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“I’m sure it is important, Daniel. And I know how quickly it needs to be resolved, but I’m about to fly. You’ve given me all the details I need. I’ll see what I can do and get back to you as soon as I can.” Lukas’ voice carried through the plane, but everyone ignored him.
He was hanging up and moving on autopilot to the only obviously vacant seat, still fixated on his phone and sighing with what sounded like frustration. When he sat and ended the call, he took in more of what was around him and finally acknowledged that I would be beside him on the flight.
“Oh, hi,” he said as his eyes widened.
I couldn’t read his exact expression as he looked at me, but my brain wanted to tell me it was fear and disappointment. Or something similar, at least. He hadn’t wanted to sit next to me. He swept his gaze over the rest of the seating arrangements without waiting for me to reply.
As I had done, it appeared he was figuring out that all the other seats were taken—and by couples. It was almost as if someone had wanted us to sit next to each other and planned for it.
“So…how long have you known Juno?” he asked me, smiling at me for the first time since we’d met. It lit up his face, and for a second, I couldn’t speak or even process the question. How had this guy gone from appearing put out that he had to sit next to me, to happy to talk to me?
He waited patiently for the answer like I was trying to work it out, not staring gormlessly at him.
“About twelve years at this point. She was married to my roommate’s brother. We got along with each other immediately.”
“Jack said she was married to a nasty piece of work.”
I nodded, not sure what to add to that. It seemed he didn’t either because there was an awkward silence for several seconds. Or at least I thought it was awkward. Lukas looked at his phone, and I tried to take a stab at making conversation.
“Sounds like someone needed your help. Do you need to do some work or look at something for them?” The question tumbled out of my mouth and gave him every reason not to talk to me now if he wanted to. Given how hot he was and how nervous I was, I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.
He glanced at me before looking at his phone screen and letting out another frustrated sigh. As he ran a hand through his hair, he turned to me.
“Daniel is a good friend of mine. I went to school with him. Quarterback now, and he’s worked real hard to get where he is. I respect him a lot. But his body won’t hold under that kind of pressure forever, and I agreed to help him make some good investments with some of his earnings.”
“That’s very kind of you,” I said, meaning it.
He shrugged. “It’s what any friend would do if they could.”
I shook my head, not sure that was true, but it made me like the guy all the more. Juno had said that Jack had a good heart. Maybe all the people around him did as well.
Lukas opened his mouth as if he was going to say something but shut it again and fell silent instead. I considered encouraging him to say whatever it would have been, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak either. This was a strange conversation, and I didn’t know if we had anything in common.
I tried to rack my brains for something to help the conversation, but I wasn’t sure. In my mind, it had always been etiquette that if two people needed to converse for a while, you took turns trying to think of a topic, which made it his turn. I also knew I’d prefer some kind of conversation to completesilence, especially considering all the other people on the plane were deep in conversation with their partners.
And we weren’t even in the air yet. This would be a long flight if we couldn’t find common ground somewhere.
CHAPTER FIVE
An hour into the flight, I’d tried to think of several different things to say to Lukas and was really struggling. Every time, it fizzled out after a little while. We had talked about how long he had known Jack, if either of us had been to the island before, and many other things.
The only consolation we had was that the flight wouldn’t be much longer, and then we’d be on boats for a little while and finally on the island. I got the impression that Lukas was used to conversations with people in business with him who could talk about money and not as much about creativity.
“Oh, Juno said you paid for dinner last night. Thank you,” I said when I was thinking about how much easier it had felt to converse the night before. I could only hope that spending time on the island later would be easier again.
“You’re welcome. It’s my favorite pizza place, and… Anything for Jack.”
I nodded, not sure what else to say, and Lukas looked away again. When he glanced back my way, I tried to read his expression, and again, I couldn’t seem to. What did he want from me?
So far, Lukas hadn’t exactly been rude or anything but kind in his responses. I had no reason to be annoyed at him or irritated. And everything he’d told me about himself so far was nothing to be worried about. I liked him for a lot of reasons.
But he steered away from the real things I wanted to talk about, such as his work. At least, that’s how it appeared.
I’d heard from Juno that he was an architect and a very famous one at that. Jack knew him from commissioning something in the past and respected Lukas as a person. Juno had mentioned that we should talk to each other about work, but it seemed like he didn’t want to.
I thought back over everything I had said the night before. Had I put him off somehow? Had I made my work sound bad or something? When I realized I had no way to figure it out and it could have been anything, I sighed.
“You okay?” he asked. “Ready to be off the plane? It’s been a lot of travel for both of us. I don’t know about you, but the long flight from the UK to the US is rough, and then more travel after just takes it out of me. Makes it hard to think, hard to have the energy to be creative. You know?”
