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That was Mia, always forging her own way.
And now that would be me too.
“I believed the note,” she said after a moment of silence. She picked up a paintbrush laden with aqua blue paint and just stared at it. “I thought I’d driven you away with my nagging and my unreasonableness.”
“Ha. If that was going to happen, it would’ve happened years ago.”
She didn’t look up.
Sighing, I leaned against the wall beside her stepladder. “You couldn’t drive me away, okay? I’m telling you here and now. There is absolutely nothing you could do that would make me leave you.”
Her throat rippled as she lifted her gaze to mine. Her eyes were still red-rimmed and the sight tugged at my belly. “But you’re going to anyway, aren’t you?” When I didn’t respond, she let out a dry laugh. “It was always supposed to be me and you, freewheeling in the big city. Or freewheeling somewhere. Single girls, living it up.” She smiled. “Okay, so you’d be living it up. I’d be hiding in my trash can, barking at passersby.”
I didn’t mean to laugh. “You’re not quite that bad.”
“Close.” She studied her paintbrush, blotting gobs of blue on a newspaper. “How long have you been with him?” she asked quietly.
“Physically, just a little over a month. But in here?” I rubbed my chest. “I think since the moment I saw him. I know that sounds corny.”
“No, it sounds like what happened to me.” She sighed. “Stupid boys. Come along and wreck all our plans.”
“They aren’t wrecked. They’re just different now. Look at Fox moving in with us.” I dipped my finger into the paint. “That was a little weird at first, now it’s like he belongs there.”
She made a face. “Are you saying someday I’ll look at Giovanni Costas and think he belongs at my table?”
I had to laugh. “Maybe. I hope so.”
“We could get a doublewide sleeping bag or air mattress,” she said hopefully. “Until we find a suitable new apartment, we could make room.”
I cast a dubious eye at my stomach. “Yeah, for how long? We were already going to be using the bedroom for a nursery once Mrs. Knox moves out.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“It’s not like I even know what’s going to happen,” I said quickly, trying to reassure her. To reassure me. “We haven’t really even talked. I may be staying right where I am. Maybe nothing has to change.”
Her eyes filled. “It already has, Car. Everything is different now.”
Shutting my eyes, I hooked my arm around her neck and brought our foreheads together. And we stood there, sniffling, for who knows how long until she finally drew back.
“I’m going to be an amazing aunt.” She rubbed her thumbs under her eyes. “I know I started off a little rocky, but I’m going to get it together in the second round and pull off a win.”
“MMA refs? Really?” I teased.
“It’s what I know.” She took a long breath. “And I promise, I won’t threaten Gio’s life until he does something to really piss me off. Like not taking good care of you or the blob.”
I blinked. “Blob?”
“Well, yeah, isn’t that what it is right now?” She frowned. “Okay, yeah, we’ll just chalk that verbal screwup to the fuckups of the past. Tear off a new page on the book, starting here and now.”
“That sounds good to me. Really good.” I smiled and reached out to take her hand. “There is one more thing. I’m guessing Dante filled you guys in on what happened while I was talking to Gio?”
She nodded. “The shortened, sanitized version.”
“Yeah. Well, in the interest of that new book we’re starting and full disclosure—for a while, I worked as a stripper. Not full nude,” I hastened to add as my sister’s mouth dropped open. “Just topless. I made really good money, but I quit. I’m not doing it anymore. From here on out, it’s just the Salad Hut and school for me.”
And mothering.
And girlfriending, whatever that consisted of besides hot sex. That part we already had down pretty well.
