I tossed my hair over my shoulder and nervously climbed the steps to Luke’s apartment, both nervous and excited to see him finally after weeks apart. He’d texted the day before to let me know he was back in town, but between my back-to-back sessions with my patients, including a few emergency ones, and his need to work late, we hadn’t been able to find the time to get together. So I had been happy to get his text message that afternoon, inviting me over to his place. I had missed him and I hadn’t realized exactly how much until I had received his message.

Knocking on the door, I wondered what we were going to do that night. Hell, I was going to jump him at some point, that was for sure. I’d dreamed about him and couldn’t wait to feel him under my skin again. I just couldn’t figure out if I wanted it to be then or later. The door opened and I smiled as his handsome form filled the doorway, my breath leaving my body.

“Hey,” he said, leaning against the doorway. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”

“Hey, yourself,” I smirked and leaned in for a kiss. His lips brushed mine and I felt the tingle down my spine of things to come. “Can I come in?”

He stepped aside and I walked into his apartment, noting immediately that there were boxes everywhere. “What’s going on?”

Luke shut the door and walked over to the kitchen, where some of the cabinets were opened. “Packing is what’s going on. It’s such a mess, though. How can one person hoard all this stuff in less than three years?”

I swallowed, some of my excitement dying. I knew he had gone to see his parents, but had they talked him into going home? Was he leaving now? He peeked under the cabinet, his smile dying as well. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

“Are you leaving?” I blurted out, feeling sick to my stomach… and not for the first time that day, either.

“Leaving?” he echoed, placing the cups into the box. “Well yeah, that’s what happens when you pack.”

No, no, no. This could not be happening! I didn’t want him to leave, not now! What was I going to do? I was repairing my relationship with James, potentially carrying Luke’s child, and thought that his feelings were as strong as mine were. But he was acting so casual about leaving. Did I truly not know this man at all?

The door opened behind me and the guy from the ballfield the other night, Darren, if I remembered correctly, walked through, his whistle dying as he saw me standing there. “Dude, you didn’t tell me you had company.”

“Cara, this is Darren,” Luke said, turning back to the cabinet. “Darren, this is Cara.”

“We’ve already met,” I added, sticking out my hand. He nodded and shook it quickly, looking a bit embarrassed to be doing so. “I, uh, I’m coming to get some more boxes.”

“Go ahead,” Luke called out. Darren gave me a quick grin before disappearing down the hall, leaving us alone once more. I eased around the counter, afraid that my legs weren’t going to hold me up much longer as I took a seat on the barstool.

“So are you going back home?” I asked hesitantly, not really wanting to hear his answer. Of course he was going back home, back to his parents. He’d said in our calls while he was away that’d they’d settled the air, made peace and he was happy spending time there and helping out his ill mom. So him going was the only logical answer.

“Home?” Luke asked, shutting one of the cabinets before looking at me. “Why would you think that?”

“Well you are packing,” I said slowly. “I don’t want you to leave Luke.” There. I had said it. I didn’t want him to go.

He chuckled and shook his head, leaning over to grasp my cold hands in his warm ones. “Why is that?”

I sighed. “Why do you think, you idiot? I, hell, I think I’m falling in love with you.”

His eyes widened and I cursed inwardly. Wasn’t that like rule number two in the things a girl shouldn’t ever say first to a guy?

“No,” he finally said, rubbing a thumb over my knuckles idly. “I’m not going home.”

“I’m confused,” I admitted, though a small sigh of relief erupted inwardly. He wasn’t leaving. So what was he doing?

He brought up my hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. “Our lease is up and we decided not to renew it. Darren and I have to be out by tomorrow.”

“Oh, oh!” I said, hoping that the relief wasn’t that blatant on my face. His lease. Of course. “Where are you going to go?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Luke continued, a twinkle in his eyes. He wasn’t stupid. He knew what I was thinking all along and pulled me along for the ride. “Darren is moving in with his girl and her kid, so I am down a roommate.”

“That’s a shame,” I said breathlessly.

“A damn shame,” he repeated. “I was kind of hoping I could find a cuter roommate this time. Darren is not very good eye-candy in the evenings.”

I burst into laughter, the rest of my worry ebbing away. We were going to be okay. This was going to be okay. “I think Darren would take that to heart.”

In one swift movement I was in his embrace, his arms wrapped tightly around me as he looked slightly down at me.

“I think I’m falling in love with you too, Cara,” Luke blurted out, a sheepish look on his face. “You are all I can think about these days. And if you don’t want to move in together, that’s fine. I’ll find someplace close to you, but I can’t guarantee that I will spend a ton of time there… I’m going to be wherever you are.”

“Oh you’re gonna stalk me now, are you?”

“You won’t be able to get rid of me.”

I grinned and ran my hands up his strong back, and tilted my head to the side, seriously considering the notion of us living together. “So you want to move in together?”

He nodded, his eyes on mine. “It will save us a lot of money in the long run. And it’ll mean I can do this any time I want.”

His lips touched my exposed neck and he kissed up to my jawline.

“Mmm, I do like when you do that. But I think we’ll need to find a bigger place.”

Luke frowned as his grip loosened a bit. “Why is that? Your place is big enough.”

I gave him a secret smile. “Well, I’ll have to think about James. He might want to stay over some nights, if his parents let him.”

“Oh, of course.”

“Besides…” I said, hoping the next words out of my mouth wouldn’t make him flee for the hills like the last time. “It might not be just us in say nine months’ time.”

It took him only a few second to figure out what I was saying, his eyes widening before he looked down between us. “You’re pregnant?”

“Not confirmed,” I added hastily. “But I really think I could be. It feels just like the last time…”

“A kid,” he said, wonder in his voice. “We are going to have a kid together?” I nodded, unable to speak. This was what had been missing the first time. Instead of feeling like an idiot for getting pregnant, I was looking forward to the day that I could see Luke holding our child. He was going to be a great father.

He gathered me close and held me to him, where I could hear the rapid beating of his heart in his chest. We were going to take this adventure together and no doubt it was going to be a pretty amazing one at the same time. “Yeah, we are going to need a bigger place.”

“I got some ideas,” I said, thinking about James’ house. I wanted a house to call my own, and not just somewhere above the office, which encouraged me to work later and later in the evenings. A place that I could not only make room for the potentially new addition of our lives, but also for my son. I’d definitely outgrown my apartment in more ways than one. Besides, I had enough money in the bank to find something. It was time to step into adulthood and put some roots down. We were going to be a family.

Luke pulled back and placed a hand on my still-flat stomach, where I was almost ninety-nine percent sure there was a life growing inside. It would have to wait another week for confirmation—I’d already missed my period—but in my heart, I knew I was pregnant.

“A baby,” he repeated, a grin sliding on his lips. “God, just saying it out loud is scary… but I’m so happy, Cara. My parents, especially my mom, are going to be over the moon. I don’t know how you did it, but you’ve changed me…”

“Nah, you, the real you, were in there all along.”

“Either way, I needed you to make me see the light. I’m always going to need you. You’re mine and I’m never going to let you forget it.”