“I won’t bite, you know,” Kayla said.
“It’s not you. I think the champagne gave me a headache.”
Kayla grabbed her hat and strode out through the door that Skye held open for her. “It was probably the massage. That happens if you don’t relieve the stress from your muscles regularly.”
“Maybe.”
They returned to the waiting room to find Amy and Mack laughing so hard that Amy was in danger of spilling her champagne. Mack wiped a tear away and said something Kayla couldn’t hear. Amy doubled over again and Kayla tried to ignore the little prick of annoyance at the sight.
“You never used to get headaches from massages when I gave them to you,” Kayla said loud enough for the others to hear.
“Those weren’t the kind of massages that were likely to give me a headache,” Skye said with a laugh, but there was a twinkle in her eye not unlike the one from earlier. She did remember those massages only too well.
Amy rushed over and gripped Skye’s bicep. “Oh, sweetie. You have a headache?”
“Yeah, but it’s okay. It’ll go away soon. I think it was the champagne.”
“Maybe you need some lunch. Come on, let’s get some food in you.”
Mack came over and threw an arm around Kayla as Amy dragged Skye off. “Maybe her headache is from you beating her over the head with your flirting.”
Kayla slapped her stomach playfully, but more than anything, she was relieved Mack was back to normal. Any hint of the disapproval she’d shown earlier had vanished.
“Hanging out with Amy seems to have put you in a good mood.” Kayla tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but it was hard.
“She’s not so bad when you get to know her.”
“I’m sure people said that about Eva Braun, too.”
“You realize that in this scenario, Skye is Hitler. I don’t disagree with you, of course, just pointing it out.”
Kayla’s laughter bubbled up like the champagne. “Whatever, I missed my AP History exam.”
“You were at Youth National Team camp, right?”
“Those were the days. Come on, we need to hurry to catch up with them.”
Mack sighed in that exasperated way that was becoming very familiar on this trip. Far from being annoyed by it, Kayla found it charming. She was pretending to be annoyed, which meant she wasn’t really annoyed, and that was enough to erase the disappointment over an only moderately successful couples massage.
They arrived, slightly breathless, at the restaurant’s hostess stand right behind Amy and Skye. It would have been impossible to sit separately without being rude, but Skye’s scowl seemed to say she would rather have been rude. Was she out of sorts because she had been reminded of what she lost when she left Kayla? Hopefully so.
Mack had certainly worked her magic on Amy, who insisted they sit next to each other. That left Skye with no choice but to cozy up next to Kayla. The Plan of Seduction was really working out for her today. Thank goodness for Mack.
“I’ll take the Cobb Salad and a Coke,” Skye told the waiter.
Kayla made a face. “A salad?”
Skye stared at her fork. “I’m trying to eat better.”
“A Cobb Salad sounds great. Make it two,” Amy said.
“It does sound good. I’ll take one, too,” Kayla said.
Once the waiter had left the table, Kayla leaned over to tease Skye just a little. “I can’t remember a single lunch we went to where you didn’t have a burger or tacos.”
Skye grumbled, “The burger did sound good.”
“A burger won’t help with your headache, babe,” Amy said.
