Book of Luke (Book 2) by Chrissy Favreau Page B

thin, blonde flight
attendant asked a few minutes later. She stopped her beverage cart
by our row and eyed Luke’s… everything.
    “Coffee?” Luke breathed.
    “Sure!” She handed him a cup and looked to
me. “How about you?”
    “Hot chocolate, please.”
    She fixed my drink in silence and gave it to
me. Her eyes rolled down Luke’s arms one more time and she headed
to the next row.
    “She was checking you out,” I whispered,
looking for a reaction. You would think he’d notice, but he doesn’t
really act like he does, even when the girls swoon in the
hall. Maybe he just acts like he doesn’t when I’m around? Or maybe
he doesn’t know he’s hot.
    Stranger things have happened.
    He laughed, but didn’t look at me.
    “What?” I asked, grinning ear-to-ear.
    “Most girls will check out anyone.” Our eyes
brushed and he shrugged. “I’m just your average Luke.”
    “ Average” in a room of male
models!
    He pulled my neck in with his bulky arm. “I
see guys checking you out all the time.”
    I laughed. Yeah, right!
    “It’s true,” he said, breathing in my
ear.
    I put my hot chocolate down and nestled my
head against his shoulder. His scent was comforting. The adrenaline
from takeoff made me sleepy—my eyes were closing.
    He kissed my forehead. “I love you.”
    ~ ~ ~
    Luke’s beeping phone jolted me awake. I caught a
glimpse of something on its screen, but he put the phone away
before I could process it.
    “Hey, Beautiful. We’re in Seattle.”
    I sat up and grabbed my aching neck. “How
long will we be here?”
    He unbuckled his seatbelt, got to his feet
and grabbed our bags. “Ninety minutes.”
    Burke came up to us with his bag. “Are you
hungry, Luke? Adonia?”
    I nodded.
    “We can grab something to eat in the
airport, yes?”
    “Sure,” Luke said. He reached into his
pocket for his beeping phone and turned it off.
    I stressed about who was on it, because it
seemed like he didn’t want me to see it.
    We walked through the terminal to a burger
joint, where a graying old lady with a husky voice took our order.
“Drinks?” she asked dryly.
    “I want a milkshake,” I said, digging
through my wallet. Dad gave me five hundred bucks for spending, but
I had no clue if they’d take a hundred-dollar bill.
    “What’s wrong?” Luke breathed.
    “I don’t know if they’ll take a hundred
dollars,” I whispered, just in time to find a five.
    “Um, well I was going to pay for it.”
    “I got it,” I said, and the lady rung me up.
“Thanks anyway.”
    Luke and Burke ordered their food, and Luke
was the first to sit next to me at a tiny round table. “You’re not
eating?”
    I looked at him uncomfortably. “I’m just
thirsty.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Is something
wrong?”
    This conversation was beginning to feel all
too familiar. But I couldn’t tell him his phone was making me
anxious—I didn’t want to be a pain in the ass girlfriend.
    I smiled and shook my head, but I had the
feeling I wasn’t very convincing. I had that feeling because I
wanted to cry, and he was bound to notice.
    “Oh,” he said, looking confused.
    Burke sat with us, distributing our food. “A
burger for you, young lady.”
    I stared at it, then looked at Luke. He
smiled and nudged my foot under the table. After a moment, I gave
in and nudged his back.
    “Thanks, I guess,” I said to Burke.
    “God knows what they will be serving on the
flight to London; it is nine hours long. You should eat, just in
case,” Burke said, adding mustard to his burger.
    I smiled weakly. “Okay.”
    “Is everything all right?” Burke stared at
me.
    I looked to him, and my eyes glided to Luke.
“Where is your astronomy lecture going to be?” I asked, to get off
the subject of me .
    “Zurich. It’s a guest lecture, it will not
take long.”
    “So they’re paying you to travel there just
for one lecture?”
    He nodded. “In the past, I have been paid to
travel twenty-four hours to South Africa to watch a solar