“Hi,” Luke replied, stepping further into the room. The smell of his cologne lingered in the air, and I was blaming that for making me stupid. “How have you been?”
“Busy,” I blurted out. It was my standard reply, and it was the truth, but it wasn’t what I wanted to say. So much for playing it cool.
“But you’re okay?”
There was a sincerity in his voice that I wasn’t expecting. At least that’s what I thought it was. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m so sorry about the other week. I was a mess.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not, but thanks for saying that. It was a rough day.”
“We all have them.” Luke perched on the edge of the desk and crossed his legs at the ankles. While I was so nervous I wanted to throw up, he looked laid back and all sorts of delicious. Forcing the unwanted thoughts from my head, I remembered why I’d come.
“I just stopped by to say thank you.”
“Thank you?”
“Yeah. For the macarons. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“What makes you think it was me?” he asked, and I panicked. I stupidly let Liam get in my head and make me think things and now I looked like a loser. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.
Digging my hands in my back pockets, I wished I had a coat or something to hide behind. But I had nothing. I was completely out here on my own.
“I just assumed … but you know what? Don’t worry about it. You know what they say about people who assume …”
“It just makes an ass out of you and me?” Luke finished, pushing off the desk and standing to his full height.
“Exactly. Well, I’m sure you’re busy so I’ll get out of your hair. I’ve got a few things I need to take care of this morning,” I lied, needing an excuse to haul ass out of here and bury my head under the covers until my humiliation passed.
Luke chuckled. It was a deep, rumbling laugh that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. As I turned for the door, Luke’s laughter silenced and he said, “You’re welcome.”
Wait? What?
“Huh?” I grunted, spinning around. When it came to Luke, I’m pretty sure I was making the absolute worst impression I could. So far, I've run into him twice. The first time I’d been a bawling, snotty woman who inhaled ice cream, and now this.
“I said, you’re welcome,” Luke repeated as a smile fell across his lips.
Desperately needing to dig myself out of the hole, I turned on the sass. “So, it was you?”
“What if it was?”
“Well, I’d come to say thanks, but if my appreciation is misdirected … I’ll just keep looking for the generous donor.”
“Charlotte …”
The way my name sounded falling from Luke’s lips made me tingle. And I mean, it made everything tingle. Even those parts of my body that had no business tingling.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” I pushed, wanting him to say it.
With a nod, Luke stepped toward me. Prowled toward me. A predatory look in his eye. When he was right in front of me, I could feel the warmth of him and my fingers were itching to reach up and run my hands through his damp hair, he smiled.
And I was done for.
I hadn’t seen the dimple before.
But there was no way in hell I was going to forget it in a hurry.
One perfect, solitary dimple popped on his left cheek.
