Page 3 of Truly (Peachwood Falls #2)

L aina

His voice—playful and rich with a hint of mischief—sweeps across the room. It’s as if a fuse is extinguished, and my world has stopped careening toward the edge of a cliff. I breathe freely for the first time in days.

“Hey, Luke,” I say.

He scratches the top of his head, then runs his palm down the side of his cheek. His mouth opens, and he takes a breath like he’s going to speak. Instead, he chuckles.

Relief rolls off me in waves.

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting married today?” he asks, a teasing quirk at the corner of his mouth.

“I’m not sure what would give you that impression.”

He lifts a brow, keeping an eye on me while he picks his phone off the floor.

“I don’t know. Could be the wedding dress.

Might be your pictures and the word wedding splashed all over the news.

Then again, it could be all the assholes in fancy suits sitting around The Wet Whistle talking about the economy and not even having the courtesy to laugh at Tucker’s jokes.

” He tosses the phone on the table beneath the television. “You choose.”

“I’ll go with the assholes in fancy suits. But I didn’t invite them. They are here by invitation from the groom.”

“Speaking of the groom, why aren’t you with him again?”

My insides still as we watch each other.

Once upon a time, I could peer into those beautiful green eyes and know exactly what he was thinking.

And I wouldn’t dare look at him if I didn’t want him to read me like a book.

But his gaze now holds stories we don’t share, experiences I don’t understand, and wounds I didn’t heal. The difference cuts me to the quick.

Just as my heart races, he flashes me his crooked smile.

I sigh, fighting a smile of my own. “I kind of left him at the altar.”

“Ballsy way to start a marriage.”

“Yeah, it would be if we were starting one.”

He leans against the wall, and a faint smirk kisses his lips. “I have so many questions.”

“I bet you do.”

He holds my gaze for a moment and then stands tall. “Let’s start with the most important one.”

I brace myself, expecting him to ask why I left my wedding.

“Is anyone coming here looking for you?” he asks.

What ? “Why? Did you see someone?”

A sweaty palm falls to my chest in a futile attempt at discouraging a swell of panic from rising. In my failure to plan this adventure, it never occurred to me that I might be dragging Luke into an uncomfortable position. After all, he didn’t ask for this.

“I’m sorry,” I say, getting to my feet. “I shouldn’t have come here. I didn’t think?—”

“Sit down, Pumpkin.” His eyes twinkle. “You talk too much when you’re nervous.”

My chest burns, lingering on my nickname from when we were younger. I sit as requested and struggle to catch my breath.

“I don’t want to bring you into this,” I say.

“Looks like it’s a little too late for that.” He smirks. “You’re safe here. You know that.”

Every muscle relaxes, and I sink into the most uncomfortable couch in the universe.

But it doesn’t matter how many springs poke my butt.

It doesn’t matter if Luke can protect me—or if he should.

The only thing that matters is that he would try.

Even after all these years, he would still offer me refuge. I can count on him.

I grin. Just like I knew I could .

“Seriously, though,” he says, lifting a brow. “I imagine there’s a pissed-off movie star with a security team straight out of a combat zone searching Peachwood County for a runaway bride right about now. It’s not that I couldn’t take them. I’m just wondering if I need to call for reinforcements.”

I laugh. “If by reinforcements you mean Gavin, you might be better off on your own. I remember when Gavin played dead in the mud pits instead of helping you talk to the police about why we were out there past dark.”

Luke laughs, too, and disappears around the corner. “I haven’t thought about that in a long time.”

“I can’t think of Gavin and not think about it.”

“Serves him right to have that as his legacy. Little shit.” Ice clinks against a glass. “Back to the topic at hand. Does anyone know you’re here?” He pokes his head around the corner. “Why are you here, anyway?”

My throat goes dry, and I’m suddenly aware of every rise and fall of my chest. He watches me for the longest time, giving me a chance to answer. Finally, a shadow falls across his face, and he disappears again.

“Let’s back up,” he says, rounding the corner with two glasses of tea. “How the hell did you get in my house to start with?”

“Key in the boot.”

“How’d you know about that?”

I take the glass from him. “I’m the one who put the key in the boot the first time. I created that hiding spot. I just took a chance that you are a creature of habit and struck gold.”

“Damn. I probably oughta move that, huh?”

“Might not be a bad idea.” Especially if some of his other exes turn up out of the blue. Can’t say I love that idea. Strangely.

He sits on the chair across the coffee table and takes a drink. I wonder what he’s thinking with that glimmer in his eye, but I don’t ask. I’m not exactly in the driver’s seat.

The sun streams in the windows, filling the living room with a bright warmth that seeps into every corner.

This house has always had a tranquility about it.

Before Poppy passed away and we’d come here so Luke could help his grandfather in the barn, it was always so peaceful.

No matter the stress at home, or drama at school, or worries about whatever deal my father was trying to make on my behalf, it all melted away in this house.

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Luke says. “You’re not getting married and fled the scene. Then you showed up here, performed a felony to get into my house, and now … what?”

I smile sheepishly. “I kind of … don’t have a plan.”

“So you just tied me up in one of your shenanigans that will be one of the year's biggest scandals. Awesome.”

“Oh, don’t act like you don’t love a good shenanigan.”

“Not the point,” he says, grinning. “I also love a good tie-up, but that’s not the point either.”

My stomach muscles contract at the heat in his gaze. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Hey, it’s not bad for my ego that I was the only person you could think of when you were running from Tom fucking Waverly.”

I smirk. “I said I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. Not who else .”

“ Okay .” He rolls his eyes. “How many houses do you own again?”

“How did you say it? Not the point .”

We exchange a small smile that fills me with big emotions—namely, comfort.

Luke and I could’ve been a perfect match in another time and place.

I’ve replayed the day we broke up more times than I’ve replayed any other event of my life.

That moment impacted me more than any charity work, music award, or concert I’ve ever performed.

A sunny afternoon, Luke in black-and-yellow flannel, standing in his parents’ driveway.

Luke didn’t ask me to stay with him, and I didn’t ask him to go.

It’s haunted me ever since. But after each review, I’m left with the same conclusion: it ended the only way it could’ve.

I rest my glass on my dress as a lump rises in my throat.

“I can’t go to any of my homes. Tom’s team is crafting his image-saving statement as we speak, and it will not do me any favors.

The paparazzi will case my houses and the airport.

They’ll even dispatch reporters to places they think I might go. ”

“Where are you going to go?”

I gulp. “I don’t know. Maybe I could stay here?”

The words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them. Before I can think them through . My brain forms sentences and tells my lips to say them, to backtrack my word vomit and save face. But my heart, my stupid, stupid heart , blockades the effort.

My chest burns with anticipation as I watch Luke take a piece of gum from his pocket, put it into his mouth, and chew deliberately. His gaze holds mine with suspicion, fire, and something else I can’t quite name. The mixture feeds the pang in my chest.

“I think you staying here would be the worst idea you’ve ever had,” he says after a long pause. “And you’ve had some epically shitty ones.”

“Now you’re just being a dick.”

“Want me to rattle off a few? Fine,” he says before I can answer. “You bought a car from a man known as Lemonade Larry because all he sold was lemons.”

“Okay, but you tried to drag race a cop. That’s even dumber.”

“You tried to polar plunge in Peachwood Creek in a bikini and ended up falling on the ice and giving yourself a concussion.”

“Fine, but you ran butt naked through the middle of town to celebrate the football team going to the state finals and got blackmailed by a stranger who may or may not have had pictures of you performing the Electric Slide on Main Street in nothing but a jock strap.”

He narrows his eyes. “There was alcohol involved.”

I narrow mine right back. “Like that’s an excuse.”

Slowly, our lips curve into a smile, and before we know it, we’re laughing.

“Can I stay?” I ask.

“No. You’ll cramp my style.”

“You don’t have a style.”

He takes out another piece of gum and pops it into his mouth.

“I’ll pay rent,” I say as sweetly as possible.

“ Rent ? How long are you talking about? I have a life, you know.”

“I told you—I didn’t plan this out.”

“Clearly.” He gets to his feet and moves to the kitchen doorway. “I can’t take you seriously in that thing.”

“In what thing?”

His eyes scan the length of me. “It’s so … fluffy.”

“So?”

He shrugs. “I never pictured you in a fluffy wedding dress.”

“But you did picture me in one, just not like this?”

“Theoretically.”

Color flames my cheeks. “Well, I’d change, but I have nothing else to put on. Or my phone to call anyone. Or my credit card to order something.” I fall back into the cushions, wincing. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess.”

He exhales roughly and walks my way. His features are without the playfulness of a few minutes ago. He’s serious—sober—and my heart pounds.

Luke stops in front of me with his hands slung in his pockets. The sun kisses his short hair, highlighting how much darker it’s gotten since I last saw him. All I want to do is reach for him, have him pull me into his arms, and tell me it’ll all be okay.

But I don’t.

“I’ll tell you what,” he says, his voice low and gravelly. “I need to go to the barn for a little bit. I have a few things to do. Why don’t you go find something else to wear? We’ll talk when I get back, and you aren’t dressed like you’re getting ready to marry someone else.”

“I told you I don’t have anything.”

He turns before I can read his features and grabs his phone. “Well, you figured out how to break into my house. Pretty sure you can figure out how to break into my closet.”

Laughter falls from my lips as he disappears into the kitchen again. The sliding glass door that leads to the back of the house opens and then closes. That was easy .

This could’ve gone so differently. Luke could’ve been an asshole, and it would’ve been justified.

Maybe our breakup wasn’t contentious, but I am his ex-girlfriend.

Even though I haven’t seen a serious girlfriend or a wife on his social media, that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Without a woman in his life, he still could’ve been pissed that I waltzed into his house without so much as a hello.

Luke could’ve walked straight out the door after telling me to get out and I couldn’t have blamed him.

I grin. But he didn’t .

He was Luke, the easygoing, good-natured, gold-hearted man who would give you the shirt off his back. Or out of his closet. It’s no wonder I once loved this man .

The stillness descends upon me again almost immediately. This time, it doesn’t feel like it will swallow me whole. Instead, it’s almost a gift. It’s space for me to get my head together and figure out what to do.

I glance down at the fabric pooling all around me.

“First things first,” I say, setting my glass on the table. “Let’s get out of this thing.”

I head upstairs to Luke’s room.