Lucas has surprised himself with his level of self-control, but then again, a lot was at stake. Ever since Brooke had arrived, he'd longed to touch her, hold her, even place his hand over the gentle swell of her belly. If he had a loving relationship with her, he'd be allowed to.
If someone had asked him a year ago where he would be now, he would've said with Peyton, living there boring uneventful life in LA. But truth be told he wouldn't give up Brooke and this baby to go back to that.
He and Brooke worked in silence finishing up the meal preparations. He'd remembered to turn on the oven in advance, which was a miracle, all things considered.
The storm continued to rage outside, which seemed appropriate considering the battle he was having with himself. He'd never spent this much time with a women he wanted without making some kind of physical overture. Stroking her arm, squeezing her hand and drying her onion tears didn't really count, at least not for much.
He'd had one chance to kiss her and he hadn't taken it. She wouldn't have stopped him. He'd bet his truck on that one.
Yet he wasn't willing to sacrifice his chance to be a father by taking her to bed. Maybe doing that would make things better between them, but it could also make them worse.
Once their meal was in the oven, she walked to the kitchen window and stood arms wrapped protectively around her middle, as she gazed out at the storm. If they were in a different emotional place, he could move in behind her and guide her back against his chest. They could watch the rain together.
He'd never expected to want that kind of closeness with anyone again. Let alone her again.
As it was, he wasn't sure what to do while they waited for dinner to cook. "Sorry there's nowhere else to sit. I put all my mom's furniture in storage when I started the reservations."
"That's okay." She turned to him. "I keep forgetting this was your mom's house. My home a one point."
"I know it doesn't look much the same."
"I'm sure it'll be gorgeous when you're finished. How long do you think it will take?"
"I'm hoping to have it done by Christmas so mom and Lilly can come stay."
"I usually spend Christmas with my Rachel or my parents in New York." She made a face. "Although I might not be welcome this year."
"Why not?"
She swept a hand towards her stomach. "Victoria is going to freak. I'm sure this is just the kind of press she is hoping for with the company being so new. An unwed mother."
He'd had a solution or that. "Maybe she will be shocked, but this is her granddaughter we're talking about."
"She wasn't really in to the original model, I don't think Brooke 2.0 will thaw her icy heart?"
He longed to close the gap between them and take her into his arms. Then he'd kiss her and promise to do everything her could to make it all better. But since he couldn't say or do any of that, he came up with another idea.
"We have some time before the food's ready," he said. "And my phone's charged. What if we spend the time looking up baby names?"
She stared at him as if he'd sprouted a second head.
"Or not." Apparently he'd just stepped on sacred ground. "We could play cards. I like to play solitaire old school, with real cards. But gin rummy's fin for two.."
"We can check out baby names."
"Are you sure? Because a moment ago you looked as if I'd suggested adding a side of worms to our dinner."
"I was surprised."
"I could tell."
"I assumed I'd be the one to…."
"You definitely get the final say. I'd just like some input."
She studied him for a moment. "That's fair. I should at least find out if there are any you hate."
"Lindsey and Niki come to mind. And I just realized I'm not crazy about Anna, either."
She ginned. "You're safe on all of those."
"Then let's sit and call up a baby name site."
She picked up her purse from the counter where she'd laid it down.
"Do you have a list going already?"
"I don't, believe it or not." She dug out a small notepad and pen. "I was saving it for later when I'm big as a house and we have six feet of snow on the ground."
"Look, if you'd rather not…."
"I want to. You're here and I'm here. We have time on our hands."
"True." How did that old song go? Something about time on my hands and you in my arms. He walked around and pulled out a chair for her.
"You have beautiful manners, Luke."
"You can thank Karen. She's a stickler."
"Oh I remember."
He straddled the chair backward instead of drawing it up to the table where he'd end up playing footsie with her again. That had been way too much fun.
"Okay…"he looked at his phone "…starting at the first letter. Do you have anything against A names?"
"Not as a general category."
"Then here's one. Abiba."
"I can't tell if you're serious or not."
"Not. She would get beat up at school every single day."
"Unless," she said, "she went with Abi. That might be okay."
"Are you saying you want Abiba on the list? Because I can guarantee that her teachers won't call her Abi, especially on the first day. They'll say the whole name and our daughter's life will be a living hell for the rest of the year."
He was making her laugh, and that was a good thing. They'd done a lot of laughing over the years but they'd been too serious recently. "How do you like Amelia?"
"Not bad, but you've skipped a whole bunch if you're already up to Amelia. Just start with the first one and go through them all. That way we can…"
Lightening hit so close they both leaped up at the same moment the house was plunged into darkness. A loud crash followed, along with a crack and a tinkle of breaking glass.
Lucas tapped the flashlight app on his phone. "Stay here. I'll investigate."
"I most certainly won't stay here." She pulled her phone out of her purse. "Two lights are better than one. Let's go."
"At least let me go first. I'm wearing boots and there's probably glass everywhere. I have a bad feeling I know what happened." He started down the hall.
"There's a big tree in the front yard. I'll bet a branch came through the picture window in the master bedroom. I only hope it wasn't the whole tree."
"And that we can find a way to keep rain from coming in through the broken window."
"That, too." He reached the doorway and moved his light around. "Damn." A branch as big as his thigh had split from the tree and now lay across the windowsill. It extended about five feet into the room but, fortunately didn't quite reach the bed.
Jagged pieces of glass littered the floor and rain from the broken window was already creating puddles on the hardwood floor. Good thing the floor was being replaced. Still. He couldn't allow water to accumulate and seep into the walls.
"Yikes." Brooke peered around him. What now?"
"I'm thinking." He took a deep breath. "Okay, first I'll get a tow rope around the branch and use m truck to pull it back out into the yard."
"I could guide it from in here."
"You might be able to, especially if you wear gloves, I'm pretty sure I have a couple of pairs here somewhere. At least you can yell out and tell me how I'm doing. But you'll need to be in the room and I'm worried about those flimsy canvas shoes you're wearing."
"I'll be careful."
"Not good enough. A piece of glass could slice right through those tiny rubber soles. Wait! I have it. Stay here a sec. I'll get you some boots." The left side of the room was relatively clear of glass as he walked to the closet, hauled out an old pair of boots and grabbed a thick pair of socks from the top dresser drawer.
He brought them to Brooke. "Let's go back to the kitchen so you can put them on."
"Are you sure? These will be really big on me."
"At least I won't be worried about your feet."
When they got back to the kitchen he left to find some gloves while she took off her shoes and put on the heavy socks and his boots. He returned to find her standing beside the table, her flashlight shining on the boots.
"Do I look stylin' or what?"
"You look a lot better than the guy who owns them. But will they work?"
"Well enough." She took a few tentative steps. "I wouldn't want to run a foot race but if I don't move too fast I'll be okay."
"Here's some gloves, although don't feel you have to manhandle that tree branch. If you help guide it through, great, but be very careful of the glass that's still in the window."
"Must be a really old window. All the broken windows I've seen shatter into a million little pieces, not those jagged ones."
"I'm sure it's old. Be careful of the pieces on the floor, too." He had a sudden scary thought. "Is there any chance you'll fall down in those oversized boots? That would be worse."
'I'll make sure I don't."
"You know what? Let me do this. I can pull the branch out by myself. I don't want to risk having you injured in the process."
"Sorry, but that's not how I roll. You loaned me these snazzy boots and I'm going to make use of them."
"But…."
"No arguments, Lucas Eugen Scott." She reached u, pulled his head down and kissed him firmly on the mouth. Then she took a couple of careful steps back. "Understood?"
He was so shocked by her kiss that he didn't react. He just stood there like a man carved from stone.
"Now go lasso that branch and get it out of the bedroom. I'll supervise from the inside."
He snapped out of his trance. "Yes, ma'am."
He was soaked by the time he made it to his truck. The wind whipped his wet clothes against his body so, technically, he should be shivering from cold. He barely noticed. She'd kissed him.