“I own cars.”
Emma appeared.
“Can Raven come?”
Luke looked between them.
He knew he had already lost.
The school field was crowded with folding chairs, cheap telescopes, children running through darkness with glow bracelets, and parents drinking terrible coffee.
Raven arrived wearing jeans and a coat.
Nobody recognized her for twenty minutes.
Then one father did.
He whispered to his wife.
The whisper spread.
Phones appeared.
Raven’s shoulders changed.
Luke saw it.
“Want to leave?”
Emma was peering through a telescope.
Raven looked at her.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
A woman approached.
“Excuse me, are you Raven Steele?”
Raven smiled professionally.
“Yes.”
“Could we get a picture?”
Before Raven answered, Luke stepped slightly closer.
“She’s here with family tonight.”
The word escaped him.
Family.
All three heard it.
The woman apologized and left.
Raven looked toward Luke.
He pretended to adjust Emma’s coat.
“You said family.”
“I panicked.”
“Interesting choice.”
“Do not analyze it.”
“I’m CEO. Analysis is free.”
Later they lay on a blanket watching a meteor shower.
Emma fell asleep between them.
Raven looked toward the sky.
“I haven’t done this since I was a child.”
“Looked up?”
“Done something without an agenda.”
Luke glanced at her.
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
She turned her head toward him.
“You make ordinary things look very good.”
Luke smiled.
“You make ordinary things sound exotic.”
Their hands rested inches apart.
Neither moved.
Not yet.
The first kiss happened three weeks later in the garage.
Raven had spent the afternoon helping Luke rebuild a carburetor.
She was terrible at it.
Luke told her repeatedly.
She disagreed.
“You dropped the jet.”
“It slipped.”
“You put the float in backward.”
“That was exploratory.”
“You almost set the rag on fire.”
“That was unrelated.”
Luke laughed.
Raven looked at him.
He stopped.
The space changed.
She stepped closer.
Luke’s expression grew serious.
“Raven.”
“What?”
“You live in a world I don’t understand.”
“I live in several.”
“I have Emma.”
“I know.”
“I don’t do casual around her.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want her getting attached to somebody who comes here because this place feels like a vacation from real life.”
Raven went completely still.
Luke immediately realized he had hit something.
She looked toward the floor.
“Is that what you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then ask.”
He hesitated.
“Are we a vacation?”
Raven lifted her eyes.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Her voice dropped.
“This is the only place in my life where I am sure people would still talk to me if Steele Industries vanished tomorrow.”
Luke stared.
Raven stepped closer.
“I don’t come here because your life is simple.”
“It isn’t.”
“You’re worried about bills.”
“Emma misses her mother.”
“The garage roof leaks.”
“You work too much.”
“You’re stubborn enough to make poverty a personality trait.”
Luke almost smiled.
Raven continued.
“I come because when I am here, nobody adjusts the chair because my father’s name is on a building.”
“You tell me when I’m wrong.”