The Sweetheart Rules by Shirley Jump Read Free Book Online Page B

watching Diana, but he might as well have glued his eyeballs to her slender frame.
    Diana, on the other end, hadn’t done so much as flick a glance in Mike’s direction. She joked with Olivia, set a fruit plate on the table, and generally acted as if the lieutenant didn’t exist.
    “Just my way of saying you wanted more than a vacation by the beach and a chance to catch up with me.” Luke tipped his beer in Diana’s direction. “As evidenced by your fascination with the sexy veterinarian. You know… she’s not seeing anyone right now. You should ask her to dinner or to go for a picnic on the beach. Or maybe a little stargazing from the backseat of your car.”
    “What are you? The happy-ending fairy?” Mike scowled and shifted so his back faced Diana and Olivia. “I am not here to date her—or anyone, for that matter.”
    Yeah, then why did the air simmer with unanswered questions? Time travel back six months, and it could have been Luke pretending he wasn’t fascinated by his new neighbor. Luke flipped the chicken and affected a disinterested tone. “You never told me what happened between you two.”
    “Nothing happened.”
    Luke arched a brow.
    “Okay,
something
happened. But it didn’t mean anything. We both knew that. You know me, not one for settling down. The Coast Guard owns me now, body and soul.” Mike sipped the beer and squinted into the sun, his face still wearing that mask of easy calm. Luke knew, as well as he knew himself, that beneath Mike’s placid exterior there was a veritable ocean of shit churning. Shit that Mike never shared, never talked about, because he wasn’t, as he’d said earlier, interested in Dr. Phil moments. Luke understood that, and respected the NO TRESPASSING signs. There’d been a time when Luke had had a few of those himself.
    “You did get married and have two kids,” Luke said. “You’re not a total commitment-phobe.”
    “Jasmine was a mistake. A huge mistake.” Mike’s gaze swiveled to his daughters, the two of them now sitting on the picnic table and talking to Diana while the dogs sat at their feet and watched the conversation. Jenny was smiling, her hands waving as fast as her mouth moved, telling a story that Ellie acted out in excited wriggles and giggles. Mike’s features softened. A smile played on his lips. “Well, maybe not entirely. My grandmother used to say that all mistakes come with hidden blessings. I’ve got two of those right there. Even if they drive me crazy and hate my guts half the time.”
    Mistakes and blessings. Luke knew all about those. If he hadn’t been in that accident and hadn’t moved back to Rescue Bay, he never would have met Olivia. Six months ago, he thought his life was over. Today, he saw that his life had a new direction, a renewed passion. “Your grandmother, like mine, was a wise woman. Very wise.”
    “Yeah, she was. Too bad I never got…” Mike cursed under his breath and went back to his beer. “Let’s drop the subject. Okay?”
    Another below-the-ocean topic. “Sure,” Luke said. “Chicken’s done. Let’s eat, and try to restrain our caveman tendencies around the ladies.”
    Mike grinned. “Might be hard to do. I’m still working on mastering utensils.”
    Luke loaded the meat onto a platter, and the two men ambled over to the table and joined the women. Mike sat diagonally across from Diana, clutching his beer and pretending not to watch her out of the corner of his eye. His girls scrambled onto the space beside Olivia, jostling for space near the dogs, who had positioned themselves below the table in prime scrap-retrieval position. Luke dropped onto the bench beside Mike and handed him the tongs. “Dig in, folks.”
    “Looks great, Luke.” Olivia smiled at him. “You’ve come a long way since the day we burned those steaks.”
    He chuckled. “I had a good reason.”
    “Yes, I’d say it was a good reason. A very good one.” She gave him a sassy smile, then reached for the potato