Chapter 32

A Thursday in August – Ellie

Iturned in a wide circle inside of the giant ballroom at the swanky hotel that would host the Sixteenth Annual Milwaukee Children's Hospital Charity Gala. There would be music. There would be dancing. There would be a silent auction and a raffle and a host of other events to raise money for the kids' wing. All of our hard work had paid off.

The venue was perfect. It had been donated by the conglomerate that owned the hotel chain, and many businesses in Milwaukee had also donated their time and services to make it look like a fairy tale had come to life in here. There were white roses brimming out of crystal vases on every table. Roses that reminded me of the flowers at Luke's house. Each table also had a white jasmine candle atop it, which reminded me of the candles at Luke's house.

All right. I admit it. I may have borrowed a few ideas from Luke's very talented decorator. But none of that mattered now. I was five hundred miles away from Nashville now and what Luke's decorator didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

The minute I'd arrived back in Milwaukee two months ago, I'd thrown myself headlong into making the children's charity gala the best it had ever been. I already had a guaranteed two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar donation. There was no way I couldn't raise more than years' past. But that hadn't stopped me from allowing the preparations for the gala to consume me. Every time an errant thought about Luke popped into my mind, I quickly replaced it with one about the gala. And it had worked like a charm.

Mostly.

Oh, sure there had been the one-off thoughts here and there, remembering the feel of my fingers running through his thick hair. Or the occasional memory of the deep groan in the back of his throat while he was kissing me that made me clamp my thighs together. Or the thought about the ridiculously hot way he pulled my hips against him hard with his arm behind my back. But that was just animal instinct. I couldn't help it if the man was good-looking and a ridiculously good kisser.

And fine, from time to time, I may have caught myself thinking about all the unexpected things I'd learned about Luke during my brief stint in Nashville. Like how he'd read a bunch of books like War and Peace and Anna Karenina. And how he'd never actually had a one-night stand. Or how he named his dog Dolly and paid for a built-in dog bed for her best friend. But that just showed that he had some good qualities. Fine. He wasn't a complete villain. It had been silly of me to think that about him all these years. I mean, he was Meg's brother after all, and she was a great person. It stood to reason that her brother wasn't all bad.

The hardest part, however, hadn't been the memories. It hadn't even been the weekly talks with Mindy where she'd insisted on knowing every detail about Luke and the band and was clearly disappointed that we hadn't hooked up. Which, while not being technically true, was a story I was simply not prepared to share with Mindy. No, the hardest part had been the time Luke had called me to see if I was okay after a tabloid published a picture of us going into the back door of the restaurant in Miami.

Luke Knightley's Mystery Datehad been the headline. It had cracked me up when a friend of mine who read stuff like celebrity gossip websites sent me a link. I'd nearly forgotten about it by that evening when my cell phone rang, and Luke's number popped up.

After having a minor fit of hyperventilation, I'd answered and tried to act like I barely remembered who he was, which of course had been kinda ridiculous of me. After assuring him that I didn't care about the gossip site, we'd had a few moments of awkward silence. He asked me how the gala planning was going, and I asked him how his shoulder and arm were healing, and after a couple of totally insincere "great"s on both our parts, he said goodnight and I hung up.

Fine. I may have stared at the phone for another couple of hours, willing him to call back and tell me he missed kissing me. But after I fell asleep that night, I shook it off, and threw myself right back into party-planning mode the next day.

I didn't have time to dwell on the past anyway. So, I put it all out of my head.

Now, standing in the center of the gorgeously decorated ballroom, I was proud of what our team had accomplished this summer. The volunteers and staff at the hospital had all been amazing. I couldn't wait for Saturday night, and I had my eyes set firmly on the future.

And speaking of the future, I had a date scheduled for next week. I'd allowed my friend, Morgan, to set me up with a single doctor from the hospital. She'd been trying to get me to say yes for the better part of a year. And I'd finally relented. His name was Sam. Divorced but no kids. A good guy, according to Morgan. And that's exactly what I needed. To get back out there again. After my little misstep with Luke, I realized that I'd been hiding away from dating to keep from getting hurt. That's why my reaction to Luke had been so strong. It made perfect sense in the rearview mirror. I hadn't had any action in so long that it discombobulated me. Made me think there was more there with Luke than there actually was. That's all. So simple. No. Big. Deal.

Going out with Sam didn't have to be a big deal either. He didn't have to meet all my criteria for a future husband. It could just be fun. And that's precisely what I was hoping for. And maybe, if I was lucky, I'd get lucky too.