Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
At least Jacob didn’t hide his intentions. Lucas had to give his brother that, if nothing else.
“Plus, the crazy ones are good at hiding it sometimes,” Jacob added. “Maybe I could have saved you a shitty evening, but now we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out, huh? I will say, this way is better for me if we end up getting a good story out of it.”
“Knock it off.”
“I’m just saying—keep it mind.” Jacob barked a laugh before saying, “Oh, yeah!”
His sudden declaration made Lucas sigh.
“What?”
“She’ll have access to sharp blades tonight, too.”
Jacob’s cackles created static in the speakers, and he sounded far too pleased with himself and his teasing. Nothing stopped him from having a good laugh at his brother’s expense. Lucas really shouldn’t have told his brother about his plans for the date.
“Play your cards wrong,” Jacob said, “and this night could go way left, bro.”
“Go to hell, Jacob,” Lucas returned, jokingly.
As much as he could manage, anyway. The minutes of levity gave him the chance to focus on something other than the nerves churning in his stomach, and the navigational screen focusing on his current address of destination.
She was a street away.
He tried not to think about it.
“All bullshit aside,” Jacob said, pulling Lucas out of his nervous thoughts, “I hope you have a great night.”
Lucas grinned, checking the rearview mirror as he pulled up to a red light. “Me, too.”
In the background, a quiet robotic voice repeated that he should make a left turn and a right in thirty meters to reach the block of quaint apartments he could already see from his position.
“And you’re staying out of trouble, too, right?” Lucas asked, choosing his words carefully so it didn’t seem like he was prying too hard.
Jacob never responded well to that sort of thing, but Lucas felt like he had to keep checking in on his brother lately. Not for any particular reason—and every time he asked, Jacob assured that he was fine—but he couldn’t escape the dread that had been following him whenever he let his mind focus on his brother. Like something bad was right around the corner.
“Of course, bro. Why wouldn’t I be? Did you find flowers?” Jacob asked.
Apparently, Lucas should give his kid brother more credit. He remembered the one thing Lucas hadn’t given much thought about regarding this evening—everything else was planned down to a T. Or so Lucas thought until Jacob pointed out something he lacked during their conversation earlier in the day. One might think a person could find a bushel of roses easily the day after Valentine’s, but he had not been that lucky.
Lucas wasn’t a flowers and dinner sort of man. Not that he couldn’t—or didn’t like to—wine and dine a woman, but his day-to-day schedule rarely allowed for a lot of personal time between his work and family obligations. His last date, a blind setup by a mutual friend, went nowhere fast. That had been more than a year ago. It wasn’t a surprise that his brother had to remind him to bring something pretty and aromatic—flowers—for his date.
“I did find some,” Lucas confirmed. “Well, I picked up a pot of Chrysanthemums. It works.”
“Mums? She doesn’t have cats, right?”
How would Lucas know?
“What does that matter?” he asked.
Jacob made a noise of indifference. “I think they’re toxic to cats. And she’s in an apartment. So it’s not like she’s going to have them outside.”
“Great. Note to self—ask about a cat.”
His brother laughed louder.
The prick.
On the other hand, his voice assistant, a program on his phone, heard the command, and replied robotically: Note added to your task list, Mr. Dalton.
Fuck his whole life.
Then, another thought poked Lucas.
“How did you know she lives in an apartment?” he demanded as the light turned green.
There was really only one way when Lucas put the information in a single spot.
Even if Jacob hesitated to answer. “I mean …”
“Did you log into my email to check my calendar?”
“You gave me nothing, bro,” Jacob returned, his tone suggesting that his brother should have expected this end result. “Nothing—what did you think I would do? It doesn’t matter. I also found nothing.”
“Jacob, stay out of my email,” Lucas snapped. “For one. Two, mind your damn business.”
“Yeah, yeah. Call me tomorrow?”
“Screw you.”
Lucas hung up the call like he did when he picked it up.
No hello.
No goodbyes.
Jacob was lucky that Lucas loved the shit—for all his antics and the heartache his kid brother had caused him over the years, he was most grateful to be beyond those harder times. Sure, Jacob had his demons, and he struggled with boundaries sometimes, but Lucas gave him grace.
Or, he tried.
His brother’s laughter was still ringing in his ear even after he’d pulled into the shared open lot for a square block of apartment buildings that all looked the same. Painted a quaint white with lace-like detailing at the apexes of the eaves, the buildings reached tall for the dark sky. He found the one building toward the back of the lot with the trio of letters over the entrance and parked in one of three visitor spots under a towering spruce tree. In the passenger seat, next to the black pot of maroon mums, sat his phone.