Chapter Eight

 

* KELSEY *

 

I felt my cheeks heating up with embarrassment as I pulled out to try for the fifth time to parallel park my car. Since when had the streets outside of the Conch Shell Café become so busy? There used to only be one or two cars parked here at a time, but apparently the tourists were coming to this place in droves now. All up and down the street, their shiny sports cars were taking up an enormous amount of space, leaving me precious little room to park my car. There was only one other spot down the street a ways, and it looked like it was even smaller than the spot I was trying to squeeze my car into.

Just as I was about to give up and drive another street or two over to find easier parking, I saw a familiar pickup truck in my rearview mirror.

“Oh, great. Just great,” I groaned. I had thought I had enough of a head start on Luke to get to the café and park before he got here. Of course, I hadn’t been counting on spending twenty minutes parking.

He drove by me and waved, then pulled up to the one other parallel parking spot and whipped in easily on the first try—as though he were driving a tiny sports car and not a giant pickup. I sighed and tried to straighten my car out for yet another attempt, but it didn’t help that he was already hopping out of his truck and heading toward me. Knowing that he was watching me only made me more nervous, and I screwed up that attempt worse than all the others before it.

“Need some help?” he asked as he appeared at my window. I gave him a sheepish smile.

“I guess so.” I put the car in park and scooted over to the passenger seat. He hopped in behind the wheel and after one quick attempt, he had my car neatly parallel parked between a Mercedes and a Ferrari.

“In my defense,” I said. “I really don’t want to accidentally ding either of those cars. It would cost a pretty penny to get them fixed, and not all of us are billionaires.”

He laughed. “Tell you what. One of these days we’re going to take a half hour and I’m going to teach you the tricks to parallel parking.”

I groaned and reached for the door handle. “That sounds like a recipe for us getting into a huge argument. Come on. Let’s forget about my awful parking skills for now and get some breakfast.”

He grinned. “I’m not gonna argue with breakfast.”

He hopped out of the car and joined me for the short walk to the café. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was inside. This place used to be all but deserted, especially during the week when many of the Driftwood Island Locals were too busy with work to come in. But now, at nine a.m. on a Monday morning, the place was hopping. Resort guests loved this place. After the owner, Julia, had been featured in Vogue magazine for a cake she made, the Conch Shell Café became one of the “it” places on the island.

Despite the crowd, Luke and I managed to grab a small table in the corner. I let him go to the counter and order us coffee and an assortment of pastries, and when he came back I laughed at how many he’d picked out.

“Do we have anyone else joining us?” I asked. “Because that looks like enough to feed ten people.”

He shrugged. “What can I say? I didn’t know what you liked. And besides, they all looked good. It was impossible to choose! No wonder this place is so popular.”

“Well, then, we better get started. It’s going to take a while to work through all this goodness.” I picked up a cheese Danish and took a big bite. “Mmm. So good.”

Luke chuckled. “See? Don’t complain about the fact that I bought so much. You can never have too much deliciousness.”

I gave him a sultry smile. “Is that so? You’re pretty delicious, you know.”

He smirked, then picked up a chocolate frosted doughnut. He took a slow bite and then licked his lips in an unmistakably suggestive way. “You’re delicious, too. I wouldn’t mind licking some chocolate frosting off of you.”

I felt my cheeks heating up as I blushed, but I couldn’t keep a giddy smile off my face. I looked down at my Danish, afraid that if I met Luke’s eyes right now I wouldn’t be able to contain myself and I’d kiss him right then and there. I could already feel the heat in my core, and the throbbing longing between my legs. How did he affect me like this? We had made love all night after coming home from the police station. I’d been too tired and shaken to go out to dinner, so Luke had ordered takeout and we’d eaten Chinese food together at his rented beach house. After dinner I’d felt a little calmer, and we’d quickly gone from simple kissing to an all out love fest in the bedroom. It had been a night to remember, and I still felt like I was glowing with happiness.

But I still had a hard time believing that this was all going to work out. Luke refused to discuss with me what his plans were after his month here was up. All he would say was that “everything would work out.” He sounded confident when he said this, but I wasn’t so sure. I worried that he was going to leave without me in the end, and I was going to end up with a horribly broken heart.

“Hey,” Luke said as he reached to grab my chin with his hand and gently lift it so that I was looking at him once again. “Are you okay?”

There was so much concern in his voice that it made me want to cry. No one had ever cared for me the way he did. He paid close attention to my moods, and he knew when something was bothering me.

“I’m alright. It’s just been a crazy twenty-four hours. A lot to think about.”

“I know. But the police said that they’re going to make sure Kyle gets jail time for what he did. They’re also going to ask the judge to force him to attend a program to help him clean up his alcoholism. And you can get a restraining order against him. Besides, I’ll be around now. And there’s no way I’ll let him hurt you. If he tries, I’ll kill him.”

I gave Luke a sad smile. “You can’t be around me all the time, though.”

“I know. But I’ll watch out for you as best I can. And the rest of the town will, too. It sounds like a lot of the locals have been bullied around by him a lot. They’ll be happy to help keep his craziness in check.”

I had told Luke all about how Kyle had kept all the men in town from dating me. Luke had been shocked that one man could have influenced everyone else so strongly, but Kyle had been more violent than I had even realized. I’d had no idea that half the town lived in fear of him. Apparently it had taken me kneeing Kyle in the balls and getting him arrested for everyone else to finally step up and say that his behavior needed to stop.

But I felt safe as long as Luke was here. Even though I knew he couldn’t be with me constantly, I knew Kyle would not dare threaten me again as long as Luke was around. At the police station last night, Luke had gone to Kyle’s cell and threatened him with mortal harm if he ever tried to hurt me again. I’m not sure that the police officers were technically supposed to allow threats like that on their watch, but they all looked the other way and let Luke have his say. Luke had flexed his muscles for good measure, too, and Luke’s biceps were nothing to laugh at. I’d learned that Luke had a strict exercise routine he followed every morning involving more crunches, pushups, and pull-ups than I could count. He told me that it helped him stay in shape when most of his day was spent at a desk writing. Or trying to write, at least. He was still having some trouble getting his current novel going, but he told me that he was more confident now that he’d be able to finish in time. He said knowing that I was around and cared about him helped him feel focused.

I was glad to be helpful however I could, but thinking about him finishing his novel only made me think about when he might leave the island. And not only could I not bear the thought of being away from him, but I also wasn’t sure I was going to feel so safe from Kyle when Luke was gone.

“And what about when you leave?” I asked, even though I’d asked a similar version of this question at least a hundred times, and I was sure the question was going to annoy him. He only had to give me a straight answer if he wanted me to stop asking. “Who will keep me safe then?”

Luke sighed, and reached to grab my hands in his. He looked deep into my eyes, and his own golden brown eyes were full of heat and passion. “Stop worrying about it, okay? I have a few ideas. But I promise, no matter what, we’ll be together. And no matter what, you’ll be safe.”

I let out a long sigh, but nodded. “Okay. I trust you. But I can’t help it if I’m a worrier.”

He laughed. “Fair enough. At least try to worry a little less.”

I nodded, and went back to eating my Danish. Our conversation turned to lighter things as I finished my coffee and sampled more of the pastries that Luke had purchased. I loved how easy Luke was to talk to. Even though our lives had been completely different, we seemed to have a lot in common. And I loved that he could talk about books for hours and never get tired of the subject. My kind of guy.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t sit at the café and talk about books all day long, because I had to go to work. Ordinarily I loved my job, but today I would have much rather hung out with Luke than go to the library. Besides, I was feeling nervous going back to the library, even though I knew that Kyle was locked up at the moment and couldn’t come back there to harm me. But I wanted to be brave, and I didn’t want Luke worrying about me too much when I knew he himself had a lot of work to do. So I put on a bright smile and stood up, slinging my large work tote over my shoulder.

“I have to get going, but I’ll see you tonight, right?”

Luke grinned. “You betcha. I’m still eager to try out that Italian restaurant. And this time, I’m picking you up. No arguments.”

I shrugged. “I know, I know. I’m not going to argue with you on that. Now go get some work done so we can have plenty of fun tonight.”

I winked at him, then turned to leave, purposefully swaying my hips as I walked away from him.

And I couldn’t keep a satisfied grin off my face when, even over the din of the café, I heard him growling after me.