“Lukas,” Lyssa repeated, unblinking as she held out her hand to Lukas. “And you’re Lia’s… friend?”
“Boyfriend,” Lukas corrected casually. He grinned as everyone, Stephen included, turned to look at me in surprise.
“That’s too crazy,” Lyssa remarked after a bit of quiet, exchanging a look with Bree. “How crazy is that, Bree?”
“Not even over it yet.”
I smiled stiffly, oddly uncomfortable. After craning his neck to look out the window, Stephen stared at Lukas.
“Nice fucking car, man. You rich?”
“Stephen!” the girls scolded just as I heard several pairs of footsteps coming up from the basement. I felt Lukas’s hand slip back into mine as I saw an unfamiliar redhead in tiny ripped shorts. Following closely behind her was Ritchie.
Well, there he is. Looking exactly the same.
If I was surprised by anything, it was the fact that I felt not even the slightest pang of emotion as Ritchie’s eyes caught mine. Unlike the exterior of the house, my ex hadn’t changed. Not even a little. He still had the same shaggy, light brown hair that he had to keep pushing out of his face, and he still wore the same oversized Billabong T-shirt under a plaid red shirt. For the record, he didn’t surf or skate. He just loved that damned shirt.
“Hey…” he finally said, his eyes quickly leaving
mine to stare at Lukas. “Who’s this guy?”
“Ritchie, this is Lukas,” I said. I felt Lukas squeeze my hand. “My boyfriend.”
Ritchie couldn’t contain his surprise. “No shit.”
“No shit,” Lukas and I repeated at once. Bree gasped.
“They already finish each other’s sentences!”
“No, Bree, that was just them saying the same – you know what, forget it,” Lyssa laughed dryly as Stephen jabbed his finger out the window.
“Yo, check out his car,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Guys,” I frowned, mortified when Ritchie actually went over the window to look at the Range Rover.
“I should be honest, it’s not mine. Borrowed from a friend,” Lukas laughed.
“Who’s your friend? Is he rich?” Bree whispered, as if whispering made her question less tacky.
“You don’t have to answer that,” I said to Lukas, exchanging a polite laugh with Bree, who polite laughed right back.
“Right. Well, uh, I have some food and stuff in the basement,” Ritchie said, taking one last look at the Rover before turning to me. “I figured we could all catch up there, hear about Lia’s new business and then I could give you the box and you could get going to see your dad.” He glanced at Lukas. “You can come too, I guess.”
Lord. I looked up at a grinning Lukas.
“You can come too. Isn’t that nice?” I whispered under my breath as we followed everyone down to the basement that had once been Ritchie’s escape when he didn’t want to help me with anything. There were still video game boxes littered all over the floor and pillows and blankets from the bed on the couch, for the nights that Ritchie fell asleep playing Fallout. I could tell from the dry look Lukas shot at me that he was making all the correct assumptions about what this room used to be.
“So, this is probably not as fancy as you’re used to in the city, but I got some of your old favorites at least,” Ritchie said, pointing to the flavored seltzer and giant, half-eaten pie of pizza from Lucille’s.
“Nice,” I said as everyone sat down, looking expectantly at me. Since no one had thought to, I introduced myself to the redhead sitting with Ritchie. “I’m Lia, by the way.”
“Oh, I know! I’m Gina.” She pointed back and forth between Lukas and me. “So how long have you two been dating?”
Crap. I hadn’t even thought to make up the story for that. I looked up at Lukas. “How long has it been?” I asked.
“Honestly?” He rubbed his bottom lip as he tried to think. I chewed back a grin because he looked so damned sexy like that. “Less than two months. It hasn’t been that long.”
“Oh,” Bree laughed, sounding relieved. “So you’re not that serious at all.”