Luke sat down.
“I saw you in that bakery a few days before I spoke to you.”
I waited.
“I was there with my mother.”
Diane.
Of all the possibilities I’d imagined, that wasn’t one of them.
He nodded toward the letter.
“It’s all in there.”
I unfolded the next page.
And suddenly I remembered something I’d completely forgotten.
An elderly woman had been standing ahead of me at the bakery.
She’d realized she didn’t have enough money.
People behind her were becoming impatient.
She was embarrassed.
So I’d stepped forward and paid the difference.
It had only been a few dollars.
I’d barely remembered it.
Luke had.
“You saw that?”
“Yes.”
“It was only a few dollars.”
“That isn’t what I noticed.”
He told me I hadn’t looked around afterward.
I hadn’t waited for anyone to thank me.
I hadn’t even realized anyone important was watching.
“You weren’t performing for anybody,” he said.
Then he looked at me.
“That’s when I noticed you.”
I stared at him.
“So you asked me out because you felt sorry for me?”
“No.”
His answer came instantly.
“Absolutely not.”
“Then why?”
He smiled.
“Because I thought you were beautiful.”
I looked away.
“And because I’d seen what you did when you thought nobody was paying attention.”
That was when I finally understood something.
Luke hadn’t crossed that bakery because he was playing some joke on me.
He hadn’t asked for my number because somebody dared him.
But there was still one question I needed answered.
If he’d already noticed me before that day, why had he kept it secret for our entire marriage?
