How (Not) to Fall in Love(33)

He started the car and we rolled slowly down the alley.

“Do you remember where I live?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Basically. You can direct me when we get close.”

I nodded, then he plugged in his iPod and a familiar song flooded the car.

“You like Phoenix?” I asked, surprised. That was twice he’d played some of my favorite music.

He glanced at me, then back at the road. “I can change it to something else.” He reached for his iPod, but I stopped him with my bandaged hand, then yanked it away like I’d been shocked.

“No, don’t change it. I love this song.”

Lucas smiled in the blue glow from the dashboard and we drove without talking, just listening to the music. If I closed my eyes and filtered out most of reality, this could be a perfect night, a perfect date. Except for the small detail of Lucas already having a girlfriend and my life completely falling apart. Oh, and my dad being MIA on some sort of crazy clonehenge quest.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. Even with heat pouring out of the car vents, a shiver slid through me.

“Talk about what?”

“Whatever was worrying you earlier. Whatever distracted you enough to make you burn yourself.”

I watched his profile. “You think that’s why I burned myself?”

He shrugged. “You said you had a lot on your mind. Something about your dad.”

I huffed out a sigh. “It’s a long story. And it’s…just weird. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

Lucas was quiet for a few moments. “I’m a good listener,” he said. “Just ask Pickles. I listen to her ramble all the time.”

I laughed. “Her stories are probably much more interesting than mine.”

He didn’t smile. “I doubt that.” He glanced at me. “Seriously, Darcy. If you ever want to talk about…all that’s going on…” He paused, and then spoke again. “My mom left, too. Like your dad.”

My stomach twisted. “She did?”

He looked at me, then back at the road. “Yeah. So I know what you’re going through, sort of. Though my mom wasn’t famous, so the whole country wasn’t making jokes about it. That must be hard.”

He’d opened a door, but I wasn’t ready to walk through it, so we drove the rest of the way without speaking, the music filling our silence.

“Tell me where to turn,” Lucas prompted me as the houses we passed increased in size. I guided him to my address.

He turned toward me. “You shouldn’t be taking the bus and walking home this late by yourself. If you can’t afford to gas up your truck, I can give you rides home on the nights you work late.”

“But…it’s completely out of your way.”

He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “I like driving.”

I sat there, speechless, until he shifted the car into park, leaving the engine running. “Come on.” He opened his door. “I’ll walk you up.”

“I’m not going to get jumped,” I joked, though secretly I was thrilled when he actually walked around the car and opened my door, like a gentleman in one of my favorite books. No Regency duke would’ve dropped off his date and stayed in his carriage texting.

He smiled at me, but didn’t say anything as we walked quickly up the cobblestones Mom had imported from England. We stood in front of the massive double doors while Lucas dug into his pocket and the wind bit through our coats.

“Here.” He handed me the silver tube and roll of gauze from Liz’s first aid box. “Put more gel on your burn tomorrow and rewrap it.”

I took the first aid supplies, impressed by his thoughtfulness. “Oh, wow. Thanks.” I didn’t know what else to say. His kindness rendered me speechless.

The universe needed to spread out its gifts a little more evenly instead of dumping them all onto one person. Lucas had his act together in a way I never would. Smart, composed under pressure, thoughtful, not to mention smoking hot. I sighed and unlocked the door. Toby waited, wriggling and whimpering. He launched himself at Lucas.

Lucas grinned and bent down to pet him. “How’s my Toby?” Toby slobbered all over him.

“I think he is your Toby,” I remarked. Add beloved by dogs to the list of his attributes. “Even I don’t get that kind of greeting.”

He laughed and stood up. “I’m sure you’re his favorite. But I could definitely rob your house if I wanted to.”

Another gust of wind blew snow around us. I hesitated. Should I ask him in? Was my mom in a wine coma yet, or would she be awake enough for me to tell her about the henges? And what about his “flexible plans?”

“Do you want to come in? For a minute. To warm up before you head back across town,” I said quickly. I thought of one way we could warm up and immediately wished I hadn’t said that.

He shook his head. “That’d be great any other time, but I’m sort of running late.”

I knew my face burned with embarrassment. Hopefully he’d just think it was windburn.

“Sure. Well, thanks again.” I stepped inside, ready to slam the door so that I could collapse in private. He’d churned up all sorts of emotions tonight that I didn’t want to deal with.

“I’ll see you soon,” Lucas said. He held my gaze for a moment, his eyes hooded in the darkness, and then hurried down the steps to his car.