Free Team Lucas (The Saints Team #1) by Ally Adams

said and watched him pour a tall glass for me.
    “I’m glad we got a chance to meet you before Luke arrived home,” Sarah said. She took a glass of wine that Jase held out to her and came and sat by me. “I wanted to let you know that if you need to talk or just need to vent or escape, we’re here for you.”
    “Really? Thank you,” I said, “but so far so good. We’re not in each other’s pockets too often and I’m quite used to the insults.” I smiled. “I’m trying to match them one-for-one.”
    Jase nodded like he knew it too well. He glanced out to the driveway to make sure we were still alone and there was no sign of Lucas’s car.
    “You have to look after yourself as the first priority, Mia,” Jase said.
    “Jason is right. We love Luke,” Sarah said. “But we’ve been through a lot with him and we know he can be very hard on people.”
    “Yes, on anyone in Team Lucas,” Jase agreed.
    “Team Lucas.” I repeated the term and sighed. “It does seem that the day revolves around him, but it’s only a part-time job for me with a four-week trial. I might be gone at the end of the four weeks!”
    “You’re on track to beat the last minder,” Sarah said.
    “Poor Mrs. Compton, she’s the one I feel most sorry for.” Jase sighed.
    The pair of them was so lovely and caring, I couldn’t have hoped for better neighbors.
    “How did you meet Lucas?” I asked Sarah as Jase grabbed a beer and suggested we sit on the deck and look at the ocean from the third level.
    We wandered out to the deck and I stopped; the view was breathtaking. I couldn’t believe people really lived like this.
    “You never tire of it,” Sarah said seeing my appreciative sweep of the area. We sat down and Jase continued.
    “I went to boarding school with Luke. I was the prefect of our grade and Luke was assigned to my house—Daly House. It was a buddy system and I landed Luke since he was the new kid. We were both twelve and Luke had been boarding in elementary school in the UK and came here to board for the high school years. He was a wild kid—he arrived at that school like he had nothing to lose and he took on any dare, pushed every envelope. It wasn’t until he got into sport and showed promise at soccer and football that he reined it in a bit.”
    “How did he fit in with the other kids?” I asked.
    “They loved him,” Jase said. “He was a ringleader in no time: a good looking kid with a major attitude. You had to have good friendships in boarding school, those relationships became your family and Luke needed family. In no time at all Luke excelled for the school in sport and that made him grow up a bit, he changed and settled in.”
    “Why did he board in the US instead of in the UK near his parents?” I asked.
    Jase glanced to the door again. “His father was doing a lot of business here and I think he wanted to have his son at a prestigious American school for the connections. Never saw him once in all of the years of high school. Luke was the only kid who was farmed out every holiday.”
    Jase looked to Sarah to continue.
    “Jase and I met at a senior dance.” She smiled at him. “I met Luke not long after, so I’ve known him for well over a decade now.” She lowered her voice. “After school, we all went on to college. Luke had a sports scholarship, Jase did law and I did psychology. In all that time I’ve never known Luke to get close to anyone.”
    “Really?” I asked. “Not one long-term girlfriend.”
    Sarah shook her head. Jase looked at his watch, rose and went to the kitchen. He returned and topped up our drinks, placing some pretzels in front of Sarah and me. I thanked him and listened to Sarah talking about their recent struggles with Lucas, pre-me.
    “Up until last year he was like all of us. We’d party, we’d get drunk sometimes, and we’d get over it. He and Jase and Cam—you’ll meet Cameron, he’s the other musketeer,” she said with a smile at Jase, “well Cam got