As Cal crushed his hand, Grant tried to fathom being introduced as Abby’s “old friend” to her fiancé. He was the love of her freaking life! Had she completely forgotten that?

“Good to meet you, Grant. You in town for a while?”

“Yeah.” Grant cast a long glance at Abby, who radiated discomfort. “I’ll be here awhile. As long as it takes, in fact.”

“For what?” Abby asked, alarmed.

Grant leaned in to make sure only she could hear him. “To fix this.” He nodded to Cal on the way by. “You all have a nice day.”

Chapter 14

Luke thought he was dreaming when he woke to voices downstairs. He sat up, ran his fingers through his hair and was about to go see who was there, when Sydney’s mother appeared at the bedroom door.

She gasped at the sight of him on Syd’s bed and scurried away. Fabulous. Thank God he’d stayed dressed and on top of the comforter earlier. Could’ve been worse, he reasoned. While he really wanted Sydney to sleep for a while longer, he needed to let her know they’d been found out.

He leaned over to kiss her cheek and brushed the hair from her face. “Syd.” As he waited for her to rouse, his eyes landed on the photo of Seth and the kids next to her bed. Luke wished he had time to study the picture, but he had more pressing concerns at the moment. “Sydney.”

“Hmm.” Her eyes flew open. “Buddy. Is it Buddy?”

Luke shook his head. “Your parents are back.”

“Ugh, tell me you’re kidding.”

“Wish I was. Your mom saw us.”

“Oh.”

The single word didn’t give Luke much insight into what she was thinking as urgent whispers from her parents filtered up the stairs.

Sydney groaned. “I’m so not up for dealing with this right now.”

“You want me to go?”

“No! I’m not sneaking you out of here like we’ve got something to hide. I’m almost thirty-six years old, for crying out loud.”

Luke grinned at her feistiness, relieved to see a spark of life back in eyes that had gone dull with worry over Buddy. “And you just got caught in bed with your high school boyfriend.”

That drew the first genuine smile he’d seen since they came home to find Buddy in distress.

“It’s a scandal.”

He kissed her. “I’ll understand if you’d rather deal with them on your own.”

“Wimp.”

“You betcha.”

Laughing at his grimace, she got up to find a robe and stepped into the bathroom. After he took a turn, they met at the doorway to the bedroom. Sydney reached for his hand and held it tight as they headed for the stairs. The gesture warmed something in Luke that he hadn’t known was cold.