Page 22 of Truly (Peachwood Falls #2)

L aina

“What in the almighty is happening?” Maggie Marshall clutches her chest, her jaw hanging on the floor. “Laina Kelley. Is that you, honey?”

I shrug, giggling. “It’s me. Ta-da!”

“What? Luke ? What the … Oh, the hell with it.” She rushes toward me with her arms spread wide. “Get over here and hug an old woman, will ya?”

Luke laughs as Maggie all but envelops me in her arms.

“Lonnie, get in here,” she shouts, nearly taking out my eardrums. “We have company!”

“It is so good to see you, sweetheart,” she says, pulling away. Her eyes are the same color as Luke’s. “Let me get a look at you. You’re just as pretty as a picture.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Maggie. How have you been?”

“I’ve been wonderful. Kate moved back, Chase got married, and you are here.” She laughs in disbelief. “Why didn’t someone tell me you were still in town?”

My stomach twists, and I look at Luke. I’m not sure what to say. Do I bring up the wedding fiasco? Or do we slide over it and pretend it didn’t happen? This would’ve been a great thing to consider before we were in the moment.

“No,” Maggie says, smacking my arms. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” I ask, my nerves bouncing around like kangaroos.

She glances at Luke, then at me. “I’m going to take the blanket off the baby. Or I should really say take the veil off the bride .” She waits for a reaction, but I’m unsure what to give her. “It’s a joke. I was kidding.”

“Too soon, Mom. Too soon,” Luke says.

“Anyway,” Maggie says, “all joking aside, we’re not going to dance around what happened. You were supposed to get married. You didn’t. It happens to a lot of people. Now let’s move on.”

My shoulders sag. I’m so relieved that I could cry.

“What are you hollerin’ about in here?” Lonnie asks, coming into the room. He stops in his tracks when he sees me. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

“Hi, Lonnie,” I say, grinning.

He comes to me and pulls me in for a one-arm hug. “How have you been, sweetheart?”

“I’m good. What about you?”

“Oh, I’m doing about the same as I always am. Taking orders from Maggie and Kate and shoving off what I can on my boys.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Luke mumbles.

Maggie rolls her eyes. “I’m embarrassed that I made a meatloaf for dinner.”

“Why would that embarrass you?” I ask.

“Because you’re here. I need to woo you so you come back more often.” She motions for me to follow her. “Now, come in here and help me mash these potatoes.”

My heart is so full it nearly overflows.

It feels so good to be among these people and treated like any other person in the world.

I’m instructed to mash the potatoes and corrected when I don’t add enough salt.

I’m quizzed not on which celebrities I’ve seen lately or about the songs on my albums but on if I take vitamins and what books I’ve read.

Refreshing doesn’t begin to cut it. This is … wholesome. There’s no guilt for hurting their son. No anger for not calling. No snide comments to make me feel like a jerk. All that’s here is love and forgiveness. It’s family.

It’s a home.

“Rinse that hand mixer off and put it in that drawer over there,” Maggie says, pointing across the kitchen.

“Careful,” Luke says. “She’ll go through every drawer in here.”

“Oh, I will not. I only go through your drawers,” I say, smiling at him.

“You didn’t find my new set of lures, did ya?” Lonnie asks.

Luke groans. “I told you I didn’t take them.”

“Then who did?”

“Not me, Dad. Probably that little shit of a granddaughter,” Luke says, grinning.

“I’m telling Kennedy you said that,” Maggie says, shoving spoons into the potatoes and green beans. “Gavin will be her favorite uncle. You know how much you hate battling back into first place.”

I laugh. “What are you talking about?”

“Guys, come fix your plates,” Maggie says before turning to me.

“Gavin and Luke have a little competition going with Kennedy. It’s been going since she was old enough to know how to manipulate them.

Poor boys. Anyway, she keeps a leaderboard of which uncle is her favorite.

Gavin and Luke always try to stay on top. ”

“Oh,” I say. “I see.”

“Here.” Maggie shoves a plate in my hand. “Eat up. I’m sorry that it’s just meatloaf.”

“Maggie, I haven’t had a home-cooked meal like this in forever.”

Luke’s hand slips across my lower back as he passes by. Goose bumps break out across my skin.

“If you need a home-cooked meal, just call me,” she says, pouring us all a glass of tea and taking it to the table. “I used to send Kate food all the time. I’m a pro. Send me a menu and I’ll have it to you the next morning.”

“She spoils those kids rotten,” Lonnie whispers loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Not me,” Luke says, putting potatoes on my plate and then his. “I’m the middle child. I get overlooked.”

Maggie sighs. “Now that’s an outright lie. Anytime I try to ignore you, you borrow my car and don’t bring it back, so I have to call. Or you fill my washing machine with your laundry and forget to start it. Or you?—”

“We get the picture, Mother,” Luke says. “You love my brothers more than me. Got it.”

I smile at Maggie as we make our way to the table. She shakes her head at Luke.

“Why do you do this to me?” she asks him. “Why do you make me think you just might really believe that, so I’ll worry about it when I go to bed tonight?”

“I’m sorry,” Luke says as the four of us settle at the table. “I didn’t know you stayed up worrying like that. I’ll make sure you know I’m kidding before I leave or hang up. Promise.”

“Or just don’t drive me crazy on purpose.”

“Unlikely.”

We eat quietly, enjoying each other’s presence and the delicious food. I compliment Maggie on her cooking. She beams. I wish it were that easy to make everyone happy.

“Luke, what’s on the side of your head?” Lonnie asks. “Bend over here. Is that mud?”

I press my lips together and refuse to make eye contact with Luke.

“It’s nothing,” Luke says, his face heating before our eyes.

“Yeah, it is. Hold still.” Lonnie plucks a chunk of chocolate icing from Luke’s hair. “What is this? Candy?”

He chokes on a green bean. “Yeah, Dad. It’s candy.”

“How do you get candy in your hair?” Maggie asks, shaking her head. “You never cease to amaze me, Lucas.”

“He never ceases to amaze me either,” I say.

I look at him at the exact moment he looks at me. He’d be balls deep inside me if we weren’t at his parents’ kitchen table and they weren’t sitting beside us. There is no doubt.

“How are your parents, Laina?” Lonnie asks.

I clear my throat. “They’re doing well.”

“Where are they living these days?”

“Los Angeles. They moved out there two or three years ago, I think.”

Maggie slices her meatloaf. “Please tell them we asked about them.”

Lonnie chews slowly, his brows tugged together like Luke’s when he’s thinking.

I set my fork down. “I’m going to be honest with you. I very rarely talk to my parents. I haven’t been to their home in LA, and they didn’t see me for the holidays last year.”

Maggie sets her fork down, too. “Oh, honey. Why not?”

“Because they’re assholes,” Luke says, firing his father a look I can’t quite read.

“ But she’s their child ,” Maggie says to her son. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

I know this must be unbelievable to Maggie and Lonnie, two people who love their children more than their own lives. They must think there’s something wrong with me not having a relationship with my parents. But it’s the truth, and I don’t want to hide it from them.

I’m tired of hiding from the things that make me uncomfortable.

Luke reaches for my hand under the table, squeezing it tightly.

“So,” Maggie says, reading the room. “How did the two of you see one another again?”

“Laina needed a place to stay away from the paparazzi, and my house was the perfect answer,” Luke says.

I smile at him. Thank you for not telling them I broke into your house without asking you first.

He winks at me.

“Well, I, for one, am glad you are here,” Lonnie says. “We’ve missed you. I know Luke has missed you. He was devastated when he came back from seeing you in Cleveland.”

Seeing me in Cleveland ?

Luke’s face pales.

“I’m sorry,” I say, focusing on Lonnie. “When Luke visited me in Cleveland?”

“Does anyone need more potatoes?” Maggie asks. “Or tea? I’m getting up and can bring it back.”

No one says a word.

Lonnie stabs a chunk of meatloaf and lifts his gaze to mine. “Yeah. Right after you left that last time. Luke got a ticket to see you in Cleveland, and then you guys broke up for good.”

Luke didn’t visit me in Cleveland. What’s he talking about?

I would chalk it up to Lonnie having misunderstood a story or mixing up something that happened with one of his other children with Luke. But the guilt on Luke’s face makes it clear.

He came to see me in Cleveland?

A million questions roll through my mind, and I try to sort them while conversing with Maggie.

“Right after you left the last time. Luke got a ticket to see you in Cleveland, and then you guys broke up for good.”

That’s not what happened. That’s not close to what happened, so why would Luke tell them that?

He slides his hand from mine and places it on his lap.

I couldn’t come home, and he didn’t return my calls. That’s what happened. Unless …

Unless he did go to Cleveland.

I smile politely at Maggie as she sits with her tea, launching into a how-to on making lasagna. Where did this come from? Did I miss something? I want to tell her I don’t care how to make anything right now. I want to know why Luke is lying.

There could be a reasonable explanation for it. Maybe he told his parents he was coming to see me, and he and Gavin went partying instead. But Lonnie was so sure. And Luke won’t even look at me.

What am I missing?

“Does anyone want dessert?” Maggie asks, getting up to make her and Lonnie a cup of coffee. “Had I known you were coming, Laina, I would’ve made you a cheesecake. Do you still like those? With the chocolate on top?”

“How did you remember that?” I ask, grinning.

“You were here for years. A mother remembers.”

The good ones do, Maggie. Not mine.

“I have brownies I can heat with ice cream,” she says. “Or if you want to stay a little while, I’ll whip up some chocolate chip cookies.”

Luke finally looks at me. He shifts in his seat like he can’t sit still. This time, it’s not because he wants to devour me. This time, I think he wants to avoid me.

I’m not sure whether to be angry or nervous. It’s the worst position to be in—there’s no way to prepare. My body falls back into what it knows about situations like this and starts building a shield around my heart to protect it.

I hate it. I don’t want to feel like this with Luke. I want the open, vulnerable, honest relationship we share. I want the chocolate cake and old sheets, the cuddles in the middle of the night, the horse barn antics during the day.

I don’t want secrets, and I especially don’t want secrets that make me feel like the odd man out.

“We’re gonna go, I think,” Luke says.

I stand and collect my dishes. “Let me stay and help you clean up.”

“No, absolutely not,” Maggie says. “I’ll make Lonnie help me load the dishwasher.”

He gives us an unenthusiastic thumbs-up. Despite my mood, I can’t help but laugh.

“Are you sure?” I ask. “It’s so rude to leave a house with dirty dishes.”

“Go.” She pulls me in for a quick hug. “And don’t be a stranger. You’re always welcome, of course, but if you can give me a heads-up next time, I’ll make you something good.”

“Dinner was great,” I say. “Thank you for having me.”

“Good night, Mom. Night, Dad,” Luke says.

“Good night, son. Love you,” Lonnie says. “It was good to see you, Laina.”

“It was good to see you, too. Good night.”

My insides twist so tightly that I think I might hurl as we step into the night.