Lucky: A Love Lane Short Read Online Free Page A

desire to
claim his lips pulsing through my veins with each rapid beat of my
heart. The only thing preventing me from going for it is my deep
craving to do this the right way. I don’t want a repeat of my
relationship with Braydon, not that I think Henry would even let it
go that far.
    “ Hey, stranger, perfect
timing. The tour is just about to get underway,” he greets with
that delicious smirk.
    “ Lead the way,” I say
gesturing for Henry to begin.
    Opening the door to the
coffee shop, Henry motions me inside with a playful bow. Once at
the counter, he begins to order, and my jaw nearly falls to the
floor when he recites my favorite drink with ease. I turn my head
and simply stare at him.
    “ What?”
    I look from him to the girl
behind the counter who is also smiling as Henry goes on.
    “ I have sat in the same
weekly roundtable meetings with you every Friday for the last six
months. Your coffee order hasn’t changed once in that entire
time.”
    “ Oh, well, thanks for
noticing,” I reply, feeling the warmth creep into my cheeks. I am
flattered by his attentiveness but not all that
surprised.
    After our coffees are ready,
we make our way outside again and begin to walk down the street,
nodding our good mornings to those passing by. This really is a
great part of Brooklyn, and I can’t be more relieved and excited
that I found my apartment.
    Wanting to get to know Henry
better, I take the opportunity to dig a little. “So, tell me
something about yourself. I don’t really know much except what you
do at work.”
    “ Well, let’s see… I’m
twenty-six; my favorite color is green; and I like football, beer,
and pizza, all in that order.”
    “ I’m more partial to
yellow, but green’s not too bad. Better than red. I hate the color
red,” I say in all seriousness. “There has to be more to you than
that. What about parents, siblings, any pets?”
    “ Sadly, none of the
above.”
    “ Oh, I’m sorry.” I feel
like I am intruding now but far too intrigued to learn all I can
about Henry’s life to stop my line of questions.
    “ It’s okay. Really,” Henry
goes on. “I’m coming to realize it hurts less the more I talk about
her.”
    Her? That word brings a
sickening feeling to my stomach. Is he still hung up on a past
girlfriend? Maybe that’s why he is so quiet. Have I been reading
him wrong all this time?
    With my head down now, I
ask, “Who?”
    “ My mom,” Henry replies
with a somber tone as my head snaps back up to look at
him.
    “ Oh. What happened to
her?”
    “ She passed away a few
months back. Breast cancer”
    “ I’m so sorry,
Henry.”
    “ Me, too. She really was
the strongest person I know, and not just because she’s my mom.
After high school, she packed up her belongings and moved from
Pennsylvania to New York in hopes of making it big on Broadway. She
had a really pretty singing voice,” Henry adds with a faraway look
in his eyes, as if he is remembering a sweet song she once sang to
him.
    “ Anyway, my mom met my dad
in a club in Manhattan when she was only twenty. She was naïve, and
he fed her a bunch of lies about being some big deal Wall Street
stockbroker, which she believed since he drove a fancy car and took
her out to expensive restaurants. In the end, though, after he got
her in bed, his calls became less and less, and then, when she
dropped the pregnancy bomb, poof, he was gone.
    “ My mom was a fighter and
never gave up. She had me all on her own, and it was just the two
of us. She worked during the day as a receptionist and then at
night from home as a medical transcriber. It was hard, but we made
ends meet.
    “ My grandparents helped
when they could and sent money. They tried to convince Mom to move
back home constantly, but she was determined to make it work, and
for the most part, she did. They passed away when I was in high
school, but I know they were proud of her and all of her
accomplishments.”
    “ Wow,” I say, taking a
breath that I didn’t