Page 123 of The Hookup
“She’s looking for another job.”
He jolted upright. “She’s what?” She loved her job. She spent enough goddamn hours there every day. “Why?”
“She said something about losing a project, some major client account her boss took away from her.”
“He did what?”
“She said something about one of her co-workers going behind her back and doing a dirty on her.”
“Fucking asshole,” he hissed. She’d worked damn hard. He thought back to when she was checking on stuff on her laptop, while he took a shower. He scratched his chin. The days’ old stubble was rough against his fingertips. These days he couldn’t even be bothered to shave daily.
“What?” Marie asked, sharply. “Who?”
“The bastard who snitched on her. I bet it was Geoffrey.”
“She didn’t say.”
“She’s a hard worker, and she tried to do everything. I know she did.”
“I take it you haven’t apologized to her yet?”
He felt hopeful. “She’s waiting for me to apologize?” If that’s all it was going to take, he’d do it now.
“I have no idea. She refused to talk about you. It was the one condition she made, otherwise she said she wouldn’t meet me.”
He slumped back in his chair. He’d assumed as much.
“Why can’t you be happy with the good things?” Marie asked. What could he say? He stared back at her, knowing he wasn’t going to tell her about his past. She didn’t need to know and he didn’t need to explain her why he messed up all the good things that came his way.
“I’m team Kay, if you were wondering,” she said, when he rolled his shoulders and didn’t offer an answer. “She’s been one of the better things to happen to you in years, ever since I’ve known you.”
If there was anyone he owed an explanation and an apology to, it was Kay, but he didn’t know how to put things right. He’d said too many vicious things for an apology to smoothe everything over. For a man who always knew how to get what he wanted, he was suddenly lost.
Chapter 42
“You said you needed my help?” Kay looked at Savannah, puzzled. Savannah and Tobias’s bedroom was pristine. Everything had been packed into neat boxes.
“The removal men are coming tomorrow,” said Savannah, placing her hand on her back.
“Then what do you want me to do?”
Savannah walked over to the bed and sat down. “I want you to tell me what’s going on with you.”
Kay walked towards her cousin, and feigned a surprised face. She was about to deny anything was wrong when Savannah beat her to it.
“Because I know it’s something, and I don’t want to spend an hour listening to you pretending that everything is fine,” said Savannah. “Jacob and Tobias are out and it’s just you and me. I won’t get a quiet moment like this to myself for a long time, so you’d better hurry up and tell me.”
It was no use. She’d been baited. She hadn’t done as great a job in hiding her feelings at the baby shower as she thought she had.
She wasn’t sure where to start, or what to say. Shame made her suddenly hot, and anxious and she could feel sweat dampen her armpits. Savannah angled her head, frowning slightly. And she already looked worried—not relieved—that Kay was about to tell all. Her expression made Kay falter. “It’s—I—uh…”
It was hard. “Please stop looking at me like that,” she pleaded.
“Like what?” asked Savannah, genuinely surprised.
“As if you’re already judging me.”
Now her cousin lookedreallyworried.
