“Luka, my mom will never agree to us getting married!”

“You turn seventeen in three days. She won’t have a say in it.”

“But, I’m not even sure I want to get married.”

“I think it’s a little late for that, Petal. I don’t exactly want to get married either. I had things planned out, you know. Getting married wasn’t on the list,” I growl back, frustrated and hurt. I’m lying. She lied to me, and everything in my life right now is up in the air… but I want to marry her. I want her tied to me. I want her to have my name. I want her and our child under one roof—a roof that I provide. I fucking want it all, and it pisses me off that she doesn’t.

“I’m not sure we should be getting married just because of the baby, Luka.”

“Is there a better reason?” I ask her, doing my best to tap down the anger inside.

“Love?” she suggests, her blue eyes looking up at me, pleading. I ignore it. I can’t go there. She lied to me. I can’t trust her… but maybe I can keep her.

“It’s time you grow up, Petal. We need to be practical. We’ll go get the license today, and then you can meet me at the old ice cream stand Wednesday. We’ll go straight to Dallas and get married at the courthouse.”

“At the courthouse?”

“Is there something wrong?”

“Not really, it’s just… I always imagined a church wedding.” She looks down at the ground. I feel a flash of guilt, but then—I didn’t create this situation; Petal did.

“This is just the way it has to be, Petal. Neither one of us has much of a choice here. We have to think of the baby,” I remind her. She looks up at me then, those blue eyes shining with unshed tears, and there is sorrow there that hurts me to look at. She’s just going to have to accept this. She played with fire, and these are the consequences. Hell, I had hoped for more too. I thought I had more with Petal… I really did…

* * *

Present:

“Luka? What are you doing here?”

“Got hungry. I come here a lot,” I tell her casually—and lying through my fucking teeth. I’ve been in this damned restaurant a grand total of two times, and one of those is now. For one thing, it’s a fucking Thai restaurant. I’m a Texas boy. Give me steak and a potato and I’m happy. Secondly, this place is the kind of place my father loves. I like to relax when I eat, not try and figure out how to eat my food with sticks instead of a fork.

“Really? You’ve changed since our divorce then, because I seem to recall you hating all foreign restaurants except for the Mexican one on Baxter Street,” Petal points out, eyeing me carefully. She wants to call me out—not that I could blame her. I should have my head examined for being here. Didn’t I just vow the other night to put Petal behind me? What the hell am I doing here?

“People change, Petal. Fact of life.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” She looks at me like I’m insane—which I am. “Where’s River?”

“I had to work late, so mom is watching him,” I tell her. The look on her face manages to annoy me. “He’ll be fine, Petal.”

“I know… I like your mother—for the most part. I just…”

“If you don’t mind, Luka, Petal and I were trying to enjoy our date,” Craig states, interrupting us.

I’m glad. I really don’t want to argue with Petal about having River around my father. It’s not like my father ever pays River much attention. There’s a part of me that thinks he hates him, so for the most part, I limit their interaction. Mom, however, loves River.

“I don’t mind,” I tell Craig, smiling just to annoy him—and lying my ass off.

I want to punch the asshole in the face. I do mind, dumbass. I want to scream that and then break out those over-bleached capped teeth of his with my fist. I do neither of those things, which is probably for the best, but definitely isn’t satisfying.

“Not at all. I should be getting to my table. I just thought I’d stop by and say hi when I saw you.”

“Hi,” Craig answers, and he’s not bothering to hide his annoyance. That’s fine. He’s about to get a lot more annoyed. Sucks to be him.

“You look like Dallas is agreeing with you, Craig. I guess you don’t miss small town life at all these days.”

“Well, there are a few things that make small town life good,” Craig replies, and the bastard winks at Petal.

I really, really want to bury my fist in his face. I resist, but when Petal blushes, it’s not easy to hold back.

“Shit. Are those flashing lights? I can’t get a night off to save me,” I mention as cool as I can while looking out the window.

“Yeah, I imagine being a sheriff in a town with the population of… what? Six hundred? I imagine that’s really exciting.”

“You’d be surprised. But luckily, it just looks like some big fancy BMW is getting towed away. That’s not me. Nice car. We don’t usually see those around here. Must be someone from the city. They probably parked in the wrong spot or something. Anyway, I’ll let you two get back to your dinner. See you tomorrow, Petal,” I answer, turning around with a smile. With each step I make, I count silently. One. Two. Three. Fo—

“What the fuck?” Craig growls, and it seems like the whole restaurant goes quiet.

“Craig, this is a family restaurant,” Petal says, looking around uncomfortably. It doesn’t matter to Craig though; he’s too busy seeing his expensive convertible hauled off on the back of a wrecker.

“What the fuck??” Craig repeats like a damned parrot. “Did you have me towed, Parish? Because I took your ex on a date?”

“Whoa, man. Is that your car? How would I have done that? I didn’t even know you were here, and what could I have possibly had you towed over? You need to check yourself,” I add helpfully. “If I was you, though, I’d hurry, because if they take your car to the impound this late on a Saturday, you won’t get the thing out until Monday.”

“Motherfucker. Petal—”

“Go on, Craig. I’ll be fine,” she insists.

Craig gives me a hateful look with a growl and stomps off.

“Happy now, Luka Parish?” Petal asks grouchily.

I don’t know what to say to her, really, but I’m pretty sure I don’t need to be telling her the truth that I love that Craig is gone—or that I am the one responsible for having him towed.