Author's Note: A shorter chapter heavier on the dialogue. The finished story is six chapters long, so by the end of this chapter we'll be halfway through this odyssey. Many thanks to those of you who took the time to review; it is nice to get a little feedback and I'm glad for the positive response to the story. Because I really do take the time to read the reviews, let me address a couple people:

Javamaniac: Thank you for pointing out the 'sum it up' thing. I proofed it a thousand times but my tired eyes didn't catch the misspell. It really gets me when I see things like that in other fics, so I guess this is God's way of giving me a taste of my own medicine. Kind of ironic, no?

minor-thing: The original story Blame It On Speculation by Sassyplatypus is saved under my favorite stories of my profile page. You can check it out from there. I'm sorry you don't like using italics for character's thoughts, so this chapter is light on italics. I deliberated between a few different ways to mark character's thoughts, but italics turned out to be the best way in order to stay true to the original story and keep confusion to a (relative) minimum. So, beware, the rest of the story will have italics.

In case you were wondering about the quotes from the songs, the Gin Blossoms quote comes from their song 'Hey Jealousy' which is on the awesome album titled 'New Miserable Experience,' and the Jimmy Buffett quote comes the song 'Miss You So Badly' off his landmark album 'Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes,' which is quite possibly the best album he made. If you weren't wondering about the songs, then I guess you just got a little useless trivia information. But enough's enough, here is the story…

"'Cause all I really want's to be with you,

And feel like I matter too.

If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago,

I might be here with you."

'Hey Jealousy,' The Gin Blossoms

3. Breakout

A couple minutes later Luke comes up and gives me a questioning look. "You're actually watching sports?"

Crap, forgot to change the channel. "Well, yeah." I say. "I'm trying to expand on the knowledge you gave me this morning."

"So what else have you learned?" Luke asks with a small laugh.

"That you should wear tighter pants." I say with a flirty smile.

"I'll get right on it." Luke says as he walks to his dresser.

Whoa, if only we'd asked that last night.

"Luke, you…uh…don't have to do that right now." I stammer out.

"What?" He looks confused, and then it hits him. "No, I'm looking for some sweatpants for you, its cool outside."

"Oh." Now I'm a little disappointed.

"Do you…" Luke stops himself mid-sentence. "No, I know you don't have any socks." And he's digging through his drawer again.

"They don't go too well with Jimmy Choo's." I quip.

"Here—sorry, but I don't have any sandals you can borrow." He hands me the sweats and a pair of thick wool socks before grabbing a small plastic bag from under the counter.

"Socks with sandals?" I scrunch my face at his fashion sense. He stops what he's doing and gives me a look that says 'don't start with me.' "Never mind…" I say. I pull the sweatpants on as he steps into the bathroom and then comes back out with my dress carefully folded in the bag and my shoes protruding out of the top.

"Thanks." I say, reaching out to take it from him so he doesn't have to hold a dress anymore.

"I got it." He says as he picks up a few more things.

"I didn't know you liked it that much." I smile.

"It's pretty." He shoots back with a smile and for a moment I lose my train of thought. "You got your purse?" he asks.

I nod and we move downstairs, where I notice that the blinds are closed. "What's the deal?" I ask as I point to the windows.

"Well, it would kind of blow our cover if someone looked through the window just as we were coming down." Luke explains. "Meet me in the storage room." He tells me as he pulls out a to-go cup.

"Dirty." I laugh.

"Jeez." He grumbles and begins to pour the coffee.

"What about insurance?" I tease.

"Watch out for falling boxes." Luke commands as he hands me the cup and leads me to the back door. "Hold on." He whispers and stops me at the threshold. After a quick look up and down the small alley he quietly walks to the passenger side.

"Am I driving?" I ask.

"No—I got a better view down the alley from here." Luke says.

"Good, cause your truck doesn't like me."

"Shh!" He looks around one more time. "Now!" he whispers. "Come on." He's waving his hands to hurry me up. I go around the back of the truck and he helps me in before sprinting to the driver's side and starting the engine.

"Go! Go! Go!" I'm laughing now at how serious Luke is taking our situation. It takes a few seconds for the engine to turn over. "You should've started the truck before we came down!"

"Well, next time we'll know." He's concentrating on getting the truck in gear so I let the comment pass.

We make it down the street without being seen and he pulls into my driveway. I look over at him, "Okay, you get the dress and I'll open the door. Ready?"

"Ready." He says.

"Break!" I jump out of the truck and run the few steps up to my door. The keys are already in my hand and the door swings open right away. Luke comes in with my dress and a brown paper bag. "Ah, you brought lunch?" I ask.

"Well…yeah." He shakes the plastic bag. "Take your dress and I'll put the bag on the table."

I set the dress down by the door and wait a few seconds for him to come back from the kitchen. "So that was fun." I try to joke.

"Oh yeah," he deadpans as he comes back to the door.

"Thank you Luke." We're standing close again, and I'm nervous.

"Yeah…" Luke rubs his neck. "Are you okay here?"

"You mean in my house? Yeah, I think I'll survive." I'm beginning to babble again, but Luke stops me.

"No, I mean…your fine?" Concern is in his voice again.

"Yeah," I answer. Then it hits me—the check! "Crap! I forgot to grab the check."

"I've got it." He pulls it out of his pocket and moves closer to hand it to me. "I'm sure you want to talk about terms and stuff, but we'll do that later, okay? Concentrate on your inn first and we can try another meeting if you really feel like we need to." He's talking low; like we're cementing a shady back-door deal and he doesn't want anyone to find out what he's done. I suddenly feel like I've stepped in to The Godfather.

"Thank you." I sniffle as I take it.

"Ahh, hey, no more crying." Luke looks slightly panicked and then pulls me into a hug. I let myself fall into him and stop my crying.

Good, strong shoulder.

We stay like this for a minute and then he pulls far enough away to look me in the eye. "It's okay." He says in the same tone he used last night. I look into his eyes and see that he cares. Really and truly cares. I can't say anything; I can't even stop staring at him. All I can do is smile shyly because I want to kiss him again, but I can't. At least, I can't kiss him like I want to. So I move my hands to his shoulders and stand on my tip-toes. "Thank you." I whisper, and then gently kiss his stubbled cheek. I open my eyes—

When did we close our eyes?

And see him staring back, a little shocked by what I just did.

For just a second I think he'll kiss me back. Instead he blinks slowly and whispers. "Your welcome." Then he loosens his hold. "I should go." He is still looking into my eyes.

"Yeah," I let go and take a step back. "I'll see you later."

He pauses at the door. "Call if you need anything."

"I will." I tell him. He flashes a small smile and then closes the door as he walks back to his truck.

And as I walk over to the couch I realize I'm crying again, because I finally know why I care. If he wasn't married I could have been honest with him about how I feel and I know that he would've kissed me back, and that moment would've been perfect.

Chapter four will take a little longer to proof and polish, so look for it in a few days.