“Yeah. He’s not a bad masseuse.”
It was like drawing blood from a stone. He could feel her reluctance to discuss it, but something deep inside told him to push on regardless. He threw caution to the wind. “So that’s what you guys were doing the other night, with the yoga mat?”
“That’s enough for now,” she snapped, leaning away from him. “Thanks for your help.”
His hands fell away and the connection they shared was gone.
Shit.
“Look, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry, I’ve just been wondering, that’s all.”
She just sat there with her back to him, saying nothing. After a few moments, he tried again. “I asked Callum about it, but he said I should ask you, so that’s what I’m doing.”
“Oh really?” she glared up at him over her shoulder. “He said that? I should’ve seen that coming.”
She leaned forward, preparing to stand, as he searched for something to say to make things okay between them again.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as she practically forced him out of the way, turning to push herself upwards and lock her braces through her jeans.
“It’s fine. Forget it.” She slid her arms into the cuffs of her crutches. “I think you should go.”
“What?”
One step forward, two steps back. What the hell is the deal with this damn mat?
She turned away from him and he reached out to touch her shoulder. “Hey, come on – let’s not do this again, okay? I’m completely in the dark here, I don’t even know what I said wrong.”
He could feel her trembling beneath his hand and he squeezed her shoulder gently, trying to keep some semblance of calm in his voice.
“I don’t want to get caught up in the middle of this thing between you two,” she said tightly.
“What?”
“You and Callum!”
“What thing? Look, I don’t know what’s going on here – I just know that he said I should ask you about this and I agree with him. What’s the big deal? Come on, whatever it is, can we just talk about it and get it over with? Because it feels like things are getting a little out of control here, don’t you think?”
His mind went completely blank as she turned to face him, her eyes burning with open hostility.
“He thinks he’s being clever,” she said icily. “He knows I don’t want to talk about this, and he knows you’re desperate enough to do anything so he’s pushing me from one angle and pulling you from another!”
“This isn’t some kind of game, Ally. I just want you to talk to me, that’s all, it’s no big conspiracy, nothing sinister.”
“He’s playing you!”
“I don’t think he is,” he said carefully, trying to keep calm in the face of her anger. “I know there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know, but I thought that maybe if I asked you when I’m not sure, we can shorten that list a little bit, y’know?”
She huffed out a frustrated breath. “Why are you making a big deal out of this?”
“I’m not making a big deal out of anything. I’m just asking a question, that’s all.”
“So go ahead then, ask it!”
“Alright. What’s the deal with the yoga mat? Is it a massage thing? Or an exercise thing? Or something else, because I gotta tell ya, my imagination is running wild right now.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and a chill crawled up the back of his neck.
“How about I tell you all about that, once you tell me where the hell you’ve been for the past four years?”
Whoa. What the hell just happened?
“Look, I’m sorry –“
“No more apologies, Jack. I want answers. And if you can’t give them to me, we have nothing else to talk about. You can see yourself out.”
Dumbfounded, he watched as she made her way across the hall and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
CHAPTER 15
“What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.”
- Jean-Paul Sartre
Jack sat in his car, breathless and agitated. He was engulfed in silence, but inside his head Ally’s voice raged on.
He stared at the shadows of the mature trees that surrounded the cemetery gates in the moonlight. Even in the midst of all this turmoil, his gut instinct was to seek out his father.
Digging his new cell phone out of his pocket, he paused momentarily before hitting the contacts button. Callum picked up on the second ring.
“What the hell are you up to?” he demanded.
“Jack?”
“You knew damn well what you were doing, didn’t you? She’s right – you were just playing me!”
“Whoa, hang on – what the –“
“Is this your way of getting back at me? You satisfied now?”
“Just calm the hell down, will you? What happened?”
“Don’t play dumb, Callum. She threw me out, which is exactly what you knew would happen!”
“What?”
“What the hell are you playing at, huh? Do you think this is some kind of game?”
“Just calm down! Where are you? Are you at home?”
Jack huffed out a ragged breath and looked around. The leafy trees and well-kept gardens surrounding the cemetery spread out in the darkness before him.
“No.”
“Meet me at Barney’s in twenty minutes.”