His brown eyes cut to me, and his slender frame straightens to match me. “With all due respect, Mr. Harper, I was simply exchanging pleasantries with your girlfriend. Please do not mistake my kindness and gentlemanly mannerisms for flirting.” Before I can respond, he smooths the side of his styled brown hair and flicks his amused eyes to Lucy. “However, how she reacts to me is out of my control.”
Nope. Not on my watch. Not toward my girl and not in my beloved community center.
Right as I open my mouth to lay into this tool of a man, Lucy steps in front of me. “With all due respect, Mr. Welch, do not mistake my friendliness and ability to make those around me feel welcomed and seen as romantic interest in a knavish man such as yourself. I wasn’t aware you were throwing your hat into the investment ring, or I would have told my boyfriend,” she grabs my hand and looks up at me with purpose and passion in her eyes, “that you are as corrupt as they come in Wall Street.” She turns her attention back to him. “Do you know Emma Jane Williams?”
I snap my attention to him and watch as his eyes widen in horror.
Lucy hums. “That’s what I thought. You see, she’s a good friend of mine, and she’s told me all about how you and your partner, Mr. Frank Weston, have returned to this area in an attempt to pawn off your debts onto his father. It seems she forgot to send you off when she sent Frank Weston off.”
If I was holding a microphone right now, I’d drop and applaud the beautiful and intelligent Lucy May. How in the world did she know about his financial woes and I didn’t?
“Right,” Mr. Welch stutters out. He checks his watch before hurriedly stating, “I better be on my way. I have another appointment to attend to.”
He half-jogs out of the gym, and once he’s out of the double doors, I embrace Lucy. “That was brilliant. You are brilliant.”
She wiggles out of my arms and tightens her ponytail. She averts her eyes downward, a shy smile forming. “It was nothing. Once I heard his name, I remembered Emma Jane ranting and raging last week over coffee about how Frank Weston almost got away with pawning his debt onto her friend Halle, who is married to Weston’s father. I was going to tell you in private after he left, but with that ridiculous, unwarranted comment of his, I couldn’t stand to not take his sorry butt down a notch or two.”
I chuckle and cross my arms, giving her a sideways grin. “More like a hundred notches. That was impressive. I was about to take up for you, but the way you handled him was so much more than what I could have said and done.”
She shrugs then picks up her tablet from the table. “We don’t want investors like that.”
“No, we don’t,” I echo, secretly liking the way she said “we” as if this place belongs to the both of us. As if her name is signed right alongside mine…
Hair rises on my arms at that thought, and my mood immediately shifts. Scratching at my arm, I scan the gym for something todo. Somewhere to go. “I better go check on things. Make sure he found his way out.”
Lucy smiles at me before giving me a quick kiss on the cheek and turning her attention to her tablet. “Of course. I’ll see you around. I need to check on the outdoor activities.”
She walks away, and as I watch her go, I wonder how in the world I can go from possessive boyfriend to acting like a skittish cat at the thought of something permanent such as owning a building with her. Trust issues run deep.
Maybe I should consider Stanton’s advice from a few days ago when I told him I was trying something real with Lucy. He told me to see a therapist.
Men don’t need no therapy,my brain says in a deep, old-western voice.
Right. I can get through this on my own. And even if I don’t and I end up losing Lucy, I’ll stay single after that for good. What I have with Lucy is fun, playful, passionate, and new. I’m terrified there will come a day when I am bored with her and will want to end things. I truly do not want to hurt her, which is why I suggested a fake relationship in the first place. No strings. No commitment.
But the woman has flirted and sassed her way right into my soul, so when she whispered she wanted something real with me within the confines of my childhood bedroom, I couldn’t resist. I shoved the fear deep down and jumped into the wind with her.
I only hope I can be the man she needs so I don’t crashand burn us.
“Are you certain you don’t want a plate of crabs?” I ask Lucy with mock concern in my voice as she tells the waiter at Perry’s Seafood for the third time that she’ll take the fried shrimp meal.
Her hazel eyes darken as she glares at me, and I chuckle. After ordering a shrimp po-boy, I hand our menus to the older gentleman and feign an innocent expression at the woman sitting across from me.
“Are you trying to get on my bad side tonight?" I scoff.
“You have agoodside?” She tosses a piece of bread at me then smiles as she looks away.
Over the past few days since our Back to School Bash at the center, she’s seemed to slip into one of her little down-and-out moods. It’s rare to get a genuine smile out of her, and even when I do, it’s not a full one. Something is plaguing her, but I don’t know how to ask.
“There’s that smile I enjoy,” I casually mention. She turns her attention back on me, but apparently that was not the right thing to say because she frowns. I clear my throat. I just need to man up and go for it. What’s it going to hurt if she doesn’t tell me? At least I did the proper boyfriend thing and checked in.
After taking a sip of sweet tea, I ask, “Lucy, is everything okay? You’ve looked a little down and out over the past few days.”
Her eyes glaze over as she picks at the piece of bread in her hands. “Yeah, I’m good. Just tired. Not sleeping well.”
It’s a start…
“What’s causing your lack of sleep?” And because I can't help myself, I tack on with a wink, “Besides me.”
