That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [87]
It had also seemed perfectly natural to kiss her goodnight, and he'd almost done it. Almost. He'd leaned close, brushing a strand of her hair off her temple, noting the softness of her skin against his fingertips. Inhaling her scent, he'd realized that if he didn't taste her lips soon, he was going to shrivel up and die.
Then they'd both realized what they were doing. Rachel had held her hand up, palm out, whispering, "Stop. Please stop. Don't do this to me."
He'd swallowed, hard, affected by the hurt tone in her voice. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"
"I know," she'd admitted. "It's nice that we can try to be friends, and you've been a gentleman. I know you have groom's cold feet, though, so let's not get carried away and think it's any more than friendship." Then she'd forced a smile. "You don't need to prove you've still 'got it' just because I'm handy and available."
Her words had stopped him cold. She thought his interest in her was simply because she was off-limits, because he was about to be tied down and wanted one last notch on his belt?
He'd opened his mouth to reply, but she wasn't finished yet. "To be honest with you, Luke, I think I'm a little more susceptible to you than I'd like to be, and I'm just not up to these games," she'd admitted, her voice shaking a little. Her whisper was so soft he almost couldn't hear it over the late night breeze. "So I think we should say goodbye, instead of goodnight." Then she'd hopped in her car and driven away before he'd had a chance to defend himself.
His first reaction had been anger that she'd accused him of playing games with her feelings, but it had quickly subsided. How could she think him any different than any of the other scumbag grooms who'd come on to her? Had he given her any reason to think he was much more serious about her than even he'd suspected until last night?
No, he hadn't. And it was time to remedy that. Which was why he'd called Maria and asked her to meet him here at Santori's for lunch this afternoon. It probably wasn't great to ambush her here, but he knew his mother well enough to know she'd be the perfect one to help Maria calm down if she hit the roof.
Which she might. Because the time had come to set things right. He finally knew what he wanted.
And it wasn't marriage to Maria.
"Hey, man, you okay?"
Luke looked up to see his brother Tony, standing beside the table. "Okay? Depends on your definition of okay."
He was okay in terms of knowing what he wasn't going to do—go through with the wedding. But was completely unsure of what would happen next.
Until he'd straightened out his botched engagement, he was going to respect Rachel's wishes and leave her alone. Afterward … well, that remained to be seen. But he had definite hopes about what was going to happen between him and the lovely blonde who'd occupied his every waking thought for days.
His decision to cancel the wedding was not because of Rachel. Well, not entirely because of Rachel. Honestly, he suspected something special would happen between them; he couldn't imagine he was alone in the intense feelings that overwhelmed him when she was around. But whether it did or not, he'd finally realized the truth: he was marrying the wrong woman for the wrong reasons.
If he couldn't even muster up enough interest in Maria to remember the color of her eyes, he knew he had to throw in the towel on this whole thing. Now. Today.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he muttered as Tony stood there, waiting for him to elaborate.
His brother raised a brow and kept silent. Tony had mastered the whole, "I'm the big brother and you can't put anything over on me," thing at a very young age. So Luke didn't try. "No, I'm not okay. But I'm going to do something about it."
Tony didn't ask stupid questions. He didn't have to. Because he really did have that big brother know-everything thing going on. "It'll be all right. The family will back you up."
"Ours, maybe," he muttered, bringing his coffee to his lips and sipping from it. It was too hot still. And he suddenly realized he'd