“As a matter of fact, it is, and her name’s Lily,” I said as I took the bottle of water she held out me.
“I’m happy for you, Luke. I know you’ve had a rough year, and you deserve true happiness.”
I closed my tool box and picked it up from the floor. “Thanks for the water, Mrs. Lopez. Everything’s working perfectly now. Just call me if you need me,” I said as I walked out the door.
I walked back into my apartment, set my tool box down, then sat on the couch, looking at my phone. I missed Lily already. She’s always on my mind, and it’s driving me crazy, so I decided to send her a text message.
“How about dinner tonight at your place? We can cook together.”
“That sounds great! I don’t cook though.”
“I’ll teach you. We can go to the store together when you get home.”
“Alright, I can’t wait.”
“Me neither.”
As I was watching TV, and thinking about how slow the day was going, there was a knock on the door. As soon as I opened it, Lily threw her arms around me and kissed me. I pulled her into the apartment, kicked the door closed with the heel of my shoe, and pinned her up against the closet door as I kissed her passionately. After a moment, she broke our kiss and smiled at me.
“I missed you,” she said out of breath.
“I missed you too, and I couldn’t wait for you to get home,” I responded as my lips made their way behind her ear.
The door opened, and Sam walked in. “Really? You do know there’s a bedroom down that hall over there, right?” he said.
Lily and I laughed as I shook my head at Sam.
“Seriously, dude. I don’t want to come home and find the two of you having sex on the couch, because I may have to join in.”
I smacked him on the back of the head as I walked by. “That’s not even funny, bro,” I said as I pointed at him.
“Lily thinks it’s funny. Look at her; she’s laughing.”
“Babe, don’t humor him, please.”
Sam was laughing as he walked to his room.
“Are you ready to leave?” I asked as I walked over to her and ran the back of my hand softly across her cheek. She nodded her head, so we headed out the apartment and walked to the Jeep.
“What are we making?” Lily asked as I pushed the cart through the grocery store.
“I thought maybe we can cook some spaghetti with a homemade sauce, salad, and bread.”
“You make homemade sauce?”
“I sure do, and Charley loves it. My mom never cooked alone; she always made us cook as a family from the time we were six years old.”
Lily hooked her arm around mine and laid her head on my shoulder. “Your mom sounds amazing. My mom never cooked; she had her chef do all the cooking, and we rarely ate as a family.”
My heart ached for her when she told me that. I leaned over and kissed her head. “Come on, let’s get what we need and get out of here.”
We were walking through the store when I saw Bernie. “Hey, Luke,” he said as he looked at Lily.
“Hey, Bernie, how was Florida?” I asked him.
“Florida was great, and I’m getting closer to retirement. Who’s this beautiful woman on your arm, Luke?”
“This is Lily Gilmore. Lily, meet Bernie, the owner of Bernie’s Bar.”
Lily shook Bernie’s hand, and he smiled at her. “I’m going to take a stab in the dark here, but you wouldn’t happen to be Johnny Gilmore’s daughter, would you?”
Lily looked at him and smiled. “Yes, Johnny was my father.”
“I knew it!” Bernie exclaimed. “Look at you, all grown up. Your dad used to play in my bar when he was in Santa Monica, and he used to show me pictures of you. He was a brilliant musician; I’m sorry to hear about his death.”
“Thank you,” Lily said. “He was a great musician.”
“Hey, Luke, we need to sit down and discuss what you want to do with the bar. This last trip to Florida pushed me closer to selling, and the next time I go, I’m not coming back.”
“I know, and I have to give it some more thought. I’ll call you.”
“Don’t take too long, son, I have others who are interested. It was nice to meet you, Lily. Luke, I’ll talk to you soon,” he said as he walked away.
Lily looked at me as I sighed. “What was all that about?” she asked.
“We’ll talk about it over dinner,” I replied as we stepped into the checkout lane.
21
Lily
Luke opened the bottle of wine as I took two glasses from the cupboard. He started making the sauce, and I started on something a little more simple—the salad.
“How was your day at work?” he asked.
“It was good, and my students were very well-behaved today.”
“Did Charley say anything to you about us?” he asked as he began to chop the onions.
“No, though she did smile at me a lot.” I laughed.
“She’s a great little girl, and I hope to have a daughter like her someday.”
I stopped my knife halfway through the tomato when Luke said that. A sick feeling in my stomach instantly developed because the talk of family terrified me, but I proceeded to talk about it anyway.
“How many kids would you like to have?” I asked like an idiot.
“I don’t know; four kids would be nice, I guess.”
“Four!” I gasped.
Luke chuckled as he put the onions in the sauce. “What’s wrong with four kids?”
“Nothing’s wrong with four kids. I’m just surprised you want so many.”
“Cal—forget it. I’m sorry I brought it up,” he said.
I could see the sadness in his face as he turned to the stove and stirred the sauce. I put down the knife, and I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Don’t ever be sorry. You need to talk about her, Luke, and I don’t ever want you to feel as though you can’t or shouldn’t.”
He put down the spoon and turned to face me. “It just doesn’t feel right to talk about her like that, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me. She was a huge part of your life for many years, and I want to know about her.”
Luke softly brushed his lips against mine. “You’re amazing, do you know that?”
“I’ve been told a few times.” I smiled.
He hugged me and went back to making the sauce as I finished slicing the tomatoes for the salad.
“On the night of the accident, we’d been on our way home from a trip,” he began to speak. “We were stopped at a red light a few streets away from here. When the light turned green, and I began to go through the intersection, another car ran the red light and crashed into us, hitting Callie’s side. Our car spun out of control; then another car hit my side.” Luke paused for a moment. “I’ll never forget the sound of both crashes, the sounds of the squealing tires, the brightness of the headlights as both cars headed towards us, and Callie screaming my name before I blacked out. I’d woken up in the hospital three days later without any recollection of the accident at that moment. My parents had told me that Callie had died, and that’s when everything came rushing back to me.”
I gulped as I heard him tell the story, and my eyes couldn’t help but fill with tears. He wouldn’t look at me, and I knew if I tried to comfort him in any way, he would lose it, so I quickly changed the subject.
“Have I told you how much of an asshole Hunter is?”
Luke looked over at me and started to laugh. “What?”
“He’s an asshole, plain and simple. He’s an uptight, cock sucking, piece of shit, and I truly despise him. Did I ever tell you that he color coordinated his underwear with his clothes?”