Chapter 4
Everett was getting used to that pissed off look on Maya’s face that accompanied her catching sight of him. And each time he was graced with it, he was more attracted to her.
She pursed her lips and turned toward her father, who handed Everett his beer and scooped her up in a bear hug. “Happy Thanksgiving, Sunshine!” He swung her around, making her legs fly in a circle. Everett’s gaze was pulled to the perfect fit of Maya’s jeans as they hugged her curves.
When he lifted his eyes, he realized he’d been caught staring by Mica, who smirked at Everett quickly before taking his turn at giving Maya a hug. Everett wondered if Mica remembered that fateful day seven years ago when he winked at Maya from across the art gallery as she made her adorable, fumbling attempt to hit on Everett. He also wondered if Mica knew how well it had worked.
“Maya, you know Everett, right?” Bert McDonald said to his daughter when she was free of her twin brother’s arms.
She turned that hardened gaze to Everett. “Yeah, Dad. He’s my boss, remember.” She looked so pissed. He wondered if she’d known he would be there, or if she’d been ambushed by her parents as he had been by his mother that morning.
“Oh, yeah.” Bert threw an arm around his daughter’s shoulders and took back his beer with the other hand. Nearly as tall as Everett, Bert McDonald had obviously lent Maya her stature, though he still towered over her.
Mica, shorter and slighter than both his dad and his twin, obviously got his genes from the petite Henny McDonald. He stood near Everett, an observant witness to the showdown between he and Maya.
“Well, Everett’s been hanging out with me and Mica all morning and helping us cook the turkey. He’s a great guy.” Bert’s constant smile and laughing tone was infectious to say the least. And despite the daggers Maya was shooting him with those leafy green eyes, Everett couldn’t help but smile. This seemed to piss her off more.
She gently pulled away from her father and stepped toward him. “Can I talk to you for a minute, Everett?” Her tone was surprisingly even.
“Of course.” Everett drained the remainder of his beer and set the bottle on the edge of the long picnic table that sat behind him. He held his hand out to indicate she should go first.
Head held high, Maya marched back through the sliding glass door and across the great room to the foyer, confirming his suspicion that she hadn’t been in this house before or she would have taken the much shorter route through the gate at the side of the yard.
When Maya had stomped her way down the concrete steps of the porch and landed on the grass in front of his mother’s prized rose bushes, she whirled around to face him, hands folded tightly across her chest. “Did you know about this?”
Everett settled a few feet in front of her, one foot behind the other, resting back casually, arms at his sides. “You mean this Adopt-A-Senior thing?”
“Yes. Of course.” Exasperation laced her voice and took her sexy low tone up to a higher level.
“Not until recently.”
“But you knew before today?”
He nodded.
She pointed her finger toward his chest. “And you didn’t say anything.”
“When, exactly, was I supposed to do that? When you were ignoring my existence or when you were trying to murder me with dirty looks?”
For a moment her eyes flared with anger. A second later, her body slumped. Her hands moved to her hips and she took three deep breaths before responding. “Okay. Fine. You’re right. Maybe an email would have sufficed.”
Everett couldn’t help but chuckle at the image of him using their company email to communicate their parents’ newfound friendship to her. “I suppose you’re right. But, honestly, I’d rather see you in person, even if you are plotting my demise the entire time we’re together.”
Silence followed his statement. Maya held his gaze, her body still, her mouth open, eyes wide. Obviously, she didn’t expect such naked honesty from him. So he gave her more.
Everett stepped forward, closing the distance between them. “I would love to get to a place where you don’t hate me. Do you think that’s possible?” She didn’t say anything, so he tried another tactic. “It’s been seven years, Maya.” His voice was soft, his face inching toward her, head down to make their height difference less noticeable.
He could hear her hard breaths, see the conflict in her eyes. Slowly, he reached out a hand, heading for her forearm. But before he could get there, a new sound made them both turn.
“I hope you aren’t…” Apparently, Mica had begun speaking before rounding the corner of the house, having used the shortcut to come check on them. He cut off whatever he was going to say when he spotted them so close together, on the verge of something important. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
But it was too late.
Maya took three steps back. Her face hardened as she turned back to Everett. “No. We’re done here.” Twisting on her heel, she marched back into the house, closing the door sharply behind her.
Mica approached Everett cautiously. “Sorry, man.”
Everett turned to him, pasting on a smile. “It’s okay. It was headed in the same direction no matter what.”
Mica hung his thumbs in the belt loops of his skinny jeans and met Everett’s gaze. Everett had grown to really like Mica over the past three hours they’d spent in his mother’s backyard. Mica was kind and funny, and unabashedly himself. It was refreshing as hell. They had discussed absolutely everything from politics to sports to local bars. But they had completely avoided the topic of Mica’s twin. Now Everett wanted to know everything he could find out.
“Did you know about us?” Everett ran a hand behind his head, half afraid of the answer. If Mica didn’t already know, Everett could be digging himself an even bigger hole.
“Yeah. I know. The whole story, actually.”
“Then I’m surprised you’ll even talk to me.”
Mica walked over to the porch and sat on the top step. He patted the space beside him. Appreciating the offer to talk, rather than call him an asshole and walk away, Everett took a seat.
“So I have a boyfriend,” Mica said.
Having no idea where this was going, Everett decided to wait it out. He leaned back on the heels of his hands and nodded.
“But, as you can see, he’s not here right now. We’ve been together for three years and we’ve always spent every holiday together, alternating between our families. But not this time. Because we’re on a break right now. In fact, I’m thinking about making the break permanent.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Everett abandoned the idea of talking about Maya and focused on Mica’s problem. The guy needed a shoulder to lean on. Everett could be that for him.
“Don’t be. If it does end it will be my fault. I met someone. He’s young.” Mica’s eyes darted to the side and his cheeks turned pink. “Like really young. Barely twenty-one. And he’s an athlete.” He met Everett’s gaze again and his lips curled up. “A freaking professional baseball player if you can believe that.” He chuckled. “Seven years working as a photojournalist. I’ve met so many famous people. Lots of them were hot as hell. I’ve even had some of them hit on me. But I never got caught off guard like I did with him.” Mica looked away and a smile touched his lips.
“Damn,” Everett said in reaction to the heat in Mica’s expression.
“We haven’t done anything.” Mica held up his hands and met his gaze again. “But it’s all there. You know what I mean?”
Everett nodded. He completely understood. That’s how he’d felt about Maya all those years ago.
“But there are no guarantees with him. Hell, he’s so deep in the closet that if we did have a relationship it would be in secret. He travels for work. He’s young…He has so many opportunities to get laid…” Mica ran his hand through dark hair that was a short, stubby version of Maya’s thick mane. “Nick is the safe bet. That’s my boyfriend. He’s stable. He’ll stick around. He won’t break my heart…But still…”
Mica looked lost. Everett put a hand on his shoulder. “I get it.”
“Until recently. I didn’t get you. I couldn’t figure out why the hell you’d pass up a chance with Maya for anyone. And, yeah, I’m a little biased. But I just didn’t get it. Why would you give up my gorgeous, amazing sister for someone who likes to screw around?” Mica’s expression was half apologetic and half disbelieving.
“And you were right.” Everett slipped his hand off Mica’s shoulder and twisted it along with the other in his lap. This conversation had taken a very unexpected turn.
“No. I wasn’t. I mean, I was right that Maya is awesome. But I get your perspective better now. You went with the safe bet.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Everett conceded.
“How did that work out?”
Everett barked out a humorless laugh. “Are you teasing me or do you really not know?”
Mica’s forehead wrinkled up. “I really don’t know.”
“She dumped me and took off with my best friend. Then they sued me to try to take my company from me. So I guess it worked out like shit.”
Mica’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. You know how the company is called E.E.R. Tranquility Candles. E for Everett, E for Elias, my former best friend, and R for Rebecca, my ex. Technically we started the company together. But I took out the business loan and assumed all the financial risk. So the court made me pay them out and named me sole owner. The E.E.R. is in the process of being stripped from the name right now.”
Mica gave a low whistle and shook his head. Then after a beat he asked, “Is that the only reason you regret how things turned out with Maya?”
Everett looked into green eyes that matched Maya’s, the forest-colored irises he could easily get lost in forever. “No. It’s not the only reason.”
This time it was Mica who put his hand on Everett’s shoulder. “That’s what I thought. I could see it the minute she walked into the yard.”
“That obvious, huh?”
Mica nodded and grinned at him.
“Got any advice for me?”
Mica shook his head. “I wish I did. Maya never does what I expect her to when it comes to her love life. If she really hates you, you gotta back off.”
Everett nodded. “I know.”
“But…I’m not sure she does. So…” Mica shrugged.
Everett looked up at the gray sky and sighed.
****
Maya stormed back into Trudy’s house, her heavy footsteps becoming less dramatic as they transitioned from the slate in the entryway to the plush carpeting of the living room.
She was halfway to the back door, her gaze on the floor when she was startled by a soft, sweet voice. “You must be Maya.”
Maya’s head shot up so fast her hair, naturally wavy and bouncy, flew up comically before landing again around her shoulders. Her feet stilled, one in front of the other. “Excuse me, ma’am.”
The woman, thin and willowy with a straight back and salt and pepper hair, perched on a floral print couch that almost exactly matched the one Maya’s grandma Millie had owned until her death a few years ago. The woman’s light brown eyes met Maya’s with a determined gaze as she patted the space beside her.
Unable to disobey such a woman, Maya sat down, placing her hands on her knees. The woman reached up with a strong hand and gently patted the side of Maya’s face. “Never ma’am. Makes me feel old. Call me Trudy.”
Maya smiled at her. “Trudy. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too, Sweetheart.” Trudy’s eyes traveled up and down Maya’s frame, taking in the canvas shoes, dark blue jeans, and light blue blouse she wore beneath a light white sweater. Maya suddenly felt underdressed compared to Trudy’s navy skirt and silk blouse. But there was a sparkle in Trudy’s eyes as she met Maya’s gaze again. “You are a lovely thing, aren’t you?”
“Thank you?” Maya wasn’t sure why it came out as a question.
Trudy laughed. “Do I make you nervous?”
“Yes,” Maya said honestly.
Trudy patted her knee. “I’m just a friend of your parents.” Trudy leaned back in the couch and her more casual pose helped Maya relax a little. “They have been such a godsend to me.”
“I’m glad.”
Trudy scrutinized her. “I hope so. I know this situation might be difficult for you kids. When I first met your brother he was nearly as nervous as you are.”
Maya attempted to make her shoulders relax, the forced effort made them somehow tense up further. “I don’t mean to be.”
Trudy ignored this awkward confession. “I thought perhaps Mica’s issue was the same as my son’s. But it turns out he was afraid that because I’m an old lady I would think less of him because he likes men.” Trudy laughed, slapping her knee. “That’s so silly. After all, that is something that can only bring us together. I like men, too.”
Maya couldn’t help but grin at that. This old lady was something else. But her brain came back to what Trudy had said about Everett. “What’s your son’s problem with your friendship with my parents?”
“Oh, the same as yours I suspect.” Her shrewd gaze pierced Maya.
Maya suddenly worried about Everett walking in on this conversation. Her eyes flashed to the door. But whatever Everett and Mica were up to out there, they weren’t bringing it inside.
“I don’t follow,” Maya said, hoping to draw the truth out of Trudy.
“Everett seems to think that by signing myself up for the Adopt-A-Senior program it means he isn’t a good enough son.” She smiled a sweet, genuine smile.
A tiny part of Maya’s heart felt empathy for the sensitive son that wanted to be everything to his mother. But she quickly shoved it aside. “I don’t feel that way.”
“We’re friends. We are finding companionship and purpose with one another, your parents and me. Our children are grown up with their own lives…I hear you’re an artist, by the way.”
The abrupt change of subject was welcome for Maya. “I am.”
“And your twin brother is a photographer. So creative. Everett is creative, too.”
Desperate to stay off the subject of Trudy’s son, Maya turned the conversation back to her twin. “Mica just got a permanent spot at the paper. Did he tell you?”
Trudy nodded, that endearing smile growing wider. “Your father told me about twenty seconds after Mica texted him about it. And you. You work with Everett right now, yes?”
Damn. The deflection was obviously a failure. “I don’t actually work with him. I work for him.”
Trudy’s eyes narrowed and she leaned toward Maya, placing a hand on her knee. “Is that why you don’t like him?”
Maya jolted backward. “What?”
Trudy patted her knee then left her hand there. “I just wonder why is all, Sweetheart.”
“How do you know that?” Maya asked, eyes wide.
Trudy let out a soft chuckle that was incredibly sweet and a touch sinister. “I didn’t know for sure until just now. It was a guess based on how you looked when you walked in this room after I saw the two of you talking in the front yard.”
Maya hung her head in her hand. “I’m an idiot.”
Trudy’s chuckle this time was accompanied by a hand on the top of Maya’s head. “Don’t worry about it. Like your mother, you are brutally honest. Tell me something, though.” She tapped on Maya’s head lightly until Maya lifted her eyes to meet Trudy’s gaze. “Why don’t you like him?”
Maya’s mouth hung open as she frantically tried to come up with an answer that didn’t involve a one-night stand and an unexpected engagement. But before she could pull something out of her whirling brain, Trudy spoke again.
“I, of course, think he’s the most wonderful man on the planet. But I also know he’s not perfect. That all comes with being a mother. However, there is one thing about Everett I know for a fact. If he’s done someone wrong, it was an accident or unavoidable in some way. And if you give him the chance, he will make amends.”
Something about this woman, her warm, cozy living room and those ochre eyes that seemed to see right through her had Maya caught completely off guard. “I never gave him the chance,” she confessed.
Trudy smiled. “There. See? It’s all fixable, then.” Trudy gave Maya’s knee one more pat then stood. “Come on now, dear. We have a lot to do in the kitchen. Let’s get to work.” And with that final declaration, Trudy Evans pulled Maya up and marched her toward the stove.