Chapter 19
Nineteen
JESSE
T here was a practised energy in the kitchen as Rachel and I walked in, and I was grateful that Rachel had offered for us to walk in together.
It was a clearly loving environment, but it was one that I didn’t quite feel a part of. As we walked over to one of the counters, laden with breakfast foods, I did a headcount.
Almost everyone was accounted for except Gavin and Samuel.
And Clara.
I tried to ignore the disappointment that washed over me and picked up a croissant and some bacon.
“Rachel! Jesse! Come over here and make this game less pathetic!” Becky called out to us from the adjoining dining room. When we walked over, we saw Lucy and Danielle sitting down on either side of her.
“What game?” Rachel’s voice was muffled by the croissant she was eating.
“We have a deck of cards. The world is our oyster,” Lucy said, waving a box of Jane Austen playing cards to illustrate her point.
“It can only be poker,” Rachel said as we both sat down opposite them.
“What are we playing with?” I asked, my eyes drifting over to the doorway of the kitchen to see if Clara had slipped in.
“Oh, we only know how to play strip poker.”
My eyes snapped to Rachel. I could feel my face going red. Rachel threw her head back in laughter.
“Calm down, I’m joking. We play with chocolate.” As if by magic, Rachel produced three bags of gold coins and ripped them before dividing them into four piles. “Who’s dealer?” she asked.
“I am,” Danielle answered.
“Where’s the other one?” Rachel asked as she distributed the chocolate coins.
“You know her, she can’t do back-to-back days of being around everyone. She needs the morning to be by herself,” Becky answered.
“So, you’ve seen her?” Rachel pushed.
“I caffeinated her and sent her away with breakfast. If she doesn’t come back down by lunch, I give you permission to go and look for her.” It took me a moment to realise that Becky had directed that at me.
“Oh, okay. Thanks,” I said weakly.
“Now that’s settled, Danielle, get dealing.”
* * *
“I have just remembered why we stopped playing poker with you,” Lucy said as Rachel collected the last remaining chocolate coins. I didn’t think I was bad at poker, but Rachel had cleaned us all out. With terrible, beatable hands. She laughed as she peeled the wrapper off one of her many coins.
“Why did you stop?” I asked, standing up to stretch my legs.
“She’s a therapist. Her poker face is unmatched,” Lucy answered.
I looked down at Rachel.
“That’s what you do for a living?”
Rachel smiled as she peeled another coin. “Yes, it is.”
“That explains a lot, now that I think about it,” I said as I looked back at the kitchen. Clara still hadn’t surfaced.
“You might be one of the only people she would want to see right now,” Becky said as she stood up from the table.
“Do you know where she is?” I asked.
“Not a clue. Happy hunting,” Becky cooed as she headed back into the kitchen.
I left the other two and headed for the hallway but was stopped in my tracks by the people walking down it towards the dining room.
Flanked by Samuel and Gavin was Drew.
He stuttered to a stop, and his face turned cold. It reminded me of the first day we met when he came home to find me and Clara sat in her kitchen.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”