Page 8 of Truly (Peachwood Falls #2)

L uke

“It’s me!” Gavin shouts from the entryway moments before Laina and I come around the corner. “Wow. She really is here.”

Laina giggles and runs toward my brother. He thrusts a pizza at me and drops a few bags to the floor just in time to catch Laina in a huge hug.

“Sure. Leave me here holding the pizza,” I mumble.

Gavin looks at me over Laina’s shoulder and winks.

“My gosh, Gavin,” she says, pulling away from him. “It’s so good to see you.”

“I’m as handsome as ever, right?”

She laughs, her cheeks rosy. “How are you? What have you been up to?”

“Oh, the regular. Working at Steele’s Farm during the day and The Wet Whistle some nights for shits and giggles.”

“Sounds downright delightful,” Laina says. “Are you seeing anyone? Married? Kids?”

“Guess you haven’t been following him online,” I say under my breath.

She hears me and casts me a smile.

“Me?” Gavin asks. “Hell, no. Kids are a hard limit. I remember what a pain in the ass I was growing up, and I have absolutely no interest in offering the universe a chance to pay me back.”

“Fair,” she says.

“And no lady friend at the moment. I’m kinda enjoying my freedom.”

Laina crosses her arms over her chest. “Trust me. Be careful in relationships because, before you know it, you can be standing in a church about to get married and realize it’s the worst thing you could ever do.”

Gavin makes a face. “Yeah. That’s a hard no from me.” He bends down and picks up the bags. “I came bearing gifts.”

“Ooh, you did?” Laina asks.

“Luke asked me to round up a few things for you, so I worked some magic.”

She looks over her shoulder and gives me a soft grin. It hits me square in the heart. Oof .

“I have a couple of shirts and shorts, courtesy of Kennedy, who now thinks I have a woman trapped in my house or something.” He shakes his head. “I told her she was sick and couldn’t go home, and she just kind of smirked at me.” He looks at me. “How does she do that?”

“Because she’s us, Gav.”

He snorts. “Poor Chase. Anyway, I also brought you a prepaid cell phone.” He hands a box to Laina.

“You’ll have to activate it. All the stuff is in this bag.

And I also didn’t ask for this, but Kennedy sent shampoo and face wash and stuff.

Apparently, she thinks I’m a heathen and have no toiletries. ”

“Do you?” I ask.

“Hell, no.”

We all laugh.

It’s so nice to stand here with the two of them, talking about stupid shit. Gavin and I see each other just about every day at some point, but it’s different tonight.

I take in Laina and observe her interaction with my brother.

Or maybe she’s just the difference .

“This was so sweet of you, Gavin,” Laina says, grinning at me. “And you, too, Luke.”

“Hey, he might’ve requested this stuff, but I’m the one who did the dirty work,” Gavin says. “I even went to town and battled the crowds from the wedding ….” He stops and frowns. “Shit. Sorry.”

Laina shakes her head. “It’s fine. Don’t be sorry.”

Gavin doesn’t look convinced but moves along anyway. “I got you snacks and juice boxes.” He pulls a bundle of cherry-flavored children’s drinks from a bag. “Ta-da!”

“I haven’t had one of these in forever,” she says, taking the package from him. “How did you think of this?”

“That one is all me. You know how you associate people with odd things? Or maybe it’s just me that does it,” Gavin says.

“No, I do it, too,” Laina says.

“Me, too,” I say. “I can’t think of Mallet and not think of that pink bubble gum that he always chewed. He’d stick it under the table before dinner until Mom caught on and about killed him.”

Gavin laughs. “I associate Laina with cherry drinks because that one summer we mixed the hell out of that shit with vodka. Do you guys remember that? We’d get the alcohol, and Laina would get the juice or whatever that stuff actually is.”

She catches my eye, and we exchange a look.

How could I forget that summer ? Skinny-dipping at the lake.

Driving around for hours with her next to me while listening to classic rock.

Getting hamburgers from The Wet Whistle and driving out into one of Cotton’s fields to talk until the stars came out.

It was one of the best summers of my life.

“And I brought you guys dinner,” he says, nodding toward the pizza in my hand. “I figured you’d had enough for the day and just wanted to relax.”

I smile at my brother.

“You are the best, Gavin,” Laina says, giving him a quick hug. “Thank you for going out of your way to do all of this.”

“That’s what friends are for,” he says. “Now, I gotta go. In order to keep up this wild ruse, I told Kennedy I was getting ice cream for the sick woman in my house. The little con artist asked for her own pint as payment.” He backs toward the door. “You owe me a pint of ice cream, Lucas.”

I laugh. “I’m sure you’ll swindle more than that out of me.”

“I absolutely will.” He opens the door. “It was great seeing you, Laina. Maybe I’ll see ya around.”

“Maybe.”

Gavin gives us a half wave, half salute and leaves. The door shuts with a thud.

“He’s like a whirlwind,” Laina says, picking up the bags. “I can’t believe you had him do all of this, and he really did it. That was so nice of you guys.”

“I just didn’t want you to wear all my clothes.”

She jabs me in the ribs with her elbow. “I think it means you’re going to let me stay.”

My stomach muscles contract from the look in her eye.

It would be so easy to forget that she’s here because she’s running from her life. If I really wanted to, I could wipe away the fact that she’s a famous singer and that she left me once over that. Without trying, I could fall so hard for this woman that I couldn’t see straight.

But I can’t forget I’m a momentary safe house.

I know better than to forget how it killed me when I couldn’t see her again—when her world had engulfed her completely.

The shift from being a fixture in her life and a certain part of her future to simply becoming a boy from her past knocked me sideways. A part of me has never recovered.

I have to guard myself from falling in love with her all over again because I did that once and barely survived. I don’t think I could do it again.

Laina holds the bags at her sides and yawns. “I don’t know how I’m still tired after that nap.”

“Let’s take all this upstairs so you can get a shower later if you want.”

“Okay.”

I wait for her to go up the steps first and follow her with the pizza box. It’s so natural having her in my home. It’s so easy spending time with her. How can it be this simple after all these years ? After the heartbreak of my life?

It probably feels right because I’m only showing her “healed and easygoing Luke” and not the “I hate the world Luke” I was for a long time after we ended.

“Ugh,” she says, stutter-stepping in the doorway to my bedroom.

I nearly run the edge of the pizza box into her back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just left my dress on the floor, and seeing it just felt like …” She sighs and goes into my bedroom. “It didn’t feel good.”

I drop the box on the bed. “Let’s do something with it, then.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do with it?”

She sets the bags in the bathroom and then returns to the bedroom. She studies the big white poof on the floor.

“We could put it in a trash bag and save it,” I offer, not sure what women do with these things. So much money for one day. Or half a day in this case.

“I don’t want to save it.”

“Okay. We could bag it up and donate it to charity.”

Her eyes shine. “Let’s do that.”

I grab a lawn and leaf bag from the kitchen, and we make quick work of stuffing the dress inside.

Once the material is out of sight, the relief on Laina’s face is evident.

Her wrinkled forehead eases. The lines around her mouth soften.

Her shoulders slump forward as if a weight has been lifted, and if I had known this would help her, I would’ve done it hours ago.

I toss the bag into the hallway. “I’ll take it to the garage later.”

She free-falls backward onto the bed.

My shirt cradles her body, sucking against her front. Her tits sit on top of her chest with the nipples pressing against the fabric, and the hem of my boxers ride up and pool at the apex of her thighs. Her skin is tanned and smooth. She’s delicate yet strong, beautiful yet the embodiment of sexy.

My cock twitches in my jeans.

“Do you want to eat or go to sleep?” I ask, moving into the bathroom to adjust myself without her noticing.

“Can I eat in bed?”

“This isn’t a hotel.”

“No, but I’ll be super careful and not drop a crumb.”

Hate to tell you, lady, but I wouldn’t kick you out of bed for getting crumbs in the sheets.

She yawns in the other room.

“Did Gavin bring you everything you need?” I ask.

“I think so. Thank you again for organizing that for me.”

Sufficiently calm, I go back into the bedroom and sit on the other side of the pizza box from her.

“My best friend flies out tomorrow and has all of my stuff,” she says. “I’m not sure how to get it from her if you let me stay a few days.”

“Just a few days?”

She shrugs, flicking open the pizza box. “Maybe in a few days things will have blown over enough that I can get to the airport and go somewhere else. I don’t know where I’ll go, but I can figure something out.” She sits up and takes a slice of pizza. “Where would you go if you could go anywhere?”

I take a slice, too. “Fuck if I know. Anywhere?”

“Anywhere.”

I try not to watch her lips wrap around the edge of the crust. “Montana, maybe.”

“You can go anywhere in the world, and you pick Montana?” She laughs. “The world is bigger than the continental US, you know.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty damn happy here.”

“You don’t want to see the world?”

“Sure. Peru would be cool. Egypt. Jordan. Iceland,” I say, rattling off a few places that might interest me. “But Peachwood Falls has all I need.”

She holds my gaze. Except you . It hasn’t had you for the past six years … and that isn’t going to change.

And it’s better that way. At least for me.

I clear my throat and look away. “You know I love it here. I love being with my family. I love living in Poppy’s house and working in the business he started when he was my age.

Every morning, I wake up and have coffee and look across the fields and feel really lucky.

Very … I don’t know. Rooted, maybe. Grounded.

” I look at her. “This is my home, and I don’t really need to travel the world to feel complete.

I’d rather have a Sunday dinner with my family than a fancy steak in some restaurant half a world away. ”

“I miss that.”

“What?”

She swallows a bite of her pizza. “I miss that feeling of home. I have five houses across the world. There are two in Nashville— one I just got for an investment. I shared one in Los Angeles with Tom, so I don’t know what will happen with that.

None of my stuff is really there, so I don’t actually care all that much.

I have one in New York and one in London. ”

“ Wow .”

“But there’s not one of them that feels like home , you know?”

“I think it’s more about the people than the location.”

She puts her pizza back in the box and stretches out across my bed. Her eyelids start to get heavy.

“That’s probably the problem,” she says. “I don’t have anyone at any of those places who really cares about me.”

My heart pulls so tight I wince. “I doubt that’s true.”

“It’s true.” Her eyes close, and her body relaxes into the blankets. “I pay everyone to care. Everyone but Stephanie. But she has her own life.”

I sit still and watch her fall asleep. Her breathing evens out. Her lips purse together like they always did. I used to tease her about it and say she was waiting for a kiss even in her sleep. She didn’t think I was funny.

I don’t think it’s anything to laugh about tonight, either.

I close the pizza box and move it to the end of the bed. Then I grab the blanket I covered her with earlier and drape it over her body.

For half a second, I consider climbing into bed with her. I ache to curl up behind her and pull her close. To feel her in my arms. To be reminded of what it’s like with her against me.

But then reality hits, and I take the pizza box, turn off the light, and leave her to sleep. This time with Laina isn’t about connecting.

It might be our chance to properly say goodbye.

And that’s a motherfucker.