Had To Be You (Romance/Drama) [COMPLETED]

Chapter 17 - Sapphire

Things to be broken and mended. Things to be broken and mended.

The words sounded in his head at random intervals as he steered the way home. He had left Naomi at her cottage, and now he was steering his boat over blackened waters and too much sound.

It was almost as if the soft waves were beating against the boat's hull, but they were not. Instead it was a peaceful night.

He loved the smell of the salt surrounding him, and he could drown in the scent her hair had left on his chest. God, just thinking of her and he smiled like a fool. It was like a humming inside of him that gave purpose, that gave intense pleasure. He just had to see her again before the humming killed him.

Yet something pulled at him from behind his subconscious, and he could not figure out what.

Slowly Lucas eased the boat onto his dock, turning off the engine and hopping out onto the wooden platforms to reel the boat closer and tie it securely around the stalks. He walked the way up to his patio, saw the light on inside the house and swerved to his side.

Shit, he had not locked the back door. Someone was inside the house.

Cautiously Luke rounded the corner of the house and peered through the living room window. No one was there. He walked steps further, dismissing his bedroom window because he always kept the shades closed, and picked up the only mode of defense he could find; his pocketknife.

It would do.

Broken and mended, he thought. Broken and mended.

Lucas' hand clenched into a fist. He felt stupid when he realized what should have come as obvious. Putting the pocketknife away, Luke went to his driveway and saw her small car parked neatly behind his truck.

"Valerie," he called, walking down the foyer and into the opening of the living room and kitchen.

She was in his bedroom, that he was certain of, so he stopped the pretense and walked straight to his bedroom to find her there, sitting on the mahogany bed with her legs crossed and her head rested against her hand.

She lifted her face to see him, taking in the whole of his appearance. She knew he had been out on the boat when she saw it missing from the docks, but there was something intimate about the way his clothes were crumbled and sandy. He smelt of salt, sand, and something else; something much softer.

Woman, of course.

Her face fell then, because any hopes she had held onto vanished.

"How long have you been here?" He asked, his voice low and polite.

She blinked. "Not long. Half an hour, perhaps."

Luke leaned against the doorframe, unaware of the power of his size and its effect on her.

He knew why she was here and could not blame her, but he was not in the mood for an outbreak nor for questions and the answers they would require. He chose to approach her politely. He owed that much to her.

But she was here to demand an end to the break he had called, and he was not going to give that to her.

"Is there something you need help with?"

She grimaced with dejection and stood to her feet, approaching him with quiet steps.

"Don't treat me like an acquaintance, please. I came here to talk with you. About us."

"Valerie, let's do this at another time." He regretted himself as soon as he finished speaking, for he did not wish to touch upon the topic at any time. But he knew he had brought this confrontation onto himself. He should have clearly ended their relationship those days ago instead of calling for a vague break, that way she would not have clung to any doubts and come to him for explanations he could not give. In his defense, he thought she would have surely realized in reflection that she was better off without him.