Lucas reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. I knew I should pull away, but his hand was so warm and comforting, I didn’t want to let go. He was only doing it to be supportive, but it would probably mess with my head a little.
“I pleaded with God to take me to heaven that night, but He didn’t.”
Lucas squeezed my hand. “I’m glad He didn’t.”
“Me too.” I glanced away. “The next day, one of the workers at the restaurant, Tommy, told me that a man had been stabbed the night before—the same night I slept behind the dumpster. Tommy said the man who was stabbed frequently came to the restaurant with another man, and they often hung out by the dumpster out back, smoking pot. Tommy had seen them many times before whenever he took a cigarette break. Anyway, that night they stayed inside the restaurant because of the rain. They had a dispute and one stabbed the other. An off-duty cop happened to be there, and he tackled the guy before he got away.”
“You were that close to the incident?”
I nodded. “It didn’t hit me right away, but later when I thought about it, I realized that if God hadn’t sent the rain, they would have gone out back like they normally did, and I could have been in the middle of all that. Even though I’d accused God of not protecting me, He used the rain to keep me safe.”
“Maybe He should have kept you from being homeless to begin with,” Lucas said, bitterly.
“He could have. But then I would’ve missed out.”
“Missed out? On what?”
“I learned something that night. I learned that although I don’t always understand God’s ways, He knows what He’s doing. I learned to trust Him after that. Now, when things aren’t going the way I think they should, I remember the rain.”
Lucas stared at the ground for a long time. “I wish I could trust Him.”
“All you have to do is ask for His help. Put your faith in Him.”
He stood to his feet. “Come on, we should probably head back inside. I have a full day tomorrow, and I promised Hillary I’d take her on a helicopter ride.”
“Right.” The words struck me across the face. At the mention of Hillary, I felt a prick of sadness, but I didn’t understand why I felt that way since I knew Lucas and I couldn’t be together.
I got up and followed him back to the house, reminding myself the entire time about the rain.
Chapter 16
Aria
The next morning, as I dressed in my room, I heard female voices somewhere in the house. Curious as to who they were, I headed towards the kitchen. Two women wore t-shirts that said: Sally’s cleaning services. They were setting out cleaning supplies and talking amongst themselves.
A sinking feeling settled at the bottom of my stomach. What was going on? Was Lucas displeased with the way I’d cleaned his house? We hadn’t been here long, but perhaps I’d disappointed him. Or maybe I’d gone too far by sharing that story last night. He’d abruptly said he wanted to go inside after that.
“Hi,” I said, cautiously. “Can you tell me why you’re here?”
The younger of the two women glanced at me. She was pretty, with shoulder-length brown hair and almond-shaped eyes. “Mr. Armstrong contacted our agency this morning, and we’ve been assigned to clean his house for an indefinite amount of time. Who are you? Are you his wife?”
I blushed. “Oh, no. I’m one of his staff.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I was the one who was supposed to be cleaning his house. My stomach churned, and a hopeless feeling swept through me. I shouldn’t have opened up so much last night. By doing so, I’d probably made Lucas uncomfortable and now I’d lost my job.
“Oh, there you are,” Lucas said, walking in from the other room. He glanced at the other women and then at me. “I was hoping to speak with you before they got here.”
“What’s going on?” I lowered my voice. “You never told me you were unsatisfied with my work. Are you firing me?”
His eyes widened. “Is that what you think? That I would fire you?”
I nodded, willing my tears not to fall. “Why else would you hire a cleaning service?”
“Because I have another job for you.”
Oh. I hadn’t even considered that possibility.
Relief flooded through me, and then curiosity. What other jobs were there for me to do? He’d jokingly asked me to be his chef the evening we stayed up all night, and it had come up again later in the early morning hours. But we’d agreed that wasn’t something I was ready for. I knew how to cook a little, but not enough to take Leslie’s place. Since then, he’d arranged for our meals to be delivered to the house from a local restaurant.
“What is this other job?”
He bit down on his bottom lip and ran a hand through his hair, looking very uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Uh . . . Let’s talk about this in the other room.”
I followed him to a small office, and he sat on one of the couches. I took the chair catty-corner to him and studied him for a moment. He seemed uneasy, which only served to make me even more curious. “What’s this about, Lucas? You never mentioned giving me a new job.”
He leaned his elbows on his knees, appearing uncertain. “That’s because I just thought of it last night.”
“Okay.”
He wouldn’t look me in the eye. “I need you to assist me . . .”
“Assist you with what?”
He finally met my gaze. “I want you to accompany Hillary and me on our dates.”
My mouth dropped open. “Say what? I think I misunderstood you.”
“When I take Hillary out, I’d like for you to join us . . . as my assistant.”
That was exactly what I thought I’d heard. Was he crazy? I frowned. “And what would I be assisting you with?”
“I just need you to be there.”
I raked my hand through my hair and looked at him incredulously. “You feel sorry for me, don’t you? You’re unhappy with the job I’ve done, but you’re too nice to fire me, so you came up with a useless job for me to do instead.”
He cracked a smile and leaned back against the couch, spreading his arms out on either side of himself. “You’ve done a wonderful job cleaning this house. I have no complaints, and I have no problem firing anyone, by the way.”
“Then what’s going on?”
He crossed his foot over one knee and cleared his throat. “You’re a calming influence. Last night, I realized that when I’m feeling . . . agitated . . . you have a way of grounding me. Your presence is soothing.”
Wow. Okay. I hadn’t seen that coming. Apparently, I had an effect on the man. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Won’t Hillary be unhappy I’m tagging along?”
He waved a hand. “She’ll get over it.”
“I don’t know about that. If I were in her position, I wouldn’t like it.”
“Trust me. It’ll be fine.”
“What if I said no? Will you let me go back to cleaning?”
He stared at me for a long moment, his expression beseeching. “Please help me with this, Aria. I need you.”
My heart fluttered in my chest like a dog wagging its tail. He needed me?
Oh, for goodness’ sake. He hadn’t meant it the way I was taking it. It was just a figure of speech, a way to get me to agree to this plan of his. Still, the pleading in his eyes told me he was struggling with something.
“Before I say yes, I need more direction on what I’m supposed to do.” I wrung my hands in my lap and shifted in my seat. “And I need to know why you’re asking me to do it.”
“Like I said, I need you there. You can participate in the conversation, but you don’t have to do anything special. Just be at my side. As to why, I told you already. You have a reassuring presence.”
“Do you suffer from social anxiety?” I blurted out the question before I had the chance to consider my words.
He laughed like I’d amused him. “That’s funny.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah. I d
on’t have social anxiety.”
“Then why do you need a calming influence?”
He grimaced. “Because Hillary has a way of putting me on edge, and I need a buffer.”
“But if you plan on marrying her, you’re going to have to spend one-on-one time with her. I can’t always be there.”
“Don’t think of this as a normal dating situation. It’s not.”
Obviously. It sounded like he didn’t like her very much and didn’t want to be alone with her.
“Have you told her your intentions yet?”
He shook his head. “No, but I will.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this. She won’t understand why I’m tagging along. Haven’t you ever heard the phrase, ‘three’s a crowd?’”
“At this point, I haven’t made any declarations of commitment, so there’s no reason we can’t all hang out together.”
“I guess so.”
“So, will you do it?” He sat up straighter and leaned eagerly towards me, waiting for an answer.
Could I do something like that? It would be less strenuous than cleaning, but on the other hand, it would be really awkward.
“You still look doubtful,” he said. “What if I increase your salary?”
“Honestly, it’s not about the money. I just don’t want to be in the way.”
“You won’t be. You’ll be helping me a great deal.” He sighed. “What if we try it out a few times? If it’s not something you want to continue, you can go back to cleaning the house.”
How could I say no when he’d done so much to help me? I nodded reluctantly. “All right. We can try it out.”
“Thank you. We have a date later this morning. I’m taking Hillary on a helicopter ride and then lunch afterward. When we’re done eating, we might go on a hike or walk along the beach.”
Oh, great. A helicopter ride. Like I wanted to deal with more flying. I closed my eyes, wincing. Why Lord?
***
Hiking called for sneakers, right? But this was a date, so maybe I needed to dress up more. Wait, a second. This wasn’t my date. It was a date between Hillary and Lucas, and I was the person crashing their date. I had to drill that into my head before I allowed myself to think any differently.
The whole thing felt weird, and I could only hope that Hillary didn’t hate me after this. If I was going on a date with a guy, and he showed up with another woman every time, that would be the end for me. But what did I know?
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I said, putting a few items into a tiny light blue travel purse.
Lucas entered, looking much more upbeat than he had an hour ago. “Hillary called. She’s running late and won’t make the helicopter ride. She’ll meet us after for lunch.”
I put a hand over my heart and let out a breath of relief. “Oh, good. Now we don’t have to go on the helicopter tour. To be honest, I was freaking out about it.”
“Well, I haven’t canceled it yet because I thought the two of us could still go, but if you’d rather not—”
“I’d rather not.”
He frowned. “You’ll have to take a plane back to L.A. when this trip is over. Wouldn’t it be easier to get over your fear by flying as much as possible before then?”
He was probably right, but the thought wasn’t appealing.
“What about the rain?” he asked.
“Is that the forecast for today? Maybe we should cancel the hike too.”
He smiled. “It’s not supposed to rain today, but isn’t that your key phrase to remind yourself that God is looking out for you?”
Ugh. He got me there. I wanted to tell him to forget about what I’d said earlier, but that wouldn’t be very honoring to God. I couldn’t just lift the Lord up and then later say I didn’t trust Him. “Fine. I’ll go. But only this one time. No more flying after this until we go back to L.A.”
He had a satisfied glint in his eye. “Good. I can agree to that.”
“It only seems fair that if we work on one of my fears, we deal with one of yours as well.”
He laughed. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“It’s true.”
I gave him a skeptical glance and pointed a playful finger at him. “I’m keeping my eyes open, and when I find it, we’re going to take a good look at it.”
He ran a hand over the back of his head. “Sure. Whatever.”
“By the way, does Hillary know I’m coming along today?”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t get a chance to mention it to her.”
Of course not. “So, you’re going to spring it on her at lunch?”
He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. Like I said before, things are casual at this point.”
“All right. You’re the boss.”
He smiled. “I like it when you call me the boss.”
“But you actually are.”
He tapped me on the nose. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
We headed out of my room and out the front door where Sam was waiting in the SUV for us. Lucas and I both got in the back seat. Sam seemed a little surprised that I was going with Lucas, but he didn’t say anything about it or ask why. We all drove in silence until we arrived at a local helicopter company.
“You’ll be glad to know we’re using one of the most respected companies in town,” Lucas said, glancing at me. “It’s not some rinky-dink place.”
“I assume you would never sign up with a rinky-dink place.”
“Absolutely not,” he said as Sam pulled the car into a parking space. “I’m just letting you know so it’ll reduce your fear and put you at rest.”
The only thing that would reduce my fear at this point was getting out of the helicopter at the end of the tour, but I nodded politely anyway.
Everything went quickly from there. Lucas checked us in, and we waited for twenty minutes before it was our turn to go. It was only an hour and a half tour, but I started worrying I’d have to use the restroom while we were in the air, so I must have camped out in the bathroom at least three times before we left. Lucas was a good sport about it and didn’t say anything.
Once we were inside the helicopter, the pilot introduced himself as Rick, a former air force veteran. He had white hair and a friendly smile though he seemed a little calm. As in too calm. As in maybe he’d fall asleep on the job calm.
I breathed in and let out the air. And then did it again.
Lucas looked over at me. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Fine.” So not fine. My stomach was already doing ripples as we lifted off the ground. I closed my eyes. Please, Lord. Please, Lord. Please. It was short, given how nervous I was, but God knew what I meant. I wanted to be safe.
Lucas took my hand. “You’re fine. Just keep reminding yourself of that. You’re going to love the view. I’ve been on this tour many times, and there’s nothing like it. In fact, we’ll see parts of Kauai we wouldn’t be able to see except by helicopter. There aren’t even roads leading to some of the places we’re going, they’re so wild and untamed.”
“All right.”
“You said that like I’m about to give you a spoonful of awful tasting medicine, and you’re bracing yourself for the worst.”
“Sorry. I’m just trying to deal.”
He squeezed my hand as we flew over the surrounding area. “I promise you’re going to love this. It’s so amazing you won’t want to come back to earth.”
That wasn’t likely. “How many times have you done this?”
He considered for a moment. “More times than I can count.”
“Then why did you feel the need to do it again today? We could have just canceled.”
“Because,” he lowered his voice, “I wanted you to see it.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the intimacy in his tone. He’d said it like it actually meant something to him. His eyes were tender as he looked down at me, and I felt myself slowly rel
axing. He rubbed circles on the top of my hand with his thumb, and my stomach flip-flopped. Nothing like a shot of endorphins to calm anxiety.
“Look,” he said, pointing out the window. “There’s the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, also known as Waimea Canyon.”
My eyes widened as we flew over the rugged canyon filled with sharp ridges and valleys, the colors so astonishing they took my breath away. Several shades of green and rust and brown were mixed together like a master painter had created his finest work of art. Waterfalls were scattered throughout, and I longed to get closer and feel the mist on my face. A light sprinkling of rain came down, and a colorful rainbow stretched across the sky as a reminder that God was with us.
My mood instantly lifted.
I felt it in my body as well. The warmth of God’s Spirit comforting me, giving me grace at this moment. The fear wasn’t gone, but it was fading fast.
“Waimea Canyon is a geological wonder at fourteen miles long and thirty-six hundred feet deep,” Rick said through his earpiece. He shared some other trivia, but I was so glued to the view that I didn’t register what he said.
Once we flew over the canyon, Rick informed us that we were headed for the Na Pali Coast. “It’s inaccessible to vehicles,” he said, “but you can enjoy it by helicopter, catamaran, or even by kayak.”
Lucas squeezed my hand again, drawing my attention away from the window. “Are you enjoying this?”
“I am. You were right. It’s stunning.”
We’d been holding hands this entire time, and I probably should have pulled away, but I couldn’t make myself do it. We were sitting so near to each other that I had a chance to observe his face up close: the sharp cheekbones, his lightly tanned skin, his full lips, and eyes that were both blue and green—I couldn’t decide which color they resembled more. The five o’clock shadow that had sprouted overnight. The rich brown hair that curled just slightly at the ends but was unruly in a masculine way.
The Ruthless Billionaire: A Clean Billionaire Romance (California Elite) Page 12
