Luke by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online

name. He also seemed to have a pretty good grasp of my work since he mentioned a couple of book titles when he first came on the line.”
    â€œYou think he reads your books?”
    â€œMaybe. I suppose he could also be married to a fan.”
    Julianne made a sound of agreement. “So, tell me about this Galahad of yours who came riding up to protect you. Where does he fit into the picture?”
    â€œHe doesn’t,” April answered shortly. “He’s just an interfering busybody.”
    â€œI seem to have heard his name before. Isn’t he the same guy—”
    â€œYes, he is,” April said in hasty acknowledgment as she remembered one night some years back, before she’d learned not to stay too late in the lounge at writers’ conferences. She’d had too many champagne cocktails and wound up telling Julianne everything there was to know about her teenage affair with Luke Benedict.
    â€œSounds as if he’s still interested.”
    â€œHe feels responsible, a different thing altogether.”
    â€œAnd not a bad trait under the circumstances. Couldn’t you let him hang around a while?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œWhy not? I mean, if he means nothing to you, what’s wrong with using his macho muscles for protective cover?”
    â€œYou don’t know Luke. Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile—or more likely, have his boots parked under a woman’s bed in record time.”
    â€œMy kind of guy,” Julianne declared as a grin tilted her mouth. “If you’re sure you don’t want him, could you send him my way?”
    â€œYou don’t send Luke anywhere. He’s a law untohimself, goes exactly where he pleases.” As she realized the truth of that statement, April felt a small disquiet shift through her. She banished it firmly as she took another sip of her julep.
    â€œAnd there’s no one else you’re in love with just now?”
    â€œLove,” April said on a laconic laugh. “I’m not certain I know what that is any more.”
    Julianne reached out to lay her fingers on her arm. “Oh, chère. ”
    â€œTruth to tell, I’m not sure I ever did know. Do you ever feel that way?”
    â€œNot really. I was married for thirty years to a wonderful man, so I guess you’d say I write from memory. How are you managing it?”
    â€œWho knows? Maybe out of my fantasies of what love should be. I try not to analyze the process too much for fear it will go away. Anyhow, my current book isn’t going that well. My deadline is just two months off, and I don’t think I’m going to make it.”
    â€œThere’s a lot of deadline angst going around. Some of us are just plain tired after years of deadlines. Some have other problems. What is it with you, I mean really? The divorce? Trouble with your ex? Or just this business with the caller?”
    â€œAll of the above,” April answered with a wry smile. “I’ve been thinking about the past a lot as well, since moving back to Turn-Coupe.”
    â€œThe past meaning Luke?”
    â€œHe’s a large part of it,” she admitted with a sigh. “That girl should never have been in his car that night. We were all but engaged, Luke and I.We’d been to the movies and he’d taken me home. Why did he pick up another girl? He never said, not then or later. Of course, I don’t suppose he had to have a reason. It’s just a man thing, like my dad and his women.”
    â€œNot all men are womanizing heels like your father, chère. ”
    â€œNo, some of them are controlling heels who like to manipulate—Never mind.” She shook back her hair as she looked away.
    â€œLike your ex? You’ve been unlucky with the men in your life, haven’t you? But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good ones out there. You just have to sift through them.”
    â€œI think