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“The reason you left California and needed to avoid,” she said.
I looked at Luke, and he winced but kinda smiled. “Yes.”
I looked at Alma. “You told me you didn’t know him. I showed you a photo of him and asked if you’d seen him, and you said no. And your English is great, by the way.”
“Your Spanish is terrible,” she replied, not sorry at all.
“I know,” I admitted. “We took Spanish in school, but we basically had to quit school at sixteen. You know, albums and world tours. It’s no excuse, sorry.”
“We had a pretty messed-up life, huh?” Luke murmured.
I met his gaze and nodded. “Yeah. I think I’m realizing that more and more.”
Alma gave me a smile that kinda told me she was only joking anyway. “I was looking after Mister Luke.”
I looked at him. “Mister Luke, huh?”
“You showed her my photo?”
“I showed anyone and everyone your photo,” I said,showing him the photo on my phone. “All up and down this beach. I was just trying to find you.”
He stared at the screen. “What the . . . ?”
“It was onEntertainment Tonight. It’s how I found you. Well, they reported that you were in Mexico, and I followed social media threads from fans. You know how they can pinpoint locations better than NASA. Anyway, so here I am. I had to walk the entire beach and ask anyone I saw if they’d seen you.”
Luke was smiling at me. “You did that for me?”
I liked the way his eyes shone, how he smiled at me. “Yeah, of course,” I whispered. “Because I didn’t know where you were... because you left me.”
Luke smiled at me in a way that made my insides feel all swoopy. “We need to talk about that, don’t we?”
“About you leaving me?”
He grinned but looked at Alma. “About dinner...”
“I’ll make enough for both of you,” she said. “You can reheat it when you’re ready. And I’ll be gone in the morning, remember?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he murmured, but then he took my hand again and led me upstairs and through a door. It was a loft of sorts, lots of timber, a rumpled bed, a chair, notebooks, his guitar...
And us.
My nerves ratcheted up somewhere near the stratosphere.
“Hey,” he whispered, still standing close.
Not close enough.
“Could use a hug,” he mumbled.
Now I didn’t know if he was talking about himself or about me, but my answer was yes.
I collected him in a hug so fast, so tight, wrapping my arms around him. He fit against me like he always had, his hold on me became tighter with every exhale, and his face in against my neck.
Holding him was a relief I couldn’t explain.
Like I could finally breathe.
Like my body finally felt peace.
