I was literally speechless as my stomach uncoiled and became infused with warmth, so I simply nodded and gave my friends a watery smile. I breathed in deeply, hoping to stave off the tears that were threatening, and used my free hand to take a long sip of cool water.
The waiter returned with our drinks and took our dinner orders. I went with the rib-eye, loaded sweet potato, and cream corn, with a small house salad to start.
Luke kept my hand in his until his steak was served and he needed it to cut his meat, but I felt the ghost of his hand on mine for the duration of the meal. I watched him talk and laugh with our friends, and I was struck at how quickly I’d become accustomed to having him in my life. Him, Matty, Hank, even Jones. They’d become my friends, dare I say, almost like family, and I hated to think about leaving them.
Luke laughed as Jones told Ginger all about their trip to Vegas, including the part where Luke met me, and the subsequent weeks he talked about me after.
“He was like a lovesick puppy,” Jones teased, and my cheeks flushed as Luke’s began to redden again. It was sweet how embarrassed he got. “I thought he’d never recover. Then, like magic, she landed on his doorstep.” Jones pointed his fork between Luke and me and said, “If ever you need proof of fate, kismet, destiny, or whatever you choose to call it, all you need to do is look at these two.”
Ginger grinned with pleasure at having her thoughts from this afternoon validated. I tried to play it off, as if their teasing didn’t bother me, but in fact, they were scaring me to death.
Maybe I needed to back off from Luke and Matty. Stop eating dinner with them. Stop going on walks together, as if we were a unit, or God forbid, a family. They weren’t mine, and I wasn’t theirs. Matty had a mother, and I had a husband.
Dead or not, it felt like a betrayal to Ricky’s name to even pretend their words had merit.
Chapter 32
Ginger and I had laid in bed and talked into the early hours of the morning, just like two teenaged girls at a sleepover. Luckily Luke, being the sweetheart that I’d come to know him as, had told me to take Saturday off to enjoy my visit with my friend, so she and I slept in until the early afternoon.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept in so late, but it felt wonderful. We’d eaten, showered, and I’d put a pork roast in the crock-pot, then we set off on foot so I could show Ginger around the ranch. After we’d been walking for about thirty minutes, Matty and Joe, his grandpa’s dog, came running through the trees.
He ran right up to Ginger and came skidding to a halt, then he put his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun so he could get a good look at her.
“You’re pretty,” he said with his father’s charming grin.
Ginger laughed and dipped into a deep curtsy.
“Thank you, kind sir, you’re very handsome.”
“You’re weird,” Matty said as he watched her, but his grin stayed in tact, showing that he didn’t mean anything bad by his observation. “I’m weird too.”
“Us weirdos have to stick together.”
“Are you staying for dinner?”
“Yup, I’ll be here until tomorrow.”
“Cool, see you then,” he said, then took off again with the dog racing at his heels. He stopped abruptly, and yelled over his shoulder, “Belle’s food is the best!” Then they were gone.
Ginger turned to me laughing and observed, “Wow, good luck not falling in love with that kid.”
“I know, right? He’s amazing.” I looked at the spot he’d just left and wondered how I’d make it through the day without his funny little antidotes.
“Seems like there’s a lot of amazing around here.”
“Stop,” I implored, unsure of how much more of her “Luke Campaign” I could take.
“Sorry,” she said, but she didn’t sound sorry at all.
Because it was Ginger’s favorite, I made pulled pork, coleslaw, jalapeno cornbread, and sweet cream corn for dinner. She showed us how to slice the cornbread in half and stack some of the pork and coleslaw on top, then eat it all together, just like she used to do when she was a kid.
“That really hit the spot, Belle,” Ginger said, patting her slender belly in appreciation.
“Yeah, it was terrific,” Luke added as he cleared his empty plate.
“I told you Belle’s food was the best,” Matty added, completing the trio of compliments.
I smiled with pleasure, loving the fact that they’d enjoyed my food, and that I’d had the opportunity to cook for three of my favorite people and share a meal with them.
“You guys are easy to cook for,” I replied, eager to deflect the conversation from me, even if they were all being sweet. “You don’t have to do that,” I said when Luke came back and picked up my plate.