Chapter 14
Every day Luke would send her two or three texts throughout the day even though he knew she wouldn’t get them until around ten o’clock. Then they’d have a few minutes to talk. Most of the conversations were goofy, light-hearted, meaningless. He hadn’t forgotten what they had talked about that day in the kitchen, and he vowed there would come a time when they would talk again. But over texts for ten minutes, he chose not to get into that.
Thursday night, July 1, he was waiting by the desk when the cell buzzed. In one heartbeat he had it in hand.
Good news. It’s finished.
Finished? Worry course through him.
What is finished?
The jacket dummy. I finished it this afternoon. It turned out cute. Only problem is, now I want one.
Luke laughed at that. He was glad she sounded happy.
When do I get to see it?
You could swing by in the morning if you want. Ryder’s got swim, and Jaycee’s got basketball.
It surprised him that she would even suggest it.
You sure that would be okay?
You’re just stopping by to pick it up. It’s not eloping. And…
And…?
Tomorrow I’m FINALLY sprung! I can’t believe it. Two weeks. I thought I was going to die.
And yet, here you are.
Here I am. So does life still exist outside of these four walls?
I think so. I’m almost positive. So did the rancher get the girl?
Yeah. Great kiss at the end too.
Luke shook his head. He loved her sense of humor.
I’ll have to take your word for it.
It was silly, goofy even, but Sage loved teasing him. She glanced over at the little jacket and sighed. So are you coming tomorrow?
I’ll be there.
Long after she stopped texting, Luke lay in his bed thinking about her, about the situation, about the coming morning and the coming evening. There was another bonfire, and she would almost assuredly be with Rory. That cut in ways he didn’t think possible. Yes, he had liked Jaycee, and yes, that hurt too. But not like this.
Although he had been around and around with the question in his mind, he still wondered how much of his jealousy—and it was jealousy—had to do with another guy being with her and how much of it had to do with it being Rory who would be with her. All Luke could think was that Rory had better be smart about things because if he was anywhere near him if he didn’t, Luke was not guaranteeing he could control his actions.
“God,” he prayed into the darkness as he did nearly every night now, “be with Sage. Protect her and keep her safe, and love her, Lord, like she deserves to be loved. Amen.”
The next morning, Sage was up with the sun. For the first day in two weeks, she felt like life might actually be worth living. She was making eggs when her stepmother came into the kitchen.
“Oh, Sage,” she said. “You’re up early.”
“Don’t want to miss the day,” Sage said in her sweetest voice.
Her stepmother checked her with a strange look and then shook her head once. “Glad it’s agreeing with you.”
“Would you like an egg?” Sage asked. “There are only four left.”
At the coffeepot, her stepmother stopped, turned, and looked at her. “Uh. No. Thank you though.”
“You’re welcome.”
Jaycee made her appearance, hair tousled and shoulders slumped. She collapsed into a chair at the table. “Mornin’.”
“Good morning,” her mother said, sounding far more chipper than she had a moment ago.
Sage swallowed every mean thing she wanted to say to her sister. “Would you like an egg?”
Mother and daughter stopped cold and looked at each other.
It took a second for Jaycee to answer. “Can I have two fried?”
Well, that was going to be a challenge since she’d never actually done that, but Sage figured for family peace it was worth trying. “Two fried coming up.”
As he thought through the coming day, Luke tried to remember what time he had left on Monday. The last thing he wanted was to meet Mrs. Lawrence or worse, Jaycee on the transfer. It took all of his willpower, but he managed to keep himself busy until nearly ten o’clock. He was almost totally sure that would be safe. And, he told himself firmly, this time he would be gone before Jaycee came back at noon.
The drive over made his heart do flip-flops in his chest. He couldn’t wait to see her, to hear her voice, to see her smile. Even the thought of it brought his own out. Sunshine and Sage. Somehow they were a perfect match.
He thought this time it would be better to knock than to invite a knife attack again, and even that made him laugh. She might look fragile, but that spirit of hers was anything but. At their house, he scanned the driveway. No cars. Now if she was just home…
Sage had been sitting at the table, jumping at every sound for an hour. The little jacket was still in her room in case someone else showed up first. They wouldn’t understand. She wasn’t even sure she did, but when she stood from the table and saw his car, understanding fled with everything else from her consciousness. “Breathe, Sage. Breathe!”
That was getting harder every time he showed up.
It felt like he was picking his date up for the Prom. Luke checked his hair in the mirror and his clothes on the way up the walk. If she never noticed him, she would definitely have an excuse, he bled the word Loser. However, he couldn’t think about that right now or he would totally lose his nerve, jump back in the car, and forget this whole crazy idea.
Just as he raised his hand to knock, she opened the back door and then the screen. The sunlight played tag with the soft blonde highlights of her hair, and his voice stuck hard in his throat. “Hey.”
She smiled, and it went all the way up into her eyes. “Hey.” Pushing on out onto the porch, her gaze never left his. “I thought you forgot.”
Luke shrugged, wishing he hadn’t worried her. “Had some things to get done first. Sorry about that.”
UGH. Sage thought this was going to be so easy, but her normal take-‘em-or-leave-‘em attitude with guys didn’t seem to touch this one. Her nerves stood on edge. “You mind if we sit out here?”
He slid a hand into his jeans pocket and looked around. “Uh, no. That’s cool.”
Nodding, she stepped to his right and over to the two wicker rocking chairs on the side porch. It faced north and had shade trees all around it. So it was cooler and less in view of the whole entire world. “Over here?”
“Sure.”
At the far chair, she lowered herself onto it and felt him do the same. Think, Sage! Think! Don’t mess this up. “Oh. Here.” Handing the little jacket over, she watched his reaction but tried not to. Why was everything so intimidating around him? It was like her whole eternity rested atop of every single moment and move.
Luke picked the shoulders apart and smiled. “Awesome. Much better than Legos.”
That lifted Sage’s heart and wound her shoulders over her body. “I’m glad you like it. It’s been a while since I’ve done much sewing.”
“Seriously? This looks professional.”
She laughed. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”
He continued to gaze at it for another second and then dropped it to his lap and reached into his back pocket. “So what do I owe you?”
“Owe?” The word hit her like a brick. “Oh, no. You don’t owe me. I had fun doing it.”
His gaze came over to hers. “Yeah, but I didn’t expect you to do it for nothing.”
Sage sat forward. “Seriously, Luke. I don’t want money.” Her gaze dropped. She needed to say this even though half of her said she was crazy for doing so. “I’m just… thanks.”
That stopped him. “Thanks? For what? You’re the one who made it.”
“For…” A second and she breathed down the trepidation. “For being here. For being my friend. I haven’t had many of those since I got off that plane.”
He forgot the wallet and settled back down as he shook his head. “I hate that, what you’re going through. What they’ve put you through.”
Sage shrugged and crooked her lips. “It was my fault. I’m just really good at making a mess of everything.” When her gaze came up to his, she couldn’t have been more grateful to him. “Thanks for trying to be my friend anyway.”
Luke saw that look, the one that tore his heart out every time he saw it. Turning to her, he came to within an inch of the edge of his seat as he reached over for her hand. “Listen, Sage, you’ve got to know this isn’t you. All this stuff, this junk. You’re not the one doing it.”
However, when she looked up at him it was with that same sad, small smile. “I wish I could believe that.” She shook her head and sighed. “I got my phone back this morning.”
“Awesome,” but he said it softly, philosophically. “So how’s California?”
California. It was always a good thing for him to remember this was temporary and she would go home soon, and all of this would be a memory for her—if that.
“Oh. Good. I guess. I haven’t heard much from Patelyn and Mac. They’re pretty busy.”
He tilted his head at her. “Patelyn and Mac?”
She lifted her chin and let it fall. “My friends back home.” A moment and she grew still.
Luke watched her, seeing the hurt and loneliness pour off her. “You miss them?”
The answer didn’t come immediately, and when it did, it was almost inaudible on the breeze. “I guess.” She shrugged. “Not that they miss me.” Her gaze came up and brushed across his. “Life goes on, you know? And when you’re not there, it just… goes on without you.”
“And it’s gone on without you?”
Sage sighed. “Mac hooked up with Ben Griffin, a guy from our school. Cool guy.” Her brows lifted and then landed. “I always kind of thought it would be me with Ben, but I guess that wasn’t meant to be either.”
It was strange, seeing into her world from this outside vantage point, being let in by degrees.
She sighed again. “But they’re broken up now. For all I know she’s married with four kids and a mortgage with some other guy.” Sitting back in the chair she laced her fingers together and stared out across the tree-covered lawn beyond. “Makes me wonder how good of friends we really are, you know? That they could forget about me so easily.”
Leaning forward in his chair, Luke laced his fingers as his elbows rested on his knees. “They haven’t forgotten you.”
This smile was soft and sad as so many of hers where when they talked like this.
He shook his head. “They haven’t. Trust me, you’re pretty unforgettable.”
Sage’s smile increased, dragging her gaze down. A moment and she picked it back up but the smile was gone. “I wonder sometimes, how it will be when I get back. What I’m even going back to.” Her spirit seemed to fall into some world between here and there, a world only she could see. “Guess I never really pictured senior year with no friends.” The sigh was hard and harsh. “And then I think, ‘Quit being such a drama-queen, Sage. Nobody likes the diva thing.’” A moment and she shrugged. “It’s hard to know who I’m supposed to be sometimes.”
Luke’s heart fell at her feet. “Just be you.”
The smile never came when she looked at him. “I don’t even know who that is anymore.”
Why Sage was surprised when her cell phone bleeped at seven, she couldn’t really account for. Sooner or later life was going to catch back up to her. That was a given. It would have been so nice to think that those few minutes on the porch with Luke were real and would last. They weren’t, and they wouldn’t. She needed to accept that and figure out a way to be who everyone else wanted her to be.
“Hey, Doll,” Rory said. It was the first time they had spoken since that night in the driveway.
Wow getting happy and bright snapped over the melancholy was hard. “Oh, hi. Um, how’ve you been?”
“I’ll be better if you say, ‘Yes.’”
“Yes?” Trepidation wove into her spirit.
“There’s a bonfire tonight. I thought we could go together. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”
Why did she want it to be longer? Sage let out a breath, slowly and quietly before latching bright onto her voice. “I’ll have to ask.” It annoyed her to hear the note of fear in that statement.
“Well, get on it already. I thought I could pick you up in about an hour and we could grab something to eat.”
“Oh. Okay. I’ll ask.” She didn’t want to talk to him, and something said that shouldn’t be how things were. But she really didn’t. “I can text you back as soon as I find out.”
“K. But Sage?”
“Yeah?”
“Get them to say yes. I really want to see you.”
Breathing hurt. “Okay.”
Ever since he had left her place at quarter to noon, Luke’s heart had hurt for her. No one should be made to feel like they couldn’t be themselves. Then again… it was ironic that he was thinking that tucked away in his corner of his dad’s little shop, the scroll saw whirring on the wood under his fingers. He would never give her the thing anyway. So why he was making it was a mystery. Still, it would remind him of her, and for that reason alone, he was willing to spend the time.
He had just finished that cut when his cell beeped in his pocket, and he reached for it, hoping it was her. One look and his heart fell. Jaycee. Luke let out a long breath and swiped it on. “Hello.”
“Hey, stranger. I haven’t heard from you in a while. I was wondering if you’re still on the planet.”
Putting his hand on his belt line, he hit the off button on the floor with his foot. “Still here. How was basketball?”
“Killer. We’re going to have a real shot at regionals this year.”
He pulled his arm up under his other one and sat down on the little bench next to the saw. “Awesome.”
“Yeah. Listen, I was thinking. We haven’t been out in a while. What do you say? You, me, some cheeseburgers and then head out to the bonfire? It’s at Chester’s again.”
His heart jerked and throttled. “Uh, well, I don’t know. I…”
“Oh, come on. Maybe Rachel will be out there, or Christine.”
Or Sage. That thought was enough to get his heart to stop completely. He arched his hand up over his head and rubbed there. “I don’t know, Jayc. It’s kind of been a long week.”
“All the more reason to kick back and have some fun. Come on. I’m prepared to beg, and I’ll go as far as groveling if I have to.”
He couldn’t win for losing. “Fine. What time should I be there?”
“Wow,” Rory said when they were driving out of her parents’ driveway. Yes, it had taken every sweet word she could come up with to get them to let her go, but she was here, and Sage was going to make the most of this night. “You look amazing.”
It was nice to hear that after feeling like the underside of a running shoe all week. “Thanks.”
His gaze stayed on her as he headed down the road. “Why don’t you come and bring your amazing self over here?”
Unlatching her seatbelt, she scooted over next to him and latched the lap belt. He put his arm around her and nuzzled closer.
“Much better.”
“I really have got to get on the summer reading,” Jaycee said as they sat in the rounded booth waiting for their burgers. “Jacquie said it’s horrible. Something about the deep South, segregation and all that. It amazes me how mean people were back then.”
Luke was having a really hard time falling in line with this like he used to. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
“Hey, why don’t you get the tator tots and we can share?”
All the fun drained from his body. “Sure. Why not?”
The thing that Sage saw when they pulled up to the little diner was the black sports car out front, and her heart waltzed three steps and then thudded on its face. “Oh. Uh. We’re going to stop here?”
“Yeah.” Rory put the pickup in park. “That a problem?”
Sweet had never felt so very desperate. “It’s… you know. I just would prefer to go to the other place. If you don’t mind…” Terror at the thought of what she would find if they went in there wound her arms around him and sent her hand up onto his chest. “Please? For me?”
Rory’s gaze came full on her then, and he looked like he might devour her. “For you? Anything.”
She made sure to move slowly and to show no signs of relief as she settled back in. They were back on the road when he put his arm around her.
“Maybe then we can take a little detour. I know just the place.”
The giggle was half in worry, half an act. “Okay.”
“And then there’s this one play.” Jaycee was drawing them out on the napkins as they waited for their food.
Luke had never been that into basketball. Oh, he went to some of the games, and he knew a dribble from a jump shot, but he really didn’t care much about what happened when the post shifted through the lane.
“I love it because they kick it in to Jacquie and then back out to me on the 3-point. So everyone merges to block her, and I’m home free.” She set the pencil down triumphantly. “High score here I come.”
He nodded, hoping their food would show up soon. Glancing at his watch, he calculated the time until sundown. He wondered if Sage would be there with Rory, but he didn’t dare ask.
“That would be so cool to get to regionals,” Jaycee said, lifting her shoulders. “To lift that trophy. To bring it home. Awe-some.”
“Yeah. Awesome.”
“I figured since it’s been a while and everything,” Rory said, heading down a road out of town that Sage couldn’t remember ever traveling. It was getting harder and harder to tamp her nerves down when she was around him.
Then again, like she had told Luke in the kitchen, they were going together. So what did she expect? Being a girlfriend or whatever she was, being with him, going out with him meant certain things, and she knew that as well as anyone. Plus, he was good-looking, and she would only be here for the summer. Much better to spend it with someone who wasn’t looking to get in too deep.
He hadn’t even texted her. Yes, she should be hurt about that, but a big part of her was relieved. When she left, there wouldn’t be a ton of drama. She wondered as he wound the pickup onto the rocky trail if he would even care. Would he come to see her off? Would he remember her in two months?
Probably not. And that was better. She told herself so over and over again. That was better. No emotional attachment. Just a few kicks and laughs, and then everyone would go on with their life as if the summer had never happened.
The sun was just going down when Luke and Jaycee headed out of the diner and out toward the bonfire. They would be early, but that was okay. It wasn’t like they were on an earth-shatteringly perfect date, Luke thought as he drove. Two friends. Hanging out. Just as it had always been. Just how it would always be.
He accepted that now. Maybe in a way he never had before. Jaycee wasn’t the love of his life. The problem was, his heart reminded him, that the love of his life was out somewhere right now on the arm of Rory Harris. The breath was hard as he put his elbow on the window casing and rubbed his lips. God, please take care of her.
“So, you like it?” Rory asked when they were on the cliff overlooking the ocean sprawled out before them.
“It’s amazing.” Sage sat forward to take it all in. Because the sun was setting behind them, the waves were awash in soft pastels dusted by hints of white caps.
“Just like someone else I know.” He turned to her then, his dark eyes drinking her in with every inch he erased between them. “Man, I’ve missed you.”
Darkness had fallen on the world in earnest, and Jaycee was off talking with some of her friends from class. Luke hung back, away from the fire and the crowd. He looked at his watch. Nearly ten. He glanced around again as if that would clear anything up. Maybe Sage hadn’t gone out with Rory after all. Maybe she was at home, sewing or reading.
Knowing he was being ridiculous, he pulled out his cell phone and tapped out a message, pleading with her to “Please answer” as he put it back in his pocket.
For someone who looked so smooth, Rory was anything but. Sage had fought a losing battle with herself to get all of this to be okay ever since he’d turned to her, but it really wasn’t getting any better. The harder he tried to act like he knew what he was doing, the worse it got. His kisses were creeping her out, and how one guy could have so many hands in so many places was beyond her.
“Rory,” she finally said, coming up for air from his awkward and incessant pawing. “We really need to get to the bonfire. Jaycee’s gonna be wondering where I am, and I don’t want to get grounded again.”
The phone in her pocket buzzed, and she dug for it even as his gaze came up from her collarbone, and he swayed there. “Now?”
“That’s probably her.” She yanked at the phone out, swiped it once and jerked in a breath.
Where are you?
Quickly she typed a reply and then went back to extricating herself from this humiliating situation.
“Seriously,” Sage said, working to get herself out from under his grip judiciously. Getting him angry out here was not a good idea. What she needed was to get him to take her back to civilization. The only way to do that was to act like it was in his best interest to do so. “That was her, wondering where we are. If we don’t get there soon, I’ll probably get grounded again, and I’d hate to miss the fireworks thingy on Sunday. We’re going, right?”
Rory’s gaze turned liquid again. “I thought there were some pretty awesome fireworks going on right here.”
To not throw up was a challenge. “I know,” she said, her voice dripping with sweetness, “but I’m seriously gonna get grounded for a month if I don’t get there pretty quick. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
It took him a minute to decide, and then finally, he sat up and righted his shirt which had come askew in the festivities. He looked in the mirror and straightened his hair. “Lookout Pointe, making out with Sage Hollywood. The guys are going to make me their king.”
That queasy thing was getting worse, but when he turned his gaze to her, she quickly snapped a smile over that thought. “You’d look good with a crown.”
Coming.
Luke had been holding on to that one word for 15 minutes. However, what part of him saw the truck first, he didn’t know, but with one glance at it parking in the far ditch, his heart went hard. So they were together. Sage was with Rory.
“Oh, great,” Jaycee said, sliding up beside him, her gaze glued the same place his was. “They showed up. Lovely.”
Luke couldn’t agree more.
“Come on, doll-face,” Rory said, helping her down from the high truck seat. “I wanna show you off.”
Sage giggled, knowing her part better than whatever was real. She couldn’t really tell what that was anymore. The lines between who she had always been and who she was catching glimpses of being blurred dangerously so she couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Latching on to Rory lest she get pitched headlong onto the gravel of the dirt road, she let him lead her past the vehicles and right into the midst of the party.
Never had she wanted to be somewhere else so badly. Still, she was Sage Hollywood, and she was going to act like it if it killed her.
“Hey! It’s Harris and his hot girlfriend,” one of the guys at the fire said. He turned and came over to them, putting his hand up for Rory to catch upright. “Dude. Where’ve you guys been?”
“We had a little business to take care of,” Rory said, pulling her closer to him and grinning through the chomping of his gum. When he looked down at her, Sage and every other person there go the message loud and clear.
“Business or pleasure, my man?” the guy said.
“Pleasure, dude. Believe me, it was all pleasure.”
The guy let out a whoop, and Sage felt every gaze around that fire fall on her and lock there. She fought to smile as she tried to put even a small amount of space between them. It didn’t take a genius to know what they all surmised about her, about them. About where they had been and what they had been doing. She brushed her hair back and lifted her chin. It was her only defense.
Why, oh, why did she keep letting herself get talked into things that would come back to bite her in the heart? She had no real answer for that.
“Isn’t that right, doll?” Rory asked, leaning in to her. Even his breath was starting to get to her.
“Uh, y-yeah,” she said, trying to turn on the charm and brightness, but it wasn’t working like it normally did. Part of the problem was it was hard to act when what your body was telling you was the complete opposite. Part of it was, every rational thought in her mind was screaming at her to get away from him because he was pawing at her again. His hand dropping from her shoulder to her hip and then sliding down sent her hands pushing him away before she thought about it.
However, before she could recover from that, Rory spun her into his arms so her balance faltered beneath her. He caught her waist and kissed her soundly as whoops and hollers erupted all around them. She was spinning, falling, plummeting, and fear gripped her full force. “Ror… Stop. Please. Stop.”
By the time he stood her up and let her go, Sage was on the verge of a tearful meltdown of terror and humiliation. Everyone was watching. Everyone.
“That’s the way we do it in North Carolina, babe,” Rory said, with a wink and a chomp on his gum.
Revulsion snaked through her, sweeping her senses with it. His gaze was lustful and shameless as he wrapped his arm all the way around her again. This time there was no space between them. Not a centimeter. Not a millimeter. He made sure of that.
“Isn’t that right, boys?” he asked the crowd around them who roared their agreement. He looked down at her again, leering at her, and Sage was beginning to think this was a very, very bad idea. “See, even Hollywood could learn a thing or two from us country boys.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. “Rory.” Sage squirmed, trying to push away from him, but his grip was far too strong. “Rory, please, let me go. You’re hurting me.”
From the other side of the fire, Luke had watched the whole thing with a revulsion of his own. How dare Rory treat her like a sideshow for his buddies. How dare he use her like that.
“Wow. She is something else,” Jaycee said with a roll of her eyes. “Mom and Dad would be mortified.”
Mortified, that was a good word, but it was now arching to full-out fury. “That’s it.” Luke stepped away from her just as Jaycee realized what was happening.
“Luke! No! Don’t! She’s not worth it! Luke!”
However, he never heard her. He was too focused on the animal now framed in his sights on the other side of that fire. Around the flames and right up to the two of them he charged. “Let her go, Harris.”
Rory stopped the lurid show and looked Luke up and then down. “Get out of here, Baker. This doesn’t concern you.” Just to make his point, Rory slid his hand down and across her hip, yanking her to his side, causing her to yelp in pain.
“Luke.” Panic surged in Sage’s eyes even as he saw the tears pooling there. “Please. Don’t. Okay? Just don’t… It’s okay. Really.”
“Luke,” Jaycee said, coming up beside him. “Stop it. This isn’t worth it.”
But neither of them swayed his resolve to make Rory Harris get his grubby mitts off of Sage. Not out of jealousy but because she didn’t deserve to be treated like an object for some idiot’s enjoyment. “I said, ‘Get your hands off of her.’”
“And she said it’s okay. Apparently she likes it rough,” Rory said spitefully, “so why don’t you just back-off, hero. Or is it zero?”
The taunt bounced off of Luke like a gnat on a windshield. This wasn’t about him, and he wasn’t leaving.
“I’m telling you, Harris. Get your hands off the lady, or I’ll take them off myself.”
“Oooo, big talk for such a little punk.” Rory stepped up to him, daring him, taunting him. “Hollywood’s with me tonight, Baker. But if you want, you can have the leftovers.”
There was no thought to it as the adrenaline drove Luke’s fist right into Rory’s face.
“Luke!”
The scene erupted in chaos as Sage tumbled backward from the trajectory of Rory stumbling into her. She grabbed onto him trying to keep him from going after Luke, but he and his shirt went right through her grasp. “No! Rory! Stop! Luke! Stop!”
In seconds they were in a tangled knot of fists and fury as every other person there gathered around, egging them on.
“Luke!” Sage screamed in horror as she watched them. “No! Don’t! Please don’t!”
As they pounded each other, stumbling and lurching and rolling in the dirt, Luke knew his only hope was to land a punch that would stop Rory cold, and as they rolled one atop the other down into the ditch, he knew that would take a miracle. This was no playground scuffle, and Rory had far too much invested in being the tough guy to just give up. The noise around them increased to the point it was vying for control of the pounding in his head. He took one more swing that sent Rory’s head into the dirt behind him.
“Okay. Okay.” Rory came up holding both hands up as Luke grabbed his shirt and yanked him forward ready to finish him off. “I’m done. I’m done.”
Luke glanced behind him to make sure she was there, and like a vision in the firelight, she was. He looked back at Rory and cocked his fist as if to make one final point. “Don’t ever go near her again.” With that, he shoved Rory down, twisted on his knee, and stood. Never in a million years would he have thought himself capable of killing someone, but standing up, walking away took every ounce of willpower he had.
He climbed out of the ditch as people scattered in all directions, watching his every move.
“Luke,” Sage said, worry pouring through her voice as she came up to him. “You didn’t have to…”
“I know.” He put his arm around her and turned her gently. “Let’s get out of here.”
As Sage stumbled through the crowd with Luke to his car, she twisted to look up at him. “You’re bleeding.”
He touched the side of his head before she got to the cut, and he shrugged without comment. At his car, he opened the door, and for the first time, Sage realized they weren’t alone.
“Do you mind telling me what the heck that was?” Jaycee demanded from behind them, and when they turned as one, she stopped, jutted out her foot, and crossed her arms.
“Just get in the car,” Luke said to her as if tired beyond all sanity.
“No. Do you have any idea what you just did? Do you?”
Luke let out a breath. “Get in the car, Jaycee.”
Realizing that they couldn’t all sit up front, Sage made a break for the back. She nearly killed her nail and her knuckle getting the bucket seat pulled forward. And when she dove in, she caught the car’s interior coming the other way. However, making any sort of spectacle of herself at the moment was out of the question, so she nursed her wounds and her disbelief in the back in stunned silence.
In the front, Jaycee jerked on the seat, latching it in place with a thwack. She dropped into it as Luke got in the other side.
The party sounds were resuming, but none of them so much as noticed. With no words, he started the car and backed out of the ditch, spinning dirt and sand in all directions. Sage considered saying something but what to say was harder to find than understanding what had just happened. There was Rory, and then there was Luke, and now…
“I hope you’re happy with yourself,” Jaycee said, and Sage didn’t have to see her arms crossed to know they were.
“Uh, happy’s not exactly on the list at the moment.” He reached down and flipped on the air.
“What the heck was that anyway?” Jaycee demanded. “Fighting with Rory Harris? Street fighting? Pounding each other into the dirt?”
“He was out of line.”
“He was having fun at a party.”
Luke glanced in the backseat, Sage felt it. “At your sister’s expense.”
Jaycee guffawed. “She’s a big girl, Luke. I’m sure she can take care of herself.” Her sister’s glance into the back felt like a snakebite. “Besides, I’m sure Rory just figured they were continuing where they left off from earlier.”
Hurt and horror, ache and humiliation jammed into Sage’s spirit and lodged there as she let out a breath of being forcibly hit.
“Wow,” Luke said, looking over at Jaycee.
“What?”
He shook his head slowly. “Just wow.” The breath he breathed was audible even in the backseat. His gaze found Sage’s in the rearview mirror, and Sage had never felt so guilty about her existence in her whole life.
They pulled up at the Lawrences’ house at five-‘til-eleven, and the awkwardness invading the car felt like it might smother them all.
“Um, thanks… for the ride… Luke,” Sage said from the back. Bubbly hurt, and so did the attempt.
“Yeah, no problem.”
When it became obvious that Jaycee was not getting out, Luke opened his door and pulled up his seat. Sage extricated herself from the darkened backseat, took one look at him, and knew Jaycee was right about everything she was thinking.
“I’m sorry,” Sage said, looking up into his face because he wasn’t looking at her.
Then his gaze came down to hers, and vulnerable had never meant what it did at that moment. “I’m just glad you’re all right.” He pulled her into a hug that was warm and soft and safe, and Sage never wanted it to end.
Unfortunately, it lasted only two breaths and she was on her own again. “I guess I’ll see ya.”
He nodded and put his hands at his waist as he stepped back and away from her. Then his gaze fell, and Sage knew that was her cue to make her exit.
Strange as she headed up the walk, she’d always thought the feeling of having guys fight over her would feel different than this, would be different than this. How exactly she wasn’t sure, but she had a vague idea of it just the same. She opened the back door and stepped inside, having no idea what came next.
“You getting out or what?” Luke asked, and he heard the harshness in his tone and almost didn’t care.
“You’re serious,” Jaycee said in reply. “That’s it. ‘Get out of my car’? Who are you and what did you do with Luke?”
He set his jaw, not wanting to fight with her, but the adrenaline still coursing through him was making that very difficult. “I could ask you the same question.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’re being a witch to Sage, and you know it.”
With that Jaycee sprang out of the car and stomped around to where he turned from his door, still standing there having not had the sanity to get back in. “You have some nerve to say that to me, Luke Baker. You of all people know how impossible it has been since she’s been here.”
“Yeah, and I’m beginning to think most of that was because of you.”
If he’d have actually hit her, she couldn’t have looked more surprised. “You’re kidding, right? Tell me you’re kidding.” Then ice fell into her eyes. “She gotten to you. She’s got you under her spell too.” Jaycee shook her head. “I don’t believe this.”
“She’s not as bad as you think.”
“And you’re an absolute idiot for believing that.” Jaycee shook her head. “Well, it’s been nice knowing you. Let me know when you come back to your senses and realize she really is a witch.”
“Jayc…”
But Jaycee threw up her hands. “Save it. Okay? I don’t even want to know.”
With that, she turned and headed up the walk. Luke closed his eyes and shook his head. What had just happened? The last thing he clearly remembered was holding that cell phone and wondering how long “Coming” would take. He let out a hard breath. What had he done?