Page 6 of Back To You

Co-existing with Luke has been doable, a little easier since I quit my bartending job at Lenny’s to start veterinarian school three years ago, but not much because we share the same group of friends who have pretty much become family at this point.

We all spend birthdays and holidays together, and it feels unnatural to go more than a week without seeing each other.

I decided from the moment Emmett told me Luke would be working at Lenny’s that I wasn’t going to let that stop me from being the new Annie.

“One more round, bartender,” I declare as I hold my now-empty glass towards Luke. Even without facing him, I know his eyes are on me. They always are.

To be honest, I always have to tamp down the feelings I have for Luke when he’s around, but I’ve gotten good at it, only slipping up once or twice over the years.

Our friends know Luke and I went to school together, but how well we knew each other is one of the secrets I keep from Drew and Mia, my two closest friends.

And I told Luke I would cut his balls off if he ever told Emmett or Eddie.

The three of us girls don’t keep much from each other. They know about the money I send to my mom now that she’s in live-in treatment—it takes the place of actually ever seeing her again—and they know the only hard liquor I can drink is gin because it’s the one my dad never touched.

They know I have a hard time asking for help when I need it, and they know I have no interest in a romantic partner—sticking to little flings here and there—before I finish school, thanks to an old boyfriend who ruined relationships for me.

But they have no idea that, in reality, that old boyfriend is Luke, and I gave my heart to him, thinking he would take care of it, only for him to stomp all over it.

“You guys too?” Luke asks Mia and Eddie as he rounds the bar and walks over to our table, his eyes finally shifting off me—allowing me the quick indulgence of looking at him. “Or do you want to get it yourself, Ed,” he adds with a laugh.

“Hey, Annie worked here too, and I don’t see you putting her to work,” Eddie replies with a laugh of his own.

Luke turns to me. “He’s right. Annie, want to come back behind the bar and show me how it’s done?” Theglint in his stupid grin makes me roll my eyes, ignoring the flip in my stomach.

Luke is handsome, there is no denying that, even if I tried—and I’ve tried,hard. No one is immune to his charm. His blonde hair is long, how I’ve always liked it, and he shakes it out as he leans on our high-top table. The sleeves of the dress shirt he’s wearing are rolled up, revealing his corded forearms, his body still chiseled from his years as a hockey player in high school and now as a player on a recreational team with his law school friends.

“Absolutely not,” I respond quickly and dryly, gaining a laugh from Mia and a chuckle from Eddie.

Luke’s eyes slightly widen, the same way they always do when I say the opposite of what he wants me to, but his grin doesn’t lessen one bit.

He leans in a little closer to me across the table, and I fight the urge to lean in, too, just to show him he isn’t affecting me like he wants to, even though he totally is.

“It’ll be just like old times,” he says, and my eyes narrow on him. I know he isn’t talking about the “old times” that play over and over in my head when I try to fall asleep, but him looking at me the way he is now reminds me of how easy it is to love him. “Come on, you know you want to.”

His bright blue eyes, like an ocean with a strong undertow, pull me in further and further before I can even realize how far I am from shore.

“I’d rather have my foot run over by a car.” I deadpan, looking down at my empty glass as I push it towards him, but Luke’s eyes stay glued to me.

Over the years, he’s gotten more overt with his flirting, which prompts me to getmuchmore overt with shutting it down. I think it just provokes him more.

“I’ll do another beer,” Eddie says, putting an end to the back-and-forth, no stranger to this tension between Luke and me. He turns to his wife. “What about you, sunshine?”

Before Mia can respond, Luke turns from me to Mia, swiping her glass with that 100-watt smile and sparkling baby blue eyes. “Of course she wants another one of my amazing tequila sunrises. I mean, they’ve only gotten better with the years.” His eyes shine a little brighter as Mia laughs and they share a memory from when Mia started hanging out at Lenny’s more and Luke helped her find her “drink of choice.”

Luke pushes himself from the high-top table, giving Mia a wink and pulling another little giggle from her, before he turns his attention to me, catching me staring, his grin widening.

No one is immune to Luke’s charm.

Not even me.

I look away, shaking my head, both at him and at myself for letting him catch me looking.

“Gin and tonic again, Annie girl?” he asks me when he gets behind the bar, and his voice saying his nickname for me is like warm honey enveloping me in a familiarity that I always wish was never there.

The nickname reminds me of simpler times when my heart used to flutter, but my heart was broken beyond repair all those years ago—there’s nothing left to make flutter.

Before I can tell him what a stupid question that is, seeing as though it’s the only alcoholic drink he’s ever made me—all other alcohol makes me want to vomit, aside from the occasional white wine or hard seltzer, favorites of my two best friends—the door to Lenny’s opens.

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