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His grin was just a flicker but Lauren saw it and her belly squished in response.
“I don’t know if I’d be any good at that,” he murmured. “Lauren? Do you think I’m able to change your mind?”
He was flirting with her, teasing her, but Lauren didn’t rise to the bait. She kept her attention focussed on Yaya, so Raf did the same, shifting his gaze to the older woman’s face.
“What are you two arguing about?”
“Not arguing, exactly,” Yaya said with a shake of her head. “But she’s determined to leave me now that I’m not – as it turns out – dying.”
“What?”
He was surprised. Lauren dropped her gaze, guilt at the way
this had unravelled filling her.
“That’s what I said,” Yaya humphed. “I would have stretched out my recovery if I’d known it would mean Lauren’s departure. Why can’t the other wretched nurses leave?”
Lauren shook her head. “Because you’ll still need rehabilitation work and medical monitoring. What you don’t need is me.”
She couldn’t look at Raf. She couldn’t meet his eyes, she couldn’t even turn her head in his general direction.
“Surely that’s for Yaya to decide,” Raf said, the words quiet but with an undercurrent of stone.
She held her ground. “Actually, it’s not. I’m not a companion, I’m a counsellor,” she said gently, for Yaya’s sake. “I have a lot of people trying to book me.” She spoke without hubris, it was a point of fact. “And I’m sorry to say, they need me more than you do right now.”
“Now that’s not fair,” Yaya shook her head. “You’re making me feel bad when all I want is the pleasure of your company for a little longer. A week or so?”
But even that wasn’t possible. Knowing how she felt about Raf and the situation they were in made her need to escape – immediately. It was bad enough that she’d betrayed Thom by caring for someone else, but it would be so much worse if she let anyone discover the truth. She had to leave while this was just her guilty secret.
“One more week.” Raf spoke with all the command of a dynamic CEO used to having his every wish obeyed.
Lauren’s heart pricked. She felt tears burning her throat. “I can’t.” She directed the words to Yaya and simply hoped Raf would understand. A quick glance in his direction showed his lips compressed, his eyes locked to her with that same intensity she remembered from when they first started this.
“Oh, dear.” Yaya sipped her juice then put a hand on Lauren’s. “You’ve really made up your mind?”
Lauren couldn’t look at Raf. “I’m afraid so. I’ll leave tomorrow.”
“Wait.”
She’d known he would follow. Of course. She couldn’t just drop a bombshell like that and expect he wouldn’t have something to say. She just wished he’d wait. Breakfast with Yaya had been excruciating. She thought leaving Raf would be the hard part but it turned out, Yaya had got under her skin too and the idea of disappearing from her life, from all of their lives, was horrible to contemplate.
She kept walking, her head dipped, crossing the threshold of the house and turning left, moving to the salon without having any idea where she was going.
He caught her at the doors, his fingers wrapping around her wrist, drawing her to a stop.
“Damn it, Lauren, wait.”
She stared up at him, the mask of impatience on his face cracking something inside of her. How could she have let this happen? Foolish, stupid her. She should have stuck to her original intention of ignoring him. This had all been a mistake.
“Yes?”
“Yes?” He repeated with a look of cynicism. “Seriously? ‘Yes’?”
She expelled a soft breath, her heart hammering against her ribs.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to tell me what the hell happened between yesterday and today?” He frowned. “You were upset when you ran into Alessia. Is that it?”
