“Who was that on the phone?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Maya’s disembodied voice carrying through the dark as I stepped back into the bedroom. “I thought you were asleep. Did I wake you?”
“No. Answer the question,” she said, bathing the room in light as she turned on the bedside lamp. My initial reaction was to point out that she was making demands to know what was happening on my cell phone, in my home, but I tamped that down. The last thing I felt like doing was arguing with her tonight. We’d been doing enough of that lately. For the last few weeks, since I’d been accused of “smothering” her, Maya had been hot and cold. A few hours ago was hot, and the first time we’d had sex in weeks. Now, she was icy again.
I ignored the frustrated snort Maya gave as I bypassed the bed, going instead to the bathroom. It didn’t surprise me at all when she appeared in the doorway, drumming her fingers impatiently against the frame as she waited on me to finish. “It was Drew. Des is in labor.”
She stared at me for a moment, until my words fully registered. “Oh. Okay.” Then she yawned. She yawned. “Wake me up when you get our flights and stuff scheduled.”
“Our?”
“Uh, yeah… I’m coming too, right?”
“Well you don’t care enough to help make travel arrangements, so I didn’t think you were interested. Don’t you have something to do around the restaurant or something anyway?” I didn’t want her around Des at what was supposed to be a happy time with her bullshit. I wanted to be around my family, without my concern for her moods dragging me down.
“No, I took this week off because it was one of the few where you weren’t claiming to be busy. But I guess it’s going to waste now, since yet again, it’s time for you to get on a plane.”
“Oh, my bad, Maya. Sorry my niece decided to come early and wreck your plans to spend a week being mad at me for God knows what.”
Damn.
I should have shut the hell up, and woke her when I booked the flights, because now, her bottom lip was trembling, and I really didn’t feel like dealing with tears.
“Maya… don’t do that. I didn’t mean to snap at you, okay? I have a lot on my mind right now. I’m worried about my sister and the baby because it’s a few weeks early, and I need to call the charter company so we can get there, and I need to call Tori, and I ne—”
“Why do you need to call Tori?” she asked, eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms. It was as if she flipped a switch, from hurt feelings to anger — at what, I have no idea— in less than a second.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Because that’s my sister’s best friend, and my niece’s godmother. Drew couldn’t get in touch with her, so he asked me to try calling her too. Besides, I’m gonna see if I can get use of the jet, and she might want to tag along instead of getting a plane ticket.”
Maya’s nostrils flared, and she frowned as she stared me down. “Is that why you don’t want me to come along? So you can be on a private jet with Tori?”
What?
Tori wasn’t that high on my list of favorite people right now. She was the reason Maya and this nonsense she’d brought with her out of the blue were even in my life. Maybe Tori shouldn’t be a damned matchmaker, because this was crazy. I told myself I would give it my all, and try to make it work with Maya, but she was making it hard.
“Maya, I’m not about to do this shit right now. My sister is asking for me, and she’s asking for her best friend. I’m going to do what I can to make that happen. If you want to cut the bullshit and tag along, that’s fine. If you don’t… that’s fine too, and I’ll see you in a few days.”
— & —
“You look good holding a baby.”
Tori smiled, but kept her eyes on baby Madison’s sweet little chubby brown face. “Hello, Avery.”