Just a Little Sequel (3 page)

No.

I seriously doubted that much.

Not Derek.

He probably just hadn’t had the time to put something together.

“No costume this year?”

“Nah,” he said, and we both watched as Rebecca and Molly retreated back into the house. Derek shook his head and held me tighter, but then he let his eyes fall on my costume as if he’d just realized what I had on. “Wow. I see you were going for
subtle
.”

“What’s with everyone? It’s like that’s the word of the night or something.”

“And for a good reason,” he said, almost laughing. He rubbed the back of his neck with his one free hand and then looked back at the house. “Did Charlie approve this costume?”

“No,” we started walking for the bonfire, “but he didn’t have to. There’s nothing wrong with it—”

“I’m not sure he’ll feel the same when he sees it,” he dropped his head.
Derek would know
; he and Charlie had practically become best friends. There was even an ongoing joke around town that Derek was my newly adopted cousin. To him, and to Charlie, Derek
was
family now. “Your uncle’s going to lose his mind when he sees this.”

“Oh, hush. It’s just a joke.”

“Yeah,” he said. “A joke that probably has poor Luke inside sweating bullets. Now it makes sense why he was in such a hurry to get away from you.”

“
Shut up
!” I rolled my eyes.

We joined a few others down at the fire pit. When Bruno finally took a breather and stepped away from the karaoke machine, Derek peeled off and started talking to Lonnie and Grace, who’d come dressed as bottles of salt and pepper. They gabbed for what seemed like twenty minutes about remodeling, paint schemes, and all things home improvement. Derek was in the process of singlehandedly renovating the interior of his house next door. I had to admit, last I’d seen it, it looked pretty great.

I surveyed the growing crowd of partygoers and caught Matt hovering near a few of the girls I’d invited from school. I could only imagine he was doing his best to flirt with them, but I couldn’t see that he’d be very successful. No girl wants to be hit on by, well, whatever that hideous creature was he was dressed as.

Bruno and I sat on the ground playing a friendly game of ‘say one more word about my wedding dress and I’ll slap you square in the face.’ Unfortunately for him, he was one sassy comment away from being on the receiving end of that aforementioned slap. He didn’t bother using the word
subtle
. He just came right out and said, ‘
hey Julie, why don’t you just drag Luke down the aisle?
’

I kept watching for Luke. It’d been nearly an hour since he’d disappeared, and all of the sudden talk about my wedding dress had me worried that maybe I really
had
scared him away. I thought Luke would understand that it was just a joke, but the longer he stayed away, the less convinced I was that he saw things the same as I did.

I turned back to ask Bruno if he really thought I’d crossed a line, but a burst of loud yelling up at the house caught everyone’s attention. Every head snapped back to watch as Luke let himself out, slammed the back door behind him, and charged angrily toward his car without any thought of finding me to say goodbye.

“
Great
,” Bruno and I muttered at the same time. He offered me a hand off the ground and pulled me to my feet. I chased after Luke as Bruno turned off to find Charlie.

“Yo, drama queen,” I yelled after my boyfriend, and he stopped just as his hand reached the door handle. He dropped his head against the top of the car and let go of a slow breath. “What’s going on? Where are you going?”

He stood immobile for a few long minutes. Despite the buzz from the yard, the hum from the karaoke machine, and the growing sound of laughter back at the bonfire, I could make out each of his jagged breaths as he kept his back to me.

“Luke?”

“Come with me,” he said, turning around.

I expected to find a scowl buried deep in his expression, but an unexpected grin caught me off guard. His smile was too far out of character for the moment; he’d just left the house acting as though he could murder someone, and now he was standing here acting so nonchalant. What had just happened?

“Come with you where?”

“The other side of town,” he nodded down the street. “Five minute car ride.”

“Where are we going?”

“Does it matter?”

“No.”

“Okay then,” he jogged around to the other side of the car. He opened the passenger’s side door and nodded, “Come on.”

Chapter Three

Friday, October 24 | 9:25 p.m.

I had zero reservations about leaving the party. But the farther Luke drove away from the house, the more I started to worry about him. His smile still hadn’t faded. He’d reached over and taken my hand, and with each block he put behind us, he only squeezed my fingers tighter. Why was he being so kind and compassionate when I’d just overheard him screaming at Charlie?

The streets of Oakland were freakishly dark by the time he pulled off onto a small lane just on the edge of town. It was about a block from the station, and there were very few street lamps lighting the way.

Not knowing which way to look, at Luke or out the window, I chose the less creepy of the two. My gaze fell outside and I watched as we crept by a few small houses at a measly fifteen miles per hour.

Luke pulled off into a paved driveway just at the end of the lane, and I turned my gaze from the side window to the windshield.

Before I had time to really study our destination, Luke killed the engine and turned off the headlights. He got out of the car, came to my side, and helped me out.

“Should I even ask?” I held onto his hand so I wouldn’t lose my way. I couldn’t see a single thing no matter how hard I strained my eyes. “Luke?”

“One second,” he led me along in the dark. Though I couldn’t tell one way or the other, it seemed as though we were walking in the direction of the house we’d just stopped at.

He stopped after a couple of yards, and I ran straight into his back.

“Sorry—”

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I let go of him to rub my nose. As soon as I stretched my hand forward to grab him again, he was gone, “Luke?”

“Don’t move,” he said, and his voice was further away than I’d prepared myself for.

“What are you doing?”

No sooner than I’d asked, a tiny little light on the corner of Luke’s cell phone lit up, illuminating an area of a few feet in front of him.

“Okay, come here,” he said, and I reached for his outstretched hand.

I lunged forward a few steps and grabbed him, and then he turned his phone in the opposite direction.

The light shone on a dark, brick-faced house, about half the size of Charlie’s. I couldn’t really see it well. Luke’s cell phone didn’t really shed a lot of light on the place, but I could see enough to conclude that it was an older, single-story home.

“Where are we?” I asked, turning to Luke. It was just too dark to read his expression, so I nuzzled in closer as he wrapped one arm around my waist. “Luke?” He didn’t say anything, and his silence was a little unsettling. After the way he’d left the house earlier, followed by his quick change of demeanor at the car, and now his eerie silence, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Luke, are you okay? I mean, you’re kinda freaking me out. You’re acting weird, and I don’t think—”

“Julie,” Luke dropped his phone to his side. Now I couldn’t see anything at all. “Please stop talking.”

“But I—”

“Stop talking, and recognize what’s happening here, Jules.”

“What’s happening here?”

“I bought a house,” he tried to disguise the nervousness in his voice, but he failed miserably. “I was going to wait until the weekend to show you, but I—”

“
You bought a house
?” I asked, suddenly relieved that he couldn’t see my expression. I was certain the look on my face would’ve easily won me the
Most Horrified
title at the costume party.

Talk about a blindside!

Luke hadn’t once mentioned anything about being in the market for a new place. He loved his apartment so much that he looked after it like it was his own child. He’d never hinted that he wanted to leave, and now all of a sudden he was a proud homeowner?

“I didn’t know you were—”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said, and again, his nervousness got the best of him.

“Surprise
me
?” I asked. “What’s this have anything to do with me? It’s
your
house—”

“No,” he said, and suddenly, he didn’t sound so nervous anymore. “It’s
our
house.”

“
Our
house?”

“Mine and yours, kid,” he held me tighter. “I bought it for
us
.”

Friday, October 24 | 9:40 p.m.

It took nearly ten minutes for everything to sink in.

I stood on the front lawn and listened as Luke explained himself.

He said he’d been looking all over town for the perfect place, and nothing ever felt right. Then he came across an ad in the paper for this place, called up his realtor, and asked for a showing. Like every other house he’d seen, Luke expected to walk in and hate this one just as much. But he didn’t hate it. He loved it. And he didn’t hesitate to make an offer the moment he finished the walk-through.

I was too flustered to really get my thoughts in order. I didn’t bother asking any of the questions I probably should’ve asked:
why would you buy a house without consulting me? Why would you just
assume
I’d want to move in with you? Why are you so excited about us living together, but you won’t even take the time to propose?

“Can I see it?” I asked, and Luke’s hand landed gently on the small of my back.

“Of course,” he said, and I heard him rustling with his keys. His strong hand directed me closer to the front. “Watch your step here,” he said, and then we both took a one-step rise up onto a stoop. Luke dropped his hand from my back long enough to unlock the door, and how he’d managed to find the key and unlock the deadbolt in the dark was a mystery even to me. He reached back and grabbed my hand as he walked forward. Once we were standing just inside the door, he flipped on an interior light and shut the door behind me.

I stood staring at the empty space.

The dark wooden floor stretched from the doorway back as far as I could see.

“I’ll get the rest of the lights.”

Luke left my side to make his way through the house. He turned the lights on in each room, and once the entire floor was illuminated, he came back to me with a smile.

“Want the tour?”

“You bought this house?” I let my eyes wander from one freshly painted wall to the next. The color was a perfect shade of beige—warm, welcoming, homey. “You own this?”

He nodded slowly and bit his lip. I wasn’t sure he could read my stunned expression, but he took my hand and guided me forward nonetheless.

“This is a closet,” he turned to a set of doors immediately to our right. “Plenty of space for coats, and shoes, and whatever it is that people keep in these things.”

I smiled. A few steps further and to the left, the room opened up into a large kitchen, one that would’ve made Matt green with jealousy. There was a gas range stove with four sealed burners, a double wall oven, and large stainless steel refrigerator fitted between two of the marble countertops.

I didn’t even want to know how much money had gone into designing that kitchen, and I couldn’t imagine Luke or I either one would ever utilize any of those appliances to their full potential.

I took a minute to study the tiled backsplash on the wall and the dim fixtures around the island. I don’t even know how many times I’d thought
‘holy crap, Matt is gonna freak when he sees this place!’

A door off the side of the kitchen opened to a descending staircase. The basement wasn’t finished, but Luke said something about making a project of it in a few years. There was a small corner with a folding table, washer, and dryer, but other than that, the basement was pretty much that… a basement.

Back on the first floor, I wasn’t sure I’d managed an expression yet. Luke still watched me with great uncertainty, and he held his hand out to take me to the next room. At the back of the house, just behind the kitchen, there was a small, carpeted dining room. A set of windows spanned the entirety of the room. Just like his apartment back in the district, Luke had already taken the time to hang blinds and curtains.

We backed out of the dining room and walked directly into the attached living room on the right side of the house. Like the dining room, it was also carpeted. Unlike the dining room, it was incredibly spacious. There was a wood burning fireplace on the far wall, and a small hallway stretched back, concealing four closed doors.

“Bathroom,” he pointed at the first, and I stopped off to check it out. For obvious reasons, bathrooms weren’t particularly my favorite spot to hang out. Still, I studied the unique features before turning out.

“This is just a spare room,” he opened the next door. It wasn’t incredibly spacious. “It’s not much, I know, but I thought we’d convert this into a home-office of sorts,” Luke said, raising a brow. “You know, a place for you to do homework now, and conduct business in a few years when
Just a Little Soiree
takes off.”

I bit my bottom lip and turned back to him.

Just a Little Soiree
.

Just hearing those words fall off his lips made my heart swell with happiness.

I’d told Luke earlier in the year, just before my second semester at the local community college that I’d finally decided to chase that unattainable dream. I loved planning parties. I loved organizing, decorating, and executing such huge events. For the past couple of years, I’d never thought of it as anything that I could ever make a realistic career out of. But then one day I woke up and decided ‘why not?’ How would I ever know if I didn’t try? I marched into my academic advisor’s office last spring, threw myself back in a chair, and finally declared a major: hospitality management, emphasis on event planning.

I swung by the police station after school that day and Luke instantly recognized a change.

He’d said, ‘
you’re practically glowing, Jules, what’s going on?
’

That’s when I told him that I’d decided to start my own party planning business. Of course, I had to get through school, learn the basics, and really make sure I had my feet on the ground. Saving the money I earned working part-time for Grace and Lonnie at the flower shop (I’d taken over Matt’s job when he left) I’d be able to make myself a nice little nest-egg for the start-up. I figured, maybe by the time I’m twenty-five, I can hit the ground running.

Luke had been nothing but supportive.

He’d even been the genius behind the name
Just a Little Soiree
. He said it had a ring to it, and I liked it. So it stuck.

“Bedrooms,” he turned to the two doors facing the front of the house. I stuck my head inside the first and smiled; he’d already put a dog bed in place, which meant he planned to let Elvis have his own room. We walked back out, and Luke put his hand on the door knob leading into the master bedroom.

“Again, I wasn’t planning to bring you here until Sunday evening, so I’m sorry for the mess,” he said, and then he opened the door and flipped on the light.

I took a step into the bedroom and caught a breath in my throat.

“Luke?”

The clothes he’d worn to the house earlier were strewn about the tidily made bed—
Luke’s
bed—and there were boxes, mostly unpacked, stacked in every corner.

“Have you been staying here?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “I haven’t had much free time lately, and I just had trouble going between here and the apartment, so I moved out...six weeks ago.”

“You’ve had this house for almost two months, and you’re just now telling me?”

“Ah,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “I’ve had this house for about
five
months, actually.”

“Five?”

“It needed some work,” he said, half-laughing. “Believe me when I tell you it didn’t look half this nice when I bought it. It was quite a fixer-upper, but I got it for a hell of a price. The kitchen was a disaster—”

“Wait a minute,” I held my hand in the air. “Time out.”

“What?”

“You bought this house in….”

“May,” he spared me the mental math.

“And you remodeled the kitchen?”

“The kitchen, the bathrooms, the whole place.”

“And you’ve been living here since—”

“Your second week of the semester.”

“And you didn’t tell me because…?”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said, and then I remembered that he’d already told me that once before on the front lawn.

“But… I hate surprises.”

“Do you hate this surprise?” he asked, looking around the room. “I mean, minus the crap thrown everywhere.”

I smiled. The mess was very unlike him, but I kinda liked that. It was unpredictable stuff that made Luke so intriguing to me; I never knew what to expect with him.

“No,” I shook my head. “I don’t hate this surprise at all.”

Luke’s chest fell as he let a long, slow breath pass between his lips.

“Luke, it’s a really sweet gesture, and I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful, but why did you bring me here? If you wanted it to be a surprise, why didn’t you just wait? I mean, Sunday’s only a few days away, and you said yourself you weren’t planning on bringing me here tonight for the big reveal. What changed your mind? You’ve already waited five months; why not wait a couple more days?”

He closed his eyes as if he needed to make sure he couldn’t see my face when he said, “Charlie.”

“Charlie?”

“Julie,” he said, and he finally opened his eyes. His mouth hung open for a few long seconds, and then he dropped his head. “I think we need to talk about—”

And then his phone rang.

Lifting a finger, he pulled it from his back pocket and checked the screen.

With an annoyed sigh, he answered.

“What?”

He only listened for two seconds before he interrupted the person on the other line.

“Okay, okay, okay,” he said hurriedly, and his eyes got wider. With a giant smile he ended the call with, “We’re coming. We’re leaving now. We’ll be there in five minutes.”