Winter (Four Seasons #1) Read Online Free Page B

something? You should probably do that so I can get
back to studying. I have those midterms I told you about last
night, remember?”
    “ Can we go
grab some food? I came straight over after I finished my shift. I’m
starving.”
    I fold my arms
across my chest and glare at him. “How did you even know which was
my apartment?”
    A guilty look
flashes across his face and he cups his hand to the back of his
neck, avoiding my eyes. “I uh…I slipped some chick in the hall a
fifty and she told me.”
    This would be
another great time for an eye roll. “Great. Now people are gonna
think I have random guys coming up here at all hours.”
    “ Avery,
please…” Smoke billows on his breath when he speaks. He shoves his
hands into his pockets again, tensing his shoulders against the
cold. Having just told me off about not wearing my jacket, it is
kind of ironic that he doesn’t have one.
    I shake my
head and scowl. “Where’s your car?”
    “ In the
ProPark.” He nods his head up the street and starts walking slowly,
making sure I’m following. I ball up my fists in my pockets,
contemplating just turning around and going back inside. But I
can’t. I trail after him, seething the whole way.
     
    ******
     
    Luke parks up
outside Rosito’s and jogs around his ’67 Ford Fastback to open my
door before I have a chance to do it for myself. The journey over
to the restaurant was quiet. Too quiet. I don’t know what he wants
to talk to me about but he was on edge and that put me on edge. I mean, what
can he possibly think is so important? There are only a few topics
of conversation that we can really share, and all of them lead back
to Breakwater. I don’t even want to have to talk about the place, but Luke seems
determined. He always was stubborn. He hasn’t changed much since
high school, really. Sure, he’s perhaps a tiny bit taller and he’s
definitely filled out, but the twenty-three-year-old version of him
looks pretty similar to the eighteen-year-old version.
    I step out of
the car, giving him a begrudging smile of thanks as I dodge past
him to jog for the restaurant door. Luke doesn’t hang around
either, and we both sigh a little when I pull open the pasta house
door and a blast of hot air hit us in a wall of heat. At least I
don’t have to add freezing cold to my list of reasons to be
uncomfortable.
    A waitress
with orthopedic shoes and a nametag that says, Welcome! I’m Rosie! shows us to a
table, grinning in an inane way that says she’s probably been doing
the job for many years and she doesn’t even realize she’s smiling
anymore. Thankfully she supplies us with some menus and a wine list
and leaves us to it.
    “ You going to
eat?” Luke asks, flipping open his menu.
    “ I guess.” I
scan the menu and pick out a duck and squash ravioli dish that
sounds good and then go about picking my nails nervously under the
table. Luke slides my menu away and places it with his at the edge
of the table to signal that we’ve decided. I peek up at him,
waiting for him to say something. It’s annoying when he doesn’t;
he’s dragged me here, after all. If we have to sit through an
awkward dinner before he gets to the point, my nerves are going to
end up irreparably damaged. We have to talk about something. It’s
all too tempting to just sit here and appreciate how amazingly long
his eyelashes look against his skin as he scans the room. Dark,
like charcoal smudges. I shake my head.
    “ So…” I do my
best to make my voice light. “Are you still with Casey?”
    Luke’s mouth
twists up at the corner. He drums his fingers against the starched
white tablecloth. “Not for over a year now.”
    My eyebrows
shoot up. I told Morgan he had a girlfriend just to get her off my
back, not doubting that he and Casey would still be together.
Theirs was one of those rock solid high school sweetheart type
affairs. Luke and I haven’t ever really talked about relationships
before. If he and Casey broke up over a year