Page 108 of The Hookup
“I’m glad he’s got you to take care of him,” Amanda remarked. “Marie says you’ve really been there for him.”
Kay winced. “It wasn’t only me. Marie has been here a lot. She’s cooked his food for him. That’s much more than I ever did.”
“Well, I’m just glad you were there.”
“I’ll let him know you called.”
Chapter 37
It was the weekend, and Kay had come over. ‘For a few hours,’ she’d told him.
He would happily take a few hours, a few minutes, whatever slice of time she offered. Her being here had made his illness all the more bearable.
She’d gone grocery shopping again; with Marie away, he sensed that she was doing double duty to make up for it. Together, they were taking things out of the bags and putting them away. He liked this—her being here, and them packing groceries away as if they were a normal couple, running chores on the weekend.
When his doorbell rang, he looked up, pensive. He hardly ever had any visitors, and at this time, in this condition, he hadn’t been expecting anyone at all.
“I’ll get it,” she said, setting down the jar of olives. “Were you expecting anyone?”
“No.”
She disappeared out of sight, and then he heard voices. Not just one person. He strained his ears, and felt the color drain from his face. He cocked his head, his ears straining to distinguish the voices.
Seriously?What the hell were they doing here? And why hadshecome?
Amanda walked into the kitchen, then raised her hand to her mouth. “Why didn’t you tell us?” And before he had a chance to reply, she rushed over to him. As he reacted, while trying to school his anger, he saw Kay standing there, looking slightly sheepish. And beside her was Maggie.
“I—I forgot to tell you,” Kay said, putting her hand to her forehead.
He angled his head. “You knew about this?” he growled.
“I—I meant to tell you that Amanda called…”
“I wanted to surprise you,” continued Amanda, breaking away from him and oblivious to what was going on. He didn’t know what to say. Didn’t have the energy to speak, because it was all sucked up into a knot of anger.
“You should have called,” he said, turning his back to Maggie.
“Ididcall—”
“And I forgot to tell you. I was busy with my report,” Kay answered, looking slightly flustered.
“What does it matter? We’re here now. You could have at least told ussomething.” Amanda’s eyes were beginning to well up.
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“It’s cancer, for goodness sake. Of course we were going to worry. We had a right to know, don’t you think?Ihad a right, even if you don’t care about Dad and Travis.” The rising anger in her voice filled the air with tension.
He didn’t want to upset Amanda, but it wasn’t helping having Maggie in his kitchen, looking at him as if she gave a shit. “I didn’t want to worry you,” he said, finally. “I would have told you eventually. I didn’t know you were back from your honeymoon.”
“You didn’t even listen to any of my messages?” Amanda shrieked. “Because if you had, you’d have known that we returned weeks ago.”
Christ. He swiped a hand over his face. What a train wreck of a morning this had turned out to be.
“I left you so many texts, and called you,” his sister continued. “But they always said you were busy, at the new site, or something. I could never get through. Thank goodness for Kay. If it hadn’t been for her we’d never have known.”
The two of them smiled at one another. He ought to be glad that his sister and Kay seemed to be getting along, even though they had hardly spent any time together.
“We’ve all moved on, Luke.” Hatred curled around his heart, impossible to unpick. The sound of that voice cut into him and cut deep. Maggie had finally spoken. She was the last person who should have come here. He turned around and faced her, this woman who had smashed his heart into tiny, tiny pieces. He looked squarely into her eyes, needing to confirm that she had no hold over him.
