Page 110 of Just One Look

“Luka.” There was a pause, and some background noise, and then she said, “I’m just going to say this. I have some neighbors here, but who cares, right?”

“Right,” he said slowly. She was breaking up with him? You couldn’t break up after one time, though. That wasn’t breaking up. It was just not going back for more.

Then why didn’t it feel like it?

She said, “I should have come up and visited you. Seen if you wanted company. I wasn’t sure if you …”

It was all right. He sighed, mostly for effect. “Elizabeth. Elle. Do I have to ask for the date every time? That’s going to be a bit tricky, don’t you think, given the spontaneous arrangement we have going here?”

“We do?”

“Yes,” he said. “We do. You text me when you’re free. I’m your standing dinner date. Also your booty call.”

“Not yet, I’m not,” she said. “Nyree was right. I do have to talk to you about this. Didn’t Nils mention sexual activity?” A pause, and then her tone shifted to her most official voice. “Please refer to your discharge instructions for your surgeon’s guidance. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact him. Failure to follow his instructions can result in delayed healing or further injury.”

He said, “The neighbors are listening, eh.”

“Yes. They are.” He got a choked-off giggle with that. He’d bet she didn’t even know where that had come from.

“I’ve got a neighbor myself,” he said, “or I’d tell you some things we could do without moving my neck. Managed it last night, eh.”

“That was dangerous,” she said.

“Always the most fun, the dangerous things,” he said. “Why are you going to Waiheke? Out with some other bloke I’m going to have to intimidate? I can do it, no worries, but you could remember that I’m recuperating here.”

“No,” she said. “With Piper.”

“Oh.” That sobered him up. “She lives on Waiheke?”

“Yes. Or her mother does.” He heard the sound of engines and a public-address system, and she said, “We’re docking. I need to go find her. Oh—do you want Nyree and Marko to come for dinner tomorrow? She wants to know.”

“Are you still coming as well?” he asked.

“Yes. If you want me.”

“Assume I want you,” he said. “Bloody hell, this relationship is hard work. Been in your pants once, and it’s already hard yakka.”

“Nyree said you were sensitive,” she said. “That is not sensitive.”

“That’s because I’m not,” he said. “Also, about Waiheke—”

“Got to go,” she said. “Or she’ll probably run off without me. She wasn’t exactly jumping at the chance to spend the evening with her estranged evil stepsister. Notice she sent me up to a whole otherdeck.Why in the name of Heaven did I think this wild goose chase—wildsisterchase—would be a good idea? Now I’m stuck on anisland.”And rang off.

He smiled and ate some rubbery chicken and brown rice.

Waiheke, though. That could be interesting. He’d bet she didn’t know.