Page 9 of Luke

“I love New Orleans,” I say. “I really do. However, I feel like I’m on an extended vacation rather than living in a place I call home.”

“Ever consider moving back here permanently?”

“I don’t know,” I shake my head. “So much has happened.”

“Has a lot happened?” He asks. “I still have no idea what you’ve been doing this whole time.”

“Studying. Working. Exploring. Nothing too exciting,” I say. “Let’s get these in the fridge before they go bad.”

Luke and I reach for the same apple. Our hands brush together. My entire body feels like it’s been touched by a live wire.

I pull back too quickly to play it cool.

When I look up at Luke, he’s watching me with a pleading gaze. Up until this moment, I thought I’d been doing a good job of keeping my feelings in check. Now, when I look at him, I realize how foolish I was to think my feelings for him would ever go away.

“Marie,” he says softly.

“I need to check on my mother.” I pull away and leave the room but I linger in the hallway. I can’t let his happen again. I barely made it out of high school without losing my mind. I spent years in love with my best friend knowing he’d never feel the same way about me. I watched him date perfect, skinny, girls raised to be perfect, skinny southern belles.

He always stuck up for me. He never let me feel like I was less than them. It was so easy to fall in love with him then and it’s just as easy to fall back in love with him now. But the bottom line hasn’t changed. He’ll never be with someone like me. That’s why I had to leave the first time. It’ll be the reason I have to leave a second time.

Chapter Six

Luke

Marie’s been back in town for a month and I’m still no closer to understanding why she left town all those years ago.

Alice’s treatment is taking its toll. Her hair is gone. She can only drink smoothies now, which she doesn’t mind one bit. In fact, now she gives me lists of ingredients and challenges me to make a smoothie out of them. It’s fun for me too, though I’d never recommend mixing peanut butter and kale. It just doesn’t work.

Now that Alice is on an all-smoothie diet, I’ve started bringing normal food for Marie. I’m in the kitchen seasoning chicken for dinner when my phone rings.

“What’s up?” I answer, already knowing it’s Max, a fellow ranger.

“Are you coming out tonight or are you staying in with the wife?” He jokes.

“Very funny,” I mutter. “I’m having dinner with Marie and her mother tonight.”

“Ah, so staying with the wife.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call her that,” I say.

Sometimes, it feels like Marie and I can easily slip back into how we were before she left. It’s like we haven’t missed a beat. Other times, she can’t look me in the eye. I don’t understand it and I have no intention of backing off until I do. It doesn’t help that I can’t be in the room with her for an extended period of time without wanting to push her up against the wall or take her into the bedroom.

All this time spent at her home, cooking dinner, and fixing things up has made me realize just how empty my life was without her. It’s a stressful time for her and her mother, but Ihaven’t felt so at ease in years. Looking after them is as easy as breathing. I want Alice to get better more than anything, but when she does, I’m worried that Marie will disappear all over again. I don’t know if I can go another six years without my best friend. She needs me right now, even though she won’t admit it. What she doesn’t know is that I need her just as much.

“You’re basically a married couple. You look way too damn chipper every time you come into work. It’s obvious,” Max taunts. “Rhodes thinks so, too.”

“You’re just jealous that I get to spend my time with two wonderful women and you’re eating leftover casserole out of Tupperware.”

“We’re definitely both jealous,” Max agrees. “When are you and the missus going to have us over for dinner?”

“When Alice is better, she wants to have a huge cookout,” I say. “You two idiots are definitely coming.”

“Awesome. Tell her we’ve got her back, all right? Marie, too.”

“Sure thing.”

I hang up and grab a can of cat food from the cabinet. Sometimes, Marie and her mother hit a bit of traffic on the way home from treatment, so I’ve taken it upon myself to feed the cats.

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