Stealing Home(46)

He glared at the skillet like those pancakes were to blame. Then his face lit up. “Will you go with me?”

“I’m part of the team. I’ll already be there.”

His head shook. “Will you go with me?”

“Oh,” I said, looking away. “If I show up with you and hang off your arm all night, won’t that kind of ruin our plan of keeping us a secret?”

His shoulders fell. “Maybe?” When I sighed, he added, “Probably. But I don’t care. I want you to show up with me, and I want you to hang off my arm all night. We don’t need to explain anything to anyone.”

“We won’t need to if we do that, Luke,” I whispered.

“I want to be with you, Allie. Not just behind a locked door. Not just in private. I want to be with you. Seen with you. With you, not without you like we’ll have to be everywhere we go in public.” He dropped the spatula, his hands going to his hips. After a minute of what looked to be deep thought, he sighed. “But I made you a promise. I’ll keep this a secret for as long as you want. If that’s what it takes to be with you, I’ll do it. I might hate every minute of it, but I’ll do it.”

“I thought you wanted to be discreet about this too?”

“I did, at least until I confirmed that the woman I thought you were is the same one you really are. I know who you are now, and I know I want you. There’s nothing discreet about that.” Rolling his head a few times, he went back to ladling pancake batter into the skillet. From the size of the batch he’d made, it looked like he was planning on keeping my “energy levels” up into the next decade.

“I love that you feel that way, Luke, I really do.” I leaned into the counter as I continued, “But us getting to know each other wasn’t the only reason for keeping this quiet.”

His jaw tightened for a moment. “I know.”

“I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I’ve put up with jerks hinting to downright claiming I screwed my way to the top, and if it gets out that I’m screwing Luke Archer, all of the credibility I’ve worked so hard for will be gone. And I’ll never be able to get it back. People will always see me as a joke. As someone who does her best work on her back. I can’t let that happen.”

He came around the counter and pulled me into his arms. I didn’t know I’d been so close to crying until I felt his comfort. “I’d never let that happen.” He rubbed circles into my back, holding me with both a strength and gentleness I’d never known. “I’m sorry. I’m just whining. Pouting because I want people to know that you’re mine.” He kissed the top of my head. “It’s the cave dweller ancestry in me.”

I laughed quietly against him, letting him soothe me for another minute. “Having you this close is reminding me of that affliction known as morning breath, and since I wasn’t planning on spending the night with you, I failed to bring my toothbrush. You might want to keep your distance.” Giving him a final squeeze, I wove out of his embrace.

“Lucky for you your ‘boyfriend’ just so happens to have a stockpile of new toothbrushes.”

“A stockpile?” I backed up a few steps because seeing him a few feet in front of me in nothing but his underwear, with that freshly f*cked face he was such a fan of, was firing certain desires I should have chased into submission last night back to life.

“Zombie apocalypse planning. You never know when you might need a few dozen new toothbrushes.”

“Because who cares if droves of flesh-eating beings are trying to eat your brains? At least you’ll have clean teeth.”

“See? You get me.” He laughed. “That’s why I’ll share my toothbrushes with you.”

“I feel honored.” I patted his chest as I moved out of the kitchen. “Where can I find this toothbrush stockpile?”

“My bathroom. Lower right drawer below the sink.”

The way he was looking at me almost made me go back to him, but first, I reminded myself, fresh breath. “Be right back. Save some pancakes for me.”

He wandered back over to skillet. “That won’t be a problem.”

Wandering through his bedroom, I turned into the bathroom. It was clean. Really clean. The toilet lid was even down. So he was a caveman with a penchant for cleanliness—I could work with that.

Pulling open the drawer he’d mentioned, I found he really did have a stockpile of toothbrushes. And little toothpastes. And baby bottles of mouthwash. The guy almost had his own travel-sized store of oral hygiene products. Selecting a blue toothbrush, I ripped it open and squeezed a blob of toothpaste on it from the tube resting on the sink.

After giving my teeth an extra good brush, I rinsed and wandered back out into his room with my new toothbrush still in hand. We’d both been a little busy and distracted last night, and I hadn’t noticed much more than his body and my proximity to it. I took a minute to explore his room in the light of day.

It was a man’s room, hues of gray and blue running throughout. Signed baseballs and wooden bats were propped on shelves, photos of baseball legends scattered in the mix. There was a whole wall of photos of Luke’s old teams, from his T-ball team to the Shock. He was easy to spot in each team photo. That smile hadn’t changed from the time he was five.

When I got to his dresser on the wall across from his bed, I stopped. At first I thought the photo I was staring at was one of him as a baby. Same big hazel eyes, same honey hair, same smile. It was baby Luke.