Tara bit back a smile. “Sure.”
***
Tara: This party is the worst. I think I’m leaving now.
Luke stopped typing up the meal plan he was creating for one of the university wrestlers and picked up his phone. She’d reached out first. That was good, right? Not that hating the party was good. He hoped she was okay.
Luke: What happened?
Tara: Nothing. Everyone is being super nice. Which is making me paranoid. Jody hugged me. I wish I could hate her but she’s unhateable.
Good for Jody. Derek didn’t deserve her, but he was glad they were finally figuring things out together.
Luke: Yep. Sounds like the worst party ever.
Tara: You’re mocking me.
Luke: Only a little. You got this, girl.
Tara: Um.
Luke: Sorry, that was me trying to be supportive.He pulled up a ‘you go, girl’ meme and sent it to her.
She sent back laughing eyes.
Tara: Why didn’t you come to the party?
He stared at his phone for several seconds before attempting to answer.
Luke: Because Derek doesn’t know I know you and you said Sandy was coming. I figured you had enough to deal with.There was so much more to it, like the fact that he’d want to stand next to her all night like a loyal bodyguard. But mostly it was because he didn’t want to get to know her under the eyeballs of everyone they knew.
Tara: Thanks. By the way, the stuffed mushroom appetizer is to die for. It’s sneakily healthy, too, I suspect.
Luke: You’re making me blush. So, are you just hiding in a corner texting?
Tara: I’m blending into the wall. They just started up karaoke. #survivalskills.
Luke: You don’t like karaoke?
Tara: I sing for the kids in my class and my shower walls. No one else gets to hear.
Luke: Is it that bad?
Tara: It’s that good. Just kidding. I’m somewhere in-between and let’s be honest, karaoke is for the extremes.
Luke was never going to get any work done at this rate, but Tara had a way of taking over everything else in his brain and making it take a backseat. Texting just took that to a whole new level. For the next hour, they laughed about bad karaoke and the fact that Sandy had no filter. Apparently, the woman could meld a compliment and an insult together without meaning to be offensive at all. She’d make a great talent show judge.
He checked in after finishing the paragraph he’d been typing.
Luke: Has karaoke ended?
Tara: Shoot. S.O.S. Back later.
Did that mean she’d been forced on stage to sing? Luke put his phone down, reminded himself to stop smiling like a fool, and got everything prepped for his meeting with the wrestling team.
Then came the fun part. He headed into the kitchen to whip up four different egg recipes he planned to have them taste tomorrow. He texted Heston and Sara before he heated the pans, asking them if they were hungry.
His neighbors didn’t need more of an invitation than that. They were over five minutes later lounging on his kitchen stools. Little Hallie bounced on the stool between them. Luke liked to think he was part of the reason Hallie had such a sophisticated palate for her age.
