Close Enough To Feel You [L.R.H]

Chapter 10

Renee Silver

We almost kissed. We. Almost. Kissed.

Before it even could happen my timer went off at the perfect moment when we pulled away. I walked back inside after that awkward moment in my car and clocked back in as one of my coworkers came up to me, "that dude you were with is so cute" Robin smiled as she leaned against the counter.

"You think so?" I chuckled as I placed my purse under the counter. She nodded and walked away as Todd walked up to me with a slip of paper in his hand, "hey can you put this in Alexa's file?" he asked as he handed me the paper. "Sure" I said as I went into the manager's office as I opened up the file cabinet searching through the files.

I finally found her file as I opened it and slid the paper in the file as my eyes glanced as I saw a familiar name. Luke Hemmings

What. Todd walked in the office placing more papers on the desk as I turned around. "Hey, you've been working here longer than me, did Luke Hemmings work here?" I asked as he looked at me and nodded.

"Yeah i think I remember him" he started to say as he sat down in his chair and turned on the computer. "He started here as a bagger a few years ago, he only worked here for a year I believe before he stopped showing up for his shifts. We had to terminate him." he said as he started working on the computer.

I knew the exact reason why as I nodded slowly as I walked out of the office and did my store walk. An hour passed by and it was only me in the store, I locked the doors and walked back out to see Luke leaning against my car as I walked towards him with a soft smile.

He had his cigarette lit as he blew out the smoke as he saw me again, "you seem happy that you can light them again" I said as I leaned next to him against my car hood. "I am," he smiled, looking at me.

"You do know you have to be careful with them then, if you can feel pain and eat like you're normal again, I don't want you getting sick because of them" I said as I crossed my arms. He chuckled as he inhaled more, "you'll miss me too much wont you" he chuckled as he blew out the smoke away from me.

"I hate to ask this but I'm curious, have you seen your family yet?" I asked as he looked into my eyes and then away, bringing the cigarette to his lips again. He took in a deep breath of the cigarette and then blew it out. "I'm too scared for them to see me yet.." he paused as he finished his cigarette and stomped it on the ground.

"I don't know how they'll react if they do see me" he started to say as he paused again, "I'll probably tell them I ran away, and decided to come back.. I feel like they would be mad"

"I don't think so.." I started to say as he brought his attention back to me. "Your mom told me how much she missed you that day, they miss you Luke, I don't think that they would be mad at you for leaving,'' I said in quotation marks. He sighed as he looked down at my hands.

"I'm just not ready for that yet Ren" he said as my heart stopped, nobody has called me Ren in years. Nobody calls me that anymore. Not even my friends, family, or even my sister. My cheeks heated up immediately by the nickname as he looked back up at me as I broke my gaze to him as I looked at the pavement.

"Sorry, should I have not called you that?" he asked as I shook my head, "no it's okay"

"I feel like you liked that better than me calling you baby" he chuckled as he rubbed my arm slowly as my eyes went to his hand on my arm. I still wasn't used to us touching. I looked back up at him as I felt my phone buzz in the pocket of my pants. I leaned up and grabbed it, seeing "mom" across the screen. "Hold on.."

I said as I got off of the car and answered, "hey mom" I said as I looked at the pavement. "I just called asking you how you were doing" she said as i felt my heart drop but then come back up. "I thought something was wrong" I chuckled a bit until she started to speak again.

"Well nothing is wrong sweetheart but I was out today talking with the CEO of where I work and his son is your age. Sooo of course I showed him a picture of you to send to his son and they said you'd be a perfect match" she chuckled through the phone as I looked at Luke as he was looking at me.

"Uhh mom thanks but I'm" I paused, turning around away from Luke, "talking to someone right now" as I said a little quietly so Luke wouldn't hear it. "Oh sweetheart but he's so cute for you, he has money!" she said.

"I'm not interested mom, but I do have to let you go so I can go back home, I just got off of work" I said quickly. "Awe okay honey, I love you!"

"I love you too mom" I said as I hung up and walked back towards Luke. His eyes never came off of mine when I walked back to him. I felt my heart racing a million times per beat as he put his hands on my arms. I didn't realize I was shaking until he spoke up, "you're shaking.."

"Oh.. I didn't notice "I gave an awkward smile as he put his arms down back to his waist pulling off the hoodie surrounding him as he handed it to me. I looked at him with a shocked stare, "put it on, you're freezing"

"It's the end of august.. I'm not cold "I said protesting as he shook his head and put it on my car hood. "Pick your battles" he chuckled. I rolled my eyes as I leaned against the car as he turned his face to me looking at me. I didn't realize how close we were until now.

I started to shake again as he looked down at me as his body turned towards me, "about earlier-" i started to say before he cut me off. "Shut up" he said as he pushed my hair out of my face and cupped his hand under my chin and kissed me softly.