Chapter Eight #2
Mack reached over and pushed her hand away so she could flip to the next page. “Is that a bio for each of us? What does DWS stand for?”
“Doctor Wife Stealer.”
Heat rose into Kayla’s cheeks as Mack laughed so hard she choked on her wine.
This was not going the way it was supposed to.
She needed to claw back control. She also needed to make sure Mack didn’t flip any more pages.
She had drawn out a diagram a few pages later sports style, with X’s and O’s representing the two couples.
Mack would definitely laugh her ass off if she saw it.
“Doctor Wife Stealer?” Mack wheezed the words through her laughter. “Seriously? Also, that has me listed at 175 pounds, and I am officially offended.”
“Well, I would have asked you, but I wrote all this out on the plane, and you were busy snoring, so I had to guess.”
Color flooded Mack’s cheeks, but the jab had the intended effect. She pulled her hand away from the book, using it to take a big gulp of wine. As Kayla dragged her notes closer to herself and out of Mack’s reach, Mack said, “I don’t snore, do I?”
“I don’t know. It’s been years since we’ve shared a bedroom.”
“Isn’t that the sort of thing my future wife would know?”
Mack’s smile was as infectious as ever, and Kayla couldn’t help but join in. She’d probably end up with permanently aching cheeks from this week with Mack. “I’ll take notes tonight on your sleeping habits.”
Mack blushed again, but she was saved by the arrival of their appetizers.
Mack cooed over the char on her grilled octopus and the hint of lemon to lighten it up.
Kayla barely tasted her fish stew beyond noting the pleasant zing of spicy peppers.
While they ate, her focus was entirely on her notes.
Maybe Mack was right, and she had gone overboard on the planning, but this was how she handled everything in life.
Even as a teen, she had a weekly calendar broken down into one hour, color-coded blocks.
It was her planning that had brought her success, and the one time she failed to prepare—at her disastrous and short-lived career in finance—she was humiliated and fired.
To distract herself from the flood of bad memories, Kayla studied her notebook.
Much of the bio on Skye’s fiancée was blank, of course, but she had a pretty good idea of what the woman would look like in her head.
She would be gorgeous and witty. She was a doctor, so probably rich and smart.
Driven but with a follow through that Kayla had proven lacking.
In short, she was an upgraded version of Kayla, brilliant in all the areas she was lacking.
Mack set her fork down with finality. “Okay, that’s enough of that.”
Before Kayla could ask what she meant, Mack reached across the table and whipped the notebook out of her hands.
Kayla’s heart raced as panic threatened to fill her. “Give it back.”
“You don’t need this, you know.” Mack waggled the book just out of Kayla’s reach. Her smile was infuriating. “Love isn’t dictated by structure. You don’t need a plan. You need to relax and let Skye come to you.”
Kayla made another swipe for the notebook but missed. “That didn’t work for me last time. She got away because I took my eye off the ball. It won’t happen again.”
“Honestly, listen to yourself. You’re going about this all wrong.”
Kayla’s stomach lurched. What if Mack was right? Worse, what if neither option would work? What if all of this was a waste of time? What would she do then? The questions swirled around her brain not unlike a whirlpool in the ocean, threatening to pull her under and drown her.
“I’m not kidding, Mack. Give it back.”
Kayla made another lunge, coming up out of her chair to go after the book.
Mack laughed and yanked it away, but her hand came into contact with a passing waiter.
The book bounced out of her hand to land on the tile, flopping open.
The waiter kept moving and accidentally kicked the book across the floor.
It skittered and bounced, flipping over and dragging the open pages across the rough, dirty surface until it banged into a chair leg at an empty table nearby.
Kayla flew out of her chair, chasing after the notebook. She bent down too quick and a slice of pain shot through her bad knee. It was so unexpected, she couldn’t hold back her hiss of pain. She couldn’t focus on the pain, though. She snatched up the book and surveyed the damage.
Her hand-drawn map was now partially obscured by a black streak that probably came from the sole of the waiter’s polished shoe.
There was sand covering the open pages and a reddish stain that might have been from a sauce spilled on the floor.
That corner of the page was sticky with the sauce and it was soaking through.
Kayla bounced back to her feet and hobbled back to the table.
She shoved her napkin into the water glass and dabbed at the sauce.
The stain didn’t quite disappear, but it wasn’t sticky anymore.
She used the dry part of her napkin to clean the rest of the map.
Some of it was obscured, but it was still legible.
She was okay. Her plan was okay. It could survive this.
“LaLa?”
Mack’s voice seemed to come from a long way off.
When Kayla heard it, she realized how quiet the restaurant had become.
How her own breath was echoing in her ears.
She was breathing so quickly it sounded like panting.
Her heart was racing like she’d run a mile.
Looking up, she saw her panic reflected in Mack’s eyes.
Mack’s eyebrows tilted up at the center and her voice sounded strained. “I’m sorry, LaLa. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Kayla looked around, but mercifully no one else was looking at them.
Apparently, the disturbance didn’t seem too strange to anyone else, even if she felt like she had made a fool of herself.
Her instinct was to tell Mack that she wasn’t upset, but she knew the lie wouldn’t land.
She couldn’t see herself now, but she knew what she looked like when she was frantic and Mack probably knew better than anyone else.
Kayla took a breath to settle herself. She shut the pages of the notebook and pressed her hands over top of it.
She felt bad, but she didn’t quite trust Mack to not try taking it again.
Kayla’s voice was surprisingly steady when she said, “This is important, Mack.”
“I know.”
Did she know? How could she? “You know me. I need a plan.”
“It helps you focus,” Mack said.