Allie

Lucas Kennedy is...

Handsome. A dream.

Should dress up more often if he's going to look like one of those supermodel guys that wear suits in the Armani perfume commercials.

We all know the ones...

He even tamed his usually messy hair. The kind that takes zero effort on his part and somehow forces women's bras—I'm certain—to magically unsnap. All because of his sexy bedhead. Sex head? No, that doesn't sound right. The hairstyle completed by his pillow. He messes up my hair all the time and it certainly doesn't look good after he does it—even if he says otherwise.

"Is that gel in your hair?" He swats my hand away from his head. I'm pretty sure that's hair gel. He put in an effort for once.

He pushes me forward at my lower back toward his car. I'm not so against his actual car these days. If anything I cringe a little thinking about that first time I was in it, but maybe there will be better memories in it.

He seems kind of funny. "Are you feeling okay? Your hand is shaking."

"Oh stop," he snorts. "I'm fine. Are you okay?"

Well, yeah. I have a nice dress on, I'm going to eat free food with a handsome man that makes me laugh, and I'm going to spend the night with him knowing he's going to do everything in his power to convince me to live with him when I already started packing my things days ago.

I'd say I am more than okay.

"What did you get me?"

He helps me sit in the car with a kind of grin I can see on that Cheshire Cat. He reaches into the back seat to grab something. I'll bet it's something to make me uncomfortable. Probably something like—

Yep. That's a definite nope from me.

He holds it up and my eyes immediately shoot to the front of the house to make sure our child is not seeing this.

"No."

Lucas' grin spreads across his face. "Yes."

"Absolutely not." I'm stepping out of my comfortable little zone with him with a lot of things, but no. I draw the line at that.

"Allie," he bites his lip because he knows I think it's cute. "Come on, you'll like it."

What kind of sixty-nine shades business is this?

I can read the package clearly and no. I know he likes to push my buttons—and push my buttons. This is literal power in his hands at the push of an actual button.

"If you mean later, sure. Maybe." Hell no.

Lucas shakes his head. "I mean now. During dinner."

"Lucas!"

"Allie!" He mirrors my tone. "You won't even notice it."

Oh, I beg to differ.

Lucas kneels down beside me and shushes me when I protest. "He can't see from here. No one is looking." He pulls my knees out so I'm facing him. "Spread your legs."

"If this turns out to be embarrassing on my part—"

"Okay." He shushes me once more and reaches up my dress. He pulls down the panties I'm wearing and his mismatched eyes darken while he slips them over my ankles.

"These are pretty, Allie. Are these new?"

Of course they are. The intent was that he took them off later. Not as soon as I got in his car.

Again.

I am between watching my house like a hawk (in case Jadon happens to look out the front window and sees Daddy doing something up Mommy's dress) and looking back down at Lucas. When he looks up at me, though, I'm frozen on the spot.

Nothing else seems to matter and I feel safe. No one will see. He's right. I just need to relax.

"I've never done this with anyone," he says. "We're doing this together because it looks like fun."

I can't look away from him. He holds the panties he just removed to his face and inhales them.

I kind of like that.

He shoves them into his pocket and takes the new ones from the package.

"Don't freak out, they're washed," he drawls while slipping them over my ankles. "I knew you'd freak out about it."

He's right but that wasn't even in my top five worries when I saw the package. "Then why put them back in that?"

"So you'd see it from the start."

I hope he sees my scowl. I hope it's terrifying. "You just wanted to stress me out."

He lifts them over my knees and up my thighs. He stops to kiss my thigh along the way before telling me to lift my hips.

I can feel the difference already. He said I wouldn't notice. We should have made a bet on it, but I'd probably lose somehow.

"If you don't like it, give me a signal."

"Like what? Flap my wings?"

He chuckles. "Just..." his chest puffs up while he helps me get my feet back into the car. "Tell me you're done. Scratch your ear."

Scratch my ear. Yeah, okay. I wonder how often I do that without even noticing.

"Is this just for the car?" Maybe if that's the case, I'll be fine. Well, so long as my hair doesn't get messed up.

Lucas throws his head back in a laugh and slams my door.

I don't think it's for the car.

He holds my hand while he drives and hums along to the music.

Vibrating panties.

Really?

I don't even know what to do. It's not even something I would talk to Charity about because, well, it's just not. Even if she got me the "button pusher" for my birthday.

That's probably where he got this grand idea. He had to top my best friend somehow.

I stress and de-stress, wondering if at every turn he's going to start the damn thing just to get me started. I don't know how this works, but I'm kind of looking forward to finding out.

"Are you still okay coming home with me tonight?" Lucas turns into the parking lot outside of the fancy country club. There are white lights everywhere and people dressed similar to us. Nice dresses, suits, the whole shebang.

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?"

I'm trying to hold in my nerves. I'm not nervous about staying with him.

I love him.

I want to be with him.

I'm just nervous about the future. It feels fast in some ways, but also like a long time coming. Like it took a long time to make it here.

I don't want something to fail and Jadon end up getting hurt in the process.

"Just checking."

He pulls up to the valet parking for some reason. I don't understand why, the walk isn't that long from the regular parking lot.

Lucas pays the attendant and comes to get me on my side. Part of me is worried about the thing falling out, and I just know he intended it that way. He wants to watch me walk like a newborn calf on unstable legs.

My fear is that it's going to fall out in front of people and I'll look like I laid an interesting looking egg. Is that rational?

"It's not going to fall out, Allie," he whispers in my ear. "Trust me."

Slowly and agonizingly, I unclench the muscles on the lower half of my body while he walks us around the car. There are other people around and cars behind ours watching us and I feel hot all over.

God, they probably know. They just have to.

"Allie, baby, you gotta move out of the way. He needs to park the car."

We are standing right in front of Lucas' car and the first thing I notice is the parking attendant guy—he is definitely not much younger than I am.

He's holding up the package.

Lucas holds a hand up. "It's all good, bud." He slaps my ass and my stomach drops. "I got it."

Can this night be over?

I don't think I've blinked and just as the guy in the car makes eye contact with me, Lucas moves us forward and into the club.

"I cannot believe you just announced that, Lucas," I hiss.

Lucas and I shake hands with people. Local business owners. I know most of them from coming to these events over the years. He kisses my cheek. "He was staring at you. It was just in case it wasn't clear enough to him."

"Why did it need to be made clear at all? Why couldn't you just throw it in the backseat? Shoved it in a glove box or something? You left it on the front seat so he saw. Now he knows what's happening under my dress." God, can this get any worse?

Lucas freaking Kennedy shrugs. Shrugs. He's holding me close as if to announce we are together and shrugs. "I was distracted by the pretty girl in the red dress thinking about watching her try to eat some salad with weird cheese on it while trying not to moan how good she feels while I test the remote on this thing."

Good... lord. I have no words. Who is this person?

"Maybe if we're good, we'll steal a golf cart and you can pick which hole we stop at."

"Huh?"

He shakes hands with another man in passing. "The golf course. There are eighteen holes. You can pick whichever one you want and we can stop."

Lovely.

"I'm not interested in a rickety golf cart. No, thank you." Plus, I'm fairly certain there's security and cameras so... no.

Lucas stops us at a table where we are supposed to check in for the dinner. They tell us which table we are at. Considering what he has going on under my dress, I'm happy we aren't seated with my dad. That would just be wrong.

We stop and greet my dad and his date. Lucas spotted her for him and, yes, she's lovely and kind. Reminds me of his stepmom, Jen.

We're seated with a few older people at our table. One is a former coach that retired before my dad. Ralph McKnight. He has white hair, an oversized suit jacket, and an extremely loud voice. His wife beside him is quiet but friendly. I can tell she'd much rather be watching Wheel of Fortune right now.

Lucas holds my hand over his thigh under the table while holding a conversation with the man beside him.

These people are a mix of the old staff, current staff, and donors. It's not like we are raking in millions here, but it helps especially with the students that can't afford the equipment and uniform. The travel. All the expenses.

The current team players are also here and a few stop by to talk to Lucas. I know most of them so I smile and keep to myself.

I went to high school with their siblings and I definitely know some of them remember me from my momentous graduation where I threw up while getting my diploma. I can't look at them without wondering if they remember that particular event in my life or if they've forgotten it already.

Also, if I ever see Mr. Hoover ever again, I may just die thinking about him grading papers on his desk.

Why couldn't we have gone to my least favorite teacher's class?

There's music that plays from the other side of the room. It's a string quartet because this is an upscale country club and I guess a DJ was out of the question.

"I'll be right back. Do you want something to drink?"

Gosh, I'm going to need alcohol to get through whatever other forms of pleasant torture he has planned.

"Yes, thank you."

"I got you," he winks and kisses my temple. "Two minutes."

He's gone and I use the first minute to check my phone. Sure enough, Charity is regretting giving my child too many popsicles and she is asking about the off switch.

I warned her. Now she can suffer for it.

There's a small area where a few people are dancing and I catch my dad with his date. I don't really remember my mom and she didn't really have much of a family. After my dad's parents died, it's pretty much been us and the team. I have a distant aunt and that's it.

He looks happy with her, though. That's what matters most.

Maybe that's why things wouldn't work with Ted. Apart from whatever happened in this accident that he's trying to cover up, I never really saw a future there. Not in the way I see one with Lucas. It also never really felt like a family bond. It felt kind of forced in some ways. Not the way things naturally fell into familiarity with Lucas.

Maybe having a kid is part of that, but I just don't think Ted ever wanted me for me. Or Jadon.

"Is that your husband?" The woman beside me asks. She smells like White Diamonds and has giant diamond rings on her wrinkled fingers.

"No, he's my..." for now, I guess, "boyfriend."

"Oh," she nods. "He seems very sweet."

He does when he isn't sticking toys in me or trying to push my boundaries. Instead of unloading my woes against his ploys that I secretly hope start soon, I nod and smile. "He's very sweet." It's the truth. He's not what I ever expected.

I set my red clutch on the table when it starts.

The first buzz.