Waiting On You (Blue Heron #3)(86)

“Thanks for reading to me,” Savannah said over her shoulder.

“My pleasure,” he answered, his voice all rumbly.

Gail and Savannah left, the door closing behind them.

It was hot up here. Also, she was here with the Prince of Darkness, which made it hotter still.

Maybe it was having her mom admit her feelings, seeing her still hung up on the guy who’d left her for someone else. Like mother, like daughter, after all. Falling for Lucas again...hell, she already was. And if she wasn’t careful, soon she’d be just like Mom, drawing hairy na**d men in order to fill up her days.

Lucas was looking at her, doing the fallen angel thing.

She took a deep breath, the air close and dry. “Thanks for being sweet to my sister.”

“She was hiding under the couch when I came in.”

Colleen’s heart pulled. “Really?”

“Yeah. Eating cookies.”

Damn. “Gail’s had her on a diet for years already. She has food issues.”

Lucas made a noncommittal noise.

“How could she not? To Gail, everything is about how you look. Savannah’s a little pudgy. Big deal. She’ll outgrow it. I was pudgy when I was a kid.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, I was. A little. Not really. Fine, I wasn’t. So what? What’s it to you?”

His mouth pulled up in one corner. “Nervous, Colleen?”

Damn it! That dark, scraping voice. He used to call her from college and talk dirty once in a while, and my! God! The things that voice did to her!

“I’m not nervous. I’m just...irritable. I love Savannah, and I don’t want to see her either obese or anorexic or hating the way she looks because she’s got Gail for a mother.”

“Good thing she has you, then.”

She looked at him sharply. “Are you being sarcastic?”

“No.”

He just looked at her, saying nothing more, and a breeze drifted through the window, rustling the maple leaves across from them, ruffling his beautiful, thick hair. His eyes always held so much more than what he managed to say.

Well. That’s what she’d always thought, anyway, and look where that got her. A woman who was the town flirt, who was probably unhealthily attached to her brother and still didn’t trust men, who hadn’t had a real relationship in ten years.

“Wow, look at the time! I’m starving,” she said, reaching for the doorknob. It stuck, so she tugged it, and the damn thing came off in her hand. Huh.

She tried to put it back, but it was one of those old glass things, and the metal rod was still stuck inside. She shoved it in again, but it fell off immediately. Tried again. Wiggled it. Nothing. “Lucas, can you fix this, please?”

He came over—did he stand this close to everyone? Glanced down at the doorknob in her hand and said, “You broke it.”

“No, I didn’t. It slipped out. Just put it back.”

“It’s broken, Colleen.”

“Can you please just try to fix it, Lucas?”

“Yes, mía. I’ll try, just for you.”

He knelt on the floor and you know, sigh. He was kneeling at her feet, and if she didn’t knock it off with these thoughts, she was going to slap herself. Hard. Lucas pushed the doorknob onto the, uh, shaft, gave it a shove, then tried to turn it. Once again, the doorknob fell to the floor with a thud. “See?” he said.

“Yeah, yeah.” She banged on the door. “Hello? We’re stuck in here. Can you open the door?”

They waited. Nothing. Lucas smiled, as if she’d just agreed to sign over her soul.

He stood in one graceful move. “This gives us a chance to talk.”

“We’re not going to talk.”

“I thought we needed to talk.”

“So talk to yourself, then! Talk away, Lucas! Jeesh! It’s too hot in here. It’s like one of those Swedish saunas where they kill people. Who can talk?”

It’s hard to believe you were once so good with men, because you are now officially a babbling idiot. She went to the window. Great, plenty of people down there, and a little cooler.

“Hello! Hi! We’re stuck up here! Hello!” Nope. Apparently, the band was too loud—“Let’s Spend the Night Together,” perfect—and not one person looked up. Connor, get your ass up here, she thought, hoping the psychic twin thing would work this time.

Twilight was falling softly over the party, the sky a beautiful shade of slate blue.

“Sit, Colleen,” Lucas said. He was already on the floor, his back against the wall, long legs crossed. Jeans. White shirt. That skin, that beautiful olive skin.

She sighed again and obeyed, crossing her arms grumpily. She sat kitty-corner from him. The better to see you, my dear.

A faint smile played on his mouth. He had a perfect mouth. Full and perfectly shaped and just a little sulky.

You really have it bad, Connor’s voice informed her.

“No kidding,” she muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Where’d you get the bracelets?” she asked, nodding her chin at the little woven strands around his wrist.

“Tiffany made this one for me. Cara did this one. My nieces.”

“I remember.” Hard to believe those girls would be, what...thirteen? Fourteen?