Lucky Baby (Crescent Cove 11)

Lucky sat up straighter and slid me a devilish smile.

I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, he keeps trying to throw money at me to buy me out.”

Lucky stole my water and took a sip. “Maitland owns half of the Cove at this point. Almost every new build we see come through seems to have his name on it. I know they wanted to expand the condos around the lake.”

“Yeah, well, not on my damn property.” I took my water back, then thought better of it and pushed it back toward him. I didn’t want to drink from it now.

He folded his massive paws around the tiny glass. “By the time I’m done with it, you’ll never want to sell anyway.”

“Sure of yourself, huh?”

“Definitely. Just wait until you see the plans I started drawing up.”

I pulled out my phone to check the time. “It’s been four hours.”

“What can I say? I’m a slave to my craft.”

Caleb chuckled. “Is that so? Since when?”

Lucky’s brows drew down. “I don’t really have much else to do, so this will keep me busy.”

Caleb locked his hands behind his neck and blew out a breath.

Hello again, awkward silence. It’s been several minutes since we’ve seen you.

Luna bridged the gap between them by gripping both their hands. “Well, let’s do the bonfire thing. That way everyone can relax. I know we could use it. It’s been all wedding, all the time.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Lucky muttered. But he softened it by patting Luna’s hand. “It’s up to Ruby. It’s her property.”

Oh, now it was up to me? He was making plans for everyone five seconds ago. My palms tingled. I didn’t really want to have a bunch of people at my place. It wasn’t suited for human consumption at the moment.

And sure, that was the only reason I didn’t want to roll out the frigging welcome wagon.

Just this morning—somehow it was still the same damn day—all I could think about was how amazing it was to have my own property. Now, after looking at all the things I needed to fix…

Well, overwhelmed was an understatement.

Luna sat back and absently nuzzled Caleb’s hand as he draped it over her shoulder. “It’s supposed to be beautiful tomorrow night. Almost a full moon, so it should be nice and bright. We don’t even have to go in the house.”

I met Luna’s gaze. I was eight levels of uncomfortable from the natural affection between her and her fiancé and hell, just from the buzz of happy love vibes in the room. She was so open and friendly, but it wasn’t the cloying fake kind. She seemed to be genuinely happy about having an impromptu get together.

Some part of me was ready to dive in and say yes. That wasn’t me. I was itchy and tempted to leap over Lucky to escape. That would be the smart, sensible idea.

I didn’t want to be part of some friendship circle. Not when I wasn’t sure I could keep up my end of the deal. Better for me just to jet.

Too bad Polly picked that moment to bring over our food.

“Here we go.” She passed out the plates stacked along her arm.

The scent of gravy fries made me moan out loud.

Lucky glanced at me, his green eyes unreadable as he shifted in his seat. Neither of us behemoths were exactly built for a booth, especially when we were sharing one together. Our feet kept bumping and his shoulders were a damn wall, blasting out heat.

He didn’t even have on a coat, just one of those thermal shirts with three buttons. The white seemed even brighter against his tanned skin. He pushed up the sleeves and again, that scent of soap wafted my way. It even overpowered the gravy, dammit.

“Where’s Butch?” I asked as Polly finished passing out the plates.

“We stopped at the pet store and loaded up on dog stuff. She was passed out in my bed, even though I bought her a bed of her own.”