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“This will have to do.” She straightens up. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I nod, and she lets it go. I’m relieved—I don’t want to tell her about Jean-Pierre right now. I’m already upset and I don’t want to make a fuss. Michelle isn’t as straightforward and to the point as Maria. She won’t just tell me I’m paranoid and get it over with. She’ll pull it apart, and I don’t have the energy for that.
It will only worry me more when all I need is to trust that everything will be okay and focus on the job at hand.
I throw myself into the work that lies ahead. This is what I’m here for, after all. Everything else—Jean-Pierre and Noah—has to wait.
Chapter 11
Noah
I’m about to leave the office when my phone rings. Natalie’s name flashes on the caller ID. I grin and answer.
“If it isn’t my favorite girl.”
Natalie laughs. “You’re always sucking up.”
“Or telling the truth.” My sister is the only woman I’ve ever been happy to see. She’s two years younger than I am, but we’re so close, people always said we’re like twins.
“How are you?” I ask.
“I’m doing okay. Work is going well, and Kylie is sweet as ever.”
I warm at the thought of my seven-year-old niece.
“But I need to ask you a favor. I hate to do this when we haven’t spent much time together…”
“What is it?” I ask.
I have all the time in the world for my little sister. She hasn’t had it easy—her husband died in a car accident when Kylie was just a baby, and she’s been working as a single parent ever since.
“I need to work late. One of the other shift workers dropped out and Bill asked me to fill in. I would have said no, but I really need the money. I’m so sorry; I’ll make—”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I say. “You don’t have to make anything up to me or pay me back or anything. I love spending time with Kylie. You do what you need to do.”
“Thank you,” she says, and I can hear the relief in her voice.
Something occurs to me. “Would you mind if I let someone else hang out with us, too?”
“Rooster?” Natalie asks.
“Uh…no. Her name is Raven.”
The beat of silence on the line tells me I should prepare myself.
“What?”
I laugh. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Youneverhang out with a woman. Is she…a long-lost cousin? An aunt…wait. Do we have a sister I don’t know about?”
“Stop it,” I say, still laughing. “We’re not related.”
“That’s weird,” Natalie says. “I don’t remember you ever hanging out with a woman outside of our family if you can help it, unless she hasn’t put out yet.”
“You’re making me sound like a womanizer.”
“You kind of are,” she says, but Natalie can tell me straight to my face that I’m being a dick and I’ll let it slide. Because she’s right.
