Lucas Read online

She nodded frantically and reached up for my mom’s hand. “Come on Gram. Lexi needs her popcorn!”

  Considering that Lexi was made of plastic, it was actually Lily speak for “I need some popcorn.” My mom winked at me as she let Lily drag her from the room. “Have fun, honey.”

  “Thanks. I will.” I resisted the urge to fuss anymore and hurried up the stairs and out to the garage, knowing that if I kept picking, I’d never get out of the house.

  Ready or not, I was diving in.

  * * * *

  From the moment I pulled into the parking lot, I was on red alert, looking for Lucas. I’d never been on a blind date before, and even though I knew more about Lucas than as if he was a typical blind date, there were still a lot of question marks when it came to his identity. I’d only seen a couple of pictures of him. There was no telling when they’d been taken. And although we’d texted like crazy teenagers since exchanging numbers, we hadn’t had a chance to talk on the phone or do a video chat, so I didn’t know what his voice sounded like. I didn’t know how tall he was. Or what kind of style he had as far as clothing, haircut, or even something basic like if he wore reading glasses.

  I parked and kept my fingers wrapped around the steering wheel to keep them from shaking. All the nerves I’d been calming during the ride over, broke free from my control at once, and I rapidly dissolved into a pool of anxiety.

  I forced a long exhale and then sucked in a slow breath. “Okay, Isla, you got this. It’s all good. He’s a great guy. You’re gonna have a great time. And if not, that’s okay. He lives an hour away. You’ll never have to see him again. Nothing bad can happen…”

  My pep talk trailed off as I ran out of reassuring things to tell myself. I took another deep breath and then killed the engine.

  On my way to the front doors of the restaurant, I scanned the parking lot, but everyone my eyes landed on was already coupled up. My heart screeched to a halt when I saw a shadowy figure crossing the lot, but then burst back into a racing beat, when the man crossed in front of me and I realized he looked nothing like Lucas.

  “Good evening, miss,” a host opened the door for me and I smiled weakly as I stepped inside.

  At the hostess station, a middle aged woman dressed in all black smiled at me, and rooted my attention before I could dart a panicked look around the foyer. “Good evening. How many in your party?”

  “Uh—I—”

  “She’s with me,” a warm, honey smooth voice drawled over my shoulder. “The table’s under Lucas Sprigg.”

  I turned in a slow motion pirouette like a ballerina in a jewelry box. My stomach flip-flopped as I looked up and into the smiling face of Lucas.

  And if I thought his profile picture was devastating, it was nothing compared to the real, flesh and blood man standing before me.

  Well, technically above me. He had a good ten inches on my petite five foot two frame.

  “Hi,” I whispered.

  His smile widened, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. “Hi.”

  “Right this way,” the hostess interjected as I was mid-marveling.

  Lucas kept his eyes locked with mine for another heartbeat and then extended his arm to me. “Shall we?”

  I swallowed the frog in my throat and set my hand on the crook of his elbow. It was all incredibly sweet and chivalrous and I cursed myself for ruining such a potentially romantic moment with my own awkward stilted behavior. “Thank you.” I offered a smile up at him and we started after the hostess.

  She deposited us at a booth in the back of the restaurant where it was quiet and secluded. Lucas waited for me to take my seat before sliding into the seat across from me. He waited until after the hostess had handed over our menus and gave us her standard spiel before he looked back at me. “You look beautiful, Isla.”

  I shivered at the way my name sounded as it rolled from his perfect lips. “Thank you. You do too. Well…handsome…I mean.”

  God. I’m a trainwreck at this. I was way past the point of being rusty. I was fossilized.

  Lucas didn’t seem to mind. He smiled warmly and thanked me for the compliment. “I still can’t get over the fact that we only live an hour away.”

  “Yeah, this whole thing is kinda…crazy.” My cheeks warmed and I dropped my eyes to look at the menu lying on the table before me. I ran my fingertip down the spine of the hefty book-like binding. “How was the drive?”

  You’re really asking about traffic? I fought the urge to sigh at myself.

  “No problems. Smooth sailing.” Lucas paused as our server appeared. He was a stocky guy who looked like he spent a lot of time at the gym.

  “Good evening. I’m Guy, I’ll be taking care of you two tonight. Can I get you started with some drinks?”

  Lucas differed to me and I flung open my menu. As I was rapidly studying the drink menu, Lucas cut in to ask the server for a few minutes.

  “Sorry, I haven’t been here in a long time. I don’t remember what they have.”

  “You don’t have to apologize.” I met his eyes and he smiled. “I’m in no hurry, Isla. Trust me.”

  I returned his smile, wishing I could siphon off some of his easygoing manner to dial back my own frantic energy. “Right. Me, either.”

  “Okay, so take your time. Let me know what sounds good to you.”

  We took a few minutes to debate the menu and when Guy came back, Lucas delivered our order without missing a beat. I watched him as he ordered and memorized his features. He was clean shaven, which only made the line of his jaw appear sharper. His smile was easy and casual, the kind that put everyone around him at ease. But he had a commanding voice that went with his charming smile. He was polite but firm. His eyes got to me more than anything else. Whenever the ice blue orbs landed on me I was transfixed in his gaze, unable to think clearly. He had faint lines around his eyes, and I figured they were a side effect of spending a lot of time in the sun. His hair was a sandy brown in the pictures I’d seen, but it was shorter now and harder to see the exact shade, especially in the dimly lit restaurant.

  He finished ordering and Guy departed. Lucas’ gaze landed on me and all the air left my lungs.

  “This is a cool place,” he commented, dragging his eyes from mine long enough to scan the room. Something about the way he took it in, made me feel as though he hadn’t missed a detail. I took the opportunity to continue my visual tour of him. He had been a lot taller than I’d expected. Broader shouldered too. And my fingers were itching to wrap around his arm again—or at least get as much as I could, his muscles wider than my hand could fully grasp.

  Lucas was a powerhouse of muscle and brawn, wrapped in Southern charm.

  “Did the kids give you trouble for going on a date?” I asked before taking a sip of iced tea to distract myself before I got too worked up over the idea of what lay under his black button down shirt.

  Lucas chuckled softly and returned his attention to me. “God, I gotta say, that sounds weird.” He shook his head, smiling to himself. “I’m still getting used to this whole thing.”

  “Well, I guess technically I should have said your brothers and sisters. Not your kids.” I set my glass down and bobbed the lemon slice back under the amber liquid.

  Lucas shrugged. “It’s a unique situation. I’m not sure that I’ve even figured out the right terms. Most of the time I call them the posse.”

  I laughed. “That works.”

  “They don’t actually know I’m on a date. Only my oldest sister, Carrie, knows where I’m at. I tried dodging her questions but she can be…stubborn.” Lucas spread his hands on the table. Strong, capable hands that got my imaginations churning.

  “And she’s your full sibling?” I forced my eyes back to his, ignoring his hands.

  “Yeah. So, Carrie is my only full blooded sibling. She’s twenty-four, almost twenty-five. She doesn’t live with us, but she’s close by. Then, it’s Ben, he’s eighteen, almost nineteen, and just started college a couple of months ago. Then Spencer is sixteen
now. Emmie is fourteen. And Lottie—Charlotte—is eight going on twenty.”

  “Sounds like a handful,” I replied, laughing softly. “Lily just turned four.”

  “Lily,” he repeated. “You always use ‘L’ on the site, so I didn’t know her actual name…”

  “Oh! Right.” I nodded. “When I signed up, I guess I was a little paranoid. That’s why I didn’t post pictures of her either.”

  Lucas nodded. “Smart. Lily is a beautiful name.”

  “Thanks. It was my great-grandmother’s name. Her full name is Lily Anne. My great-grandmother, and then her daughter, my grandmother.”

  “That’s nice.” Lucas glanced down at the table and unrolled his silverware from the white linen napkin. “If I ever have my own kids, I’d like to do something like that. A tribute.”

  “Do you think you will? Have kids of your own someday?” The question popped out before I could filter it away as being too nosy.

  Lucas didn’t seem to mind. He put the napkin in his lap and returned those enchanting eyes to mine. “I hope so. I grew up with a big family, obviously, and I’d like that for myself someday. My friends Colton and Miles surprised me by flying up for Thanksgiving and Colton and his wife, Karena, they just had a little girl and man…that’s a cool thing.”

  Tears stung my eyes at Lucas’ answer. The look in his eyes hit me right in the chest. I’d always imagined having a big family and wanted Lily to have siblings more than anything. At some point over the past four years, I’d set that dream aside, just focusing on survival, but something about the way Lucas spoke made that dream stir ever so slightly from the depths of my heart.

  “What about you?” Lucas said, shifting his faraway gaze back to me. “You want more?”

  “I do. I guess I’m the opposite of you in some ways. I’m an only child, but my parents both have siblings, so there were always lots of cousins running around when I was growing up. I always wished I had what they had, you know? A big, loud, crazy family.” I smiled, the memory of those days warming through me. “It would be nice for Lily to have that too.”

  Lucas nodded and there was something shimmering in his eyes that told me he understood more than just my words.

  He understood my heart, and I decided that was the sexiest thing about the gorgeous man sitting across from me.

  Chapter Nine

  Lucas

  Isla was more than I’d imagined—or dreamed of—in so many ways. From the moment I saw her walk through the front doors of the restaurant, her auburn hair swinging behind her, her brown eyes wide and worried, the way she nervously scanned the room, I was shocked—damn near speechless by her.

  As our evening progressed, she continued to knock me over with her class, intelligence, and of course, her stunning beauty. Her nerves faded over the course of the meal as we talked about our families. I told her about Colton and Miles, and my time in the Army as a Ranger. She talked about Lily mostly, and a little bit about her jobs.

  The meal went by in the blink of an eye as we learned about each other. We each lingered over the final bites, as though neither of us wanted it to be over yet.

  “So, are you happy now? I mean, recruiting sounds like a pretty big…jump…from what you were doing in Georgia.”

  I hesitated, pushing around a stray broccoli floret on my plate. “It pays the bills and allows me to stay active duty, which is the most important thing.”

  Isla watched me over the rim of her iced tea glass. Her eyes narrowed for a moment and a hint of a smile played at her full lips as she set down the glass. “But are you happy?”

  I chuckled softly. She wasn’t going to let me off the hook. And I was glad. Her timid, nerve-riddled shyness was gone, and the sparks of energy that had taken its place, had me even more intrigued about the parts of her I still didn’t know. “Truthfully?” She nodded eagerly. “I hate it. If I’d wanted an office job, I would have gone to college and gotten a degree like most of my high school buddies. I hate computers and fax machines and spreadsheets.”

  Isla giggled. “Okay. There, was that so hard?”

  “What?”

  “Giving me the honest answer, instead of the perfect, polished answer.”

  She was still smiling, but there was a deeper, more rooted place that her statement came from, that had me worried. “I’m far from perfect, Isla. I assure you.”

  “Well, it’s hard to see that from where I’m sitting.” A beat of silence passed between us before a deep maroon shade flashed over her face, covering the perfect dusting of freckles on her nose and cheekbones. “I meant—you seem—”

  I laughed. “I know what you meant.” She dropped her eyes to her plate for a moment and I could see her furiously correcting herself. “I guess that’s partially from my training with the Army. There’s no point in complaining if you aren’t prepared with a solution. Same thing when I was growing up. I was always responsible for my sister, especially after our dad left. Our mother—” I hesitated, not wanting to dishonor my mother’s memory by painting her in a less than flattering light. “—she wasn’t around as much as she probably should have been. Then, when she remarried, and had four more kids, I became the big brother times five, and that was a lot of weight to carry. It became my role to hold everyone together and in check. There wasn’t a lot of time to sit around thinking poor me, I got the raw deal here.

  “And, that’s stuck with me. So, to answer the question, no, I don’t really like being a recruiter. I’d much rather be on the other side of the table. My role has always been out there. You know? Boots on the ground. Sitting in an air conditioned building while my guys are still out there fighting…” I shook my head and forced myself to take a breath. “It’s been a difficult adjustment.”

  Isla was solemn and nodded, her dark eyes boring into mine. “I get it. I mean, it’s going to sound silly—”

  “No, it won’t,” I interjected.

  “Well, I feel that way about dancing.” She paused and pushed her hair back. “Before Lily…I was a dancer with an indoor football team and on my way to becoming a dancer for the Miami Heat. That was always my dream. To dance for a pro team like that. But, turns out, no one really wants to watch a pregnant lady shake it on the floor.”

  She laughed at herself and I smiled. I wasn’t ready to argue with her, but there’s no way I wouldn’t want to watch her shake it.

  “Anyway, that ended that dream, a long, long time before I was ready to let go. And now, a lot of my friends have the life I was striving for and it can be tough to watch. So, in some ways, it’s the same as you. Granted, a lot more superficial.”

  “I don’t think it’s superficial, Isla. I don’t like when people think their passion isn’t as important as mine. Passion is passion. You don’t need to qualify it to me, okay?”

  “Okay.” Her brown eyes were sparkling in the soft light and I wanted to get lost in her for the rest of the night. I had no idea what time it was, but our meal was over, and unless we stayed for dessert, I would have to come to terms with the night ending a lot sooner than I’d wanted.

  I watched as she looked at the menu that Guy had dropped off casually at his last check-in. “Are you a dessert guy?” She asked, flipping over the laminated sheet to see the pictures of decadent looking treats on the other side.

  “Hell yeah!” I leaned forward and brushed my knuckles against her hand—not so unintentionally—as I read the descriptions she was perusing.

  * * * *

  “Wow, as amazing as that is, I don’t think I could eat one more bite…and that’s saying something for me. I can usually plow through a whole tray of brownies,” Isla confessed, leaning back in her seat after dropping her fork on the edge of the dessert plate.

  I arched a brow at her, silently calling her bluff. She was a little over five feet tall and probably half my weight. She was a curvy girl, and even in her loose dress, I knew she had a round ass and perfect boobs, that I knew, just from the few glances I’d dared, would be a perfect fit for my h
ands. She’d obviously bounced back to her athletic, dancer’s body after giving birth.

  She laughed at my expression. “Don’t believe me?”

  “Not for a second.”

  “Okay,” she nodded, her smile tinged with mischief. “We’ll have a throw down one of these days and see who can eat the most. I guarantee I’ll win.”

  “You got yourself a date.”

  She ducked her chin, a wide smile on her face. “All right.”

  I set my own fork down and retrieved the napkin from my lap. I put it aside and reached across the table to grab her hand that was resting around the stem of her water glass. “What if I said I wasn’t ready for this date to be over?”

  She let me take her hand, but there was a flicker of doubt behind her eyes. Before she could reply, Guy appeared, and handed me the bill after asking how the dessert went down. I settled the bill with him and he wished us a good evening. I stood first and waited for Isla before walking back towards the front of the restaurant. My hand found its way to her waist as we walked, coming to rest on the small of her back as we made our way outside.

  “Brr!” She shivered when the night air hit her skin. She was wearing a thin dress and wrapped her arms around herself to fight off the chill.

  “Come here,” I said gently. I pulled her against me and tucked her against my side. I hadn’t thought to wear a jacket over my long sleeve shirt and mentally kicked myself for not thinking to bring one for her to wear.

  That would have been suave as shit.

  “What time is it anyways?” Isla asked, reaching into her small purse that hung from her shoulder.

  I checked the silver watch on my right wrist. “It’s nine-thirty.”

  She giggled. “Is it sad that this is the latest I’ve been out, other than for work, since I had Lily?”

  “No judgments here,” I replied, laughing.

  Isla relaxed into me as we came to a stop on the edge of the curb that led into the parking lot. I looked down at her as she abandoned the search through her purse. She cast a glance around the parking lot and bit her lower lip.