Page 154 of Untouchable
The followingday Kelly was still waiting to hear back from Jack. The files she’d given him were big, and it might take a while for them to get through it and then figure out what they had and what it all meant.
The silence didn’t mean there was nothing in it to be found. She had to keep reminding herself.
But her time was running out. Any day now, his suspicions might lead Wes to pry into her business and discover something about her real identity. Any day now, her mother might die, and it would be too late to give her justice.
Any day now, Kelly might finally give in completely to her feelings and spill everything to Caleb.
She was out of sorts all day though, and she was uncomfortable with how vulnerable she had made herself the day before. She’d never get through this if she didn’t stay a little stronger.
She was in such a tangle now, there wasn’t any way to unravel herself. She was as trapped as a person could be in this—like Hamlet in the endless downward spiral—so all she could do washold out until the end, when the events set in motion would finally come to fruition.
Because she was worried about a repeat of the day before, she told Caleb she was seeing a client who could only meet in the evening and so she wouldn’t have time to make it out to the house after work.
He told her he was going to stay at his apartment in the city that night, so she should just come over for an hour or two before she went to meet her client.
She hadn’t been expecting the offer, so she ended up agreeing to it.
She’d never been to his apartment downtown before. Security was tighter at his house, so they’d made a habit of always spending time there. She wasn’t quite sure why he’d never invited her over to his apartment, but she’d assumed maybe he thought about it as some kind of bachelor pad. He’d probably had all kinds of one-night stands there, and his relationship with Kelly was different, so he’d kept the spaces separate.
She followed the directions he gave her, and she showed up at his door a little after six. He must have just gotten there after work since he was still dressed in a suit and hadn’t even loosened his tie when he opened the door.
“Hey,” she said with a smile, hiding the jump in her heart at the sight of him.
It was so completely wrong—to be so thrilled to see him like this.
He smiled at her, but he looked tired, and he just stepped aside to let her in.
She didn’t like the apartment as much as she liked the house. It was sleek and modern and kind of cold, without the warmth and history of the house. It felt like the man Caleb had been before he’d started to soften with her.
“I don’t have very much time,” she said, remembering her vow not to melt into spinelessness again today.
“I know. I’ve got work to do this evening anyway.”
She looked around, noting the minimalistic furniture and blacks and grays of the apartment. “I was just wondering why I’ve never been over here before.”
Caleb glanced around a little distractedly. “I’ve barely been here myself for the past couple of months. It feels…”
“What?”
He gave a half shrug. “It feels foreign. Like I don’t belong here anymore.”
Yes. That fit with her own thoughts from before. The place represented a person that wasn’t really him now.
“Do you want something to eat?” he asked.
“I’m not really very hungry.”
“Something to drink? I opened a bottle of wine.”
“Sure. Sounds good.”
He walked to the kitchen, taking off his suit jacket as he did and slinging it on a chair.
She stared at the jacket for a minute, feeling a weird heaviness in her gut. She didn’t know why. It was just a piece of clothing. He wore suits most of the time, and his taking off the jacket wasn’t unusual. She didn’t know why it felt so personal, intimate, domestic at the moment.
She didn’t like this apartment. She felt like a stranger here.
So did Caleb.
