With that, I turned on my heel and headed to my room, leaving Luke standing in my kitchen, his face impassive.
“Dallas,” Luke started. I threw my hand up in the air, letting him know this conversation was over. I walked in my room and shut the door then lay down on my bed, smothering my face in the comforter. I’m not sure how much time passed before I heard the rumble of Luke’s pipes as he headed out. My stomach twisted when the realization hit me that he was really gone. He never tried to talk to me, other than saying my name. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t expected him to come into my room and try to talk to me. I would be a bigger liar if I said it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Oh well, sometimes life was a hard knock. I set my emotions aside and went to get dressed. I could cry about life later, right now, I had shit to do.
After my makeup was on, my hair was fixed and I was dressed in a pair of black Armani palazzo pants with a sage green, satin sleeveless top and a pair of black, thin heeled Jimmy Choo’s, I located my purse and cell phone and called Dr. Yarborough. He answered in a very cheerful voice, and I got an eerie feeling that he knew who it was before he answered.
“Ms. Knox. How are you feeling?” he asked in his smooth voice. Doctors had a way of making you feel extremely inferior or comfortable. I was happy it was the latter.
“Call me Dallas, please. I am feeling much better,” I said in my I’m-the-CEO of-a-multimillion-dollar-corporation-and-I-think-my-shit-don’t-stink voice.
“Well, that’s wonderful news. Were you just calling to check in or can I help you with something?” he asked, his voice turning silky and I could have sworn he was attempting to flirt with me. Not a chance in hell, doc.
“Yes sir, actually, a little bit of both. I was hoping to find out if you could narrow down the time for me, so that I could re-cap my surroundings and see if I could get to the bottom of what happened.”
“Well, everyone is different. Your body might have processed it faster due to the alcohol you consumed with it. The best I can give you is about an hour before you started feeling the symptoms, at the most two.”
Fucking Tammy.
“Are you sure about that, doc? I mean, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the most sure, where are you at?” I was back to sounding like Dallas Knox, property of LLC. Fuck.
“I would give it a ten, Dallas. There is no way it could have been in your system any longer and you not have known. You could have begun feeling the symptoms immediately. But, my professional opinion is at most, two hours before.”
I stared at my feet, my head in one hand and my phone in the other. I was sitting in the living room and if I were standing, I probably would have passed out. I hung up the phone without saying goodbye and leaned back on the couch. My pulse was quickening, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I thought back on the events of that night. I had only had one drink with Tammy. I had also had one drink with Stacy.
Bile rose in my throat as I reached for the phone and called Luke. Maybe I had misunderstood him. Luke had acted like he didn’t know who Stacy was when I told him I was going to Tupelo and he worked there at the Abbey where I was staying.
“Dallas,” Luke’s clipped tone came through the receiver and it was like another dagger to my heart. I sat there for a second trying to remember why I called him in the first place. For weeks, Luke had answered my phone call with a “babe” and a smile in his voice. I never thought I would miss his endearments so much. “Hello,” Luke repeated, sounding a little more anxious. Maybe I should tell him I heard something so he would come back. Shit! I was such a pathetic idiot!
“Luke,” I started, managing to find my voice although it was a little more breathy than I intended. I cleared my throat and continued, “Who did you say would get that land if something happened to me?” I sat on the couch holding my breath.
“Stacy,” Luke stated. I let out the breath I had been holding and took another deep one.
“You acted like you didn’t know him when I mentioned him working at the Abbey,” I said, still hoping that this was all a misunderstanding.
“I don’t know him. I only know his name. I assumed that he lived in Georgia.” I could tell Luke was getting curious as to why I was asking.
“Okay, thanks,” I replied and quickly hung up. I didn’t need him questioning me on this and his voice made me quiver-in a way I had no business quivering.
I would deal with Stacy later. Next, I needed to change the code on my gate. I grabbed the pamphlet from a drawer in the kitchen and called the number on the back. The lady informed me that I would just have to key in a generic code, and then key in the code I wanted as my new one. They would cancel the old one, letting the generic four zero code be the temporary password until I programmed it myself. Step two-done.