Emily

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It was a busy day at The Big Do. All six chairs were occupied with regulars, plus two more customers at the manicure station. Mrs. Lipnicki was sitting on the side sofa with a coffee next to her, reading a magazine and waiting for the next chair to be free. The rep from the salon products line was here, going over the inventory we might stock for the next three months. Since it was such an important decision, Lauren had come into the shop for the meeting, and the three of us were standing by the front reception, me answering the phone and greeting clients, listening in to Lauren and the rep talking when I could.

My stomach rumbled. I’d been too upset and tired this morning to eat breakfast, and my stomach was still in knots at lunch. Now it was almost dinnertime, and I was hungry. I felt stretched thin, able to think about the basics and not much else. I needed to talk to Luke, but work didn’t slow down for things like that. Work didn’t stop because I didn’t know where I stood with the guy I was in love with.

Lauren kept shooting me concerned looks, but she looked stretched thin herself. She and Vic were going to sell their house in the divorce, and she was busy cleaning it out, preparing it for sale, and dealing with the real estate agent, plus finding somewhere else to live. I had a feeling she’d be in her own single bed in her room next to mine at Mom’s house before too long. At least we’d be humiliated together.

I had just hung up the phone yet again and was trying to follow the discussion of dry shampoos when the bell over the door rang.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled, just like it had that day at the gas station. A couple of the conversations in the shop died in surprise. The product rep stopped talking. I turned around.

Luke was standing there.

He was wearing a black button-down shirt, jeans, and boots. His dark hair was clean and tousled and his beard was trimmed. He looked big and very, very male in the middle of the salon, and his gaze was fixed on me. More of the conversations around me went quiet.

I felt the breath rush out of me. I moved around the reception desk without thinking, putting nothing between me and him.

“Emily?” Lauren said.

I ignored her. I was looking at Luke, and nothing could make me look away.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

His gaze burned over me, down and up again. My sundress and my light cardigan nearly vanished in smoke. I squirmed my toes in my sandals.

“I’m still in town,” Luke said in his low drawl.

“I see that,” I managed.

“You think I’d fucking leave you?” Luke said.

From behind me in the salon, one of the women said, “Oh, sweet baby Jesus.”

The place had gone quiet; everyone was looking, listening. In the window of the shop door, people walked by on the street. We were in the middle of downtown Westlake. Luke and me. In public. In full view.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I knew you wouldn’t run. I just didn’t know…” I glanced past his shoulder at the street outside, where a cop cruiser glided by, slowly. “Who is that?” I asked.

Luke didn’t even have to turn and look. “My escort,” he said, “courtesy of Sergeant Parker. So far today they’ve followed me to the bank and watched while I got gas. Seems they don’t want me to leave town.”

“You have cops following you around?”

“I’m just that kind of guy,” Luke said. When I bit my lip and stared at him, he said, “You okay with that?”

He was asking if that was what I wanted. If he was what I wanted. Like I’d say he wasn’t good enough and kick him out the door. I wanted to kiss him, and I wanted to shake him. For a minute I was robbed of speech.

Behind me in the salon, one of the women said, “Say you’re okay with it, honey.”

“I’m okay with it,” I said to Luke.

“Good,” Luke said. He stepped forward and boxed me in against the reception desk, his arms on either side of me. “I figure if the cops want to know my business, they might as well learn it. My business is you.”

“What the hell,” Lauren said from behind my shoulder. “I knew it.”

“Damn, woman,” one of the salon customers added. “Jump on that. I would.”

My cheeks were hot, but I wasn’t embarrassed. Not even a little. This felt right. After so much time sneaking around and hiding, pretending we weren’t what we were, I felt something rise and flutter in my chest. Happiness. Like I was finally showing the world who I really was.

I put my hand on Luke’s jaw, feeling the rough smoothness of his beard. I ran it down the side of his neck, tucked my fingertips inside the fold of his collar. He was big and warm and vital and mine. “I told you we weren’t over,” I said to him, trying to keep my voice from breaking. “I meant it.”

“We’ll never be over,” Luke said. And he leaned in and kissed me.

I kissed him back, one hand on his neck, curling my other hand into his hair. He lifted his hands from the reception desk and put them on the small of my back, bringing my body to his as I opened my mouth. The women in the salon hooted and yelled.

“Jesus,” Lauren said.

The door bell rang behind us as another customer walked in. “Oh my,” she said.

We broke off before we gave everyone too much of a show, but Luke didn’t take his hands from my back. “You hungry?” he asked me.

“I’m starving,” I said, because he knew I was. “Let’s go to dinner.”

“Where?”

“Aria’s.” It was a nice restaurant three blocks from here, a date place, and I’d always wanted to go.

“Okay,” Luke said. He dropped his hands from my back and took my hand in his instead. He looked past my shoulder at my sister. “Emily’s leaving now,” he said. “She won’t be back tonight.”

I turned to see my sister with her jaw dropped. She made an effort to close her mouth. Beside her, the product rep had her arms crossed over her chest and a grin on her face. “Okay,” Lauren said faintly.

“Oh, and Lauren,” I said, “I should tell you. I’m dating Luke Riggs.”

“Okay,” Lauren said again, and then she recovered enough to narrow her eyes at me. “I’m calling you later.”

“Not later,” I corrected her. “Tomorrow.”

“Damn right!” one of the women shouted, and someone else applauded. And we left the salon to walk to Aria’s.

After eight years, I was on a date with Luke Riggs.

And it was the only place I wanted to be.