Page 81 of Code Word
“Then you looking at me a certain way and telling me to come a little closer.”
“Also, yes. Making out like teenagers was fun.”
He chuckled. “Maybe a walk will do us good.”
I sighed. “Okay, fine. A walk first, then more making out.”
Luke laughed. “Deal. We should probably add dinner in there somewhere.”
I pretended not to hear. “Oh, I’m sorry. What was that? I was too busy thinking about the making-out part.”
He shoved me toward the door and we went downstairs, and I noticed my phone screen on the kitchen worktop.
Missed call from Becca.
“Hm,” I said, frowning. I showed Luke. “I wonder if everything’s okay.”
He shrugged this time. “Call her back.”
I pressed Call, put my phone on the counter, and hit speaker. “Hey,” I said when she answered. “Everything okay? You’re on speaker, by the way.”
“Good. Luke, where’s your phone? I’ve been trying to call you.”
His eyes met mine and he grimaced. “Uh, to be honest,” he said, “I’m not entirely sure. It’s here somewhere, but I haven’t used it. Or looked at it. I think it’s in my suitcase. Maybe.”
I pointed my finger at myself and whispered, “And I’m the one avoiding reality?”
He gave me a shove. “Sorry,” he said to the phone. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, but you said yesterday that we’d talk today, and when you didn’t call me, I had to call Blake’s phone, and then he didn’t answer either. I was beginning to think you’d been abducted or something.”
He made a face. “We were . . . we were . . . swimming.”
I snorted, kinda grimacing too.
“Yeah, right,” she said flatly. “Well, if you’re both alive, I guess we can talk another day.”
He snatched up the phone and took it off speaker. “No, wait. Can we talk? We should talk.”
He looked at me, raising an eyebrow as if asking if it were okay, and I nodded.
He absolutely should talk to her. In private. As brotherand sister, they needed to clear the air without me being in the middle of them.
Lord knows, I was the reason.
Luke went out across the patio, down the steps to the sand, and started walking down to the water, my phone pressed to his ear.
I really needed them to be okay.
I needed there to be no grievances between them because of me. It would probably be awkward enough, but at least if they were talking...
Not like me and Maddox.
I wasn’t ready to deal with that. I was still pissed off and hurt. But I meant what I’d said to him, and I stood by that.
I wasn’t ready to face that because, with the way I was feeling, it was likely to end with a kind of finality I was trying to avoid.
I wanted this new path I was on, this new life with Luke, and I wanted to explore new music. I wanted to enjoy music again.
