was already three sheets to the wind. She wouldn’t miss Rae for long, if at all.
Feigning nonchalance, Rae moved behind the bar and stood beside Luke. Her skin tingled, her pulse tripped. He’d only held her once, kissed her once, yet she recalled every detail of that tender, searing encounter—a brush with passion that would haunt her for the rest of her life. “Actually,” she said, speaking past the lump in her throat, “I’ve decided to skip the Wilshire in favor of spending time with Luke. He flew all this way and—”
“You’re going to waste a five-hundred-dollar plate?” Geoffrey asked.
“No waste,” Rae said, holding the industry kingpin’s intimidating gaze. “All proceeds go to charity. You two go on. Don’t give me a second thought,” she said, unconsciously leaning into Luke. “I’m in good hands.”
“Do tell,” Olivia said with raised brows.
Geoffrey worked his clean-shaven jaw. “What is it you do, Monroe?”
“You mean aside from mixing a mean appletini?” Luke asked, shaking and pouring.
While Olivia sampled his creation, Luke snaked an arm about Rae and held Geoffrey’s cold gaze.
Rae’s heart pounded. Because of Luke. Because of Geoffrey. Because she was trapped in a web of lies.
“Sweet heaven, this drink is
“Pass. Could I have a word with you, Reagan?”
Rae’s stomach turned as the walls closed in. This situation had just gone from awkward to intolerable. The last person she wanted to be alone with was her so-called stepfather. “Aren’t you running late for dinner?” she asked. “I know we are.” She looked up at Luke, her panicked heart in her eyes. “Ready?”
Hand at the small of her back, Luke prompted her from behind the bar. “Nice meeting you, Ms. Deveraux. Mr.—”
“Stein. Geoffrey Stein. Of Stein & Beecham Industries. And you’re Luke Monroe.”
“Of the Sugar Creek Monroes,” Luke said as he escorted Rae toward a temporary reprieve. “We’re in the book.”
THREE
“A cab?”
“Had to get from the airport to your place somehow and since I don’t know the area and my time was limited, I opted for a cab.”
Rae shifted anxiously on her heels as Luke opened the rear door for her—mad as hell but still a gentleman. Heart pounding, she eased inside. “But a taxi from LAX to Bel Air? And you asked him to wait? We’re talking a lot of money, Luke.”
“Don’t talk to me about money right now, Rachel … Reagan … whatever the hell your name is. Not now.” He closed her door and rounded to the other side.
She swallowed hard as he slid in and buckled up. As supportive as he’d been inside where Geoffrey was concerned, in private he’d reverted to the angry man she’d greeted at the door. Six feet of hunky fury. “Rae,” she managed.
“What?”
“Call me Rae.”
Luke glared then shifted his attention to the driver. “Back to the airport, please.”
Rae blinked. “Flying in and out of LA in one day?”
“Skipped out on my family for Christmas Eve,” Luke said. “Need to be back for Christmas.”
“Why did you skip out at all?”
“Because I only just learned of your whereabouts and I had to know if…” He shook his head then dragged both hands down his face.
The man’s frustration crashed over Rae in suffocating waves. Unsettled, she cracked open the window and reminded herself to breathe. “Why are you here, Luke?”
“I need to know why you lied to us Rach …
“I didn’t—”
“You did.”
“It might seem that way, but it wasn’t intentional.”
“I’m all ears.”
Rae worried the handle of her purse, averted her gaze. She’d never been one to talk about her troubles. Luke’s scornful attitude wasn’t much of an enticement to change her ways. “How are things between you and Sam?”
“Not great.”
Luke’s cousin, a man who’d been smitten with Rae, had walked in on the one kiss she’d shared with Luke. Sam was above making a scene, but she’d felt the ferocity of his disappointment. It hadn’t been pretty. “I wrote him a letter. I apologized—”
“I know. He told me. It’s the only reason I knew you weren’t dead in a ditch somewhere.”
Rae’s heart warmed even as her stomach clenched. “You were worried about me?”
That whipped Luke’s head around. “Are you serious? You lived in Sugar Creek for a year. You were part of the community. A Cupcake Lover. A beloved teaching assistant. Maybe you didn’t care about us, but we cared about you!”
Another stab to her gut. Except they hadn’t cared about Rae, they’d cared about Rachel.
“So what?” he plowed on. “We were some kind of joy ride? Or maybe you lived in Sugar Creek on a dare? Wait. Let me guess. You were slumming. Seeing how the yokels live. Why Sugar Creek?”
“I threw a flipping dart at the map.” Rae was seething now. She’d had enough of Luke’s venom. If she wanted ugly, she would’ve hung back and joined her mother and Geoffrey.
He cast her a fiery glance.
Angry? Confused? Intrigued? Disgusted?
Rae couldn’t read Luke and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Where was the charitable playboy she’d fallen in love with just months ago?
This cynical man jammed his hand through his already messy hair. “I need a drink.”
“Join the club.” Furious, disillusioned, Rae crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window. She wished Luke would have stayed away. Her memories of Sugar Creek and the people who lived there were sacred. Luke was tainting the best year of her life. Plus, warping her vision of him as her knight in shining armor. The only man who’d ever defended her was now attacking her. The luxury homes lining Stone Canyon Road blurred as Rae fought back tears. She refused to cry.
“What’s up with your mom’s friend?” Luke asked in a tight voice.
“Geoffrey’s her husband. Her fourth husband. Don’t you read the tabloids?”
“No.”
Still facing away, Rae closed her burning eyes and cursed her flippancy. Of course he didn’t read the tabloids. He probably skipped respected periodicals as well. Luke had a reading problem. She didn’t know to what extent. She’d picked up on the signs when she’d applied for a job at the Sugar Shack, his popular pub and restaurant. He actually had a keen knack for disguising the disability, but she had a stepbrother who’d suffered with dyslexia and she’d also studied learning disorders while earning her teaching degree.
“Is he always a dick?” Luke pressed. “Or did I just bring out his worst?”
Rae’s stomach knotted. She didn’t want to talk about Geoffrey. “How’s Daisy?” The eccentric but lovable matriarch of the Monroe family had been the first member of the Cupcake Lovers to praise Rae’s baking talents. The senior member’s glowing compliments warmed Rae to this day. If only Olivia had been half as nurturing.
“Gram’s fine,” Luke said. “She moved in with Vince.”
“They make a cute couple. Speaking of, how are your brother and Chloe doing?”
“If you’d bothered to stay in touch with any one of us you’d know,” Luke snapped. “Why the hell did you tell your mom you spent the last year in China? Volunteering with underprivileged children in a remote area.” He
