Do Date Your Handsome Rival (Jewel Family Romance Book 3) Page 8

  He trailed his fingertips down her cheek. “I love your fire.” He smirked. “Well, I love it more when you’re not ticked at me, but I love that you feel things passionately. It’s what makes you so special.”

  Mar flushed with happiness. She didn’t know quite how to respond, so she said, “I feel like this was a novel thing.”

  “Me apologizing?” he guessed.

  She nodded.

  He looked very serious as he said, “My siblings would agree with you. I don’t try to be a know-it-all, but when you’re as smart as I am …” He pumped his eyebrows and looked so charmingly cocky that she couldn’t resist giving him a quick kiss.

  She pulled back and said, “Yet you weren’t smart enough to clue in to why I was so upset.”

  “Rachel would be shocked at my fail on that one. I hope I can make it up to you.”

  “Not yet.” She smirked. “But if you keep kissing me, we’ll see.”

  He chuckled and happily kissed her again.

  The sun was setting outside, and Luke was still doing his level best to kiss and make up. Not that it was difficult.

  Mar pulled back and studied him. Her dark eyes glittered happily, and her mouth looked like she’d had lip injections from all the kissing they’d been doing. “Didn’t you promise me dinner somewhere fabulous?” she asked.

  “I did. Are you hungry now?”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “Yes, I am.”

  “Okay, okay. If we have to interrupt that fabulous kiss-and-make-up session for food, I guess we can.” He grinned and lifted her to her feet.

  Mar teetered unsteadily on her heels, brushing her hair back over her shoulder. “It was pretty fabulous.”

  Luke stood next to her and pretended to glower. “Pretty fabulous? How about insanely fabulous? Absolutely fabulous?” He lowered his voice. “Intimately fabulous?”

  “Oh my.” She pushed at his chest and laughed. “Fabulously fabulous. Better?”

  “Much.” He took her hand and started walking toward the garage entry.

  Mar didn’t come with him. “Wait.”

  Luke turned. “Yes?”

  “I have to … freshen up. You can’t expect me to participate in kissing like that then go to dinner somewhere fabulous and not redo my lipstick.”

  Luke swept his eyes over her, loving her mussed hair, her lipstick-free but plump lips, and the smudged eyeliner under her eyes. He stepped back close to her. “You look fabulous,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes. “Stop teasing me.”

  Luke sobered. “I’m not teasing.”

  “Yeah, right. Like I look good with my hair and makeup a mess.”

  This conversation concerned him. He’d noticed she was always dressed to perfection, and he remembered the day he’d surprised her in San Francisco and she’d slammed the door in his face because she wasn’t fixed up. He loved that she took great care of herself, but he didn’t want her to think she had to look a certain way. He wanted her to be comfortable and confident without a stitch of makeup on.

  Luke took her hand in his. “Mar, I’m being serious right now, and you’d better internalize what I say.”

  She stared up at him.

  “You look unreal all fixed up with your hair in long curls, your makeup done to perfection, and your heels on, but you look absolutely gorgeous with your hair and makeup a mess, and I love the way you looked when we went hiking and biking and swimming without any high heels or fancy clothes.”

  She blinked up at him. Her eyes got really bright, and two tears rolled over her dark lashes and down her cheeks.

  Horror rushed through Luke. What had he done now? “Mar?” he asked tentatively.

  “Sorry.” She sniffled and pressed the back of her hand daintily to her nose, then wiped at her tears. “Sorry. Nobody’s ever said anything so sweet to me before.”

  Luke was the one blinking now. “What do you mean? You think your appeal is based on how perfect your makeup is?”

  “Well, no …” She looked down. “Maybe sometimes, to some people.”

  Luke tilted her chin up with his palm. “Mar …” He swallowed and tried to phrase it in a way that would show her how deeply he felt this. “Your beauty shines from the inside out. You don’t need anything to enhance that beauty. You’re the beauty, Mar: the way you think, the way you talk, the way you shine …”

  He thought it was enough as more tears escaped her lashes and rolled down. He bent down low and kissed one of her cheeks. It tasted salty and made him want to get involved in another intense kissing session. Forget dinner.

  Mar wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard and long. When she pulled back, she asked quietly, “So you don’t mind that I’m … short?”

  “I love your size,” he said quickly. “You’re the perfect everything to me, Mar.”

  “Oh my.” She kissed him again, then drew back. “Thank you, Luke. I’m going to go blow my nose so we can go to dinner.”

  She hurried toward the bathroom off the mudroom, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor. Luke hoped she’d internalized some of what he said. She was perfect, and he wanted her to understand that.

  Chapter Ten

  Dinner at Wild Sage was delicious, but Mar loved Luke’s company best of all. She’d been touched deeply by his insistence that her beauty had nothing to do with her makeup or high heels, and his kisses transported her to another world. She was still in awe that he’d given up a large business deal for her. Did it all mean they were headed to a wonderful world of togetherness? With her self-doubts, she could hardly believe it, but she wanted to.

  When she’d been in middle school, she’d tried her hand at praying. She’d prayed desperately for a friend to come into her life, someone to care about her, someone she could be there for as well. A few days later, she’d found Cosette being ridiculed by another girl. Mar had faced the girl down, easily besting the bully in a war of words and sass. She and Cosette had been fast friends ever since. For these past few months when Cosette had been preoccupied with her marriage to Isaac, Mar had been happy for her friend. She’d also prayed wholeheartedly for heavenly intervention, and she believed He’d sent her Luke. She was grateful and in awe at the way it was working out, and she prayed that she didn’t mess it up like she had her past relationships with either her fiery temperament or her lack of self-esteem. Yet Luke said he loved her fire. She sighed. She loved him.

  That night, they changed into comfortable clothes—she didn’t wear any shoes and didn’t even care about being short—snuggled on the couch in the great room, and watched Hitch. They laughed at the movie, but Mar mostly savored being close to him.

  She was no longer alone. Not anymore. She recognized that their relationship was still developing, and the fears were still there, but for the moment she felt safe, happy, and loved. Being with Luke was heaven for her. She hoped that Isaac and Cosette’s relationship was as wonderful and exciting as this.

  The movie finished, and Luke shut off the big-screen television. The house plunged into semi-darkness, only lit by the glow of some decorative lights above the cabinets and some built-in nightlights along the walkways and the stairs.

  Mar turned to Luke, tucked her legs underneath her, and tilted her head to study his handsome face. “Tell me something about you that no one knows,” she blurted out. Was that an okay thing to ask in a serious relationship? She wanted to know everything, to be his secret keeper, to be the one he shared with.

  Luke stared very seriously at her. “Something little like I have a pink toothbrush, or something big like Caleb and Seth goaded me into blowing up the mayor’s mailbox when I was twelve?”

  Mar laughed, but she sobered when his serious gaze didn’t falter. “It’s up to you. I’d love to hear whatever you want to share.” She offered her hand, and he took it.

  He traced her palm with his thumb and turned to stare at the dark windows. He didn’t say anything for so long she was afraid her impetuousness had gotten the best of her and
she’d asked too nervy of a question. She understood social situations and could navigate any business meeting, but a deep relationship was out of her comfort zone.

  Luke turned back to face her, and his shoulders straightened. His face was set as if he were going into battle.

  “Luke?” she asked tentatively. “You don’t have to tell me if this is too hard.” What was he going to tell her? Worse yet, if he shared a huge secret, would she share hers? People who’d known her in her childhood and teenage years were aware of how pathetically alone she was, but she’d never told anybody in college or her adult life, especially not anybody she dated.

  “I want to tell you.” His normally sparkling blue eyes were so somber she felt a shiver of apprehension. “I feel like for our relationship to progress, I have to tell you.” He clung to her hand. “You said something nobody knows, but my sister Eve knows this secret. Is that okay?”

  She nodded, anxious yet intrigued by whatever he was going to tell her. The fact that he wanted their relationship to progress made her ecstatic, yet this secret seemed dark and heavy. He’d truly only told his youngest sister?

  He started speaking in a quiet, somber tone, almost as if he were confessing to a priest. “When I was in high school, I thought I was in love.”

  Her eyes widened. She’d believed he never dated anyone seriously. She wasn’t going to hold something he’d done in high school against him, but she was intrigued—and, crazily enough, jealous—that he’d thought he was in love. “What was her name?” Mar asked into the pause.

  “Tracey.” Luke closed his eyes briefly, then spit out. “We went too far one night.”

  Mar’s mouth dropped open, but she quickly shut it. Emotions warred within her: shock that Luke would get out of control, and an irrational jealousy that he’d been that close with another woman.

  “I broke up with her, worked with my pastor to repent, and felt good, clean. A couple of months later, she came to me and told me she was pregnant.”

  Mar felt like she’d been slugged in the gut. “You have a child?” she asked. He’d left a child behind? Abandoned and fatherless like her? No. Luke wouldn’t do that.

  Luke shook his head. Even in the dim light, she could clearly read the pain in his blue eyes. “I prepared myself to be a father, to take that responsibility, but when I went to ask her to marry me, she told me she’d miscarried and not to worry about her, as she was going to marry someone else.” His lips pressed thin. “I was devastated. I wanted to marry her. I really wanted to be a father.” His shoulders bowed slightly. Still clasping her hand tightly, he gave her a very forced smile. “That’s my deep, dark secret.”

  Mar prayed for help to know how to respond. All she could think to say was, “Thank you for trusting me enough to share.”

  Some breaths of silence passed before Luke muttered, “Do you think less of me now?”

  “Oh, heavens no,” she rushed to say, squeezing his hand. “You made a mistake, Luke. And it sounds like you tried everything you could to rectify it.”

  “I felt like I did at the time, but sometimes I still beat myself up for not staying in control that night. That’s the reason I haven’t allowed myself to get serious with anyone, rarely going beyond a date or two. I don’t know if I didn’t trust myself or if I was punishing myself.” He smiled softly at her. “Until you.”

  “What makes me so special?” Her voice cracked on the last word. She’d never been special to anyone but Cosette, and Cosette had struggled throughout her life socially. Sometimes Mar wondered if Cosette only stuck with her because she didn’t feel confident enough to move on—which was a horrible thing to think about herself and her best friend.

  Luke lifted his free hand and traced her cheek with his fingertips. Cupping her face, he leaned in and kissed her softly. “You’re special because you’re you, Mar. I think I’ve been looking for you my entire life.”

  She swallowed down the emotion and kissed him back, then cuddled into his side, content to simply be close to him. Luke wrapped her up tight and trailed his hands along her back. The only sound was a ticking clock and their combined breathing.

  Luke leaned back slightly and said, “Do I get to hear a deep, dark secret as well?”

  Mar laughed uneasily. “I don’t know that I have one that’s …” She couldn’t say good or interesting or exciting.

  “Crazy?” he asked.

  “Crazy works.” She drew in a long breath. Luke had trusted her with a huge secret. Would he think she was pathetic if she told him about her abandonment and her fears? She felt like it was time to trust someone besides Cosette, but wow, it was terrifying.

  “I’ll give you the out you gave me,” Luke said quietly. “You don’t have to share if it’s too hard.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured, “but I want to share with you. I want to trust you and progress our relationship as well.”

  He smiled, and his blue eyes were soft. “Thanks.”

  Mar took a deep breath and said in barely above a whisper, “When I was a newborn my parents left me on a sidewalk outside the hospital, in the middle of a snowstorm.”

  Luke drew in a sharp breath.

  “There’s actually video footage of them doing it and it’s in my file,” Mar continued. “I wanted to find out about my biological parents when I turned eighteen, and the case worker let me read what they had.”

  Luke held her tighter.

  “Luckily, a doctor was exiting his shift and tripped over a snow-covered bundle. He prevented me from freezing to death and turned me over to foster care.” She talked in a monotone, simply forcing the words out. “I have no clue who my biological parents are. I don’t want to. Who leaves a baby to freeze to death as they leave the hospital from giving birth instead of just going through the proper channels to get them adopted?”

  She shook it off, or at least pretended to. “Anyway. I was adopted when I was one. I have a few good memories with my adoptive parents; they adopted three of us within a few years. I was six when they were in a horrible car accident. My mom was killed, and my dad was a paraplegic. My dad couldn’t take care of us, so we were all split up and I went back into the foster care system. After that, I was shifted from home to home, never adopted. It wasn’t … awful; it just wasn’t good.” She didn’t want to tell him about some of the moms or dads who were grumpy, short-tempered, or sometimes downright terrifying.

  “Oh, Mar.” Luke cradled her and rocked her slightly as if he could make up for all the times that her biological parents should have hugged her.

  Mar wrapped her arms around his shoulders and clung to him, letting him hold her, comfort her, be there for her. Sometimes when she was alone, she cried for what she’d lost, for the lack of a childhood, the lack of love, but she hadn’t even cried when she told Cosette that she’d been deserted. Then again, she and Cosette had been thirteen when she’d spilled the story, and neither of them were great at emotional displays.

  That was what she should share next. “I found Cosette being bullied by an older girl when we were in middle school. I stood up to the bully, and we’ve been best friends ever since.”

  Luke gently kissed her forehead. “I can just imagine you standing up for Cosette. You’re so brave and beautiful.”

  Mar had to swallow again. “Thank you. Cosette’s the only person I’ve ever let myself trust or grow close to, the only person who’s ever loved me.”

  Luke’s eyes widened. He didn’t say anything, didn’t claim to love her when maybe he didn’t. Mar wished he could love her, because she already knew she loved him, especially when he lifted her off the couch cushion and onto his lap. Her tears dried, and she was spent emotionally, yet she felt complete and cherished in Luke’s arms.

  Still, she couldn’t completely silence that nagging feeling that something would happen and he would leave her—because everyone eventually left her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Luke slept horribly that night, and he loved every minute of it. Mar fell asleep c
uddled against his chest on the couch. He held her throughout the night, sleeping a little bit but mostly musing over their conversation. He’d shared about Tracey and the baby. Not even his parents or brothers or Rachel knew about that. He was still a little shocked that he’d been so open, but he was mostly grateful that he’d been able to trust her.

  Then she’d shared that she’d been abandoned and later had her adoptive family ripped apart by a horrible accident. She’d spent most of her childhood raised in foster care, never feeling loved. What would that be like? Thank heavens she’d found Cosette. Yet with his background and large, happy family, he could hardly imagine saying that the only person who’d loved him was a friend.

  He wished he could tell her that he loved her. It was too soon, and if he’d said it last night, it would’ve seemed like he was only saying it to fill the void in her life. That wasn’t true. Not at all.

  Mar stirred and then blinked sleepily up at him. “Morning, handsome,” she murmured.

  Luke kissed her forehead, wishing he could kiss her lips but not wanting to share his morning breath. “Good morning, beautiful.”

  He lifted her to her feet, and they both stood and stretched. It was nice to work out the kinks in his back and legs and get some feeling back in his shoulder, but he didn’t want her out of his arms. He felt protective of her, and he was very much taken by her.

  “What’s the plan today?” She smiled up at him.

  Luke liked how small she was—a firecracker in a perfect frame. He shrugged, wondering when they’d both have to go back to reality. She probably needed to get back to work, and while his assistants were great, he was always needed for something. He’d given up acquiring a new company for Mar, and he didn’t regret it. Instead of asking when they’d have to go back to life and figure out how to keep dating, he said, “Are you up for another hike?”

  “Sure. As long as I have my tough protector—” She squeezed his bicep. “—and bear spray.”