“Nowyou care!”
“I always care,” he muttered defensively.
There was no time to unpack that, not when she was standing in nothing but her underwear. Mortification swept through her, making her skin heat.
Silence hung between them until Luke cleared his throat. “Are you... stuck?”
At the last word, she could hear the amusement in his voice. That was enough to make any embarrassment she felt immediately disappear. In its place, she only felt anger. She was still upset with him for refusing to answer her question.
“Shut up,” she growled, but that only made him laugh, which grated on her nerves.
“You are, aren’t you?”
Her vision turned red. “You’d better not be looking,” she seethed.
“Oh, I am definitely looking,” he replied simply, unapologetic.
“Stop!” she snapped, still facing the opposite direction, though that didn’t shield him from a good view.Ugh!
“Relax,” he said. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
He was the worst person in the world. She hated him.
“Shut up.” At this point, she would just rip the dress off. It didn’t matter that it was one of her favorites. She tugged the dress up, but the fabric stayed stuck in place, refusing to tear.
She groaned. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help?”
Now that Luke was here, he might as well be useful.
Besides, there was no need to be shy around him. She straightened her posture, refusing to feel unsettled because of him, no matter how loudly her blood roared in her veins.
Her question was met with silence, and Emmeline turned around. She could just about see him through the fabric bunched around her head. He was standing very still.
“Well?” she asked.
Chapter 15
Everything was going unexpectedly.
Luke had been irritated at first about Emmeline’s little prank with his notebook, but it had faded quickly when he’d sensed an opportunity to talk to her. He hadn’t expected her to fully respond with so much honesty, but she had.
Then, she had surprised him again by asking him the same question. Sudden fear had gone through him at the thought of being vulnerable.
The last time he had opened up to her, she had broken his heart, after all.
So after she stalked away, he finished up his work and left, but he hardly made it a few feet onto Elderberry Lane before he was overcome with a tightness in his chest, as if he’d left something vital behind. Her face had flashed in his mind; she had been hurt when he’d refused to answer her question.
Guilt had pricked at him, so he had turned back to the bookshop to answer her question, to tell her about his mom.He was still afraid she might believe it was a ploy, like he was just pretending to be a good son, but he could deal with that if it happened.
But then he’d heard a crash and her muffled swear. He’d rushed into the office to make sure she was okay and saw her in her underwear.
All coherent thoughts had promptly rushed from his head.
“Well?” she snapped, bringing him back to the fact that she had asked him a question.
While her body language was confident, he saw the way her arms trembled. He remembered she was asking for help to untangle herself.
With some difficulty, Luke found his voice. “Alright,” he agreed. Her dress was bunched over her head and arms.
