Page 122 of The Hookup
“You mean Luke?” Savannah stifled a yawn. “She’s fond of him, I know.”
“Youknow?” Briony asked her.
Savannah giggled. “No. There’s nothing going on between those two, I’m sure of it. Izzy’s mentioned him a few times, that’s all.” She yawned again.
“Are we boring you, darling?” Max asked, with a grin.
“No! No. I love that you all did this for me, and I really needed time away with you girls. I’m having trouble sleeping at the moment. I can’t lie on my back at all, and I need to go to the toilet every half an hour. It makes for a lot of broken sleep.”
Luke and Izzy?
The idea cut through Kay like a guillotine. Her gut told her it was pure conjecture, with no basis for truth, but a niggling thorn in her side made her wonder.
She looked on while Savannah and the others laughed. She felt alone, even though she was sitting here in a room with them all. She felt apart from them, from life, as if the disconnect in her life, between what she once wanted and what she now had, was too large, and too ugly. She couldn’t lie about her life, or her happiness, for she had clearly failed.
The rest of the day unfolded slowly and she managed to keep an upbeat appearance.
Much later on, Savannah called Morris, her chauffeur, to pick her up because it was Jacob’s bedtime, and Savannah was mindful of being there for him. She had insisted on dropping Kay home, but Kay had made an excuse to stay back and offer Max some advice on her share portfolio.
“Thank you, girls,” said Savannah, as she was ready to leave. “I’ve had a brilliant time. It should tide me over for a few months, when I’m hands deep in diapers.”
“Lovely,” said Max, not without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
~ ~
On his return to work, Luke discovered that he could only do half-days at work because he just got so tired as the day wore on. His entire life had changed so drastically within the space of a month. And his future too.
It wasn’t just the recovery and the adjusting to meds, and dealing with having only part of his thyroid working. The whole business with Kay preyed on his mind.
And he couldn’t get a hold of Xavier. Where was that guy when he needed him? Feeling at a loss, and not used to needing someone to sound off on, he sat at his desk, flicking through books on self-healing and veganism. These days he surfed the internet looking for recipes that would help his energy levels and food that would help him to become healthier, than surf the net looking for sites for sale. The work on the Canal Street site was still going ahead, but he had to seriously think about putting his plans on hold for Miami and LA.
Unable to concentrate, he walked into Marie’s office, and eased himself into the chair opposite her.
“How are you feeling?” she asked. “Because you don’t look too good.”
“I’ve felt better.”
“You came back too soon,” she told him. “Take another few weeks off, Luke.”
“I could,” he agreed. But his malaise wasn’t due entirely to his health issues. It went way deeper and he couldn’t concentrate much. His heart wasn’t in the business, and this was a first for him.
“Take a few more weeks off. I can handle things at this end, and if I’m stuck, I know where to find you.”
“Maybe I will go home. I’m pretty useless here. I can’t even keep an eye on Canal Street. So much for building that empire.” It sounded tempting, goofing off work again. But his apartment was empty, and there was no Kay coming around in the evenings to check in on him. She had vanished from his life, and he missed her like crazy. It was his fault completely. He hadn’t reached out because he didn’t know how to fix it, yet.
“I’ve got a handle on Canal Street. I’m getting daily updates from the guys, and I’ve been over a couple of times this week,” Marie told him.
“You have?” He had no idea. He’d barely been able to focus on his emails. Amanda called more often than she had before, and Maggie had sent him a couple of texts asking how he was. He had ignored them.
But Kay? He’d heard nothing since that day.
He waited for Marie to say something. The women talked, and he was sure they’d spoken. He was sure Marie knew Kay wasn’t coming over any more.
He coughed lightly. “Seen Kay lately?”
Marie sat back in her chair, her expression softening. “I have, actually. We went out for dinner last week.”
“You had dinner? Both of you, together?” The idea was hard for him to get his head around, that these two women were meeting without him. They wouldn’t even have known one another had it not been for him and now they were best friends all of a sudden. “How is she?” he asked, brushing dust off his jeans.
