Page 30 of Searching for Sadie (Mystic Falls #5)

LUCAS

E ver since Lucas had watched the latest episode of Before First Sight, he'd been filled with so much rage.

He'd been texting Sadie. but got nothing back.

Finally, he went and knocked on her door, but still nothing.

He was worried about her, so when Liam called him and told him other people were worried about her and he wanted to talk to her since he might know what she was going through, he decided to make that happen.

He still had a key to her house. And while letting himself in might have crossed a line, he just needed to make sure she was okay.

When he'd seen her standing in the hallway looking the way she did it almost broke his heart. He wanted to punch that guy all over again and he wasn’t a violent person.

When she'd looked up at him with tears in her eyes for the second time now, fuck.

He needed to make it right, but he was so far out of his depth knowing how to help her through this. Hopefully Liam would be able to help.

He was sitting down at his table trying to find something to distract himself when a small knock sounded at his front door. The urge to run to the door and fling it open was strong, but he collected himself.

When he opened the door he found Sadie in cute little shorts, her wet hair piled on her head, wearing his Mystic Falls Hockey t-shirt. He thought he'd been falling for her ever since their Ferris wheel ride at the carnival, but he knew now he was already in deep. He loved her.

"Hey Songbird," he said leaning against the frame.

"Can I come in?"

He stood back and opened the door. As she walked by, the scent of coconuts hit him.

He wanted to wrap her up in his arms. When she turned to look at him the tremble of her bottom lip almost broke his heart.

He opened his arms, and she came right to him pressing her face to his chest as she cried. She clung to him as he rubbed her back.

Finally, she took a deep breath and pulled back to look up at him. He wiped the tears from her face before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"What do you need?"

"Do you just want to watch silly TV and order a pizza?" she asked.

"Yes," he said without giving it a second thought. "I would love that."

He led her downstairs as they got comfortable. He wrapped them up in a blanket and handed her the remote. And next thing he knew they were watching the show while she was wrapped up resting her head on his chest. He managed to get his phone out of his pocket ready to get the pizza.

"Toppings?" he asked.

"I'm easy," she said with a shrug.

He wagged his eyebrow. "Stop it," she said as she batted his chest and laughed. He didn't know how much he needed to hear her laugh until he felt that shift.

"But for real, what do you want?"

"I'm good with any toppings, but can we get cheesy breadsticks?"

"Okay," he said as he ordered pizza. "I got a pepperoni, a supreme, and a buffalo chicken pizza, and some breadsticks. Oh, and some garlic cheesy bread."

She sat up and looked at him grinning. "Are like eight more people coming over?" she chuckled.

"Hey, you're the one who wouldn't tell me what you wanted. I need to make sure all my bases are covered."

"I thought we already covered all the bases," she said with a smirk. And with that he relaxed a bit more. She was going to be okay.

"All the bases," he confirmed and bent his head to kiss her.

They went back to paying attention to the show, but he had to ask, "How are you doing?"

"Shitty... but better."

"That guy is a blind douchebag. You know that right?"

"I know..."

She nodded as her expression dimmed. He would let it go, but he just had to let her know he didn't think that way. He cupped her chin and held her gaze. "I think you're incredible. Inside and out... don't let some finance bro make you feel bad."

"He's in marketing."

"And I could still kick his ass," he said in his deep voice.

"I know you could," she said with a smile that scrunched her nose in the cutest way possible.

"And I'm not upset that he found me unattractive. I mean it sucks that he was an asshole, but I could have moved on from it. It’s just now it's playing out in front of millions of viewers, and I think that's that part that is the most upsetting. Talking to Liam helped though."

"Good, I'm glad," he said as she snuggled back into him, and they got back to the show.

It would appear they were watching some home and garden shows.

He could get behind that, he'd renovated his house almost completely since he moved in.

Working in construction gave him a little behind the scenes in these shows, so he was able to see when it was more Hollywood than reality, but they were still fun, nonetheless.

"Getting ideas for you house?" he asked.

Sadie just shrugged. "I don't know. I haven’t gotten around to it yet."

"I noticed you hadn't changed much... I just thought an overabundance of flowers was your aesthetic."

"Very funny," she said, raising an eyebrow at his snark. He couldn't seem to stop himself when he was around her, giving her shit was becoming one of his favorite things. "It just feels wrong to change anything."

"Is that why you’re sleeping in one of the smaller rooms?"

Sadie raised her head peering up at him with her plump lip trapped between her teeth and nodded. "It's weird. I just kind of feel like I'm a visitor, even though technically it's my house."

Her gaze left his and fell to the blanket covering them, her fingers traced over the soft gray fabric as she continued. "When I came here, I didn't know what I was doing, just that I was doing it far away from Nashville. I didn't plan on staying here. I didn't really have any plans."

Lucas furrowed his brow as he pulled her closer. The idea that she was only here temporarily settled like a bolder in his stomach. He didn’t want her to leave. Ever.

"But the more time I spend here, the more I think maybe I could actually stay here.

I mean, Liam James just asked me over to hear some songs I've been working on.

Nothing that amazing to my career has ever happened in Nashville and I was there for years.

Plus, I've made friends with the girls, and you. "

The way his heart nearly soared right out of his chest at the mention of him was laughable. He really did have it bad. "Me, huh?" he said with a wag of his eyebrows.

"Don't make it weird, but yes, Lucas, I like you if you haven't figured it out yet."

She liked him. He fought the urge to pump his fist into the air and whoop with joy, because that would definitely be weird, but the urge was for sure there.

After a moment she turned her head over so slightly as looked at him out of the corner of her eye before scrunching up her brow and turning back to the tv. Even though she was so fucking cute with her brow scrunched like that, he didn't want her to doubt how he felt for a second.

"I like you too, Songbird. Just so you know," he said as he turned her face to his. "I'm not really sure what the rules are here with everything you're going through, so I'm kinda following your lead, but make no mistake, I have plans for you."

She turned to him again as the renovation show played forgotten on their screen. "Plans you say?"

"So many plans," he said as he tucked a lock of hair that had escaped the messy bun on her head behind her ear.

"What kind of plans?"

"Well, I can't tell you that now, can I?"

"Umm... you could."

"And what fun would that be?"

Her brow scrunched at him again in mock disapproval, and damn, he'd never loved giving anyone shit more than he loved giving her shit. He lowered his head to kiss her, but to his pleasant surprise she closed the distance and kissed him first.

His hand came up and gently cradled her jaw as he sipped at her mouth.

The softest little moan left her mouth as she opened to him.

Part of him wanted to devour her right her on this couch, starting with her mouth but continuing until he devoured her pretty little pussy.

But it wasn't time for that. No right now, he was going to kiss her and get lost in the sweetness and emotion of it all, and he found he was enjoying that even more than he thought he would.

He'd never wanted to cherish anyone quite like this before.

Yes, he wanted to make sure she was okay, and he wasn't taking advantage of the situation, but there was more to it than that. The feelings he had for her were deeper than any he'd ever had before. His arm slid around her holding her close as they shared this tender kiss.

They were interrupted by a knock at the door. Breaking the kiss, he pressed his forehead to hers. "Hold that thought," he said when he went up to get the pizza.

When he came back down the stairs holding entirely too many boxes of pizza for the two of them, he stopped and put them on the bar. "Do you want a beer, soda, water?"

"A beer sounds fantastic," she said.

He snagged a couple beers from the fridge behind the bar and some napkins and headed over to the table with the pizza before setting up the feast.

"Wow, you're going to be eating pizza for days," she said.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

She looked up at him and smiled, but this time her smile didn't really reach her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I was just checking my phone."

He nodded and came and sat next to her. Social media wasn't really something he paid much attention to.

He had some and occasionally looked at pictures of his niece and nephews, and he ran his work page, but that was about it.

But he also didn't live under a rock, he knew that space was probably not being particularly friendly to her.

"You know not to read the comments, right?" he asked as she sat down and popped open the pizza boxes.