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Murray
Yael stood in front of me in line, not acknowledging my existence. That wasn’t new. It had been a long, long time since I had actually existed to her. She was the cool girl, unaffected by it all—she had been since she was a teenager.
To kill some time, I studied the knotted wisps of hair on the back of her head. Each strand was dark and fine, but wild, dancing around like tangled-up, rabid ballerinas.
She stepped forward, so I did too. Her arms moved back and forth, rocking the stroller in front of her the entire time.
Hanging out with Yael and Simone hadn’t been part of my plan. I’d been up half the night, too much on my mind to sleep, and the moment the sun cracked the sky, I’d decided to head to the skate park. At twenty-six, I was one of the old men on the ramps, but I didn’t catch too much shit. Skaters could trash talk with the best of ’em, but we also had the tendency to live and let live.
Yael was at the counter now, placing her order. I stepped up behind her, my chest bumping into her shoulder. “I’ll get this,” I said.
Her eyes slid to the side. “I can buy my own coffee.”
“But if you let me pay, I’ll buy you a muffin too. Might make that glass you ate earlier go down a little easier.”
Her sigh was heavy. “Okay, but I want two muffins. One cinnamon, one chocolate. And if you give me any guff for eating both, I’ll dump my coffee on your head.”
I shifted so I was beside her. “Can I give you guff for saying ‘guff’?”
She walked away without responding, but again, nothing new. Yael had made up her mind about me a long time ago, and nothing had changed since.
Actually…that wasn’t true. Her hate for me had deepened. And yeah, I probably deserved some of it, but to be fair, there were times I didn’t like her very much, and I pretty much liked everybody.
She was my best friend’s sister, though, so the least I could do was make sure she didn’t get mugged walking around at all hours of the morning on her own.
By the time I paid and made my way to Yael, she’d found a table near the back and had Simone nestled in her arms, drinking from a bottle. Yael’s head was tipped back, and for the first time, I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Her skin, which was normally porcelain smooth and white, had dropped a shade or two into ghostly pale.
“Hey.” I slid into the seat across from her, setting down her coffee and muffins. “Want me to take her?”
Her head jerked up at my voice, eyes wide and darting around, like she was trying to find her bearings. “Whoa.”
“Were you sleeping with your eyes open?”
She frowned, her perfect eyebrows furrowing. “Shit. I think I was.”
She must’ve been exhausted because she let me slip Simone out of her arms without putting up a fight. “Did my girl give you a hard time?”
“She hates me.”
“Impossible.” I peered down at the tiny warm body in my arms. Simone had the baby thing on lock, all round and soft. Her cheeks were epic, and her curls gave her that cherubic vibe. I would have fallen for this tiny girl no matter how she looked since her parents were two of my favorite people, but the unadulterated roundness of her brought me straight to my knees. “This lady is made of sugar and spice and all the nice things.”
She leaned forward, picking up her coffee. “Pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes.”
I poked Simone’s belly, making her laugh around the bottle in her mouth. Milky drool rolled down her chin, which I wiped with the sleeve of my hoodie. In a million years, I never imagined my boy, Mo, becoming a dad and husband at twenty-six. Out of the four members of Unrequited, he was the one who’d enjoyed the fruits of his fame the most. And by fruits, I meant fucking randoms.
But yeah, life happened, and here we were. Can’t say I ever saw myself sitting in a coffee shop, feeding a baby a bottle instead of riding my board at the park either, but I didn’t mind it.
My eyes moved up to Yael again. “Was she up all night?”
She set her cup back on the table and slipped her hands into the pocket of her sweatshirt. “Yes. I think she just misses Mo and Mic. I’ve put her to bed before, but she just wasn’t having it last night. Or this morning. Or all day yesterday. I can miss sleep, I don’t care, but I just want her to be happy.”
Her eyes met mine for a second before she jerked her head to the side, like she’d just realized we almost had a conversation without any snark. That would not do for Cool Girl. Not at all.
The other mind-blowing thing about having this little creature in the world was seeing how soft Yael got around her. Like I’d said, not much got to Yael. She was this sleek, pretty surface nothing stuck to. Hearing her cooing and making baby talk at Simone? It was like an alien had invaded her body. I wasn’t sure if Yael had even been aware she was capable of being so sweet.
We sat there a while, Simone scarfing down her bottle, Yael ingesting her muffins with the same fervor. I got a kick out of watching them both. Once both girls were sated, Yael got out a baby carrier from the stroller and started to strap it to her chest.
I held my hand out. “Let me wear her.”
