Sunshine After The Rain

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lucas didn't peer inside. Instead, he walked over to the fridge, grabbed a beer, and twisted off the cap. He wasn't drinking it, just clutching on as if it were a life raft.

There was too much silence in the air for Sophie's liking. Too many unknowns floating around between them. All the reasons they shouldn't be together were still there. Given how Laura reacted to Sophie's feelings, Joel would probably accept the relationship. He'd been trying so hard to be a better father-in-law to her since Jason's death, and a better grandfather to her children.

But her children would still be an issue; Justin, at least. He was old enough to always remember his father, probably in a better light than the one he spent his life in. A union between Sophie and his deceased father's brother would take a long time for him to be okay with. Ella would be confused, but didn't have any preconceived notions about how life, love or grieving worked. She'd just be happy to always have her uncle around.

Except Sophie still didn't know if he wanted to be around. Three minutes after she poured her heart out to Lucas and he still hadn't said a damn word.

The longer the house held its silence, the more the tears filling her eyes threatened to fall. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Lucas was supposed to wrap his arms around her and whisper hopeful things into her ear. Instead, he stood several feet away and refused to look at her.

"I should go," Sophie realized aloud. It was still another full moment of wishing he'd speak up before she could bring herself to walk back to the front door.

"You can't do this," Lucas said beneath shaky breath. "You can't come here saying all this shit, follow it up with 'I guess I love you', like you'll tell me whatever you think I need to hear to get me back in your life."

"I said that I'm guessing I'm in love with you," Sophie corrected. It was true the two sounded similar, but had very different meanings. The tears fell, but she didn't bother to hide them. They were so clearly in her voice there was little point in trying to mask the truth. "The night you left, you told me I was dealing with too much and felt like you were just adding more to it. But you leaving drowned me, Lucas. It didn't help at all. Everything became ten times harder.

"You said that once I had enough time to mourn my loss and figure out what I want, you'd be there for me. But you lied. I mourned the loss of my husband the best I could considering I've been mourning the loss of you. You told me I needed space, but I didn't. I needed you. Now I come here, telling you I need you because you said you'd always be there for me, and I'm suddenly this person you can't even look at. The Lucas I knew would have wrapped his arms around me as soon as I admitted I wasn't okay. Something tells me you were the one who told me whatever it took to be in my kid's lives from the very beginning. All your perfect fucking words and gestures so I'd let you in, and once you had a cozy spot in their lives, I was just cut out of it.

"Fuck you, Lucas. I'm done with men. I'm done with handing my heart over and watching it get crushed. I'm done with all the manipulative bullshit. I'm done with letting men ruin me. I'm done being used. I'm so fucking over all of this shit."

Sophie slammed the front door closed, the air tight around her. Her foolish notions about love and happily ever afters squashed to oblivion. Two men in a row, from the same family no less, tore her heart to shreds.

"Sophie, wait!" Lucas called out to her.

She didn't. Instead, she opened the driver's side door to her vehicle, only to watch him slam it shut. "You don't get to control me anymore, Lucas. Your mind games and Disney Prince looks are fucking powerless," Sophie bit back as she poked at his chest. "Working on my house makes you so damn miserable, don't worry. You're fucking fired. I bought that house because I loved it and because it was closer to you. But I don't want to be closer to you anymore, Lucas. I'd be on the other side of the country if I could, far away from the asshole men in this family. I'll cut a check for the workers, because I don't need your goddamn help. I'll hire my own to finish it, and then that fucker's going up for sale."

Lucas let out something resembling a grunt before crossing his arms against his enormous chest. "You done?"

Sophie was done when she left the house, before he'd followed her out for reasons unknown. If he wanted to confirm he could still see the children, but Sophie would have to think about that one. She was the one he hurt, not them. But if he could do that to her...

As she looked up at him, the calmness in his face pissed Sophie the hell off. Maybe she wasn't done after all. Turning her right hand into a fist, she swung it forward. It meant to hit his nose, but grazed his cheek, which sent a searing pain through her hand.

Lucas barely seemed phased, despite the pain coursing through her own body. "Now are you done?"

Sophie shook her head. "I want a do-over."

"How about we ice it first?"

"There's ice at the gas station," Sophie fired back.

Lucas' eyes narrowed on her. "Get in the house, Soph."

"Get fucked, Lucas."

He stepped closer until he was only a few inches away from where she stood. "That's exactly what I plan on doing. Now get in the house and get in my fucking bed, so I can prove to you I love you, like you just proved it to me."

Sophie took a step back and shook her head. He wasn't making any sense. "You don't love me. You used me for my kids."

"I love the hell out of you, Soph. I fell in love with you the day I held you in my arms right before my brother's funeral. I fell in love with your good nature when you told me you wanted me in your children's lives, your strength when you confronted your husband's mistress, your heart when you accepted her and her unborn child into your life, and your fire when you beat the shit out of that table."

Lucas closed the distance between them once again, tilting her chin up to look deeper into her eyes. "You showing up like this, the way you said you loved me, I didn't trust it was real. You just showed me it was. That kind of anger doesn't come from losing a friendship, that comes from love that betrayed you. Now you're going to get in that house, let me ice your hand, and then I'm going to show you how fucking in love with you I am."