CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Natalia
It’s been two weeks since Luke and I made our arrangement, and I’m starting to think he’s not even planning to look at my car. I think he’s having way too much fun teaching me everything there is to know about football. Every time I ask him to look at my car, he has some bogus excuse. And I never call him out on it, mainly because I might be enjoying myself a little too much whenever I’m around him. To recap, my throw is shit, I can’t catch a ball even if my life depended on it, and apparently, I don’t follow directions very well. All Luke’s words, not mine.
Sam still thinks I should be banging Luke instead of pretending we’re just friends—especially after the sex dream I had about him. Surprisingly, Aliza hasn’t said anything more on the subject. But sometimes, I do catch her staring at me out of the corner of her eye. I know my friends are worried about me—I get it. I really do. But I know what I’m doing. I don’t need the guilt trip every five seconds, and I definitely don’t need to be thinking about screwing the irritatingly handsome guy who has gotten under my skin.
Trudging across the field, I ignore Luke yelling instructions at me. For the past fifteen minutes, he’s been trying to explain the “routes on air” drill used for passing accuracy. So far, all I’ve understood is basically run until I catch the ball. He keeps repeating words and phrases like pass plays and running routes—it’s all gibberish to me.
“Okay, you ready? Show me what you got, Baldoni,” he shouts from the fifty-yard line.
Blowing out a deep breath, I widen my stance and sprint across the field, to the thirty, as fast as I can, Luke throws a pass at lightning speed and my lungs burn the harder I push myself to reach it. I halt in position as the football spirals toward my face. I let it fall into my arms. The force makes me stumble backward a few steps as I cradle it to my body. I take off in a sprint again and run toward the makeshift end zone. Thumping footsteps behind me alert of Luke’s impending presence. Before I know what’s happening, I’m literally swept off my feet, and the green grass swirls before my eyes. My back hits the ground with a resounding thud, and I blow out a puff of air. I squeak in surprise, then squeal with laughter as Luke topples on top of me. His heavy weight above me sends my already frantically beating heart into overdrive. His face is so close, his breath skirts across my cheeks.
Holy shit. He’s even better looking up close.
“Are you hurt?”
Those amber and green eyes search my face intently. I shake my head no, afraid my voice will betray me and reveal all the emotions building inside me at his proximity.
“Not bad. But we still have work to do, so don’t think your football lessons are over yet.” Standing, he offers his arm, and pulls me up. The ground beneath me shakes, and my body is still trembling. I’m not sure if it’s from the adrenaline, or the fact that Luke Caldwell was just lying on top of me.
“Why do I get the impression that our football lessons are never going to end?” I ask with raised brows.
“You are one smart cookie, Babygirl,” he says with a chuckle.
“Seriously, Luke, are you ever going to work on my car? Having a chauffeur is great and all, but I need my own car, eventually.”
“Yes, your majesty, I plan on working on it after this. I already bought you a new alternator. That was the problem,” he says, putting his San Diego Aztecs shirt on over his under armor shirt.
“Oh.” I pause, my brows pull together in confusion. “Why didn’t you tell me you needed to buy a part for my car? I would’ve paid you.”
He shakes his head and waves me off, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Nah. Don’t worry about it.”
“Luke. I can’t let you pay for that. Seriously.”
“Think of it as restitution for all the times I was a complete dick to you.”
“Luke…,” I start to say, but I’m cut off by him prowling toward me and throwing me over his shoulder. I scream in surprise and laugh, feeling all the blood rush to my head as I hang upside down.
“You can just say ‘thank you’, Baldoni.”
“Thank you,” I say with a chuckle as I stare at his plump backside while he walks.
***
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I ask warily as Luke works on my car.
“Of course I know what I’m doing,” he snaps from under the hood. I raise my hands in the air defensively and sit back down on the curb in front of his house. After I couldn’t get my car started a few weeks ago, Luke suggested having it towed to his place. It was only a few miles away, so it would be cheaper to leave it at his place instead of towing it to mine. Tow trucks and car insurance companies can be a bitch.
Luke’s white t-shirt is covered in black oil stains from working under the hood. He’s wearing a San Francisco Giants baseball cap on backward to keep his wayward hair out of his face. His hands and arms are covered in filth, and I watch as the veiny muscles in his forearms flex with each movement. Something warm coils in my belly just from watching him work. He’s incredibly good looking, but even more so now that he’s gotten down and dirty working on my car. I shake my head, trying to banish Luke from my thoughts. Shooting to my feet I offer the only help I can.
“Should I go inside and bring you some water?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” he mumbles from under the hood.
It doesn’t take me any longer than five minutes to go inside and grab a bottle of water for him out of his fridge, but by the time I come out, the hood to my car is shut and Luke is wiping his hands on his shirt.
“Oh, you’re done?”
“Yeah. She should be good to go. I changed the oil while I was at it too.”
He tosses me my keys, and I just barely manage to catch them as I juggle his water bottle.
“Here, start her up,” he says, taking his water bottle from my hand.
Walking around to the driver side of my car, I pull the door open. With the key in the ignition, I turn it, and blow out a sigh of relief when the car roars to life.
“Oh my God! It’s working. You did it!” I laugh in surprise.
“Told you I knew what I was doing. Changing an alternator isn’t usually this messy, but fuck woman, do you ever get maintenance on this car?” He chuckles.
“Nope. But I promise I will after this.” I hop out of the car, and without thinking about it, throw myself into Luke’s arms. He staggers back from the force of my hug, but it doesn’t take him long to hug me back.
“Thank you so much, Luke. I owe you one.”
Grasping my shoulders, he steps away and stares down at me intently, hazel eyes search mine for a few silent seconds. His lips turn up into a smile, revealing his dimples, “Yeah, you do Babygirl.” He steps away from me and finishes off his water bottle. “Now, c’mon, I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat.”
After Luke went inside to take a shower and get cleaned up, we drove to Oggi’s, a pizza joint nearby—my treat, of course. Three quarters of a large pizza later, we’re both slouching in our booth laughing over our most embarrassing stories.
“Back home in San Francisco, I was seeing this girl Sabrina on and off. Our families knew each other pretty well, and we both knew each other since we were kids. We were both seniors at the time, so she knew it wasn’t serious. It was the night of my birthday, and we were at her house because her parents weren’t supposed to be home all weekend. As she was giving me my “birthday gift”, her parents walked in her room with a birthday cake to surprise me with. I was kicked out of their house, and our parents are no longer friends.”
I laugh uncontrollably, gaining the attention of the patrons in booths surrounding us. I try to speak through my laughter. “Oh God. Why the hell were they trying to surprise you with a cake anyway?”
He shrugs. “I told you, our families were really close at the time. Sabrina and I grew up together, so it was like they were gifting a birthday cake to their ‘son’.”
Shaking my head, I try to control my laughter. “That’s pretty bad, but mine is sooo much worse.”
“Let me be the judge of that. What’s your most embarrassing memory?”
“The night before I had to take the SATs, I was having really bad stomach pains, and I kept going to the bathroom most the night. The next morning, I took an Imodium, thinking I’d be okay to take the test. While I was in the class, it was dead quiet, and everyone was so focused. I had the urge to sneeze, but I didn’t want to attract any attention to myself. I tried to hold in my sneeze, but in doing so, I just made myself fart instead. The whole class heard, and they wouldn’t stop laughing, it was completely mortifying.” I say, my cheeks turning an indecent shade of red.
Luke howls with laughter across from me, and I reach across the table, batting him in the arm.
“Shut up.”
“No wonder you hate it when I call you Hershey squirt.” His eyes water from laughing so hard and I narrow my eyes at him, flipping him the bird.
“I hate you.”
Luke continues laughing, and I ask him the one question that’s been on my mind for a while now. “So, that dinner with your parents…?” I trail off not knowing what else to say. Ever since Luke basically asked me to go to dinner with his parents, I’ve been wondering when it would finally happen.
“Right,” he says with an impish grin, rubbing a nervous hand behind his neck. “I’ve been trying to hold my mother off for as long as possible. I mean, with practice and games, it’s hard to find free time.”
I nod my head in agreement, completely understanding. “And you’re positive you want to do this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, take me to meet your parents,” I say, fidgeting on my seat in the booth.
His brows furrow. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re the only girl I can imagine taking around my parents.”
My breath gets lodged in my throat, and I swallow thickly. “Really? Why?”
“Because you’re smart, beautiful, and not to mention uncharacteristically funny,” he says with a grin, and my heart nearly explodes out of my chest.
Clearing my throat, I will my wildly beating heart to slow and say, “Well, in that case, I look forward to meeting them.”
Luke and I spend the rest of the night at Oggi’s until one of their employees comes out and lets us know they are closing. Of course, Luke spent most of the night torturing me with my embarrassing story, but he also told me more about his family, and his life growing up in San Francisco. And I, in turn, told him all the times I plotted my sister’s demise whenever she did something to piss me off as a kid. It was easily the most fun I’ve ever had.