Page 92 of The Hookup
“He didn’t want you to know. He didn’t want anyone to know.”
“I’m not anyone.” It didn’t matter what he thought of her, how he saw their relationship, and what boundaries she crossed. The guideposts to their relationship had shifted.
How could someone like Luke have that? He was so young, so fit, so healthy. In an instant, all her hostility fell away. “Where is he? I need to see him.”
Marie’s face tightened. It looked as if she was caught between a rock and Luke’s hard face. A man like Luke would have demanded her loyalty, and already she’d turned him in. “You have to tell me,” Kay begged. “You wouldn’t have told me if you didn’t think I needed to know. I know what Luke’s like. He’s a hard man to care for, but I care for him.”
“He’s not going to like you turning up unannounced—”
“I don’t care what he likes or doesn’t like. Please, Marie. You and I both know he’s alone. He isn’t going to tell anyone, not even his family. You and I are the only ones he has.”
Chapter 30
“Get some rest now,” the nurse told him, as she poured him a glass of water.
“I have no choice, do I?”
“No, you don’t, young man.” She handed him the glass. This woman was a matronly version of Marie, he decided. She was jovial enough, strong and robust, where Marie was efficient, business minded, and slender. “We’ll take you to the operating room first thing.”
How fucking lucky was he? “I can hardly wait.”
“Get some rest. It will be over before you know it.”
“Don’t worry,” he told her, “I have no plans to hit the bars tonight.”
“Not tonight,” the nurse replied, her face dead pan, and he liked that. “Maybe a few days later.”
He’d been here since yesterday when they had carried out some pre-op procedures. To think that a week ago, he would never have envisaged that he would be in the hospital, getting ready for cancer surgery.
Shit could happen in an instant.
He would have been meeting with his construction manager, and ensuring that the building work on Canal Street was going as scheduled. Heshouldhave been in meetings with Marie, taking care of the business. And somewhere in all of that, he might have found time to see Kay and sort things out. Make it up to her for behaving like a douchebag.
It was a recent thing. A new thing, him even thinking that he needed to make an apology. Because she was starting to matter. He wasn’t making the transition from not giving a shit, to caring, too well.
It didn’t seem to matter much anymore.
In his absence, Marie would have to handle business matters, and as far the personal stuff? That could wait.
A knock at the door, was followed by it opening slowly and then he saw her. Kay’s face peeked out through the gap.
What the hell was she doing here?
“Visiting hours are over, I’m afraid,” the nurse told her.
But Kay stepped inside quickly. “I need to see him, just for a minute,please.”
She stepped inside, and he lay on the bed, hating the fact that she was here, seeing him like this, with his vulnerability bleeding all over the place.
“Visiting times are over,” the nurse repeated, blocking Kay’s entry.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kay asked, craning her neck and peering over the nurse’s shoulder.
“Didn’t you hear me? Visiting times are over,” said the nurse, her voice stern.
“I’m his girlfriend,” Kay replied, addressing the nurse for the first time.
The nurse turned around and looked at him, for verification presumably due to his lack of enthusiasm.
