Page 81 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“Lucki!”

Someone shouted at her. From far at the end of a very long tunnel. The voice was familiar, yes, but she couldn’t quite distinguish....

“Lucki!”

Groggily, she turned over. Felt something stop her. And had to think about that a minute. Something was in her bed. Something large, hard, warm, and male.

“Lucki! I know you’re in there! Your truck is outside!”

Footsteps started down the upstairs hallway and toward her bedroom.

“Have you seen Sam? He’s not at home.”

Sam? Sam?

Lucki opened her eyes. Looked to her left. There he was. Sam. Zonked out beside her, his arms wrapped around one of her pillows, his mouth a little droopy, a soft snore filtering from his nose. Damn.

Sam. In her bed.

Oh, so cute when he sleeps!

God, they’d practically worn each other out all night.

Reality hit her.

The footsteps stopped outside the door.

She bounded up, taking a blanket with her.

“J.J.? Don’t come in! I’m getting dressed!”

“You’re late, you know that?”

Damnation! Lucki’s gaze swept the room. Damnation! She looked at her sleeping Sam. Oh God! J.J. couldn’t find him here like this!

Late? Late?

“Have you seen Sam, Lucki?”

he called through the door.

Yes, she’d seen him. All of him.

“Hold on, J.J., I’ll be right out.”

“Well, he was supposed to have picked me up from Spud’s early this morning so I could go with you to the park. It’s after nine. I guess he forgot and went on to the office. Spud’s mom dropped me off. You going into work today?”

Lucki stopped mid-motion. Work?

She glanced at the clock. Nine-thirty-two. Hell’s bells. It’s Wednesday! She was supposed to have been at work at eight!

“Yes! Hold on....”

Racing across the room, she grabbed panties...bra...t-shirt...shorts...socks...shoes.... And donned what she could.

Sam. Damn. She had to wake him.

The phone rang.

Oh, shit.

J.J. pounded on the door.

“Lucki are you coming? ‘Cause if you aren’t, me and Spud....”

“Hold on J.J!”

She picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Lucki? Kathleen here. Have you seen Sam this morning? He’s late for his nine-o’clock appointment. Hasn’t called in. Won’t answer his phone. I’m a little worried. Unlike him. Can you go check?”

Double Damn. Kathleen, the town gossip. Now the whole world will know. Have to handle this carefully.

“Kathleen. I’ll try. Call you back. Okay?”

Suddenly, she was out of breath.

“Lucki, you okay?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. Just in a hurry. I’ll call.”

“Okay honey. Just worried about him.”

“Don’t. He’s okay. He’ll call in a bit, I’m sure.”

She hung up the phone.

Sheesh....

She turned to Sam.

J.J. knocked on the door again.

“Lucki? What are you doing in there? Are you going to work or not ‘cause Spud and me....”

Lucki kneeled on the bed and stroked Sam’s cheek.

“In a minute!”

She leaned closer and whispered into his ear.

“Sam. Sam, darling, you have to get up.”

He mumbled something.

“Sam. You have to go to work.”

He turned over and mumbled something else.

“Sam.”

She said it louder this time and shook him.

He snorted.

“Sam. You have to get up!”

She was getting impatient.

“Kathleen called. J.J.’s outside my bedroom door. And I have to go to work. So do you. Sam. Wake up, dammit!”

Frustration bit at her.

He roused.

Looked at her.

Then smiling, reached up and pulled her down on top of him.

She let him. Couldn’t help it.

His kisses, so familiar now, took her by surprise, but literally melted her insides. His lips, soft, caressing, just about turned her into melted gelatin. She loved kissing him. Could kiss him all day. If only they didn’t have to go to work....

He flipped her then, rolling over on top of her, groaning. She groaned right along with him.

Finally, he broke the kiss, looked into her eyes, and ran his fingers through the hair at her temples.

“Good morning, lover,”

he said in the sexiest voice.

“Good morning to you,”

Lucki croaked.

He smiled and stared into her eyes.

Lucki smiled back.

“You’re dressed.”

“I know.”

“I like you better naked.”

“I’d rather be naked.”

“Then why are you dressed?”

“Because....”

J.J. pounded on the door again.

“Darn it, Lucki! What’s going on in there?”

Then the phone rang again.

Sam’s eyes grew large.

“I have to get that.”

“What the hell is going on here?”

Sam glanced at the door and sat up.

“Three ring circus. Feel lucky you’ve slept through part of it.”

She grinned and reached for the phone.

Then came pounding from downstairs.

“Lucki, someone’s at your door downstairs,”

J.J. called out.

Lucki lifted the phone to her ear and rolled her eyes at Sam. “Hello?”

Pinky blasted some incoherent sentences into her ear.

“Lucki! Want me to get that door downstairs?”

She lowered the phone. Sam started to reply to his brother. She stopped him with a hand over his mouth and a shake of her head.

“Yes, J.J., please do that, okay?”

Sam gave her a puzzled look.

She returned to a still ranting Pinky.

“Pinky, slow down. What’s wrong?”

“Where in the hell are you? We had a board meeting this morning!”

Oh hell.

“Overslept, Pink. I’m on my way. Thirty minutes. Did Rick go ballistic?”

“Rick always goes ballistic. Get your tail in here. Pronto. That’s not the half of it.”

Geez. When it rains....

“I’m leaving now.”

She replaced the receiver. Got up off the bed. Glanced nervously at Sam.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Lucki sat down on the floor to finish putting on her Nikes. She glanced back up at him.

“Okay, in a nutshell. It’s Wednesday. Both of us are supposed to be at work. J.J. came looking for you when you didn’t pick him up at Spud’s this morning. Kathleen called a few minutes ago, you missed your nine o’clock. That was Pinky on the phone. I missed a board meeting and Rick is furious. You need to get out of here before J.J. gets back upstairs. And I have no idea who is at the front door.”

He stared at her.

“C’mon, Sam. Get up! Get dressed! And get home before J.J. gets back up here.”

“Why do you want me out of here so quickly? I can leave after you leave with J.J.”

She thought about that.

“Maybe you should be home when J.J. goes back there, so he knows you are okay.”

“You just don’t want people to know we slept together last night, do you?”

His words stunned her. She blinked. Did she?

She did.

He was right. Not that she would admit that to him. She had barely admitted it to herself.

But she lied by saying.

“That’s ridiculous. I don’t think a twelve-year-old child needs to see his brother in his next-door neighbor’s bed.”

He pondered that.

“All right. I’ll agree with you there.”

She breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“So, get dressed okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.”

He took his old good time about it.

Long enough that she had time to ponder his statement. Hells bells. She didn’t want anyone to know they’d slept together last night. The whole town would know in a flash, and then everyone would consider them a couple, and wasn’t that really what she wanted? Was it?

What did she want? Sam?

Did it matter that everyone in Harbor Falls knew that they had made love?

Yes, of course it did. Because she knew this small town. And from the git-go they would start making plans.

Plans.

All sorts of plans.

For the two of them. The busybodies would have a heyday. Two of Harbor Falls own. Childhood friends. Oh, what they would do with this at church....

Oh, God. Did she want that?

Because, if all of Harbor Falls knew about she and Sam, then they would be an item.

And if they were an item, then everyone would assume they would get engaged.

And if they were engaged, then they would eventually get married.

And then….

But—

If Sam, The Heartbreaker, decided that all the plans were too confining, too much for him to handle, too constricting, and then decided to break her heart, then all of Harbor Falls would know that, too. And she would be the laughingstock. Or maybe, just the object of their pity for way too long.

She’d seen it happen with others. When Shelley Hart ran off with her sister’s fiance, poor Suzie Hart suffered from the towns-folks pity for months on end.

But it eventually turned out all right for Suzie, didn’t it?

Still, she had to keep this quiet for a while. Had to. Just for a while. Until she was certain. Until she knew that Sam was totally devoted. That he would not break her heart. That he loved her unconditionally, wanted to be her life-long partner and had mended all his heartbreaking ways for good.

She had to be sure that Sam wanted forever. Because she wanted forever.

Yes, she did.

With Sam now dressed, she turned to him and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

“See you later?”

she whispered. Her hand rested on the doorknob. Her heart thrummed despite herself.

She couldn’t help it. She loved him.

He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.

“That little peck won’t do, Lucki.”

He grinned and kissed her then. Fully. Passionately. Deeply. His mouth raking over hers. His tongue playing with hers. Wet. Sloppy. Juicy. And long.

Her hand slipped off the doorknob and she put her arms around his neck to pull him even closer.

She deepened the kiss.

The door creaked open. She didn’t care.

They finished their kiss.

Then turned toward the hallway.

J.J. and Kathleen stood there, mouths all agape, watching the entire kiss, she supposed, in surprised and utter silence.

Damn. Double damn.

****

Sam whistled as he stepped into his office and slapped down the last patient folder of the day. And a long day, it was. He’d managed to avoid the silent smirkings, the knowing evil little grins Kathleen had tossed him the remainder of the morning and the entire afternoon.

He hadn’t spoken a word to her about the morning’s incident. Not even at Lucki’s house.

Instead, he had excused himself with only a nod to Kathleen, a brotherly look to J.J., and a wink to Lucki. He watched Lucki’s eyes widen in embarrassment as he started down the hallway. He felt a little guilty leaving her to the explanations but figured she could handle it. No one thought on her feet better than Lucki.

Before long, he was back at his house, showering, and getting ready to leave for the office. He managed to avoid J.J. as his younger brother called good-bye to him through the shower curtain. He’d opted for a day of fishing with Spud instead of heading to Harbor Falls with Lucki. He figured that was probably best, he knew Lucki had her own dilemma to handle at work.

His patients would just have to understand. Sometimes, physicians have emergencies. And last night was definitely an emergency. He’d needed Lucki badly. He just might have exploded had he not made love to her when he did.

And Lucki, damn, he’d had no idea how wonderful a lover she could be. Attentive. Daring. Wanting him.

He wanted her. Forever. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind. First chance he got, he was going to explain that to her. Thoroughly. Right after he loved her until she was too weak to protest or give him any lip about it. Then once he had her commitment, there was no way he would ever let her back out of it.

Lucki Stevenson, the girl next door, was going to be his woman. His wife. And nothing, absolutely nothing in this world, could make him any more ecstatic. Nothing.

He’d finally realized what had been under his nose all along.

He loved Lucki.

Always had. Always will.

And that’s why none of those other women could ever keep his interest for long. None of those other women could ever compare to Lucki. His Lucki.

Why had it taken him so long to realize that?

“Still whistling, Doctor?”

Kathleen leaned against his doorjamb; her arms crossed over her over-large midriff.

“Whistling? Me?”

Sam grinned and returned to his desk. What the hell if Kathleen knew? She’d been a good friend the past few months, helping him get his practice up and going, running an efficient office.

“So, it looks like love on that face to me, Dr. Kirk.”

“It does, Kathleen? Tell me, what does love look like?”

“Just look in the mirror, Doctor. Or look at Lucki’s face next time you see her. When did all this happen, if I might ask?”

Sam glanced away from Kathleen and thought about that. When had all this come about? Thing was, he couldn’t exactly pinpoint it. He guessed it just had always been.

“Hard to say there, Kathleen. Hard to say.”

“So, when do we hear wedding bells?”

She grinned and winked at him.

“Wedding bells?”

“Yes. Wedding bells, Sam. I’m sure that’s been on your mind, hasn’t it? I mean, all these years, we’ve all just been waiting for you two to realize what we’ve known all along. You too were meant for each other. Now, when can I plan a wedding shower?”

“Wedding shower?”

Suddenly, Sam wasn’t sure Kathleen knowing this was a good idea. Lucki, he knew, would go berserk if she heard Kathleen talk like this. It was too new. Too fragile right now. He’d only had one night with her. And it had taken him forever to convince her that they belonged together. It had taken some planning to set that seduction scene the night before.

No, Kathleen had to back off. He had to stop her. Now. Before she ruined everything.

Before Lucki got wind of this and turned tail and ran.

“Look Kathleen. No wedding bells, okay? We’re not planning anything…”

Yet.

“No showers either. The timing isn’t right. Lucki and I have no plans.”

Yet.

“Lucki and I well, yes, we do share something a little more intimate than most friends…”

That’s an understatement.

“…but there will be no wedding bells.”

Yet.

“So please, don’t make any plans, okay?”

He really wasn’t good at lying under his breath.

“But you are getting married, right?”

Damn. She could ruin everything if she took this and ran with it.

“No, Kathleen. Lucki and I have no plans for marriage.”

Not yet, at least.

“But if we do, I promise you Kathleen, you will be the first to know to spread the word.”

Sam crossed his fingers behind his back. He hoped Kathleen would cool off, forget this conversation, and let everything die down for a while. He needed more time with Lucki. Lots more time to convince her she was meant for him, that he was meant for her. That he would love her until the end of time. That they would be a wonderful team together. And that someday, they would be excellent parents together.

Suddenly, the thought of he and Lucki being parents made him feel extremely satisfied. Was this what he’d been looking for all his adult life? Memphis had never satisfied him. The practice there was lucrative, however a bit stifling. Here, in Harbor Falls, he’d felt so much more at home. Much more relaxed. Suddenly, he realized that he needed Lucki to complete that picture. He needed Lucki in his life, in his bed, and needed her bearing his children to make his life worth living.

All is right with the world, he thought.

All is definitely right with the world.