Book of Luke (Book 2) Read online

  Luke breathed into my ear again. “My dad’s a ladies’ man.”

  “I can see why!” I blurted, and they both looked at me.

  “You can see why, what?” Mr. Pawlak asked with a weak smile.

  I bit my lip. “I can see why you’re starving?”

  He looked confused.

  Luke wrapped an arm around me. “So, Dad, how’s Shelly?” he asked to change the subject.

  “Her name’s Stacy.”

  Luke furrowed his brow. “Her name wasn’t Stacy before…”

  “Well,” Mr. Pawlak said, checking his cell phone. “It’s Stacy now.”

  “Oh, I remember,” Luke said. “Stacy came before Shelly.”

  Mr. Pawlak rubbed his chin, still looking through his phone. “Different Stacy. And hell if I know, I’m always working.” He glanced at Luke and shrugged. “I assume she’s all right.”

  The waitress finally appeared, a petite twenty-something brunette with long hair, gray eyes and a soft complexion. She checked out the gods I was dining with, and took a breath through her teeth. “And where are you gentlemen from?” she asked cheerfully, puffing out her chest. “Hollywood?”

  Mr. Pawlak held his chin. “Pretty close! Good guess!”

  Her eyes lit up. “Really!” She positioned her clipboard so she could write. “I could tell! What brings you to Alaska?”

  “I finally took a few days’ vacation and my son here wanted me to meet Donna,” Mr. Pawlak said, gesturing to me.

  “Dad,” Luke breathed. “Adonia.”

  “Adonia!” His dad laughed nervously. “So sorry, I’m bad with names.”

  “It’s okay,” I peeped. “I can kind of relate.”

  Luke’s grip on me tightened. “I love you,” he breathed softly into my ear.

  I touched his hand, afraid to turn to him. If he kissed me like I sensed he would, it’d be awkward.

  Before long, I was phasing out. I could see Apollo’s lips moving, and the waitress laughing, but I couldn’t make out a thing they were saying. Luke’s cologne was clouding my head—flooding my mind with certain thoughts. Thoughts that didn’t belong at a lunch date with his dad.

  The next thing I knew, everyone was staring at me. I looked about, panicked. “What?”

  “What would you like to eat?” Mr. Pawlak asked, slightly annoyed.

  I realized I hadn’t even checked the menu. “I’ll just have what he’s having,” I said, pointing to Apollo.

  The waitress’s eyebrows pinched, and she smiled. “Got it!” Then she stared at him for a few moments. “Do you want a drink?”

  Mr. Pawlak grinned. “I was hoping to ask you that!” His eyes moved to her name tag. “Amber…”

  Her mouth dropped, and she gripped her heart. “Oh my God!”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “Dad, what about Stacy?”

  Mr. Pawlak’s eyebrows knitted. He still gazed at the brunette. “Who?”

  My boyfriend was raised by this guy?!

  I couldn’t understand for the life of me how they were so different! It was like night and day. The only thing they shared was a gift to the gene pool!

  Although this man came across as a total womanizer, I didn’t know whether I liked him or not. I guess I just wanted his approval, so my boyfriend wouldn’t have to dump me.

  A small part of me wondered if he’d always been like his, or if he’d turned into this; and if Luke would end up like him, too.

  That would be unfortunate.

  The waitress had left. They were staring at me again, so I snapped back to reality. “My mind wanders,” I explained, half hoping he didn’t hear me.

  He looked to Luke. “So did you decide where you’re moving?”

  “Not exactly,” Luke said, checking his phone. “I‘m waiting for a Realtor to email me; but we’re planning to move to Prince George, British Columbia.”

  Mr. Pawlak nodded. Then he smiled at me—kind of an awkward smile. “Are you going to college?” he asked.

  “I’m supposed to, but I’m getting cold feet.” It made me kind of uneasy that Mom sent in my deposit—it meant that I’d committed to going, when I really hadn’t.

  Mom did the committing for me!

  “Cold feet! The story of my life!” Mr. Pawlak said with a laugh.

  “I want to be a writer,” I added softly.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Really! Sounds a bit more realistic than being a professional alpine skier!” That one, of course, was directed at Luke.

  Luke either didn’t hear, or didn’t care. He leaned across the table and showed his father the screen. “Dad, this is the place I’m looking at.”

  Mr. Pawlak peeked at it for a moment. Then he cleared his throat, raised a finger, and said, “Where’s my coffee?”

  “Workin’ on it!” Amber assured, as she ran off to the kitchen with someone else’s order.

  He smiled and checked his watch.

  “Dad,” Luke said. “What do you think about the house?”

  Mr. Pawlak looked around. “Sure, Lukasz, it’s great. I’ll cut you a check.”

  Luke’s face fell. “Oh. I just wanted some input, actually.”

  His father looked irked. “Lukasz, do what you want. I’m not living in it, you are.”

  Luke’s arm tightened around me. “Right.” Then under his breath he uttered, “Not sure why I bother.”

  Mr. Pawlak leaned forward, like he wanted to hear better. “Hmm?”

  Luke shook his head. “Never mind.”

  A few awkward minutes later, the waitress returned with our meals. She walked off after checking out my boyfriend and his rich dad a bit more.

  Because one glance just wasn’t enough!

  Oddly enough, I sensed an odor. Did she piss her pants?

  “How’s school, Lukasz?” Mr. Pawlak ordered.

  “Good. I’m taking calculus three this semester.”

  “I thought you finished core math in California.”

  “It’s an elective,” Luke said. “Just for fun.”

  I think it’s crazy to take calculus for fun; but then, he’s taking writer’s workshop with me as an elective, so I felt pretty damn important.

  I grabbed a fork and dug into my food.

  And once it hit my tongue, I gagged.

  My stomach clenched. I threw my chair aside and stood up, leaning over the table. “What the hell am I eating!”

  A salty, putrid taste coated my mouth. The smell was horrid. Seriously, it smelled like urine!

  My stomach did a somersault.

  And I puked.

  Everywhere.

  I grabbed napkins. I tried to stop.

  So. Bad.

  “It’s Hákarl,” Mr. Pawlak said, looking repulsed by me. “An Icelandic dish. Essentially, it’s rotten shark. It’s an acquired taste.”

  I threw up in my mouth a bit more.

  I couldn’t hold the rest back. Sick and humiliated, I rushed to the restroom.

  That’s the last time I’m ordering what someone else is having—I should have looked in the damn menu!

  ~ ~ ~

  Mom took me to the gynecologist's at four.

  Because my day wasn’t going bad enough!

  I was half naked beneath the sheet, and rather nervous. I’d never seen a gynecologist before, and for a forty-something blue-eyed brunet, this one wasn’t bad looking.

  Mom stood beside me in the small examination room, which reeked of rubbing alcohol. Sporting a suit and heels, she tapped my hand for emotional support and attempted a smile.

  The doctor seated himself before me. “Hi, Adonia, my name’s Dr. Miller. I see you’re here for birth control.” He looked at my chart. “How old are you?”

  “I just turned eighteen,” I said nervously.

  “Out of high school?”

  “Almost. I’m graduating in May.”

  “And you have a boyfriend?” he asked, scribbling chicken scratch onto my chart.

  “That’s why I’m here,” I uttered.

  He
glanced at me, then turned pages in my chart. “Right,” he said. “Well, here’s how it works. Before I can prescribe anything, I’d like to do a pelvic exam to make sure you’re healthy. Your mom said you’ve been complaining about some odd cramps, so we’re going to do a brief ultrasound, just to rule out some things.” He rolled his chair over to the sink, washed his hands, gloved them, and began lubing a medical device that looked like a penis. “This is an ultrasound wand,” he added.

  Mom looked at the device and tapped my hand for reassurance.

  “You look nervous,” Dr. Miller noted.

  I heaved a sigh. “I’m okay.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you a secret,” he said. “If you relax, this thing won’t hurt.”

  “Oh, I can handle it!” I blurted. “My boyfriend’s bigger than that!”

  Then. Utter. Silence.

  I‘d stopped breathing. Sweat rushed down my back as my gaze met my mother’s.

  Mom nudged her glasses down the bridge of her nose. She looked at me over them—eyes wide and mouth hung.

  “Mom,” I hissed when I found my voice. “Stop. Looking. Interested.”

  She looked away, speechless.

  “This is eleven inches,” the doctor said simply. “Your boyfriend’s over eleven inches?”

  I bit my lip. “Yeah?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Okay then! Sounds like he’s been blessed!”

  “I call him a Greek god,” I said, hoping to change the subject.

  “I can see why!”

  “Oh, not because of that,” I said. “I call him that because he can be a male model.”

  “Sounds like he can be a lot more than that!” he said, astonished.

  “He is,” I breathed. “He’s also my best friend’s brother.”

  Dr. Miller’s eyes narrowed. “That must be very awkward.”

  I shrugged. “She never asks for details…”

  Mom stared at me, blankly.

  “Well, Adonia!” the doctor said after an odd moment. “Let’s get this over with!”

  ~ ~ ~

  The ultrasound went as expected—I wasn’t pregnant, and I wasn’t dying.

  Thank God—Mom can shut up about it now.

  She peered over at me on the drive home. She hadn’t said anything since I blurted out information about my boyfriend’s size, and it was making me edgy.

  “Mom,” I said at the next red light. I shifted in the passenger seat. “Can you please say something?”

  Her head turned to me slowly, uncertainly. I couldn’t see her eyes through her tan, light-adjusting lenses. She was silent for a second, but she finally whispered, “Is he really that big?”

  “Mom!” I barked. “I meant say something else!”

  She bit her lip and looked back at the road.

  I was kind of relieved when my cell phone vibrated, so I can stop stressing about her. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Beautiful!”

  “Hi, Luke,” I said. “I’m glad you called!” I took a deep, strained breath. “Listen, I want to apologize again for puking all over your lunch.”

  Mom looked at me—baffled—then back at the road.

  “Hey, don’t even worry about it!” Luke said. “If I were eating maggoty fish, I would’ve hurled too.”

  My head hit my hands as I recalled standing there, panicked, puking on both our plates; and the disgusted look on his father’s face as I tried to excuse myself, vomit running down my chin, shirt, and arms.

  The waitress was staring. The locals were staring. Luke was staring.

  The embarrassment was worse than the taste, if you can imagine that!

  “Are you still there, Beautiful?” was the next thing I heard.

  “Yeah,” I breathed, my face hot. “Where are you?”

  “I’m parked in your driveway,” he said. “No one’s home.”

  “You want to see me again?” I asked, all giddy.

  He chuckled. “Yeah. But don’t tell anyone!”

  I laughed. “We’re on our way home. Give us a few minutes!”

  III

  Luke got out of his Jeep to greet us as soon as we pulled into the driveway. He was all smiles, and drop-dead gorgeous.

  “Hey,” he said softly, nuzzling my cheek as I embraced him. His hands settled in my back pockets. “I’ve missed you.”

  I wanted to kiss him so bad, but Mom was watching, and my day had been weird enough. “I’m just glad you’re still talking to me,” I admitted.

  He laughed, kissed my forehead and waved at my mother. “Hi, Mrs. Morrison!”

  “Mary,” my mom insisted, walking by us. “What a big, BIG surprise, Luke!”

  “Mom!” I scorned. She’s always so cool with everything, and I knew she was just teasing, but still—what if he figured it out?

  She unlocked our front door. “How’s your mother, Luke?”

  “She’s good,” Luke breathed. Then in my ear he said, “Why’d she look at me weird?”

  I groaned. “Because she is weird, remember?”

  I just couldn’t bring myself to say, “She found out you’re bigger than the dildo in the doctor’s office.”

  I followed my mother in, but Luke rushed to his Jeep. When he returned, he handed me a bouquet of red roses. “For you,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “Eleven.”

  Eleven. I giggled.

  “Wow! For what?” Surely they weren’t for vomiting at lunch!

  He looked at me eagerly. “It’s Valentine’s Day.”

  “Luke! You’re such a sweetheart!” Mom looked at me and mouthed, “Wow.”

  I couldn’t believe my boyfriend remembered Valentine’s Day! It completely slipped my mind, even with Lilly yapping about it for months!

  “So what are you up to, Luke?” Mom hung her coat in the foyer and took my roses from me.

  “Actually, I came to steal your daughter!” Luke grinned and winked at me.

  “Oh!” Mom smiled. “Absolutely!” She looked at me over her glasses. “Have fun, sweetheart.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, Mom.”

  In an ideal world, that would have been the end of it. But as soon as we stepped out the door, we bumped into my father.

  He looked from me to Luke. “Oh, hi, Luke,” he said casually. “Going somewhere?”

  “Hi, Mr. Morrison. We’re going skiing.”

  “In ten below?” Dad crossed his arms.

  “Dad.”

  Dad raised his eyebrows. “Yes, Adonia?”

  “Dad, there’s no rule saying we can’t ski in ten below.”

  Dad smiled at Luke, and it wasn’t genuine. “Have her back by eight.”

  Luke nodded.

  “Paul.” Mom widened her eyes and put a hand on her hip. “She’s eighteen. She’s an adult.”

  My father sighed. “On second thought, Luke, make it eight-thirty.”

  ~ ~ ~

  With the looks he’d given me, I didn’t think skiing was really on his mind. As it turns out, it was.

  We took the lift to the top of the expert ski trail on Grizzly Mountain. Interior Alaska has the biggest temperature shifts in the occupied world—I’ve seen temperatures rise or fall about ten degrees per hour. It makes planning tricky. And, as expected, the slopes were nearly deserted.

  At the top of the trail, he stood behind me, cradling me. Surrounded by moon-lit mountains, we watched green aurora dance just above their caps. The northern lights trailed across the star-filled sky as he put his lips to my ear. “You like this?”

  “I love this,” I breathed, squeezing his hands.

  His grip on me tightened. “You’re going to love the Alps, too.”

  I turned to him, shocked. “What?”

  He grinned. “Wanna go?”

  “What?!” I repeated in disbelief.

  He cupped his hands around my face and kissed me. Our foreheads touched, and when he opened his sparkling blues, they gazed into my eyes. “Burke’s giving a guest lecture at an astronomy seminar in Zurich. We’re going to Switze
rland for five days.” He nudged my chin. “But I’m not quite complete without you, so I bought you a ticket.”

  “Oh my God!” I squealed, jumping on him. I’m sure my skis felt great, stabbing him in the back. “Oh my God, you’re amazing!” I was in tears.

  Frozen tears.

  “So, you want to go?” he confirmed with a grin.

  I laughed. “Yeah I want to go!” I kissed him vicariously.

  Until I remembered Dad.

  He’d bought me a ticket without asking my dad; how would that work out?

  His face dropped. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yeah,” I said, falling to my feet. “My dad.”

  Luke looked thoughtful. “Hmm, I didn’t have enough notice to think about that. I literally got us the last two tickets available. Burke will be there, so we’ll technically be supervised… and we are eighteen.” He moved some hair out of my face. “Think he won’t let you go?”

  I liked how he said “technically”—like he had no intention of leaving our room. I pecked his cheek. “He’s going to have to! If he doesn’t, he’ll regret it!” I said with a giggle.

  To celebrate, we spent the next few minutes making out. Somehow—despite the trip to the gynecologist and my barfing on our lunch date—he’d managed to make this the best Valentine’s Day of my entire life!

  Our lips parted. “What happened to your dad?” I asked, afraid maybe his dad disowned him.

  He smiled and shook his head. “My dad’s too busy for me, remember? He’s out with that waitress.”

  “Oh,” I said simply. “I feel really bad about the vomiting episode, and I hope he doesn’t hate me.”

  Luke laughed. “How can anyone hate you? You’re amazing.”

  Amazingly ordinary.

  “Honestly, I’m lucky he took the time to come up and meet you,” Luke breathed. “That alone should tell you something. My dad has never made much time for me.” He looked down for a moment. Then our eyes locked, and he shrugged a shoulder.

  I felt bad for him. Not just because I threw up at a much-anticipated lunch date, but because he really seemed affected by his dad… or lack thereof. And I could relate, because up until a few months ago, my mom was the same.

  Ironically, now she gives me way more attention than I even want!

  I pulled him into a tight embrace. His heart beat eagerly. “I love you so much, Luke.”