Page 125 of The Hookup
“Luke?” Her eyebrows lifted. “But … how… where…when?”
“It was … we got talking,” Kay replied. “He made me laugh, made me a cocktail, he was easy to talk to.”
“At the wedding?”
She nodded.
“You let me believe you were taking my advice and steering clear of men and lying to me?” This time Savannah shook her head, but she seemed to be amusingly exasperated. “Why did I ever think you would listen to me?”
“I wish I had now.” Kay’s voice turned quieter. If only she had listened to her cousin, she would have saved herself a ton of heartache. She would have spared herself the humiliation of having someone tell her she was a pity-fuck. She wouldn’t have ended up being a trophy wedding guest. But even as she tricked herself into believing this, she remembered how tempting Luke had been. Who was she kidding? He’d been a towering inferno of sexiness that she had found particularly potent. She could never have walked away fromthat.
“You’re not together anymore?”
“No.”
She found herself telling Savannah about everything, but leaving out the terms of their arrangement, that it had purely been a hookup in the beginning. She sensed that Savannah would see her in a different light if she told her that she’d agreed to meet for no other reason than to have sex. Just thinking and talking about it out loud made her feel dirty. It wasn’t only to Savannah, she felt that there was no way she could ever bring herself to tell anyone.
So she told her about his cancer, and that his mother had died when he was in his teens, and that he was a difficult man to love. But it was the news of the cancer that caught Savannah completely by surprise.
“I didn’t know,” Savannah exclaimed. “Tobias hasn’t said anything. Poor man.”
“Don’t tell anyone,” said Kay, remembering all too late that Luke didn’t want any of this to get out. “Please don’t. I don’t even think he’s told Xavier.”
She couldn’t even bring herself to explain that the thing that hurt her the most, not only what he called her but the reason he took her along to the wedding in the first place. “I got it wrong. I assumed he wanted me to meet his family,” she said, “But he told me later that it was because he wanted to show his ex that he had moved on. I thought he genuinely started to like me, and that I meant something.”
Savannah looked confused. “He had to take you to a wedding for you to think that? Didn’t you sense that before?”
Kay made a grating noise in her throat, as if it was too difficult to explain herself. There were days when she looked back on her reasoning back then and couldn’t explain it to herself.
She’d wanted a fairytale, and he’d given her ashes.
But it wasn’t his fault.
It was hers. For going along with a man like that in the first place.
“I’ve learned my lesson.”
Savannah looked at her silently.
“I have,” she insisted. Being man-free was the way to go. She needed a huge change in her life. A new job and no man, not for a good while.
Of course she had learned her lesson, otherwise why else was she ignoring Dr. Santini’s calls? They had ended up talking one time when she left the hospital, and he’d been most interested to hear that she was an investment banker. She suspected that his recent calls to her, on the pretense of needing financial tips, was a ruse to get her to go to lunch.
Nope. No way. The old Kay wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but the person she was now longed to be single again. She wanted a stress-free life devoid of all drama.
“Oh, by the way,” she said, suddenly remembering, “Arnold says ‘hi’. He asked me how you were doing, and he wanted to pass on his good wishes for the new arrivals.”
“Awww. He’s so sweet,” replied Savannah, her face brightening at the news. “I must try to get him to visit in a few months’ time.”
“He’s not so bad,” Kay agreed. She had time for Arnold these days. Shemadetime for him. No more did she rush to work, and spend long hours there. In fact, helping Engelmann out had its rewards. She got to leave work early, often walking past Geoffrey’s desk with a huge smile on her face. Nobody at work knew that she was looking to leave yet, and she intended to keep it that way. “But he’s not so happy these days.”
“Oh?” Savannah looked concerned.
“He says his employer isn’t giving him a pay rise, and they’re being stingy with their holiday.” She paused, a new idea coming to her. “Couldn’t he do something for you at your new place?” she asked, thinking out aloud. “You’ve got an elevator at one side of your mansion, maybe he could help out there.”
“A concierge in our home?” asked Savannah, as if the idea was crazy.
“Maybe not.”
