“Baby, calm down,” he whispered.
“You just insulted my father!” she shouted in his face.
“And the fiery Italian comes out,” he muttered, eyes twinkling.
Damn the twinkle.
And yes. She was a fiery Italian. A proud one.
“Do not be charming when you’ve made me this angry, George Cunningham,”
Hap dipped his faced to hers and said, “I’m sorry. Gordo. Sam. A few friends. None of my girlfriends. They had your reaction. The rest. No. So I’m conditioned to people thinking I’m a piece of shit about to turn bad at any given moment. But I shouldn’t have thought that of you.”
Luci felt her eyes narrow. “None of your girlfriends?”
“Oh shit,” Hap muttered, watching her closely.
“So that’s why they didn’t last,” she declared flatly.
“Luce—”
“Puttane!” she suddenly spat. “Stronzi! Che palle!”
“Babe—”
“I actually liked one of them!” she yelled. “That blonde. I see her again, I’ll scratch her eyes out! Cazzo!”
“Baby,” his body shaking on hers and that word shaking with humor got her attention, “calm down.”
“It is not okay, Hap, that people treated you that way.”
“All right, honey,” he said consolingly.
“You should be angry,” she snapped.
“I’ll let you do it. It’s cuter.”
He was being charming again.
She glared at him.
“You done?” he asked.
“No,” she spat.
“You wanna fuck one more time before I have to hit the road?” he queried.
That got her attention, mostly the him hitting the road part.
All right.
Also the fucking part.
Luci turned her head to look at the sea.
She did want to have sex.
She did not want him to leave.
“Luci,” he called.
She drew in and let out a big breath and turned back.
“Good to have that out of the way,” he murmured.
“Yes,” she said sharply.
“And thank you for bein’ that woman.”
“I’ve always been that woman, Hap.”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
That made her melt under him and move her hand to rest it on the side of his face. “Bello.”
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“Handsome,” she answered.
“Puttane?”
“It’s a rude word for certain kinds of women,” she muttered.
He grinned. “You can teach me all the rest later, Luce. Let’s work off that anger of yours and then I gotta head out.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
It just slipped out.
It was perhaps too much too soon.
She was very fortunate Hap didn’t feel that way and showed her instantly by moving in to kiss her.
He pulled back and whispered, “I don’t wanna go either, baby. But I gotta. Wednesday’ll be here sooner than we think.”
Only that made her smile.
She did that before she lifted her head and kissed him.
Things progressed delightfully.
But long before she’d wish, she was in her bomber lounge set (yes, also cashmere, and she would never share with Hap how much it cost), Givenchy slides (ditto on the cost), standing with Hap by the door of his truck, telling him to text her when he made it home.
He shook his head. “No text.”
What?
“I’ll call, babe.”
Ah.
She smiled.
He kissed her smile but it was way too short before he broke it, put a hand in her belly and pushed her back.
“In the house,” he ordered as he turned to his door.
“I’ll wait until you leave,” she replied.
He stopped in his opened door. “Get out of the chill.”
“It won’t take long.”
Sadly.
“Babe, in the fuckin’ house or I carry you in there.”
She kind of wanted to force that.
Instead she gave him a look and then turned and very slowly walked to the steps.
She also walked up them very slowly.
However, apparently Hap could be more stubborn than she as he simply sat in his truck and stared at her through the windshield until she was inside her opened door.
She stood in it and waved as he reversed.
He lifted a hand, one finger pointed up, and flicked it to return her wave.
That made Luci giggle.
She only closed the door after he arced in her drive, pulled out and away.
She touched the button for release, and the latch clicked.
She rested her head against the door.
She’d just spent twenty-nine hours with Hap.
They’d talked.
They had a plan.
He’d bared his soul.
She’d exposed her quick temper.
And when he got home, he would not text.
He would call.
“Wednesday,” she whispered.
And then she smiled.
Great
Hap
LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT, Hap hit the button to the garage door before he pulled into his drive.
“Is that your house, Hap? Oh my. I like it very much,” Luci, at his side in his truck, exclaimed.
He couldn’t see his house very well in the dark. But he didn’t need to. He knew what it looked like.
The development was a newish build. He supposed it would be better once the trees filled in, say, in ten years.
Now, it wasn’t special. The houses were close together. He liked the blue of the siding, he liked the parts that were brick.
But other than that, it wasn’t only not special, it wasn’t much of anything, outside a house.
He glanced at Luci’s face in the dash lights before he swung in his drive.
She couldn’t be inauthentic if she tried. She’d probably spontaneously combust in the effort.
And so, she looked excited at his nothing-special house.
That was because she liked him.
Which meant everything that came with him.
Which meant for Luci . . .
Done.
Hap did not know what to do with that.
They’d started this trek on rocky footing seeing as she’d clearly been waiting for him. He knew this when he’d barely pulled into her drive and she was already out the door, hoofing it down the stairs, carrying a big black tote bag.
He could not say it sucked that she’d been waiting for him and was so excited to see him, and go home with him, she was out the door and racing down the steps with her bag in hand before he’d even come to a stop in her driveway.
He could say it surprised him.
She’d dropped her tote to the gravel and thrown herself in his arms when he’d folded out of his truck.
He was a dude. A dude banging Luci, and Luci was Luci. So they’d made out in greeting.
Once that was done, he’d lifted his head and said, “You ever carry a bag again, I’m spankin’ your ass.”
She’d blinked up at him and asked, “What?”
“Babe, you got a bag, I carry it.”
She looked to the house, then him. “But now you can just throw it in your truck and we can go, instead of you having to go up and get a bag I’m perfectly capable of carrying.”
“It’d take five minutes.”
“Five minutes we’d save, and three we could continue to save if this conversation doesn’t go on any longer.”
“I carry your bag, Luce.”
She gave him a look that said she’d argue and the instant she did, he’d brace to argue.