“And you’re sure you don’t want to get drunk with us and cry about it? I’d love to pop your booze cherry.”
“I’ve drank before, goof, just … never been drunk.”
Lukas and I are the same in that way. In high school, when our friends wanted to steal booze from their parents and find some random clearing in the woods where they could drink it, we’d tag along, but spend our time with each other. The peer pressure wasn’t ever there because Lukas was always at my side. He took it in stride a little better than I did. There were alwayswhispers that I was too prissy and uptight. Whatever they had to say, I didn’t care, and Lukas didn’t care.
That’s always what mattered to me.
We both had our respective careers to think about. Anytime we weren’t together or at school was time we spent working out, training, pushing ourselves to be the best we could be.
And now, Lukas will be doing that, except in the military.
“Goodnight, Stace.” Before I fully leave her pouting in the living room, I turn back. “Breakfast tomorrow, my treat?”
“Bottomless mimosas?” she teases, and I know she wouldn’t want that if we have all-day rehearsals, but I nod anyway.
“Anything for you.”
The soft click of my bedroom door shuts out the outside world, and I turn, pressing my shoulders to the wood.
I look around my room, taking in the simple space. A modest double bed, a small nightstand, a picture of Lukas and me from last Christmas propped up in a frame.
I catch a glance at myself in my full-length mirror; the exhaustion and stress is written in the dark circles under my eyes.
Flicking off the overhead light, I let the glow from my bedside lamp illuminate my path. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I slide on my fuzziest, warmest socks, and then roll over, tucking my feet under my heavy down comforter.
I reach my hand under the blankets, feeling around for the familiar soft fabric of my teddy bear. He’s shoved all the way at the bottom, having been lost under the blankets during my fitful sleep last night.
Stacy would never let me live it down if she knew I was in my twenties and still slept with a teddy bear, but it was the first gift I ever received from Lukas when we started dating. The first Valentine's Day we spent together as more than just friends, andeven though its once curly fur is now worn and matted, I swear it still smells like the cologne he used to wear.
I flick off the bedside table lamp and roll over, exhaling roughly into the quiet room.
I’m just about to drift off when there’s a knock on my door. I twist to look over my shoulder, wondering what Stacy needs that can’t wait until morning. The clock reads a little after eleven, and even though I love the girls that I can hear giggling somewhere in the apartment, I’m a little annoyed that she disturbed me.
“Yeah?” I call out, rolling over on my back.
“Hey,” she says, voice chipper. “Can you open the door? I have something for you.”
“Can it wait til morning?” I pull my bottom lip in between my teeth to stop it from wobbling. “I’m so tired, Stace.”
She knocks again. “No, it can’t. Want me to just bring it in?”
I furrow my brow in the dark, wondering what she’s getting at. If she opens that door and tries to give me a glass of wine or one of her edibles, I'm going to be pissed right off.
I sit up, shoving off my blankets with a little more force than they deserve. Flicking on my bedside lamp, I grimace as my stiff feet take the few paces to my door.
“Whatever you have, it better—” my words die off when I twist the handle and open the door, coming face to face with Lukas.
Lukas. Who has a duffle bag over one shoulder and a bouquet of flowers in the other, standing so tall his broad frame is almost comical in the tiny doorway of my even smaller apartment.
“Hey, pretty girl,” he rasps, his mouth stretching into a smile.
Something inside me gives way. The last strand of strength I had been holding onto breaks. My eyes well, and I take one pitiful baby step toward him before my body gives out, and I slump.
But as always, Lukas is there to catch me. He drops his bag and the bouquet to the floor, and his steady arms scoop me up before I have time to fold. With a move only a lifelong cowboy could muster, he lifts my entire body up and into his arms.
I wrap my legs around his waist, and curl my arms around his shoulders as I bury my face in his neck, whimpering my hello.
I briefly peek over his shoulder to see Stacy give me a satisfied smile and a cocky lift of her brow before Lukas takes a giant step into my room, using his foot to kick the door shut. He steps over his bag, and then he closes the distance between the hall and my bed, lying me down as gentle as a baby.
