Page 8 of Good Intentions, Vol. 3

I look up into his brown warm eyes. They’re always filled with kindness, but tonight there’s worry hiding in their depths.

“It’s great now,” I say and wrap my arms around Luke’s waist. Snuggling more into him, I brace for the possible answer and ask, “What’s with the worry, honey?”

“I can’t keep anything from you, can I?” he makes a half-assed attempt at a joke.

“You know you can’t,” I laugh a little but am secretly pleased with the fact that Luke wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn’t play any games.

“Your Mom called,” I can feel the muscles on his back flex beneath my palms as if he’s preparing for me to lose my shit.

But I’m too tired for that today.

“Did she?” I step out of his embrace and start walking in the direction of my bedroom, more specifically my bathroom.

I need a good, long soaking after the day I had. I’m in no mood to talk about my mother and listen to Luke telling me why I should give her a second chance, again.

“You’re not even going to ask what she had to say?” The surprise in Luke’s tone makes me stop.

I turn to look at him and tilt my head. Wait a minute…I’ve been home barely two minutes and my phone didn’t ring once, so that means…

“You mean to tell me she called you?”

Luke shifts from foot to foot and looks everywhere but at me.

“Luke, honey,” my voice is sugary sweet and the moment he hears it, he looks at me and swallows hard. “How did my mother get your phone number?”

“Because I gave it to her,” Luke puffs out his chest like a damn gorilla.

“And when and why did you do that?”

“Well,” he scratches the back of his head. He does this every time when he knows what’s he’s about to tell me is not something I want to hear. “The last time we were having dinner with her, she said she misses you and wants to try to build a relationship with you. She was desperate, Heather.”

“And you did what? Promised her you would help?”

His silence is the answer enough.

“I can’t believe you,” I whisper. I thought no one can hurt me anymore. Not after Nick. But I was wrong.

“Baby, she was crying,” Luke puts his hands on his waist and shakes his head.

If I know one thing about Luke, it’s that he doesn’t know what to do when a woman is crying. And obviously, my mother picked up on the fact that Luke is a good guy and a big teddy bear the moment she laid eyes on him. I knew that introducing him to her was a bad idea, but I needed someone at my back when I was with her. Especially so soon after Nick.

“First of all, she’s a great actress. Second, she has a relationship with me, the kind of one I’m willing to give her.”

“Having dinner with your mother a few times a year and sporadically answer her calls while barely talking to her during those calls is not a relationship.”

“After what she did, that’s all she can get,” I repeat the words I told Luke so many times before.

I don’t get this need of his to be close to my mom.

“It was years ago, baby. And she said she was sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t change the fact that she left us for another man. Sorry doesn’t change the fact that she left me,” I yell and pound my chest with a fist. “I don’t get it, Luke, where does this need of yours for me to get along with her, come from?”

“It comes from the fact that I’m petrified that you’ll do the same thing to me,” Luke screams at me. “I’m terrified that one day, you’ll just push me away and feed me crumbs of your affection while leaving me dangling on your leash. Completely addicted to you.”

I take a step back.

I don’t know where this is coming from.