No Ordinary Love (A Modern Vintage Romance #5)

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Amara

" Y ou've only been with Amara for two years, and you just started living together; that's hardly a long time, Lucas. You and Kath were together for five. She made a mistake, but now she's back, and she's sorry," I heard Patsy Covington say.

I put my hand on the wall outside Lucas's mother's living room, waiting to hear Lucas's response, aware that I was afraid to hear it.

"I'm with Amara, Mama, so it doesn't matter if Kath is single or not."

Did Lucas's voice sounded hollow, regretful? My heart began to beat fast.

"Just answer me this. Do you still love Kath?"

Silence.

"Yes. I do. I think I always will," Lucas replied, and it broke my heart. "Amara and I are good together. We just moved in—"

"But do you love her?" Patsy persisted.

I should say something, I thought. I should let Lucas know I was here so I wouldn't have to hear him say what I knew he would. In all the time we'd been together, he'd never told me he loved me. Even when I said it, he told me he was so grateful and lucky to have me in his life, but he never gave me the three words, and now he was never going to. I was certain of that. That certainty only solidified when he softly said, "I don't know, Mama."

The words ran through me like a bullet ripping my flesh apart, and the destructive path it took continued because Lucas wasn't done.

"I think I do, but it's just…. What Amara and I have is different from what I had with Kath. That was all-consuming."

All-consuming?

"And what's it with Amara?" Patsy asks.

"Comfortable."

Like a pair of old shoes?

"Son, you know what you have to do."

I guess I also now knew what I had to do. Didn't I? Had I suspected this? Yes. But then, I couldn't have imagined this handsome, gorgeous man wanting anything to do with a boring, nerdy professor like me. I was nothing like Kath. She was blonde, built, beautiful. I was… unremarkable . I wasn't tall or short, just average. I wasn't thin or fat, just your regular size eight. I wasn't beautiful or ugly, just your ordinary girl next door.

Patsy had told me time and again that I didn't dress suitably for their social status. No matter what I wore, no matter how much I tried to fit in and dress like them , the Charleston society girls, it was not enough.

I was a jeans and T-shirt kind of professor. I preferred Chucks to high heels. I preferred staying home than going to a party. But I went to plenty with (and for) Lucas, spending money on clothes that weren't me and getting my hair done and makeup put on so I could look like the poor man's version of Kath. Next to her I was not curvy enough, my waist wasn't thin enough, my hair was too unruly—I was too intellectual, too dull. Lucas had told me he liked that about me. It was apparent now that he'd lied. I'd been… what ? A rebound after Kath dumped him? I was the exact opposite of his ex; is that why he gravitated toward me?

I straightened and put some distance between Patsy's living room and me. I was not sure how I was still able to stand or walk because I couldn't feel my legs.

Dazed, I looked around the spacious hallway and nodded at Jerome, the long-time Covington Butler who'd walked me into the Lucas's family mansion before my world fell apart.

"Would it be too much to hope you didn't hear that?" I whispered.

Jerome smiled sadly. "Hear what, Professor Amara?"

"Just Amara," I corrected automatically. He was the only one outside of my students and colleagues who called me Professor. It was his way, and protesting was mine. Well, this would be the last time, wouldn't it?

After two years of wondering why Lucas was with me, not believing my luck, and feeling insecure whenever I was around his family—finally, I'd gotten my head out of my ass. Sure, it had taken hearing Lucas say he didn't know if he loved me, but he did know that he loved Kath and would always love her—but as they said, better late than never.

I licked my lips. My throat was parched. It was hard to get the words out. It was as if all the moisture in my body had pooled behind my eyes.

"I'm going to go," I said hoarsely.

What the hell else was there left to do? I couldn't stay here? I couldn't walk into that room now and have them pretend that they were happy to see me. Well, Patsy wouldn't even do that, but Lucas would. He'd smile. He'd kiss me with that same mouth that he had confessed to his mother with that he didn't know if he loved me, which was basically the same as him saying he didn't love me.

"They were expecting you an hour later," Jerome informed me in explanation.

"My flight landed early."

I had flown back from a conference in Chicago where I'd presented. I'd been on such a high all the way back to Charleston because it had gone so well. I knew that if I kept publishing the way I was, I'd get my tenure sooner than later. I'd been dying to share my success with Lucas, which was why I didn't text him. I wanted to tell him to his face.

I'd parked my car at long-term airport parking, which was what I drove to Battery in, which was a blessing, as I could get the hell out fast . My suitcase was still in my car, thank God. If I'd brought it in, Jerome would have taken it upstairs by now and left it in Lucas's room, where we were going to stay for the weekend to celebrate Rena Covington, his grandmother's seventy-fifth birthday. That would have only added to the trauma.

"Mama, let it go, will you?" We both heard Lucas snap, loud enough for the voice to carry all the way down the expansive hallway. "Amara is my girlfriend, and that's that."

"But you don't love her, and honestly, Lucas, none of us like her. She's so blue-collar and doesn't fit into our world," Patsy cried out. "She doesn't know how to dress, how to behave. Look at her and Kath, can you seriously tell me you can't see who's right for you, for the family?"

My father, Marcus Gallo, retired as a sergeant from the NYPD. I was proud of him. Very much so. He'd worked hard to put me through university, and it meant the world to him (as it did to me) that his daughter held a PhD in Health Communication his pieces were more expensive than mine. Most of the furniture was his, too. He had refused to consider any of my so-called IKEA pieces, even though they weren't actually from IKEA. He had agreed to live in the city instead of Battery, where the Covington Estate was—so in return, I'd accepted his designer furniture. It had been an easy compromise.

I called Basil Dearden, a close friend and a colleague. I'd need a place to stay until I sorted my life out.

"I thought you were going to be with Mister Fancy at the Covington hoopla this weekend," he chuckled when he answered the phone.

"Can I stay with you for a few days?" I asked, finally noticing my tears because I needed to wipe them off to see the road. How long had I been crying?

"Amara?

"I…my plane landed early, and Lucas said he doesn't love me and…." I felt hysteria climb through me.

"What? Your plane landed early and Lucas said what?

"I need a—"

"Where are you?

"Driving home…the townhouse. It's not home anymore, is it?" I had no idea why I was asking Basil; how would he possibly know the answer to that?

"I'll be there."

Basil lived a few blocks away. We'd been so excited when I told him where Lucas and I were buying a home. Now, I'd have to find a new place to live… alone .

"I need to pack. You know…pack things for…living."

"Yeah, I know, Sunshine. Drive carefully. Okay?"

I hung up and felt everything inside me protest what I was intending to do. I loved Lucas. I loved him so much. Since I met him two years ago while I was doing a case study on LPC, Lowcountry Provisions Company, his family's company that was started by a Covington in the early 1800s—I'd known he was the one for me.

Six months ago, when he suggested we move in together, I'd unabashedly said yes. When I told him I loved him, he didn't respond in kind but instead showered me with what I thought was love. Now I knew it was a red flag I'd ignored.

When his family mistreated me, Lucas didn't defend me. He told me to shrug it off. " They're set in their ways. Don't worry about it. "

That should've been my second red flag.

Hindsight was a bitch!

But I thought I could win the Covingtons over. It was only Patsy and his sister Shelby who openly disliked me—Rena, the matriarch, the grand dame, simply ignored me. She was stiff as a board with everyone except Lucas, whom she adored. The truth was, I had no idea how Rena really felt about me. What I did know but chose to ignore was that all of them, including Rena, loved Lucas's ex—the one who dumped him for his now former friend. It was a story worthy of a soap opera!

Kath and Mercer had been engaged, but now it seemed she was single again, and she wanted Lucas, who had apparently been waiting for her. And since there were no consolation prizes given out in this game, I was to be discarded, just as I feared since I met Lucas.

How would he do it? Would he just tell me to get out and stay away? Would he be kind and say he was sorry he always loved Kath? Would he be an asshole and hurt me? Would he pity me? I hoped not because that would destroy me.

I knew I was being a coward, leaving before giving Lucas a chance to speak with me. Would he be relieved that I made this easier for him by walking away before he could dump me?

Oh God! I stopped breathing, my heart hammering. How would I stand it if he was happy that we were over?

Someone honked, and I realized that the light had changed from red to green, and I was still parked, analyzing the mess my life had become.

Green for Go , Amara.

Go .