KATE
In the two days that have passed since Luke’s sudden appearance and departure, Michael has been off. It’s barely noticeable, but I notice it. When his mind wanders, I can tell it’s getting further away from him than before.
Business my ass.
Sitting in the living room, I glance around the corner. Michael and my mom are hard at work on the Turkey while my aunts devour their second bottle of wine since 10 a.m. Since Michael showcased his culinary talents, my mom has asked him to join her in preparing every single meal. It’s been a pleasure to watch him grow more and more comfortable around her, settling into himself. I only wish that I could fully enjoy it. But my mind is elsewhere.
Checking once more around the corner to ensure that Michael is occupied, I quietly open the front door to the house and sit down on the porch. It is freezing, but the snow has melted and I barely feel the cold anyway. My fingers shake from the wind and the fear as they hover over Luke’s name in my phone. For a quick moment, I second-guess myself. I consider just blindly putting my faith in Michael, but some greater intuition warns me against it. I press the call button and press the phone to my ear before I can stop myself.
“Hello?” Luke picks up after the third ring.
“Luke, hi.”
“Kate!” He sounds so happy to hear from me. “Hi lady, what’s up?”
“Well I… I’m sorry to call you on Thanksgiving, I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” I apologize.
“You’re not,” he assures me. “But I’m assuming you’re not just calling to say hello.”
“No, I’m not. I was actually wondering… why you came here the other day?” I intend for my voice to sound strong and passive, but it comes out sounding meek and inquisitive.
To my surprise, Luke laughs. “Kate, you know I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?” I whine. “Michael is being weird and I’m worried that he—“
“Don’t worry, okay? It doesn’t have anything to do with our… investigation, or whatever. It was just some thing from high school that I wanted to tell him about. It’s not important.”
“It seems important,” I grumble.
“I mean that it’s not important to you,” Luke says with chagrin.
“Gee thanks,” I mutter sarcastically.
“Sorry Kate,” Luke sighs. “I just mean that the other things, the other secrets that we clued you in on, those had become about you. The minute that you got involved, all of those secrets became yours. But this… this is Michael’s. And mine. But it’s not yours, and trust me, you don’t want it to be.”
