Page 109 of Just One Look

“Oh,” Elizabeth said. “Good.” She was sitting near (a) a businessman, middle-aged variety, who was doing the Sudoku on his phone; (b) an older lady with the kind of wheeled fabric shopping cart that older ladies tended to drag around behind them, and (c) two teenage girls in plaid school uniforms. She said, “No. It was very … it was entirely satisfactory.”

“Well,thatwasn’t what I expected,” Nyree said. “Entirely satisfactory? Not a sexy beast, then?”

“No,” Elizabeth said, “he was. Like I said. Satisfactory. Entirely. Very, uh …” She lowered her voice. “Bestial.” The businessman looked up, and she thought,Lord have mercy. What did I just say?Especially when he looked back at his phone and smiled.

“You’re with people, eh,” Nyree said.

“Yes. Schoolgirls.”

“Bugger,” Nyree said, but she was laughing. “Sorry. You can give me the details another time.”

“Or I can do it never,” Elizabeth said.

Nyree sighed. “Be that way, then. Really, I rang you up to ask if you’re taking Luka his tea tomorrow night, once he’s home. Marko said he thought you were. Something about a tracksuit top. I said that could just be hooking up, because of the ‘sexy beast’ bit, and he said, no, he didn’t think so. No good details, though. If you won’t be there, I’ll make Marko drive us over, because I’m not sure Luka’s got anybody else, and those boys can get funny about injuries. Too proud to ask for help, but destroyed at the same time. Toxic masculinity, eh. My stepdad used to be the Highlanders coach, if I didn’t say. We’ll bring our screaming bub with us. That’ll break the ice. Why does he have no family there, though? Doesn’t he have any?”

Oh, boy. What was all right to say here? “He did invite me to bring dinner over tomorrow,” she decided on. “He’s been very, uh … loving. Of course, he was still under the residual effects of anesthesia when he asked me, so … And he has a family, but they’re a bit … distant.”

“Oh.” Nyree digested that for a minute. “I’ll channel my repressed but awesome stepbrothers, then. Pakeha families, eh. Maori families aren’t ‘distant.’ Maori families are in your face. You’ll never walk alone. Want company tomorrow, if you’re feeling shy?”

What did she do here? She did not need this. She said, “He’d be more likely to get dinner if you came, anyway. I could be working late. It can happen.”

“Of course, maybe he wants to be alone with you,” Nyree said. “He probably wishes you were there now. You left him in hospital alone?”

“Well, yes. I did. He’s doing well, though. His labs were excellent. And he didn’t ask me to stay.” Also, he’d said just last night that he didn’t want a woman to wrap herself around him or even come to all his games. Why would he have said that if he didn’t mean it?

“He won’t ask,” Nyree said. “The last time he’s going to ask you to stay is when he needs you, unless it’s for sex. Like I said. Toxic masculinity. Of course, you had bestial sexbeforehis surgery, so maybe, now that his neck’s not buggered, he may actuallybeasking you for sex. Don’t be surprised if the topic comes up tomorrow. What you and I think we can do and what those boys think they can do are two different things.”

Elizabeth said, “That’s not happening. Not until his doctor gives the OK.” What had she beenthinking,risking his neck like that?She hadn’t been thinking, that was what.

“But he asked you for tomorrow anyway,” Nyree said. “Putting the pieces together … sounds all good. But I want to come anyway. I want to see. Ring him and find out if he wants us, and text me back. If I don’t hear from you, he could be holding a baby tomorrow at seven. Bad idea, probably, with his neck in a brace. You could worry about Arielle as well. He could drop her.”

“You’re telling me he drops the ball,” Elizabeth said. “I’m not going to believe that.”

“Nerve damage,” Nyree said blithely. “Ring him. Text me yes or no.”

“All right,” Elizabeth said, since Nyree was clearly a force of nature. Marko might be a beast, but she’d bet Nyree had his number. “Just one thing. What color is he? Luka? I don’t necessarily believe in it,” she hurried to add. “Not to disparage your, uh, gift.”

“But you want to know anyway,” Nyree said, not sounding the least bit put out. “Blue-green, then. Grounded. Physical. Purpose-driven, but sensitive. I know that sounds wrong, but it’s what I see.”

In other words,Elizabeth thought,exactly like a rugby player.Except that she’d said “sensitive.” But then, she’d called Elizabeth “sensitive,” too, and how likely was that?

That photo above his bed, though, the one he lit up at night, the one that was his favorite. That was blue and green. So vibrant. Soalive.What were the odds that Nyree would see that color in him?

It was purple, too, she realized, and a shiver went down her spine that wasn’t just from the cold.

“Baby’s crying,” Nyree said. “Ring him now.” And hung up.

* * *

The phone wasa welcome interruption to Luka’s contemplation of his dinner tray, especially when he saw that it was Elizabeth. “Hi,” he said. “Tell me you’re coming up to take my mind off this. I’ve got gelatin here. Applesauce. Some sort of dodgy-looking custard in a plastic cup. They’re giving me baby food. Also a piece of chicken that looks like it was grown in a lab, and some brown rice and mushy peas. Think you can get pizza delivered to a hospital room?”

“Probably not,” she said. “They’re thinking your digestive system may not be quite up to par yet. Opioids.”

“Not up to par if I’m looking at this,” he said. “Never mind. How’s the lifesaving going?”

“I’m, uh, not,” she said. “I’m on a ferry to an … island. Wai-something. Why is it that I can remember the name of every bone in the body, and not this island?”

“Oh.” That had probably come out blank. It was the narcotics, dulling his reactions. He roused himself to say, “Sounds fun.”