Page 40 of Wilds of the Heart

Which led me to another thought. It was more of a friend question.

“Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend?”

Lucas shook his head. “Never.”

I believed him, partially because I doubted he'd held a relationship down long enough to lean into someone else.

His eyes stayed on mine. “You?”

I laughed softly and shook my head, letting out a sigh. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed anything about my dating life in this past year of being friends, but I’m not exactly going out alot. There’s not an opportunity to have a relationship, let alone a moment for me to drop my hook into the fishing pond.”

“See? It’s not so hard moving past friendship. We can still talk about things like before,” he said, grabbing another box. “But now, we can kiss.”

He balanced a box on his knee and swept his mouth along my cheek.

“Is that the only difference?” I asked, still wondering about Clara.

Something had obviously bitten him badly for him to talk about her that way. There had never been a hint of betrayal or heartbreak mentioned in his dating life until she popped up out of the blue.

“One thing, Lucas.”

He’d made his way into the hallway. “What’s that?” His voice was muffled as he climbed the steps to the attic.

“I don’t think we should sleep with each other until we’re absolutely certain our relationship isn’t interfering with our friendship, or vice versa. And I don’t want anyone to know that we might start seeing each other.”

“Whatever you say, babe,” he said from the attic, but I suddenly felt like there was no turning back and I might have made the biggest mistake.

Chapter Ten

Lucas

I rang the doorbell at Emily’s bungalow and let out a deep breath. It had been a week since I’d seen her, and I wanted to drop off some coffee and pastries from Mae’s new coffee shop.

It was like the moment Emily and I admitted maybe there was something more there, she froze up.

Had I not memorized every detail of the kiss we’d shared, I’d almost think we didn’t experience it.

Or the grownup version was that her grandparents had just moved in with her, and she had very little time.

But I’d noticed the texts had dwindled, and when I’d popped in over at the antique store, I’d barely gotten a hello, which would have concerned me, but there were a lot of customers.

So, I thought this might be the best way to lighten her burden and get to say hi.

When she swung open the front door, she looked even more breathtaking than last time I saw her. Her bright green eyes gleamed with a wild expression, her makeup-less face looked fresh, and her dark hair had been twisted into a wet knot anchored on top of her head with a clip.

Her eyes landed on the tray of lattes. “I did not expect you, but thank you.”

“You doing okay?” I asked, noticing her avoiding my gaze.

“Just swamped.” She lowered her voice. “Mimi is a handful. Do you realize that even when I’m at the store, I get like a few texts an hour from her? And it’s not like Grandpa isn’t here with her.”

She glanced over her shoulder before pulling me inside. “She doesn’t like my choice in breakfast cereal, hates plain bagels, only likes cream cheese with chives, and refuses to drink regular coffee. And that’s just breakfast.”

“Hey, if she’s getting cereal that hasn’t glued itself together, I’d call that a win out of your pantry.”

She giggled, and I detected the lightness I’d grown so accustomed to with Emily.

“You don’t need to do this by yourself. I wasn’t kidding when I said to call me for help,” I offered.