"I have some values. My brother matters to me a lot. He's the only family I got; our parents died when we were teenagers, so we kinda got through some shit together."
"I lost my parents young too. When I was four. My grandparents raised me on their farm,” she tells me.
"They still alive?"
Lucy's face falls. "Granny is in an assisted living home now. It's not looking good and the place isn't very... well, it's not home."
"I'm sorry, Lucy," I say, reaching out for her hand, and our fingers brush together, sending a current through me, and from her shiver, I am sure she feels it too.
"I wish we could have kept Granddad's farm, that she could have stayed there, but she needs more help and we had to sell so we could afford the place she's at now." Lucy's eyes are looking past me, holding on to a memory. "The farm was out in the foothills of the Las Vegas desert. Granddad raised cattle and Granny and I took care of the other animals, looked over the garden. Canned fruit every summer and worked on a quilt together every winter."
"Sounds pretty perfect."
"It was." Lucy nods, thanking the waitress who brings her a lemon-glazed crepe, coated in powdered sugar, strawberries on the side. "It's been a few years since I spent my evenings on that big front porch watching the sunset with my grandparents. And now, that life is gone. Granddad passed away and now Granny is living in a facility that is not at all cozy or familiar. And here I am, rooming with three other cocktail waitresses, trying to make ends meet in a city that is everything I'm not."
"Why work at the Millennium?"
"I can't exactly afford to move Granny, and it pays so well. Maybe one day... after she..." Lucy blinks rapidly, wiping her eyes with the corner of her cloth napkin. "When Granny is in a better place, I will think about leaving Vegas, but not now."
"What would you do?" I ask, genuinely curious about this woman who carries herself with so much grace and beauty it makes my heart fucking ache.
She smiles, picking up her fork. "I want a piece of land, like the farm. Not the animals, necessarily, but the quiet. The slow pace. A family to raise and a husband to love. I want a life that reminds me to look up, look around. A life that reminds me that I'm not in it alone."
I swallow. "It's crazy to hear you talk like that."
"Why's that?" she asks, before taking a bite.
I scratch my neck. "It's, uh, well, I have a lot of what you're saying. The land. The cabin. The quiet. But I always saw it as a way to hide. To disappear."
"Why would you want to do that?" Lucy asks.
I shrug, lifting my cup of coffee to my mouth. "Life has been hard, losing my parents, helping get my brother through college. Dealing with extended family who tried to tear my brother and me apart over money, inheritances. Bullshit. I had enough and so when Luke finished school, I just got the hell out."
"Don't you get lonely?"
"I guess I never thought about it like that. I've always seen the choice to move to the woods as my way to kind of stick it to the man, walk away from the daily grind."
"Yeah but, if you're just some lonely recluse in the mountains, who wins exactly?"
I press my fist to my mouth, thinking about that. "I guess I never met anyone who would make me think I'd been doing things wrong."
A smile plays on Lucy's lips. "And now you've met your match, is that what you're saying?"
"Maybe." I reach for her hand again, but she pulls back. I narrow my eyes, but she smiles.
"I'm trying to win that ticket. No touching, remember."
"Too late,” I tell her, and it dawns on her that we reached across the table earlier, the rush of fire that spread through us when our fingertips touched.
"Gah, I thought I had you," she laughs.
"We could play another game,” I tell her.
"And what's that?"
"Truth or dare."
She lifts her eyebrows. "I wouldn't have to break a rule?"
I shake my head. "I'm a man of my word."
"In that case, Levi. Truth or dare?"
I grin. "Dare."Chapter SixLucyAll I want to do is kiss him. Staring at Levi, from across the table, all I can think about is his mouth on mine.
I'm eating my crepes and swallowing lemon curd and licking my lips, salivating over his face. And while this French breakfast is delicious, it does nothing to satisfy my real craving. The one that had me up for hours last night.
I tossed and turned in bed all night, my fingers slipping under the waistband of my panties, sliding inside myself, pressing against my clit. I rubbed myself raw, using my fingers to get off as I imagined Levi pressing himself inside of me.