Page 68 of The Hookup
“It’s a cold. I don’t do man flu.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll look after you if you’re ill.”
“I don’t need anyone to look after me,” he leaned towards her. “I just need you for sex.”
She bit down on her teeth, managing somehow to still smile at him, even though the constant reminder of why he was always so keen to see her, hurt. “Marie seems nice,” she said.
“She’s reliable, and hard-working, and I trust her.”
“She must be good,” said Kay. “It’s not like you to trust many people. “
“Good observation.”
“Easy enough to make,” replied Kay. She knew the bare minimum about him, and likewise, he never asked her much about herself, except when it had come to Dean. Thinking about it further, they really were no more than two strangers who shared physical intimacy. Something about that didn’t feel right to her. Not anymore.
But sitting here, next to him, like this, and him having introduced her to Marie, she felt as if she had somehow been included in his inner circle. She let the feeling sink over her, because it wouldn’t be long before her bubble would burst.
“Am I that transparent?” He knocked back his scotch.
“On the contrary. I’d say you were hard to read.”
“Hard to read,” he repeated, as if the words were new, and surprising.
“Did you think you were an open book?”
“I don’t know what people think of me.”
She would have found this to be an odd comment, but knowing him as she did now, it made perfect sense. He didn’t give enough of himself away. He never shared, he never went deep. He never put himself in a position where he was vulnerable.
She understood what they had, because—as Marie had said—he was upfront, but he never gave enough of himself away. Sheknewhim, but she also didn’t know him, for Luke Hunter had hidden demons and after nearly three months of being with him, she was no closer to unearthing them.
“The first time I saw her, I figured she was your girlfriend.”
“People make that stupid assumption from time to time.”
“Why’s it stupid?”
“She’s much older than me.”
“Would that stop you?”
“I tend not to fall for women who are older than me. And I've never seen her in that light.”
“But still,” Kay persisted, trying to get into his mind, trying to unravel his thought processes. “Sometimes you can’t help who you fall in love with.”
“Who’s talking about falling in love? She’s good at what she does and that’s all.”
His reply startled her, but something pushed her to challenge it. “No-one’s talking about falling in love, but I’m talking about people in general. What if you met someone you liked but they were a few years older than you, and you didn’t know? Then what would you do?”
“I don’t ask people how old they are, but clearly, Marie is old enough to be my mother.”
Kay laughed out loud. “I never saw her as your mother. I think she’d be hurt to know that’s how you see her.”
“Nobody can replace my mother.”
“Moms are irreplaceable,” she agreed.
“Yes, they are.”
