Page 57 of Halstead House

“I know it’s easy to think I’m perfect, and I hate to burst your bubble, but I have some baggage that makes me act uptight and unapproachable. Ana has gone so far as to call me inflexible and unspontaneous.” I managed to keep a straight face even though his smile was growing with each sentence.

“You hide your imperfections well.”

“Why, thank you. If you’d be so kind as to tell Ana?” I lifted my eyebrows hopefully.

He shook his head. “Oh, no, I make a habit of never upsetting the person in charge of my life. She has the power to make me suffer.”

“Probably best, unless you want her to start therapy on you.” I grinned. I felt as though my feet were no longer touching the ground. I sounded so normal, and nothing was shaking or sweating. This conversation made me feel free somehow, and I adored it.

“I’m not sure I’d survive. What’s in store for you today?”

“Our adventure involves electric bikes and an island tour.”

“That sounds much better than what I’d imagined. You had me thinking she was going to dangle your body over a shark tank.”

“Don’t give her any ideas.” We shared a smile for a long enough moment that a blush began to rise. I cleared my throat and blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Do you want to come too?”

Lucas’s first reaction, before he could hide it, appeared to be one of surprise. He quickly slid a casual look back into place, but I had seen it. He rarely got invited to these types of things, and he knew that I knew it.

“I would really like to, but...” He swallowed and I suddenly felt embarrassed and foolish for the invitation. The man was holding his tackle box, dressed to go fishing.

“Don’t worry about it. I know how busy you are.” I waved a hand in the air and turned toward my room to make a hasty retreat.

“Grace, wait.”

I froze a few steps away and turned to face him. He stayed where he was on the other side of the foyer. “I’m meeting a business associate today to do some fishing and discuss plans for some production upgrades. My life is so busy, but I...” His vibrating phone interrupted him before he could finish the thought. He pulled it out of his back pocket to see who was calling.

“It’s okay. We can still be friends even if you’re too busy to go on a bike ride with Ana and me today.” He must have read the sincerity in my expression, because he relaxed a bit.

“I’d rather go on a bike ride. I’m sorry that I can’t.” He waved the still ringing phone in the air.

“I’ll have to get with your secretary to schedule something next time,” I joked.

“If Ana heard how unspontaneous and overly scheduled I am, she wouldn’t like it,” he replied. I showed my appreciation of his crack by beaming at him and was fascinated to watch his smile grow to match mine. “Thank you for inviting me today. It’s nice to have someone want me around for no reason at all.”

“To be totally honest, I probably would have hit you up for ice cream,” I replied, trying to tamp down on a heart rhythm that was seriously affected by his smile.

“I probably would have bought it.”

I wasn’t sure if my mind was playing tricks on me or not, but it felt like the room had shrunk down to just the two of us and the temperature had risen by a thousand degrees. I could do nothing but nod.

He touched the brim of his hat and turned to go down the stairs as he answered his phone in a clipped tone. I watched him and wondered when I’d stop being afraid of him in one way or another. This new, relaxed, and approachable Lucas was possibly scarier than the aloof and cold one had ever been.

“Do you think you can get hairline fractures in your buttocks?” Ana asked later that afternoon as we walked from her car back to the mansion.

“Definitely,” I replied in a slightly strained voice. “Were bike seats more comfortable when we were kids?”

“Obviously, because I deny the idea that it has anything to do with the size of my bum.” Ana came to a stop in a shady garden spot and bent over to touch her hands to her feet. “What stretches do I need to do in order to loose the caboose?”

I giggled at the phrase. “I don’t think you can stretch out fractures.”

“I knew by the time we were two blocks away from the bike shop that I’d made a terrible mistake. Why didn’t you stop me?”

I groaned as I too stretched, tugging my heels up toward my back. “You made it two blocks? I sat on the seatat the shopand had the same realization before I’d even started pedaling. I was trying to tough it out for the Great Island Therapist. I was afraid to show weakness.”

“Honesty is a virtue.” Ana grimaced as she stood straight again.

“Ihonestlythink that I won’t be able to sit down for a week.”

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