by M. D. Melai
This is not a date, Lily. He is just being nice and taking you out tonight. This is not a date!
I had to keep repeating that to myself over and over again. This felt exactly like a date should. I couldn’t help it though, I was still excited. It had been a while since I had been out. Even though it was with Lucas, I was taking advantage of it. Lucas and I were just friends. All these months later I was still getting over Emilio, and the fact that I had decided I would not be returning home. One day I would tell everyone… even Lucas.
***
We arrived near the beach fifteen minutes later. I didn’t know exactly what we were doing here. We came to the beach every morning. I guess I expected something different. But, that was the way Lucas thought. Whatever I thought we might possibly be doing, we would always do the opposite.
We walked down the walkway for a few minutes before stopping in front of a seafood restaurant called L'Escamarla. It was decorated in blue and white and was right next to the beach. There was both an inside and outside area for seating, and the wait staff had said we could sit anywhere we wanted.
I chose outside so we could stare out at the ocean. I should have taken the wind into account though. It wasn’t bad outside for it being February, but it was still a little chilly for wearing a sleeveless dress. I should have grabbed my jacket on the way out of the house.
“Here,” Lucas said as he shrugged off his jacket and stood up. He made his way around the table and stood behind me. He put his jacket around my shoulder and I pulled it in tightly. I breathed it in and I recognized the smell immediately. It was the same cologne he wore on all of our previous dates. I smiled as it brought back so many wonderful memories.
The waiter came by shortly and took our order. We ordered a bottle of wine with a glass of water and started looking over the menu. One of the things I loved about Barcelona was that most of the restaurants had an English menu. It was much easier to read than trying to decipher some of the Spanish words I wasn’t too familiar with yet. When the waiter brought us our waters and wine glasses, he took our food order and left us to talk.
“So, how was your day, other than partially stalking me?” I asked, teasing him a bit.
“It was good. I didn’t really do much. Violet called me soon after you left for work. She just wanted to check in and make sure everything was going okay.
“Dante had told her that your father has another group of men on their way over to see if they can find you. She still doesn’t know exactly where they are going, but she said for us to be on alert just in case they made their way to Spain. So I'm not sure when the next time we’ll have a night out like this,” he explained.
“So does that mean I’ll have to go back on house arrest?” I asked. There was no way in hell that was happening, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
“No. I’m not going to do that to you. We can still go on our morning workout and you can still work. I don’t want to take your life away from you. Just know that we may have to limit the outings we do. I don’t want to be around the city too much, just in case someone recognizes us.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
“But, enough about that. Tell me about your day. From the looks of it, it didn’t go very well.”
I proceeded to tell him about my day. I didn’t go into very much detail about my conversation with Emily. He just needed to know the basics about it. Then I went on to say how each customer that came in was completely rude and that I couldn’t get away from work fast enough.
Our food arrived shortly after I told Lucas about my day. We both ate and carried on a decent conversation. He asked me if I missed home and if I would go back anytime soon. I told him the only thing I really missed about home was being around Violet and Dante. I left out Emilio, because it was just too hard to think about him, much less talk about him with Lucas of all people.
I pushed Emilio out of my mind and continued to tell Lucas that I wasn’t planning on going back anytime soon.
Or ever.
He said he didn’t blame me and that I could stay here as long as I wanted, no one was going to stop me.
I wondered what position that put him in. He was eventually going to have to return to New York, or at least I assumed so. I couldn’t imagine him being able to get away with staying with me for that much longer as it was. He had already been gone over three months.
When I asked him, he responded by saying that he simply didn’t know. He was just going with the flow and whatever Violet asked him to do, he would, unless it conflicted with what he thought was right for me.
We finished eating and Lucas paid the bill. I wondered what he had on the agenda next. He took my hand and led me down to the beach.
“So, what’s next?” I asked.
“Whatever you want to do. I don’t have anything else planned.”
“That’s so unlike you,” I replied.
“Well, all I know is that you needed to relax and what a better place to relax than the beach. I’ve got you this far, whatever we do next is up to you.”
“Hmm…,” I thought about what we could possibly do. Then I thought I might make it a little more interesting. “How about I race you to the weightlifting area, winner gets to choose what we do next?”
“Deal, but do you really think you’ll win in heels?” he asked.
“No, I’m running barefoot,” I replied as I slipped my heels off. “And so are you.”
“Alright, fair enough,” he said as he took off his shoes and then stuffed his socks inside.
“Ready?” I asked and then waited a moment as we both set ourselves into a take-off stance. “On your mark, get set, go!” I shouted and we both took off in a sprint.
My dress danced around me as I slowly took the lead. He was about two paces behind me as we closed the gap between us and the finish line. We were almost there when he passed me and took off with some last minute adrenaline. He had won and we both fell on the sand as we tried to catch our breaths.
“Okay, so you’re a good sprinter, but if this was long distance, then I would have so won,” I said in between breaths.
“Just keep telling yourself that,” he said with a grin.
It took another minute, and when our breathing steadied, we sat up and looked at each other.
“So, what are we going to do?” I asked.
Lucas took a second to think about what his next move might be. Knowing him, he’d probably choose to do pull-ups or something in which he would win again.
“How about we go for a swim?” he said.
“Are you crazy? It’s cold outside and I can only imagine how cold the water is,” I retorted.
“Wimp,” he said as he raised his polo up over his head and let it fall to the ground.
I hadn’t seen Lucas without a shirt since we dated, and he looked better than the last time I saw him. He had always been muscular, but as I looked at him now, his stomach looked more chiseled than last time. His arms were more defined as well. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from him as I looked at his strong body.
Then I noticed a small scar on the front side of his left shoulder. A few more inches to the left and it would have hit his heart. I stood up and stepped in front of him and placed my finger on it.
“Does it hurt?” I asked.
“Not anymore. It’s just a scar now.”
“It must have hurt when it happened. I couldn’t imagine ever being shot.”
“I’m pretty tough,” Lucas said with a smile.
“Whatever,” I said as I playfully pushed him. “You probably cried like a baby.”
“No comment,” he said and then paused for a moment. “I would do anything for you, Lily.”
“You didn’t take this bullet for me.”
“Of course I did,” he said calmly. “That was part of the diversion. Emilio said that we needed to create a scene in which Faith and Nikolas would be caught off guard so Dante could get you out of there. I suggested that Emilio shoot me, and he agreed.”
My ey
es snapped up and met his. I knew that Lucas got shot to show loyalty to the Heinrichs, but I never thought it was to get me to safety. I searched his eyes to try and find some understanding. The fact that Lucas risked his life to protect me not only showed me how brave he was, but that he really did love me, more than I thought he did.
“Are you going to join me?” he asked, pulling me from my thoughts as he slid off his jeans. He now stood there in only his boxers.
I looked around the beach and there was no one near us. There were people back on the walkway, but they weren’t paying any attention to us. I had to remind myself that I was in Europe. This was normal, and plus, no one knew me.
I shrugged off Lucas’s jacket and unzipped the side of my dress to take it off. I knew if I didn’t do it quickly, then I might not do it at all. I was thankful for the undergarments I had chosen to wear tonight. They didn’t stop Lucas from taking in every inch of my body though.
“Come on,” he stuttered out as he tore his eyes from me and took off into the water.
I waited for a few seconds trying to muster up the courage to join him. I knew the water was going to be freezing. Why had I made up that stupid game anyways? I gave myself a small pep talk before I slowly made my way to the edge of the water.
I let the tide come in to me. The water was cold, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Lucas was already pretty far out when I started to make my way deeper. I barely made it to my knees before my body started to shake. I was determined though. I could do it. When I finally caught up to him, I was waist deep in the water.
“It’s nice out here, huh?” he asked.
“If you count nice as getting hypothermia, then yeah, it’s nice,” I replied through chattering teeth.
“It’s not that bad.”
“Not that bad? Then why are we the only ones out here?”
“Because, we’re just a little bit crazy, and you lost the bet,” he said as he smiled.
“I didn’t expect you to want to take a swim,” I retorted.
“By now you should know that I don’t do what’s expected.”
“Very true,” I said as my body was slowly getting used to the water’s temperature.
“Come here,” he said as he opened his arms. I immediately leaned up against him and put my arms around his waist. How the hell was he so warm?
I leaned back and stared straight up at him. The water reflected so beautifully in his eyes as it lapped around us. In that moment, all I wanted was for him to lean down and kiss me. I could see that he wanted to as much as I wanted him to, but I couldn’t move. My body was slightly shaking and I had to bite my lip to get my teeth to stop chattering.
“Let’s head back,” he said as he let me go.
I hesitated for a moment, and then I started to move as fast as my body would let me toward the shore. The wind had picked up, and between the breeze and dripping with water, my body started shaking so bad I almost looked like I was convulsing.
Lucas caught up to me soon and led me back to our clothes. I quickly threw my dress back on, and Lucas helped me wrap up in his jacket, before he slipped back into his clothes.
“Are you getting warmer?” he asked as he tied his last shoe.
“Yeah, a little bit,” I said before he made his way to my side and wrapped his arms around me. “How is it possible that after going into the freezing cold water, you still have body heat?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m warm-natured, so I don’t get cold very easily. I guess it has to do with that,” he replied.
“Well, thank you. I’m definitely getting warmer,” I said.
He held me tight once again, and I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be, in his arms. Lately, he has made me feel safe, and that was one thing I really liked about Lucas.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said pulling me in closer and leading me towards the road.
I was about to wave down a taxi when Lucas turned me around in his arms to face him.
“I’m really sorry about the late night swim thing. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but now I know how terrible of an idea it actually was.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I half lied. While the swim was a bad idea, being in his arms wasn’t. “Next time, wait until it’s at least seventy degrees out,” I laughed.
“Deal,” he said as he looked at me the same way he used to. “Lily…,” he whispered right before he took my face in both of his hands and kissed me.
I wasn’t expecting him to do that, but then again I never expected him to do half the things he did. That was another thing I liked about him; he always kept me guessing. I couldn’t help it, I kissed him back just like I wanted to do back in the water.
Emily was right. I had been lying to myself. I still liked him. At some point, I had let my guard down and allowed him to swoop back in. I had been a fool thinking that living with him and spending every day with him wasn’t going to mess with my emotions. He had been working so hard to make up for his past mistakes and prove himself to me again.
I was in trouble.
When I felt his soft lips pull away from mine, I looked up at him and he was smiling. I couldn’t help it as I felt my lips turn up too. I realized that this was what I missed most of all, being with someone who truly cared about me.
That was the moment I realized he deserved a second chance, and that I was going to give it to him.
Chapter 16
I awoke the next morning to the feel of the warm sun on my skin. The light was so bright I could see it through my eyelids. I hid my face in my hands and slowly let my eyes adjust. When everything came into focus, I found myself lying outside the terrace on one of my lounge chairs, wrapped up in a blanket. I looked over to see Lucas, wrapped up in a blanket as well, lying beside me. He was still fast asleep. Normally he would have been up by now, but last night was a long night and I knew we were both tired.
I sat up, stretched, and took in my surroundings as I thought about what all had happened last night.
Once we arrived home, I had told Lucas I wanted to speak with him. After we had both taken showers and changed into something more comfortable, he met me outside.
We ended up talking in to the early morning hours about how I was feeling. I told him I was hesitant about starting a relationship with him, because of everything that had happened before, and that I didn’t know if I could trust him like I had the first time around.
Lucas promised he would work hard every day to continue to win my trust back and prove that he wasn’t the man he had to be before.
By the end of our conversation, we decided we would take things slowly and see how they would develop. Lucas was a really good guy who had made bad decisions, because of the situation he had been put in. At this point, I wasn’t one to judge bad decisions. I had ran away from home without a word, and only two people in the world knew where I was. Everyone screws up, and in Lucas’s case, he was learning from his mistakes and trying to make up for them. He deserved a second chance. We deserved a second chance.
I also told him how I wasn’t going home. I explained my reasons, but I left out the fact that it was time for me to move on from Emilio, and for me to set him free. If he hadn’t already moved on, then he would eventually. It had been four months since I had last seen him.
I sighed over my thoughts as I slowly pushed myself out of the lounge chair, trying not to make any noise. My body was stiff as I stretched and tried to get my muscles unclenched.
Taking one last look at Lucas, I headed into my room and towards the kitchen. I decided it was probably time for me to make him breakfast, instead of him making it for me. He had kept up his end of the deal so far. He cooked every meal. I was spoiled to say the least.
I realized it was time to go shopping when I opened the refrigerator and looked around. We really didn’t have much of anything to eat in there.
I eventually closed the door and searched through the cabinets. I came across a package of blueberry muff
in mix and decided that sounded pretty good. I gathered up the ingredients, which we surprisingly had, and found a mini muffin pan buried under several other things. I guess the mini ones would suffice.
The muffins were almost done cooking when Lucas snuck up behind me and put his arms around my waist.
“I thought something smelt good,” he said.
I turned around to face him and then before I could say anything, he kissed me. We stayed like that until the timer for the muffins went off.
I turned and grabbed the oven mitt, pulled out the muffins, and sat them on the top of the stove before I ever spoke.
“I thought since you’ve made breakfast for me every morning, it was time for me to return the favor. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the way you look at it, this was all I could find. I think it’s time to go to the grocery store.”
“I love blueberry muffins, and we can go today. You don’t work, right?” he asked.
“Nope, today is my day off!”
“Good. So how about we change up the scenery of our morning workout?”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he said with a wink as he popped two mini blueberry muffins in his mouth.
***
I ran alongside Lucas as we headed towards our new destination for the day. He finally started to slow down before coming to a stop as we reached Ciutadella Park. I had passed by here a few times, but I never went inside the gates.
“So we’re going to run around the park?” I asked raising my eyebrow.
“Pretty much, but I promise the place I’m taking you is amazing. Have you seen the Cascada fountain yet?”
“No, but I’ve heard about it,” I replied.
“I was hoping you’d say that, otherwise this whole idea would have been irrelevant,” he laughed. “Come on, you’re going to love it.”
We jogged through the park side by side. Lucas said the fountain was on the opposite side of the park from the way we came in. It didn’t take very long to get to the fountain, and when we arrived there, I wished I would have come here a lot sooner.
I really loved the fountain they had in Palermo, but it was nothing compared to the Cascada.
