Page 71 of The Hookup
The next few hours, he told himself.Just get through the next few hours.Reaching for Kay’s hand, he smoothed down his tie as they rushed towards the church. His father eyed them as they walked up the steps. “Luke,” he said, stretching out his hand.
Bitterness flowed through him, chilling his veins. He was loathe to take the proffered hand, but he knew it would only show his father that he was weak, that he was afraid. His father didn’t care that Luke hated him, but he would see the weakness in him.
So he reached out and shook his father’s hand hard, as if he wanted to crush every single bone in it. “Silas,” he said.
“Amanda will be pleased,” the old man said, turning his attention to Kay, his eyes widening. The slimy, old bastard hadn’t changed one bit.
“This is Silas,” Luke said to Kay. “This is Kay.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Kay, but he could tell from her voice that she was wary, as if she wasn’t sure how to address the old man.
“Delighted,” his father replied, taking her hand and kissing it. Luke balled his free hand into a fist, wanting to sock it to his father’s big ugly face. Instead, he fought for self-control, and stopped himself.
It took less than thirty seconds, the greet and go, but it seemed to last a lifetime. There was nothing more to be said between them, and with his hand still firmly holding onto Kay’s, he tugged her and walked towards the church door.
“Amanda wants you to sit at the front, with the family,” he heard the old man say, as they walked away.
At least it was done, one of the things he’d been dreading. The whole of today was going to be one big obstacle course. At some point he’d come face-to-face with Travis and his wife.
“You okay?” he asked Kay. She’d been quiet in all of this, and he squeezed her hand, grateful that she was here with him.
“Yes, are you?” she asked, the earlier disagreement quickly forgotten.
“Couldn’t be better,” he muttered, guiding her towards one of the pews towards the back, purposely disregarding Amanda’s request.
“Didn’t your dad say that—”
“I don’t care what he said.” He ushered Kay in, and followed after her, choosing to sit near the aisle. Craning his neck, he looked around to see his brother and his wife, and some of his extended family occupying the front few rows. Unease, heavy as lead, settled in his stomach. He’d only been in a church a couple of times in his life. Once for his mother’s funeral, and a few years ago for Amanda’s first wedding. He hadn’t attended Travis’s wedding.
He turned to Kay, needing a distraction, eager to block out everything. She looked at him and smiled, and in her soft eyes he found a sea of calm. He took her hand in his and she squeezed it gently; that one simple, unspoken act, lifting his spirits and providing a reassurance that he needed.
She seemed to understand.
And she didn’t ask too many questions.
This was why she had been the perfect choice to bring to the wedding. It was why she was perfectfor everything.
Their arrangement worked.
It was the perfect no-strings-attached type of arrangement that he preferred. He’d been worried that it wouldn’t be possible with Kay, with her being a friend of a friend, and him breaking his rule of getting involved with people he knew. But she was low maintenance—not in the way she dressed and carried herself, for he could see she was sky-high maintenance there, but in the way she didn’t bug him too much. She was always busy at work, and this he counted as a blessing. Kay was that rare thing—a woman who liked sex and didn’t care to hide it, and who also didn’t seem too bothered about commitment.
It was perfect.
Theyworked.
She nudged him, pulling him out of his thoughts and bringing him back to the present. People were standing. Amanda walked down on her father’s arm, a veil covering her face. His little sister couldn’t help but smile as she walked down the aisle with her father.
~ ~
It was all so odd.
This was the conclusion Kay had come to as she stood with Luke outside the church after the wedding ceremony had finished.
The wedding had been such a strange contrast compared to Savannah’s wedding, not in terms of extravagance, but in how different the atmosphere was, how different the family dynamics were. She had been prepared for some kind of friction, but not this. Luke had been edgy from the moment he had picked her up in the morning. He’d been late, and she had been ready an hour before he had arrived, risking his wrath and calling him twice to ask him what was taking him so long. He’d been miserable even before he’d reached her.
He was dragging it out, as if he didn’t want to go, as if this was a visit to the dentist for root canal, not his sister’s wedding.
Added to that, the relationship with his father seemed especially strained. While she didn’t always see eye to eye with her mother, she loved her unconditionally, and would do anything for her. But Luke, seemed to find it difficult to even look his father in the eye.
