gain.” Luke took a long drink of his piña colada.

“She’s already part of the family.”

The tropical drink stuck in his throat at his mother’s words. Part of the family? Whose family?

“Uh, that’s a bit much, Ma. Don’t you think?”

“Not really. She gets along with everyone, and she’s fun to be around.” His mother reached across the table and patted his cheek, lingering for a moment. “She makes you happy. We can all see that.”

They could?

Lorraine laughed. “You look like I just hit you in the face with my favorite cast iron skillet.”

“I mean, this is a bit of a heavy talk for a pool party.”

“Watching the two of you reminds me of myself and your father when we first met.”

This time Luke’s drink didn’t get stuck in his throat because he was too busy spitting it out on the table. As he reached for a napkin to clean it up, he offered his mother his best what-in-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about look.

Lorraine simply laughed. “It wasn’t always bad with your dad, Luke. We were very happy in the beginning. Very much in love.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you were. Right up until he left you and his four kids and his house.”

“Things changed. I used to focus all my energy on hating the situation and despising him. Guess what? That got me nowhere. Instead, I decided to remember the good parts.” She pointed around the patio four times. “I got one son and three daughters from him. I learned that I could not only be a working mother but a damn good one. I took care of this house.”

“But he didn’t want to stay with us,” Luke said.

“Again, that’s not what I focus on. I remember how it was in the beginning. The romance and the wonder. Like what you have with Lola.”

Luke wanted to throw his hands up in frustration. He didn’t know how to process his mother’s words, her revelation. His chest ached, and for a moment, the patio spun out of control. When it righted itself, there was Lola, standing up and drying off with a towel.

He liked her. A lot. Apparently his delinquent father had felt the same way about his mom. Then something changed. Something inexplicable.

How could someone go from feeling the way he was right now about Lola to the complete opposite? More importantly, what if he did the same thing to Lola?

What Luke realized in that moment was that he liked Lola way too much to ever hurt her.

…

Irked and irritated after his talk with his mom, Luke rose and stalked into the kitchen. He didn’t really know why he’d come in here so he started opening and closing cabinets, searching for nothing. He moved down the counter until he was at the refrigerator. For good measure, he opened and closed that, too.

“Looking for something?”

Luke jumped. He hadn’t heard Winnie come in. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

“Because in case you haven’t noticed, we’re having a party. There’s enough food on the patio to feed a small country.”

She jumped up to sit on the counter, a gesture she’d been doing since she was little. She also eyed him long and hard, another thing she’d been doing forever. Winnie was the sweetest of his sisters, but man, when she pinned him with that stare he felt like he was being interrogated in front of Congress.

“What?” he asked.

She tilted her head and one of her curls fell over her eye. She blew it out of the way. “You’re acting weird.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said, sarcasm coating her words.

He leaned against the opposite counter, crossed his legs at the ankles. “You’re a pain in the ass.”

“So you’ve been telling me since we were little, and yet you can’t seem to get rid of me.”

“But I’ll keep trying.”

Luke grinned. He loved all of his sisters but he particularly adored Winnie. There was a lovable innocence to her. She could ask him to jump off a building and he’d do it.

She jumped down off the counter. “I like Lola.”

He felt his shoulders slump. “Me too.”

“Do you like her? Or do you like-like her?” Winnie made a kissy face to go along with the question.

He threw an apple at her, which she easily caught.

“Well?” she asked.

“I like-like her,” he said glumly.

“Then why are you frowning? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Win, do you ever think about Dad?” His question caught her off guard. Her eyes widened.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Not really. I mean, he’s been out of our lives for so long now.”

“Yeah, but he’s still our dad.”

“I guess. But I wasn’t as close with him as you were. And Gwen. I know you two took it a lot harder than me and Mia. What made you bring him up? Especially when we were talking about your girlfriend.”

If only she knew. Luke considered coming clean. He was well aware that Winnie would be the most understanding. In fact, he wanted to let loose. Tell her that Lola wasn’t really his girlfriend. That they were just pretending. Only…

Only, Luke didn’t think he was pretending anymore. He was feeling things for her. Real things. Heavy things. He like-liked her, as Winnie had put it. And he’d never been like this before with a woman. He’d liked his life like that. Simple. Uncomplicated. Free from the possibility of getting hurt. Free from hurting someone else.

If his dad had taught him one thing, it was that if you let yourself love another, they had the power to destroy you. They could walk away at any time. And then you were left with nothing, except memories and broken dreams.

“I feel like there’s a lot happening in here.” Winnie tapped a finger against his forehead. “Wanna talk about it?”

Yes! But he couldn’t bring himself to utter that single word out loud.

He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “Nah, not just yet. But thanks.”

“You know how to reach me. If I’m not there, leave a message with my assistant.”

“You don’t have an assistant.”

“Shh.” She grinned and started walking away. “I’m going to grab another one of Mom’s fabulous piña coladas. See you outside?”

He nodded. “Win, watch out—” Too late, she turned the corner and ran smack dab into Oliver.

Luke watched as his sister and his best friend jumped backward as if they’d just run into a wall of fire.

“Sorry,” they both uttered at the same time.

Then they did that dance where they both went to the right at the same time, then the left, then the right again. Finally, Oliver put his hands on Winnie’s shoulders and moved her so he could pass on the left. Winnie’s face turned a bright shade of red, and if he wasn’t mistaken, so did Oliver’s. Weird. What the hell was going on there? Winnie and Oliver had known each other most of their lives.

After Winnie let herself onto the patio, Oliver continued into the kitchen. He saw Luke and jumped. “Hey, man. Didn’t know you were in here. I didn’t do anything… I mean, I wasn’t…Winnie just ran into me.”

Was he drunk? Luke shook his head. “I know, I saw. Everything okay between you two?”

“There’s nothing between us. I mean, uh, yeah. No. Why wouldn’t everything be okay?”

“I don’t know?” Luke finished that sentence as a question because for the life of him he had no idea what was happening.

Oliver grabbed two beers from the fridge. He handed one to Luke and then settled against the counter where Winnie had just been sitting. “Anyway, I should be asking you the questions. What’s the deal, man?”

“The deal with what?”

“Come on.” Oliver offered a “get serious” stare.

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”

“You and the sexy librarian.”

Ah. Now he got it. “Lola?”

“Hell yes, Lola.” He blew out a long whistle. “Man, she’s something. Not your usual type though.”

What was that supposed to mean? “What the hell, dude?”

“Get real. You typically go for the blonde space cadets with lots of highlights, too much makeup, and purchased boobs. Although, I have to say that behind the glasses and buttoned-up clothes, I happened to notice Lola has quite the impressive figure.”

For the first time in his life, Luke understood the term blood boiling because he felt like his insides were on fire.

Oliver must have noticed something changed because he asked, “What? You’ve been spending all this time with her and you haven’t noticed her body?”

“I’m not going to talk about her body.”

“Why not?” Oliver honed in. Then he folded his arms over his chest and gave Luke a long once-over. “Wait a minute. Oh man.”

“What?”

“This is serious.”

“What?” Luke repeated, suddenly feeling like all the air had left his body.

Oliver threw his head back and laughed. “You’ve really fallen for the sexy librarian. Wow.”

“No, no, no, it’s not like that.” Right?

“I never thought I’d see the day that commitment-phobe Luke Erickson would take a tumble into love.”

Luke choked on the taste of beer he’d just thrown back. Coughing, he set the beer down on the counter. “You’re full of it.”

Oliver grinned. “Nope, you’re full of it. Full of love. For Lola.” He drew out her name, batted his eyelashes, and started making kissy noises.

“Shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Enlighten me then. I saw how you were looking at her. Plus, you did the protective hand on her back thing.”

“The what? I think you’ve been watching too many Lifetime movies. Time to reclaim your man card.”

“Fuck off,” Oliver said good-naturedly. “But I know what I saw out there.” He pointed toward the backyard.

“You know nothing. The whole thing between me and Lola is fake.” Oliver lifted one eyebrow in obvious disbelief, so Luke kept going. “Seriously. I met Lola at our reunion. Remember? She and her crazy friend crashed it.”

“What? Wouldn’t have expected that out of her.”

“She was coerced into it. But in any case, we started talking and we made a deal. I wouldn’t out her at the reunion if she would pose as my girlfriend for my family reunion.”

“Interesting.” Oliver took a long pull of beer as he considered.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I do. Speaking of Lifetime movies, this little plan is right up there. But answer me this. Your family reunion was last week. What is she doing here today?”

“She…well…” He sputtered a few more words before he finally fell quiet.

What the hell was he supposed to say? What did he even feel? Luke didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to acknowledge that Oliver made a good point. There was absolutely no reason to keep Lola around.

Except that he wanted her around.

He liked her being around.

He liked her. A lot. More than liked.

Maybe loved.

Oh shit.

“You know what I think?” Oliver asked. “I think that during your little diabolical plan, you fell for her. I think you have some serious feelings for Ms. Lola McBride.”

“Shut the fuck up. You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Having Oliver acknowledge the situation and his very real feelings for Lola made Luke want to lash out. “It’s not real,” he practically screamed.

“None of it?”

“None. I feel nothing for Lola.” He shrugged, as if the words coming out of his mouth were true.

Only they weren’t, and just saying them felt wrong. So very wrong. They left a bitter, acidic aftertaste on his tongue. Right then, he thought he heard something. It sounded like a strangled noise forced from the depths of someone. Probably just his mom’s cat coughing up a fur ball. He listened closer but only heard the backdoor closing. He hadn’t been aware anyone else was in the house.

An uneasy feeling settled in his stomach.

“Well, if that’s the case, then maybe I’ll ask her out.”

Luke froze. “You’ll ask who out?”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “How many beers did you have today? Who have we been talking about? Lola.”

“You’re going to ask Lola out?” Lola? His Lola? “Over my dead body,” he said as his fingers curled into fists.

Once again, Oliver started to laugh. “Man, you have it bad.” He grabbed his beer and slapped Luke on the arm. “I’ll let you deal with that. See you back outside.”

Luke took a moment, let his best friend’s words sink in. He didn’t know what to do. The only thing that seemed to make sense was to be with Lola. So he headed outside, anxious to talk to her. His steps were lighter as he entered the backyard.

After a quick perusal, he didn’t see her so he sidled up to his mom.

“I saw you chatting with Oliver.”

“Guys don’t chat, Mom.”

She laughed. “Excuse me. Did you two have fun?”

“It was…illuminating.”

“What does that mean?”

“Never mind. Hey, have you see Lola?”

“No, honey. We were talking for a little bit. Then she went inside to the bathroom.”

Inside? The hair on the back of his neck stood up straight.

Mia bounced over to them then. “Hey, what’s wrong with Lola?”

Those hairs on his neck started to tingle. “What do you mean? I was just looking for her.”

“She’s out front. She looked really upset.”

“Oh dear,” Lorraine said.

“She said to apologize to you, Mom. She’s leaving.”

“Excuse me.” Luke handed his beer to his sister and bolted for the door to the fence. He ran around the outside of the house and spotted Lola looking at her phone on the curb by the street.

“Lola, hey, Lola.” He dashed up to her.

Lola glanced over her shoulder. Her eyebrows drew together, and she started walking in the opposite direction.

“Lola, wait.”

“No,” she called over her shoulder.

He thought he heard her say “not for you,” but couldn’t be sure with his heart hammering loudly in his ears.

Finally, Luke caught up to her. He grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. “What are you doing out here? Where are you going?”

“I’m getting an Uber.”

“Why?”

“So I can go home.”

“Are you not feeling well?”

She pinned him with a hard stare. “I feel fine.”

Her answers were all terse. He was getting nothing out of her. Even though he had no clue why she was leaving, Luke had a pretty good idea that she was pissed at him.

“Lola, please tell me what’s wrong. You were having so much fun earlier.”

“Was I?” she asked. “Hard to believe that since it’s not real.” She waved her arm at his mom’s house, and then she moved her hand in between the two of them. “None of it.”

His blood turned to ice as he recognized his own words being thrown back at him. He realized then that Lola had been in the house. She had overheard his conversation with Oliver.

“You heard me.” His voice was soft and low. Suddenly, he felt like he was going to be sick.

“In the kitchen? With your best friend? Saying there was nothing between us? Um, yeah. I did hear that.” She shook her head back and forth, her bangs swishing across her glasses. “I guess it’s better to hear it now rather than later down the line when I’m even more invested in you and your family.”

She clutched her phone even tighter. Luke could see her knuckles turn white.

“Lola…” But he didn’t know how to finish that sentence. What could he say to make her understand?

She closed her eyes. “I’m such an idiot. Frankie tried to warn me.”

“Warn you? About me?”

Her eyes flew open and she pushed him. Hard. “Yes, about you. How you would hurt me. And you did.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“You didn’t mean to hurt me or you didn’t mean what you said to Oliver in the kitchen?”

He saw hope spring into her eyes. She took a step forward.

“What I overheard in the kitchen, was it…just talk? Like locker room kind of talk? Or did you mean it?”

This was it, an incredibly important moment. This could save his relationship with Lola.

He wanted to tell her he was afraid and that he’d just been mouthing off to his friend. He wanted to keep her here and not have her go away mad. But he also wanted to protect himself. His father’s face flashed in his mind. All that pain washed over him.

“I meant what I said to Oliver.”

Tears instantly formed in her eyes, but she took a few deep breaths and kept them from falling.

“Why did you sleep with me? If none of this is real, why have you spent every day with me for the last week?”

When she put it like that… She wasn’t the idiot. He was. Only, he’d wanted to sleep with her because he was falling for her. He needed to tell her that, but he couldn’t seem to get the words out.

“No reply.” The disappointment on her face tore at something deep inside him.

“Look, Lola, I told you that I don’t do this. I’m not made for relationships.” Each word tasted bitter and wrong.

She checked her phone again. Then she shoved it in the pocket of her shorts. As she did, a car rounded the corner of the street. Her Uber.

Luke’s pulse sped up. He only had a matter of seconds to talk to her before she got in that car and drove away. Drove out of his life. He had to make her understand, and he had to keep his heart from being broken again.

She began clapping. “Congratulations,” she said bitterly, “you’re just like your father, Luke.”

He stepped back. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t even see it, do you?”

“See what?”

“You think you’re protecting yourself so you won’t get hurt again. But really, you’re pushing everyone away. Everyone who wants to love you.”

The car pulled up beside them. “One sec,” Lola said to the driver.

“I am not like my father.”

“Funny, from where I’m standing, you’re pretty darn similar.” Her eyebrows drew together in disgust. “He ran and so do you.”

With that, she got in the car and slammed the door. Luke was too stunned to do much of anything besides allow his mouth to fall open in shock.

He wasn’t the one running. Lola was the one in the car driving away from him. Just like his father had done all those years ago. His point had been proven. When you let someone in, they had the power to break your heart. Watching the car get smaller and smaller as it drove down the street, Luke felt sick. A part of him was in that car. With Lola.

With the woman he thought he loved.