Page 84 of Truly

Troy mutters something before shutting the door.

Luke spins me around to face him, holding my face in his hands. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“Wanna go inside?”

He chuckles.

“What?” I ask.

“We’re off to a good start.”

“Why is that?”

He kisses me gently. “Because you just asked me if I wanted to go inside my house like you’re the one who lives here.”

Hope blossoms in my chest, and I’m not scared to grab ahold of it.

“Because I do,” I say, tugging his hand. “Let’s go talk.”

He gives me his sweetest, most crooked smile and follows me into our house.

CHAPTER 26

Laina

“What the hell happened?”Luke asks, pouring us a glass of tea. I think it’s out of habit more than anything. “I was just gone for a couple of hours.”

I collapse in a chair at the table. I can feel the adrenaline ease, and the aftereffects make me shiver.

“I was just folding laundry and preparing my speech to give you when you got home,” I say. “And I heard a truck and thought it was you. Obviously, it wasn’t.”

He hands me a glass and then scoots his chair closer to me. As expected, he sets his tea on the table and doesn’t even take a drink.

“What kind of speech were you preparing?” he asks.

“I don’t know. It was kind of like the State of the Union but with fewer politics and more promise of sex.”

“You know, that’s a good analogy. Because whether you were going to fuck me over or promise me illicit things to get what you want, it works.”

I laugh.

He lays a hand on my thigh as if he can’t bear not touching me.

“I never want to do last night again,” I say, touching the side of his handsome face.

“Me either. I resorted to texting my siblings in the middle of the night just for a distraction. It was that bad.”

“You could’ve come to bed with me.”

“I know. But I thought you needed some space. I probably did, too.”

“This is so hard for me because it’s like looking in the mirror and seeing a huge zit on your forehead the day you have a date with your crush.”

“I better be the crush in this scenario.”

I giggle.And this is why I love you, Luke Marshall.

“You’re the crush in every scenario,” I say.