Luc checked his phone again as Casey washed down her last bite with a mouthful of really terrific amber ale. She just had to say it. “You’re starting to get worried, too, aren’t you?”
He looked up at her, clearly distracted and a little confused as he also waved down the wait staff—the teenaged boy who’d greeted him by name, well, by his SEAL nickname anyway, when they’d first sat down. The kid had looked at her, wide-eyed, clearly recognizing her, but Luc had stopped him short with a firm but kind “Hey, Brad, let her be a person here, okay?” Those words kept echoing in her head. Let her be a person here... It was maybe why she liked Luc so damn much. Because he let her be a person.
That, and he didn’t want anything from her. Not sex, not money, not opportunity. His goal was pure, unadulterated—he only wanted to be friends with Dave’s best friend.
He was just so refreshingly honest—and completely unattainable—that of course her typical messed-up response was to immediately fall in love with him. And then do something foolish to make him feel uncomfortable around her.
Now, in response to her question—wasn’t he starting to get worried—he said, “About... Jon? Maybe you should try calling him again.”
She laughed. “No, come on, I’m talking about Dave. Jon’ll turn up when he’s ready.”
Luc shook his head. “So will Dave. I mean, he’ll turn up when the Senior Chief is ready, but... I’m not worried about him.” He smiled at her obvious disbelief. “Really, Casey. For the thousandth time...?”
The waiter had apparently read Luc’s mind from afar, because he brought over the check—which Casey immediately bogarted, handing the kid—Brad—the credit card that she’d already had out and waiting.
Luc rolled his eyes and gave Brad a shrug of surrender. “Can we set an end date to this?” he asked her after the kid hurried off. “I’m home now, I can pay for myself.”
“Your car is still in Palm Springs,” she reminded him.
“And yours is in Napa,” he shot back. “So what?”
“So Napa’s not a problem, because Jon’s my brother.”
He reached across the table and gently took her phone out of her hands, setting it face down on the table, and waiting until she gave him full eye contact.
Only then did he say, “Palm Springs is also not a problem because, hey, Jon’s your brother.”
God, he was impossibly sweet.
Brad brought back the credit card receipts, and she took the opportunity to look away from Luc’s mesmerizing eyes as she added a ginormous tip and signed her name. She put her card back into her wallet and zipped her bag closed. And okay, she just had to say it.
“You know, I don’t really want to jump you,” she said, and Luc, being Luc, laughed his surprise.
“Okay. I mean, I know...? I mean...”
“Well, no,” Casey corrected herself, “some insane part of me obviously does, but most of me—the parts of me that are in charge when I’m not sleeping—would never, ever...”
She took a deep breath and started over. “Luc, I live in the real world, I swear I do. You’re with Dave, and even if you weren’t, well, we’ve already determined that you’re not my type, but, hey, I’m well aware that I’m not exactly yours either.”
There she went, trying to make it all a big joke again, but not only didn’t he laugh, he looked like he wanted to say something. She stopped him, plunging on. “Truth is, I’ve never met anyone like you—I mean, someone I just completely connected with, so utterly and so instantly. It’s freaky, to be honest. But the bottom line is this: I’m so, so glad to have you as a friend. I really, truly am.”
“I’m glad, too,” Luc said. “Really. And... truly.”
“So what happened before,” Casey said, struggling to find the words. “The... weird, unconscious leg toss...? That’s... history. Won’t happen again. I mean, okay, fuck. Sorry. It might, but only because a big part of me, ruled by my subconscious, is completely in love with you and obviously wants to fuck you sideways, like nonstop for the next fifty years...”
That was supposed to be another joke.
Ha-ha-ha-ha nope.
Again, Luc wasn’t even remotely laughing and even as the words first fell from her idiot mouth she’d immediately wanted to take them back.
What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she talk about this seriously? Instead, she’d sounded flippant, and—yikes—as if maybe she was fishing to see if he was anything besides a solid G in the LGBTQ+ alphabet.
“Sorry,” Casey apologized over Luc’s wide-eyed silence. “Sorry! Sorry! I was trying to be funny, and totally, catastrophically failed. I would never... I didn’t mean... Oh, my god! You’re Dave’s. Dave’s yours, I know that, and I’m so, so, so glad you found each other. I really, truly am.”
Luc was now clearing his throat like crazy.
“Don’t say anything, you don’t have to say anything,” she implored him. “There’s nothing to say. Because, honestly, I don’t really want to jump you, I promise, what I said was just a bad joke and it will not happen again.” Next time—if there was one—she’d nap on the couch. Abso-freaking-lutely. She picked up her phone with determination. “So. Let’s get you a plane ticket back to Palm Springs tonight, so you can get your car back—”
