Chapter 8
Luca
“You are going to raise eyebrows,” Theo said.
Ever since I moved in, people had introduced me to their nephews, their sons, their brothers. They weren’t too pushy about it. After one introduction, they seemed to settle on the fact that sparks didn’t fly, and nothing further came of it—which was nice. But in all my time here, I hadn’t been on a date. Now I was going on a date with the other brand-new person in town.
As much as I didn’t love people talking about me, I recognized that it wasn’t malicious. Once the town found out Raphael had asked me on a date, it seemed that everyone was buzzing with excitement about it. It had only been thirty-six hours since he left my house after resting from his injuries.
“Okay, you’re going to have to dish all the details,” Theo said. He sat on my bed while I picked out my outfit for the night. I didn’t have a ton to choose from. In fact, he had brought over a few dress shirts as options.
“There’s nothing to dish,” I said.
“Oh, there will be afterwards. And I got a sneak peek at that hunky drink of water that you landed. If you hadn’t called dibs, I’d have been all over that.”
I chuckled. “Dibs? I hardly called dibs.”
“That’s not what Tyler said,” Theo sing-songed while he rocked on the bed, making silly faces.
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so how’s this look?” I wore a pair of dark skinny jeans with a kelly-green button-down. My leather ankle boots that I only pulled out for special occasions rounded out the outfit.
Theo gave me his nod of approval. “Undo the top button and play with your collar throughout the night. It’ll draw attention to your neck. That drives guys like Raphael crazy.”
“You haven’t even met him.”
“Well, it just drives guys crazy. You know how alphas are.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll take that into consideration.”
The doorbell rang, and Theo launched himself out of my room and was down the hall faster than I could stop him.
I eyed the mess that was my bed and closet and decided I’d have to deal with that later. The last thing I wanted to do was leave Theo alone with Raphael.
“Well, hello there,” Theo said when he opened the door.
“Hi,” came Raphael’s confused voice.
“Luca will just be a few minutes.”
“I’m ready right now,” I said, coming to Theo’s side.
Theo rolled his eyes. “You’re supposed to make them wait to prove that they can be patient. They have to work for it.”
Raphael chuckled. “I feel as if I have already waited an eternity for this. I will not mind another few minutes if you need it.”
From behind his back, he pulled a bouquet of flowers. As I reached out to grab them, he grasped my hand and kissed the back of it. A shiver ran down my spine.
“Thanks,” I said. My voice came out breathless.
Theo fanned his face. “Oh, boy. Details later. You have to give them.” He pushed his way past Raphael. “Have fun, you two! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
Raphael raised a brow as he looked at me. “I have a feeling that really doesn’t limit any of our options.”
“It really doesn’t.”
He chuckled and lifted an arm. “Shall we?”
“Yeah. Where do we plan on going?”
“Outside of town. I thought it might be nice to check out that Italian place over in Alma.”
I let out a long breath. “Thank goodness. If we went to dinner here, everybody would be watching. Don’t get me wrong—I love the food here, but we’d be under a microscope.”
“That was what I suspected. And as much as I love this town, I would like time with just you.”
I smiled. “I’d like that.” I continued to hold on to him, and I couldn’t resist leaning into him. The scent of him wrapped around me like a warm hug. I had the oddest urge to bury my face against his chest.
Raphael wore a long-sleeve shirt. He tugged his sleeves down his arms.
“Oh, goodness, I didn’t even think about your burns! Are you—how are your hands so healed?” I grabbed his hand and inspected it, careful not to touch him too harshly. But it was amazing, as if no burn had ever occurred. The skin was smooth and unblemished, not a blister of burn anywhere.
“I’m a quick healer,” he said.
“Quick? Raphael, this is insanity. This—this defies logic.” I turned his hand over as if that was going to give me answers.
“I don’t think the burns were as bad as they looked. Once they got cleaned up, it was mostly just blisters.”
I was about to argue—after all, his reasoning was insane. Blisters took weeks to heal, no matter how bad they were. Anyone who’d had an irritation blister on their heel knew that. Plus, I was there, I saw him and tended to his burns right after they happened.
Still, when he laced his fingers into mine and his eyes on me, I melted. I couldn’t put any more effort toward it.
“Shall we?” he said.
“Let’s.” My voice came out breathless and heady. Thank goodness I wasn’t playing hard to get, because I would fail.
The conversation flowed easily on the drive to the restaurant. Raphael told me about his brothers, about growing up with the two of them. Meanwhile, I filled him in on some of the quirkier things I’d seen in town—including the reported sightings of many large animals, mostly bears and wolves.
“That’s crazy,” he said. “There weren’t many bears where I came from.”
“Me neither. I haven’t seen any, but I’ve heard them when I am sitting on my deck at night. And there are always huge paw prints in the park. It’s crazy how close to town they get. Tyler has assured me there’s never been any attacks or anything though, so it’s safe.”
“What made you move from the big city to a small town?” Raphael asked.
“I love my job as a paramedic. I really do. I love being able to help, to be with people in their most hectic moments and be that level of calm. But the city was just burning me out too fast. Every shift was one tragedy after the next, and I needed a slower pace.”
“That makes sense.”
“Here, I can get to know the people that I’ll be working with, which lends itself to its own dangers. It’s very likely I will come upon an accident someday and know the people in the car. And that’s never easy.”
“I was called to a fire once. A friend I grew up with—his parents...”
My heart twisted for him. I couldn’t imagine such a thing. I reached my hand over and grasped his. “That must have been awful.”
“It was,” he said. “Thankfully I was living close to my brothers at the time. They helped to ground me and encouraged me to talk to the department therapist. It helped.”
“I’m glad.”
We reached the restaurant, and Raphael parked. He was out of the truck and jogging around to my door before I could open it. I let him open it for me and help me out.
The restaurant was a charming little place, and the fresh scent of basil and tomato sauce wafted through the air.
“I’m never going to be able to pick a meal,” I said.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had good Italian, but I’m willing to share if you are.” The fire in his eyes as he looked down at me sent a jolt through me. Every time I looked at him it made my skin tingle, and I had the oddest desire to get as close to him as possible—with no clothing between us. I’d never been so drawn to an alpha before, and my gut told me this was right. I wasn’t going to question it.
“That sounds great.”