10
Abby
I’m in hell. Pure hell.
The devil himself couldn’t have devised torture this effective.
From across the table, at the restaurant where my family is meeting Lukas for the first time, my dad frowns at him. “So you don’t have a backup plan?”
“Dad!” I shake my head, appalled and embarrassed. Why had I thought this was a good idea? Because it’s an utter disaster. My conservative father hasn’t stopped obsessing on Lukas’s career for the last twenty minutes and takes every lull in the conversation to bring it up.
Lukas smiles cordially. “Nope, I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.”
The guy is a trooper; I’ll give him that. He’s taken all the questions with a good-natured affability.
At least my mom is charmed, albeit distracted. She’d normally be more help in keeping my dad in line; only she’s preoccupied with counting how many mimosas Eden has slugged back in the last hour.
“Personally,” Eden says, a dazzling smile highlighting her perfectly white teeth. “I love a man who’s spontaneous.”
My mother isn’t the only charmed one.
I dig my nails into my palms resting on my lap and pray for a quick death. My family is not normal. This is not normal. My dad’s obsessing. My mom is fretting over Eden. And my big sister, well, the drunker she gets, the more she flirts with Lukas.
It’s sickening.
I’m so tense you could probably snap me in half. I can feel Eden’s venom directed at me. The competitiveness that demands she obliterate me. That I have something she thinks should be hers.
In her eyes, I can see she believes she can take Lukas away from me. Her intention to steal him, it shines in her gaze and I feel powerless to stop any of it.
Lukas has politely ignored her fawning, but really, he’s got to be flattered. All men are smitten with Eden. I can’t believe Lukas will be the exception. It’s impossible not to fall deep in lust with her, I don’t even blame him, it’s biology.
It doesn’t matter that she has no depth to her personality, or that her choice in a career is her next sugar daddy, or even that she has a tiny drinking problem.
Nope, none of that matters when she looks like that.
“It’s a dangerous job, a backup plan would be prudent.” My dad continues, scratching his salt-and-pepper head, looking as though he’s calculating some complex mathematical equation. He is an actuary, assessing risk is in his blood, but still, this is beyond humiliating.
Lukas’s fingers slide under my hair and settle on the curve of my neck, rubbing a little but it does nothing to ease my tension. “I’m very careful, sir.”
My father opens his mouth, but I hold up a hand. “That’s enough, Dad. Not everyone has a five-year plan.”
“Besides, Daddy, a little danger never hurt anyone,” Eden purrs, fluttering thick, sooty lashes at Lukas. “You’re very brave.” She shifts her attention to me, a smirk on her full, pouty lips. “Really, Abby’s such a bookworm and so careful, how’d she ever manage to catch such a daredevil like you?”
It’s not a compliment, and despite my best efforts, I feel the sting.
I’m close to the breaking point. All I want to do is get out of this seat and run until nobody can find me.
Lukas’s thigh presses against mine. “Abby is the smartest, most interesting woman I know.”
I squirm in my chair. I’m trying, I swear I’m trying my very best, but this is triggering the worst of all my memories. I’m trying to be logical, telling myself that Eden will only push my buttons if I let her. But my heart isn’t buying any of it. No, it keeps reminding me that Eden is a carbon copy of the type of woman I’d seen traipsing down Lukas’s sidewalk a million times.
I’m miserable. All my hard work over the past six weeks evaporates like a mirage. The corners of my eyes sting and my throat burns. I won’t cry now. I’ll wait until later, when I’m alone.
Eden flashes another sly smile at Lukas, like they share some sort of secret. “Abby’s the brains in the family and always so proper.”
My mom pats my hand. “We’re very proud of all Abby has accomplished.”
I offer my mom a shaky tilt of my lips.