Page 125 of Meet Cute Reboot

Luke nods slowly. “It’s like starting over.” He hesitates. “That is, if you want to start over. If you don’t, I’ll leave you alone. I’ll become a silent investor again. You’ll still have my full backing.”

I think carefully about my next sentence. I imagine myself with Luke tomorrow, a week from now, a year. Sharing my life with him. Learning to trust him again. The knot in my stomach loosens. “I can try to start over.” My voice wobbles. “I want to try.”

A smile lightens Luke’s features. His eyes map my face like he’s seeing me for the first time. “Okay, then.”

I rein in my emotions and look sidelong at Luke. “You have a lot to prove.”

“I’ll spend the rest of my life proving myself to you.”

“Whoah, whoah. Hold up.”

“Too soon?” His expression is teasing.

“Way too soon.”

We lock eyes, and laughter spills out of us both.

“Thank you,” he says after we quiet down.

“Don’t thank me, thank Cheez Whiz. He’s the one who buttered me up.”

“Thank you for giving me another chance.”

“You’re a hard sell, Luke. Let’s be honest.”

He tucks his chin, looks past me for a moment. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

“But I know people can change.” I wait for him to meet my eyes and then offer him a smile.

He grins back, and I feel a spark in my belly. We both look away, Luke focusing on the kittens, me studying the tiny scar on the back of my hand from a cat scratch.

“I’m so sorry you had to watch Macy kiss me with those lips,” Luke says, still looking down.

“They’re rather large, aren’t they?”

“A little too large.”

“It’s a look.”

He glances at me. “What did she say to you?”

I rest a forearm on the table and rap at the glass with my fingernails. “She said you guys decorated a nursery together.”

“We did. Dinosaurs. It was my idea.”

“I’m sorry she lied to you. That must have been terrible.”

Luke rests an elbow on his knee and props his chin with his fist as he watches the kittens explore their box on wobbly legs. “It was.”

We trade air as we both breathe into the silence.

“I spent all last night trying to figure out how to keep MatchAI afloat without your investment cash,” I say. “I didn’t want to borrow money from the guy who cheated on me twice.”

Luke lowers his hand on top of mine. “I should have cut ties with Macy months ago, but—”

“I understand why you didn’t.”

Relief erases the lines next to his eyes.