Page 54 of The Edge of Summer
I set my sandwich back on my plate. “Clarebear, are you okay?”
Gabe’s worry from that night on my back porch comes flashing back. The sadness I see in her face tells me that he was right—something is up with her. Something more thanjust her worry for Delilah. The moment my question registers, her guards slide back into place.
She flashes me a smile, but it’s not her usual one. “I’m fine. Just promise me you’ll be careful?”
“I’ll be careful,” I promise. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure.” She rounds the bar and throws her arms around me, trapping me in a hug. “I’ve missed you, too, you know.”
My brows furrow as I return her embrace. “Missed me? I haven’t gone anywhere.”
“Physically, yeah.” She pulls back. “But you’ve been gone for a while, Luke. Whatever has changed, I don’t care. I’m just happy to be getting my brother back.”
The sinking feeling starts low in my stomach, and then it spreads through the rest of my body. The breakdown of my relationship with Kristina happened fast. After what she did, there was no saving it. It’s hard to go through with marrying the person that damn near got your niece killed. I knew the situation had changed me, but I hadn’t realized just how noticeable it was. Even my sister knows I’m damaged goods.
I can’t do this. After what happened with Delilah’s car, I don’t want this getting any messier. No matter how much I’d love nothing more than a repeat with her, I can’t risk ruining her friendship with Clara. I won’t.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
DELILAH
Luke is officially avoiding me.Again.
A month ago that would not have been out of the ordinary. But here I thought that we had turned a corner. That between him kissing me and the moment we shared on the bar at Dockside meant he had decided to stop ignoring that spark between us. That undeniable thread that has been tugging us together since we met.
That first time Luke kissed me, he claimed he couldn’t get me out of his head. Well, now I can’t get him out of mine. He has had no contact with me since the day we dropped my car off at O’Donnell’s Auto a week ago. He’s even stopped coming by the restaurant. I thought for sure this would mean that I was on my own to get to work, which is fine, but the frustratingly thoughtful man just had Clara pick me up instead.
Something changed that day. I knew he wasn’t happy that my car had been vandalized. I wasn’t happy either, andtruthfully, it scared me a little. But I didn’t expect him to pull away so abruptly.
Now I’m over it.
Today, I plan to get to the bottom of this once and for all. I purposely wore a skirt—the same one I wore that night at Dockside. And when I walk inside the fire station, heads turn. As soon as Gabe spots me, he does a double take, and then a slow grin spreads across his lips. He knows exactly why I’m here. I offer him a wave.
“Give him hell, Delilah!” he calls.
I salute in response, and then I make my way deeper into the building, in the direction I think the chief’s office must be. When I make it to some type of reception area, a middle-aged woman with a blonde braid partway down her back steps in my path.
“Hello, there,” she says. I notice the name Booth is etched on the sleeve of her shirt. “Can I help you?”
“Is the chief in?” I ask. When she gives me a questioning look, I elaborate. “I’m his…” I shake my head. I’m nothisanything. “I’m a friend of his sister.”
“Delilah?” At my nod, her suspicion melts away and she grins. “Oh, I’ve heardsomuch about you. You can go on back. Just down that hall, you’ll see his office door.”
She’s heard so much about me?Has Luke been talking to his coworkers about me? Surely that can’t be true when the man can’t even look me in the face to tell me that he thought we made a mistake. Another mistake.
I thank the woman and then start down the corridor. At the very end, an office looms, a plaque hung on the wall that readsChief Lucas Bowman. For a moment, as my palm restson the door handle, I second-guess myself. Should I really be doing this? Probably not. But fuck it.
I want to charge in there, guns blazing, but I also don’t want to get him in trouble if he’s in a meeting or something. I’m actually not entirely sure what it is that fire chiefs do. So I knock, and when he calls out a gruffcome in, I push through the door. I let it shut behind me, and the lock flips with a resounding click at my back.
“Delilah,” he says. I see a faint trace of surprise in his eyes, but the rest of his features remain neutral.
“Oh,” I say, voice sickeningly sweet, “youdoremember me. I was beginning to wonder whether you had developed a case of retrograde amnesia. Glad to see you’re feeling well.”
He ignores my sarcastic remark. “What are you doing here?”
I fold my arms over my chest, cocking my hip. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
