And her mother’s previous marriage had made Naya want to try and distance herself from Luke, too! Now Naya was in a conundrum, in love with a man who would eventually move on to the next woman. And that broke her heart.
Later that night, she fell into bed thinking that she wouldn’t get much sleep. But after being with Luke last night, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and didn’t stir until she heard the birds singing outside of her window the following morning.
Naya and her mother went shopping the next day, spending time browsing, eating lunch, and having their nails done at one of the local shops. It was one of the most relaxing times Naya had spent with her mother in years, and as the three of them were sitting down to dinner at one of the gourmet restaurants near her mother’s house that night, Naya understood that the reason this trip was so relaxing was because her mother was more relaxed. And happy! Jeff made her mother happy! It was such a revelation!
She flew home late Sunday night, and Naya stared out at the darkness for the longest time, her mind trying to filter through all that she’d learned over the weekend.
So, when Luke met her at the airport, she was startled and more than slightly happy to see him. In fact, she threw herself into his arms and started crying, clinging to him like a little girl.
“Hey!” he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up and kissing her neck since her face was buried against his own neck. “What happened, honey? Are you okay?”
Was she okay? Naya had no idea. She didn’t know what was going on any longer. The sun was just starting to set here in Seattle, but Naya was on East Coast time, so she was tired, but she didn’t want to go to bed.
“My mother is getting married,” she told Luke when she finally pulled back.
Luke looked down at her cheeks, noticing that she looked beautiful when she cried. “And this is a bad thing?”
Naya shrugged. “I never thought it would happen. I thought my mother was completely opposed to marriage.”
He stilled, staring down at her as the airport workers rushed around them, doing their final check and storing the plane for the night. “Is that why you’ve tried to keep me at a distance for so long?”
Naya looked up at him, blinking and not sure how to reply. His green eyes looked so sincere, so gentle and yet, there was something more to his look. Something that told her that he needed the truth. “Yes,” she finally admitted, and knew that it was the truth. “My mother and father argued all the time when they were married. Finally, they called it quits and divorced. But even their divorce was miserable and brutal.”
Luke had suspected something had gone wrong in her past, but hearing her say that, he was stumped. He didn’t know how to combat that kind of a history. And having her gone for the weekend only confirmed that he wanted her in his life forever. Not just for the nights either. He wanted her in his life, in his house, in his heart. He wanted all of her.
“That doesn’t mean all marriages are bad, love,” he told her, trying to think of how to get her to believe that. The diamond ring was burning a hole in his pocket. He’d wanted to propose to her the moment she’d stepped off of the plane. Now, he wasn’t sure what to do. Unfortunately, he saw the wariness in her eyes, knew that she was too vulnerable at the moment. As much as he wanted his ring on her finger, to know that she would be his wife, he couldn’t ask her to make that kind of a commitment right now. “Come on. Let’s go back to my place and you can tell me about your mother.”
Naya let him tuck her into his Porsche and worried about how she was going to handle breaking up with this incredible man. She couldn’t stay with him. She loved him too much and she couldn’t put herself in his company like this. She wouldn’t survive the end of their affair if she became any more emotionally involved with him.
She snorted. More emotionally involved? Was it possible to love a man more than she loved Luke? It didn’t seem possible.
Luke looked over at her after hearing the odd sound, not sure where her mind was. She’d never been this quiet. Normally, she was teasing or pushing, nudging or challenging him. He loved every moment of being with Naya. Even now, he was more concerned about her than he was frustrated that she wasn’t telling him what was wrong. She was one of those happy people that rarely seemed down about anything.