“Well, for one, your shirt is inside out, and the other is the fact that you’re muttering to yourself that you’re fine over and over again.”
“My shirt…” I looked down and grumbled. I pulled it off, turned it right side in, and put it on. “How’d you hear me?”
He smirked. “I don’t think you realize how loud you were saying it. So tell me, what’s wrong?”
Shit, he had good hearing. “Nothing, truly, just with the storm and all, it has been moving appointments and stuff around…no big, just frazzled.” I smiled, but it was shaky and I could feel it.
“Uh-huh. All right, Sam.” He stood and brushed off some cat hair from his pants. “I can either help you sort it out, or I can leave you to it. Which would you prefer?”
“Well…” I motioned to the clock in my kitchen. “I actually have work now soooo…no one is sorting anything out.”
He glanced at the clock, then me, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Was he some kind of mind reader or something?
“I’ll walk you to work.”
I didn’t argue. I really loved my time with Lukas, and now that he was so nice to me, I wanted more minutes…so many more minutes…Please, let there be a trillion more minutes.
When we arrived at Cone Creations, Natalie was handing off a Hearts on Fire creation to a little girl. She beamed at me and Lukas, and I waved.
“Thanks for walking me.”
“I think, since I’m here, I’ll get an ice cream.”
I chuckled. “Shocker!”
I move to the far end of the shop to put my stuff away while Lukas went to the counter, where Natalie offered to assist him. I didn’t move out front right away; I listened to the two of them.
“I’ll have soft serve chocolate with peanut butter sauce, chocolate sprinkles, and a cherry, in a large sundae size.”
“Okay. What about, like, a Chocolate Explosion creation?”
“Did I say that was what I wanted?”
“No, but…”
“Then just shuffle off and get what I asked.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. He was still an asshole to everyone else.
He stayed for about an hour and ate in the back, glaring at everyone who entered the shop. It only made me smile, and for the time he was there I didn’t think about the blood test results at all.
He wanted to know if I was working the next day and when I said no, he asked me out on a date. To a movie…so normal. That was something to look forward to.
The rest of the day and night were fine, my mind only trailing to my blood results every so often and as soon as it did, I focused on Lukas and New York, Christmas, and our date tomorrow.
It could take a few days for the results to come in—sometimes weeks—but I’d never had to wait more than two days. It was going to be a long forty-eight hours, so I hoped Lukas would be able to take my mind off things.
Bubbles cuddled close to me, her warmth helping fight off the winter chill that no matter how high the heat was always managed to work its way into my bones. It took a while but sleep did come, and so did the nightmares.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Lukas
Something was wrong with Sam.I watched him at the shop while I ate my ice cream. He smiled at customers, but it never reached his eyes…eyes that were distant as if he were trapped in his mind. He claimed he was just busy, but the errands we’d run weren’t stressful. I’d surmised he was lying to me.
Pushing him to tell me would be foolish and while I despised the movies, I’d offered to take him. Briefly, there was happiness but all too soon, I saw that shadowed look again. What was wrong with him?
I paced all night, racking my brain over what it could be. Money? Was he struggling financially? If that was the issue, I could absolutely help him easily. How to broach the subject, however, would be tricky. Nobody liked asking for money, let alone taking it out of desperation.
