Chapter Eight #3
Kayla looked up again and saw that the panic had receded from Mack’s eyes, replaced with a gentleness unique to her.
Kayla nodded, but didn’t want to say more.
What could she have said? That she had come home from coffee with Skye to grab this notebook out of a drawer and immediately start sketching out her plan.
That she had done little else in the weeks between that coffee and this trip but fill in the blank pages, obsessively checking and rechecking all the little details.
She’d fallen asleep with this notebook most nights.
She had carefully protected it from rain and the questing noses of her dogs and even from messy fingerprints.
She couldn’t tell Mack any of that. If she did, Mack would think she was crazy. Or worse, she would think she was pathetic. Well, no. She wouldn’t. Not Mack. But she would pity Kayla and she couldn’t live with that.
Mack’s voice was gentle as the evening breeze. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t realize…I’ll be better.”
“It’s okay.” Kayla looked back into Mack’s sweet face and found that it really was. She could trust Mack to understand now. “I’m sorry, too.”
They ate for a while in silence. It took several bites before Kayla could taste the food again, but eventually she got back to feeling like herself. She even managed to take her hand off the notebook to grab her wine glass.
Mack pushed her empty plate away and wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Okay, lay it on me. What can I do to help?”
Kayla excitedly pushed aside her half-empty bowl. “The strategy for you is two parts. Interference and aggravation.”
Mack’s jaw visibly tightened. “Aggravation is a given when it comes to Skye.”
“Normally, I’d give you a hard time for antagonizing her, but in this case it’s essential. Skye gets super jealous. If a woman so much as smiled at me when we were together, she would get pissed. Imagine how she’ll explode when she sees us holding hands.”
“Or kissing.”
“Totally.”
“You know that’s super unhealthy, right? Like jealousy in a relationship isn’t cute or sexy. Now I know why it was so hard to hang out with you when you two were together.”
A lump formed in Kayla’s throat thinking of how distant they had been in those days.
For years, they talked less and less until there came a day that Mack showed up at her door and demanded to know why Kayla was avoiding her.
They’d talked for a long time, and it was the only day since they’d met that Kayla had feared she was losing her best friend.
After that, she made an extra effort to connect with Mack, even if she had to sneak around behind Skye’s back to do it.
It wasn’t like Skye had told her she couldn’t see Mack.
Kayla had gotten tired of the arguments any time she spent time with her best friend.
The making up was fun, though. Over the course of nine years, they’d done a lot of making up.
Kayla’s body ached just thinking about some of those nights.
Skye was a person ruled by her passions, and that applied both to her quick temper and her sex drive.
Honestly, though, Skye wasn’t the only one to blame for the separation.
In the early days, Kayla would spend her time with Mack arguing about how bad Skye was and her time with Skye arguing about how bad Mack was.
She had been pulled in two directions, and it was exhausting.
Kayla cleared her throat, determined to get them back on track. “So, I need you to try your best to make Skye jealous, which should be easy. The second part will be the hard part. I need you to run interference with Doctor Wife Stealer.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
“Distract her. I’m sure you can come up with a way.”
Mack’s gaze sharpened. “I am not flirting with your ex’s fiancée.”
“First of all, never call her that again. But you don’t have to flirt. You can just, I don’t know, buy her a drink. Talk to her. Take her on a long walk on the beach.”
“You’re describing flirting, LaLa.”
“Okay, well, do all those things without the flirting, just get her out of the picture so I get some time alone with Skye,” Kayla said.
“You said you weren’t going to sleep with her. That’s a hard line for me. I’m not going to help you cheat.”
The insinuation frankly stung. Mack knew she would never do that.
Did she really have so little trust in Kayla?
Okay, maybe it was a legitimate fear since she was trying to break them up, but cheating was a hard line for her, too.
“Absolutely not. I would never. All I want is for her to break up with DWS and come back to me. I would never be the other woman.”
“Okay, as long as we’re clear.” Mack sat back as a waiter slid the most beautifully seared cod filet Kayla had ever seen in front of her. After Kayla’s shrimp had been delivered and they were alone again, Mack continued. “I know my job, so can we put the book away and enjoy a nice dinner together?”
Kayla couldn’t help but return her smile.
Even though they saw each other several times a week, she and Mack rarely shared a meal or a relaxing evening.
Somehow, the wildly important mission she had for this week felt less crucial in that moment.
Instead, she happily focused on her best friend smiling at her from across a beautiful meal.
After all, she had a secondary mission to see to as well.
Kayla slapped her journal shut and held out her glass of wine. “To dinner with my future wife.”
Mack laughed and rolled her eyes, but she tapped the rim of her glass against Kayla’s and took a long sip.