“And hey, free food, right?” She gathered a few pieces of equipment off the desktop.
“Free food’s good,” Lu said. “But not if it comes with strings attached.”
“Oh, I can handle myself.”
“I see that.” Lu snapped her fingers once for Lorde to come up beside her. “I’m just saying you don’t have to.”
“You wanna join us?” she asked.
“Say no,” I said. “Come on, Lu. You got them a lunch date. That’s enough. Isn’t that enough?”
“Sure,” Lu said. “I could eat.” She smiled, showing white teeth, the canines just slightly sharper than normal.
Sunshine strode back into the office. “That’s in the trash where it won’t burn anything down. Go ahead and step out for awhile so the office can air out.” He walked the long way around the desk so he didn’t have to squeeze past her, then turned off the air conditioner and did something with the upper part of the window to open it a crack.
“If you decide on lunch, put it on my tab,” he said. “Susan knows me. She’ll set you right up.”
He was moving around the office, unplugging cords from the wall, turning off the surge protector, and fiddling with the light switch to make the ceiling fan rotate the right way.
“Good?” he asked, over his shoulder.
Jo shrugged. “Lu could use a bite to eat too. How about we all go together?”
Sunshine stopped. I could feel the hope that radiated off him. Like he’d been walking down the dust and heat of the road for days and finally spotted a river running clear and clean.
“I’d like that,” he said with so much heart in his voice no one could have missed it.
I tipped my eyes to the sky. “It’s not my fault,” I said to Cupid. “No one could have talked Lu out of this. Not even you.”
Cupid didn’t reply. I hadn’t expected him to. The gods largely ignored us—just one more human tragedy in a world full of them—so Lu and I largely ignored them.
It was better that way.
“I’ll let Ray know we’ll be out,” Sunshine said.
“Good,” Jo replied.
“Great,” he said, looking at her like she’d just handed him a puppy and his favorite cone of ice cream.
Jo stood there studying him. Those dimples, those sky-filled eyes, that smile that poured out summer and sunlight, easy music and slow moving warm waters.
“Lunch?” Lu’s happy tone broke the spell.
Jo came back to herself with a little start. Sunshine grinned harder at the slight rise of color in her cheeks.
“I’ll be right there,” he said.
Jo strolled out of the office, Lu and Lorde drifting behind her.
“Great,” I said.
Chapter Eight
I’d seen a lot of people fall in love. Sometimes the fall was slow and easy, growing out of years of friendship, of familiarity. Sometimes it was a lightning bolt strike: fast, furious, and scorching hot.
But most of the time, falling in love was a mix of things. A collection of moments. That one joke, those two songs, that third meal, that fourth walk when gazes locked and didn’t look away.
When a soul reaches out and another soul answers back.
