Five seconds later, Hallie’s face appeared at the window. Spotting him, she waved and beckoned for him to come to the front door. The next moment his phone pinged with the reply: Of course! Come on in.
Luke mentally braced himself; the next few minutes could either turn out to be the very best of his life, or the worst so far.
God, Tess Hannigan and her self-styled intuitive skills had better be right.
Hallie briefly checked her face in the mirror, raked her fingers through her hair and brushed a couple of biscuit crumbs off the front of her T-shirt. It was half past midnight; why on earth did Luke want to see her now? Not that she was unhappy about it – the thought of seeing him was having its habitual adrenalin-inducing effect on her bloodstream.
As she skipped down to answer the door, taking the stairs two at a time, it occurred to her that maybe he was here to talk about Christina. Perhaps he was having second thoughts with regard to the break-up . . . he might be wanting Hallie’s advice on whether he and Christina should get back together . . .
Urgh, please don’t let it be that.
Then she pulled open the front door and her heart did that little dolphin flip of joy. Even though it was a different heart, it had instinctively learned to react in exactly the same way towards him. She beamed and said, ‘Hello!’
‘Is this OK?’ Luke looked worried. ‘Not too late?’
‘It’s fine, I’m wide awake. And Mum’s staying over at Pete’s, so it’s just us.’ She gestured for him to follow her into the kitchen, adding flippantly, ‘So we can play wild music and dance and make as much noise as we want.’
‘Well I wasn’t planning on that, but it’s an idea.’
‘Drink? Tea, coffee? Scotch?’
Luke hesitated, then nodded. ‘Scotch would be great, thanks. No ice.’
Hallie sploshed some of her mother’s Glenfiddich into a tumbler. Turning to hand it to him, she saw that her fingers were trembling. In order to distract Luke from noticing, she said hastily, ‘So is this about Christina?’
He said, ‘No,’ then shrugged and went on, ‘Well, not really. More about Tess.’
‘Oh.’ Tess? Good grief, where was this going?
‘We had a chat this evening. About various . . . things.’
‘You and Tess.’ Hallie was still having trouble assimilating this scenario, springing as it had out of nowhere.
‘I think she’s great,’ said Luke. ‘Don’t you?’
There was a new light in his eyes. Oh my God . . .
‘She is great.’ Hallie nodded, bracing herself for yet more disappointment. It looked like Luke wasn’t intending to hang around. First Christina, now this. And she hadn’t imagined Tess would be his type.
Except . . . why was he looking at her like that, as if there was something still more significant that he needed to say?
And do I even want to hear it?
‘She thinks you shouldn’t be my patient any more,’ said Luke.
‘What?’ Confused, Hallie attempted to make sense of the statement. Was Tess Hannigan pathologically jealous? Was she claiming ownership of Luke and declaring that from now on he would only be allowed to see patients who were either male or over seventy?
Luke raked his fingers through his hair and said with a touch of desperation, ‘She feels it would be better if you only saw her from now on.’
Because she was a complete bunny-boiler, by any chance? Bursting with the injustice of it, Hallie said, ‘She’s allowed to just make those decisions, is she? And you’re happy to go along with them?’
He shook his head. ‘It isn’t a decision. It’s a suggestion. Tess was watching us earlier, when we were talking together at the party. She thought there was something . . . you know, like a connection between us. Apparently she has a talent for noticing things like that.’
Hallie’s mouth had gone dry. Luke was watching her and she didn’t know what to do with herself. Embarrassed, she blurted out, ‘Well, it’s not true.’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘I mean, I like you, of course I do, but not in the way she’s saying.’
‘Right.’ Luke nodded, then shook his head once more. A muscle was jumping in his jaw. ‘OK.’
‘So she isn’t interested in you herself?’
‘What? God, no!’
Got that one wrong, then. Phew. ‘But she looked at us and thought I was keen on you?’
‘She thought we were both keen,’ Luke said evenly. ‘On each other.’
Was Tess right? Could there actually be a connection between them that didn’t just exist in her mind? Was it possible that it was – had always been – mutual?