“I know. And I can’t tell you how unbelievably hot that makes me … like really,reallyhot.” I trailed my eyes up and down his body and licked my lips.
Lucas raised his eyebrows and moved closer to me on the bed. “How hot? Tell me.”
I pushed Lucas back, so he was lying down. My lips began their descent down his chest, nipping at his abs as I got lower. Lucas moaned and grabbed my hair, pulling a little harder as I worked my way down.
“Mommy!”
“She’s got great timing, doesn’t she?” Lucas shook his head and laughed.
“She’s up extra early today too, the phone must’ve woken her up, or she must somehow know you’re still here. Want some breakfast?”
“I can make us all breakfast. You have the stuff for French toast, right? Or does Rachael Ray not use bread or eggs in her recipe?”
I threw a pillow at him. “Yes, I have the stuff for French toast, jerk.”
Lucas laughed at me as he put on his T-shirt and jeans from last night.
“Hey, Lucas?” He turned to look at me as he was leaving the bedroom. “I love you.”
A slow smile spread across Lucas’s face. He strode back over to me and bent over the bed to kiss me.
“I love you, too, Sam. So much, it makes me a little crazy.” He gave me another soft kiss and walked out of the room, yelling Bella’s name.
Twenty-One
Samantha
Summer seemed to fly by.Lucas, Bella, and I became our own version of The Three Musketeers. Lucas would come home from work with me on Friday and spend the entire weekend with us. We’d go to the zoo, the beach, and even went away on a long weekend to Lake George. It had been just Bella and me for a long time, way before Marc and I officially separated, but having Lucas with us never felt weird at all. It actually felt very right. After seven months it felt like he’d always been here. I didn’t like remembering how life used to be without him.
After that one phone call, I realized Marc wasn’t planning to sign a thing. Robyn said we could go another route. On the grounds of abandonment—since, technically, Marc left and worked out of state—she could draw up divorce papers. And if he still didn’t respond by then, after a certain amount of time, she could make an affidavit and process the divorce without him. We both agreed it was better not to badger him at this point, and to make it work to our advantage that he was completely ignoring me. I tried to get it out of my head, as I was worried about enough today.
“Should be a good day; it’ll be just us so we’ll have the pool all to ourselves.” Lucas’s mother asked us to her house for a Labor Day barbecue, and he was excited to take us there.
“Yeah, hopefully.” I stared out the window as Lucas drove us upstate. I’d known Lucas’s mother and his sister, Jessica, for years from being friends with Daina. I even used to call his mother, “Aunt Jenn.”
“Stop being nervous. It’s not like you haven’t known them all these years. They’ve always liked you, and now they’ll love you like I do.” Lucas grabbed my hand and ran his thumb along my wrist as he was driving.
“I’m not just ‘Daina’s friend’ anymore. I’m your girlfriend.” I also had a daughter from a marriage I couldn’t quite call previous yet. Whether they knew me or not, I hoped they weren’t put off by the obvious baggage I brought into this relationship.
Lucas’s father died when he was young, leaving Lucas as part of a little family of three. Lucas was the oldest but was babied by both of them.
Lucas had tried to teach Bella how to swim all summer. She was still a little frightened but Lucas assured her it would be only us today in his mom’s huge in-ground pool and he would be right there the whole time, as usual. He was so good with her, knowing how to encourage her without pushing, and never becoming annoyed if she got scared. In the short amount of time Marc spent with Bella, he never had any patience for her. Lucas was always exactly what both of us needed.
We arrived at Jenn’s huge house and walked around to the back.
“Hey, guys! I wondered when you’d get here.” She gave Lucas a big hug, and he twirled her around. She was a little bit of a thing next to her son’s over-six-feet of height.
“Traffic was miserable, as usual.” He turned toward Bella and me and said, “You remember my girls, right?”His girls.He’d started calling us that on our mini-vacation, and I loved it.
“Yes, of course, I do!” Jenn walked over to give me a big hug. “I’m so glad my son finally brought you up to see us. You look beautiful, but you always were such a pretty girl. Probably one of the reasons Lucas doesn’t stop talking about you.” I breathed a sigh of relief. Jenn seemed happy to see me and have us here.
Jenn knelt down in front of Bella, who now held onto Lucas’s leg when she got shy. “The last time I saw you, you were a little baby. Lucas talks about you a lot, too.” Bella peeked out from behind Lucas and spoke a barely audible “hi.”
“Lucas told me to blow up all the rafts since you guys would be swimming today.” Bella peeked out over Jenn’s shoulder at the pool in the back, and then looked up at Lucas.
“We can go in now if you want.” Lucas gave her a big smile, and she nodded.
“Hey, big brother!” Jessica rushed over to Lucas. She looked just like her brother. Her hair was a darker brown, but she was still a knockout—same light blue eyes and perfect features. Lucas pulled her into a big hug. Jessica turned to Bella and me and gave us a small, somewhat forced smile.
