“It worked. You should’ve seen his face. He went white. Then he sanitized his hands. Then he made me promise to shower the second I got home.” She grinned. “Seven months of marriage and I’ve learned exactly which buttons to press.”
I laughed. Jace Hunter, the billionaire, the man who’d almost shut down an entire restaurant floor because someone sneezed near his plate, undone by the wordmaggots. He’d gotten better about his germophobia since marrying Anna. Much better,actually. But some triggers ran deep, and Anna knew every single one of them.
“He’s been like this since the pregnancy announcement,” Anna said, adjusting her position on the floor. “The possessiveness was already… a lot. Now it’s doubled. Maybe tripled. He bought a fetal heart monitor for the house. He has an app that tracks my sleep, my steps, my water intake. Last week he tried to hire a second driver so someone could beon standbyin case I needed to go somewhere while the first driver was unavailable.”
“That’s…” I was at a loss what to say, but it was expected from Jace. He loved her like crazy.
“Insane? Yes. Kind of adorable? Also yes.” She rubbed her belly absently. “He talks to them every night. Lies down with his face next to my stomach and just… talks. Tells them about his day. Tells them about the stock market, which they definitely don’t care about, but his voice goes all soft. He uses this tone he doesn’t use with anyone else. Not even me.” She chuckled. “Okay, sometimes with me. But mostly with them.”
“You’re lucky,” I said, smiling.
Anna’s expression softened the way it always did when it was about Jace. “I know I am.”
She nudged me to my feet. “You need to shower.”
“I showered.”
“When?”
I thought about it. “What day is it?”
“That answers that.” She nudged me toward the bathroom. “The dry cleaner two blocks away thinks someone died up here. She asked your neighbor about it.”
“Maybe someone did.”
She flicked my ear. Hard. “Stop it. Go shower.”
I showered. We ate. Anna talked about normal things. Jace’s latest baby purchase, the babies already having their full wardrobe before birth.
I was beginning to liven up when Anna went quiet. She pulled out her phone and showed me a screen. A bank transfer notification. She’d moved money into my account. A lot of money. Six months of rent, storage, expenses, and a cushion thick enough to breathe in.
“No,” I said.
“Already sent.”
“Anna, I can’t take?—”
“You can and you will. Arguing with me about this is like arguing with weather. It’s already happening. Your opinion doesn’t change the forecast.” She set the phone down. “Use it or let it sit there. But it’s not going back.”
“I don’t want to be a burden on?—”
“Don’t.” Her voice sharpened without rising, the way it did when Anna meant every word. “Don’t you dare use that word. You have never been a burden. Not to me.”
She grabbed my hand. “You took care of me for months, Miley. When I was broke and trying to survive in Miami, you cooked for me. You fed me real food when I couldn’t afford it. You let me live with you because that’s who you are. You’re kind and you deserve the absolute best things. So don’t sit here and call yourself a burden when you’re the reason I know what it feels like to have someone who gives a damn.”
I opened my mouth to argue and what came out wasn’t words. It was tears. Again. The second time today. I leaned into her and she hugged me gently, patting my back. I murmuredthank youinto her shoulder, muffled, wet, and completely undignified. Anna held on and said “Good. Now eat the sticky rice before I take it back.”
Anna left after a while. Her phone rang twice while she was putting on her shoes, both times Jace, checking if she was on her way home yet. She answered the first call with “I’m leaving now, calm down.” She answered the second with “Jace Hunter, I swear on these babies, if you call me one more time I will sleep at Miley’s maggot-infested apartment out of spite.” She winked at me as she said it. I heard Jace’s voice go sharp with alarm on the other end, and Anna grinned. She hung up, kissed my cheek, and was gone.
I was on the couch wrapped in a blanket when my phone rang. A number I recognized immediately.
Elspeth. Aunt Eliza’s daughter.
“Miley!” Her voice was sweet and concerned. The vocal equivalent of a gift-wrapped empty box. “I heard about the restaurant. I’m so sorry. That must be just devastating.”
She let the worddevastatingsit there for a beat, savoring it.
“Owen and I were talking, and there might be a silver lining. He’s expanding the firm, and we have an opening in the admin department. Nothing glamorous, obviously, but it’s steady.” She paused. “Family should help family, right?”
