When my head was in the fridge, I heard Roxie say, “Maybe she’s in denial.”

“I’m not in denial,” I called into the other room.

“Damn,” Roxie whispered loudly.

I got myself a beer and walked back into the living room taking a long pull. This somewhat hurt my lip (okay, so it hurt my lip a lot) but I powered through it.

When I hit the living room again, Lee came up to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders curling me into his body.

It was then I saw that I got blood on his shirt where I had wiped my face.

“I got blood on your shirt,” I told him.

“Forget it,” he returned. “Look at me, Ava.”

My gaze lifted from his shoulder to his eyes. Close up I could see he had nice eyes, warm, chocolate brown.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

“You should go upstairs, lie down, talk to Roxie,” he suggested.

“I’m fine.”

Lee looked at Hank. “Maybe we should call Victim’s Assistance.”

“I’m fine,” I repeated, a lot louder and a lot snottier this time.

Lee looked back at me. “Okay, honey. You’re fine,” he said this in the way all men speak when they’re dealing with a stubborn, unreasonable woman. I just stopped myself from rolling my eyes.

Instead I offered, “I’ll clean your shirt. I’m good with stains. I can Shout it out like a pro. If I didn’t go into graphic design, I was going to go into dry cleaning.”

The eye wrinkle came back, it was a lot better close up, in fact it was positively magnetic.

So that’s why I was standing wrapped in Lee’s arm and staring at him like a lovesick puppy when the door opened and Luke walked in.

Everyone, including me, looked at Luke.

Luke looked unhappy. Not, “oh, they are out of my favorite donuts at LaMar’s” unhappy but a lot worse.

“Hey,” I said.

Luke’s eyes never left me even when he walked forward and even when Lee’s arm dropped from around me. We lost eye contact only when Luke pulled me into his arms and I had nowhere to put my face but against his chest but I chose the side of my face that wasn’t bruised and battered. He held me close but he didn’t hold me tight. He held me like you hold a newborn baby, gentle and with care.

Wow.

I forgot I was mad at him and on my way to St. Croix and I melted into him.

“I’m fine,” I repeated softly.

“Babe,” was all he said.

“Let’s give them a minute,” I heard Hank tell the crowd.

Lee got close and I lifted my head up and looked at him. The eye crinkle was gone, his face was totally serious and I knew what he was communicating.

I shook my head but he nodded his. I knew this meant, if I didn’t tell Luke he would.

“I want it to come from me,” I told Lee.

That’s when Luke’s arms got tight. Lee just nodded again, looked at Luke then he was gone.

I tilted my head back to look at Luke. If it was possible he appeared even less happy. Then his hand came to cup the bruised side of my face.

“Jesus, Ava,” he muttered.

“Really, I’m fine. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

He bent his neck to rest his forehead against mine. “You wanna share what that was about with Lee?” he asked quietly.

“Not really,” I told him and his body went still. “But I’m going to anyway,” I whispered.

I watched, fascinated, as he slowly closed his eyes, took in breath through his nostrils and then opened his eyes on his exhale while his body relaxed again. This moved me at the same time it shook me. This small thing said a lot. It said a lot about Luke, a lot about how he felt about me and a lot about how much.

Even with all the drama I felt my stomach go melty and I really wanted to kiss him.

Instead I broke out of his arms, put down my beer and came back to him.

Then I put my hands on either side of his neck and looked in his eyes. “First, you have to promise me you won’t throw any lamps.”

“Ava.”

“Promise.”

His arms went around me. “Promise,” he said.

“And…um.” My eyes slid away and his arms got a little tighter so they slid back. “You have to promise you won’t hurt anyone, as in, maybe kill them or something.”

This time, his body went solid as a rock.

“Luke –”

“He touched you,” Luke interrupted me and his voice was flat, dead and the way he spoke freaked me out.

“Luke,” I repeated.

“That’s why everyone’s here before me. Why I saw Eddie’s truck pullin’ up when I was walkin’ up to the house. Lee was preparin’ because he knew –”

“Luke,” I said again.

“Fuck,” Luke hissed, the dead, flat voice long gone, anger taking its place. My hands went tight on his neck when I felt the air in the room go scary dangerous as I realized Luke was preparing to go gonzo.

Time to tame the wild beast.

“Look at me, Luke. Please look at me.”

He looked at me but only for a beat. Then he crushed me to him, his arms pressing the air out of my body as he buried his face in my neck.

“Fuck,” he repeated against the skin of my neck. “Did he…?”

“No,” I whispered. “It wasn’t as bad as that.”

I put my arms around him and held on tight.

Then I said, “I don’t want you to do anything stupid. I don’t want you to get into trouble for me. Just call Vance off Noah. My face will heal and we’ll go back to fighting all the time. It’ll be like it didn’t happen.”

His head came up, he pressed his temple against mine for a second then his mouth moved to mine and he kissed me softly on the lips. He lifted his head to look at me and I saw his eyes were not gonzo, they were gentle. One arm stayed around me while his other hand came up to my neck and his thumb stroked my jaw.

“Tell me what happened,” he said using The Voice. This time The Voice was tinged with a sweetness that, tied up with all the other emotions I was feeling, simply undid me.

Still I fought it. “We’ll talk about it later. Maybe tomorrow,” I stalled.

“I need you to tell me now.”

“It wasn’t as bad as you probably think.”

His face dipped closer to mine. “My beautiful Ava,” he whispered and my stomach got tight. “Please, tell me now.”

I couldn’t help it. He called me his beautiful Ava and he said “please”.