The three of us sat at a table tucked into the corner of one of Mama’s favorite Cajun places in Baton Rouge.

A week had passed since I’d decided what Thea, and I should do and now that I’d thought it all over, and made sure I wasn’t losing my fucking mind, I had realized I needed to run everything past two of the soundest minds I knew.

I was going to need their help.

Doing this alone would be hard, maybe even impossible.

Failure, really, wasn’t an option.

I was going to take failure off the table altogether.

“I can’t believe that woman has been spying on you two,” Mama said after I finished.

I was glad she was fixated on that and not the fact that Thea and I had been sleeping together for well over a year.

She caught sight of my face and being a mother, she read my mind. “Oh, please, LeVan. Do you think your generation invented sex?”

“I’m not talking to my mother about sex,” I said, staring hard at the table.

“I’m going to assume the two of you have been careful,” my father interjected.

“My dad’s a doctor, but no, I don’t know anything about safe sex,” I said.

Mama smacked me across the back of my head. “Respect,” she admonished. Then she turned dark eyes on Dad. “Of course he has. He’s your son, and more, he’s taking care of her and her future—you could tell that by the way he’s been talking.”

She looked back at me, brow arched.

Dutifully, I responded, ignoring the flush in my cheeks. “We’ve been careful. At least…about that. Her mother…”

“You two can’t spend the next few years wondering if and when you’ll ever be able to be together, baby,” Mama said, reaching over to cover my hand. “You deserve better. So does she, but you most definitely do.”

“She’s not ashamed of me,” I said, automatically defending Thea. “It’s…she’s trying to protect her brother. I just…would she really keep Thea from her brother over us?”

“Yes,” Dad said simply.

A moment later, my mother nodded slowly. “It’s possible she would. She’s a miserable person, LeVan. She’s got more hate inside her than anyone I’ve ever known and the only way she can deal with it is by lashing out.”

“That hate went and turned cancerous,” I muttered. I’d believe that until my dying day.

“Don’t go wishing that on someone,” Mama advised.

“I’m not wishing it.” Meeting her eyes, I shook my head. “The past week or so, ever since Thea told me…it’s been hell. Part of me wonders if Thea and I didn’t wish this on her, even though I know that’s bullshit.”

Mama pursed her lips, but said nothing.

It was the bullshit that did it and I could easily count a hundred different times when she’d said worse—if I wanted another smack on the back of my head, which I didn’t. Immediately after the pursed lips, though, the hand still covering mine squeezed lightly. “It’s good to know I didn’t raise a fool—that you know it is indeed bullshit. If it was anything other than genetics, her own heavy hand with the booze, and whatever else makes someone predisposed to something like cancer didn’t do it, then you may be right—her own hate’s been eating her up for years. Sooner or later, that negativity may take a turn for the worse and literally eat someone alive…we don’t know. But it has nothing to do with you or Thea. Remember that.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I squeezed her hand back, then tugged free, sitting up straighter. “I think she’d do it, you know. Keep Thea away from her brother. So…I’ve been researching. If Thea could prove that she was the better caregiver, that she could provide a more stable influence, she could sue for custody.”

My father inclined his head. “She could. But is a judge likely to see a college student as being the more stable influence?”

“Maybe. If she was married.”

It caught Mama off guard.

But Dad had been expecting it. I could tell.

When Mama threw her napkin down, argument already forming on her lips, he was the one who reached over and caught her hand. “Hold on, Toya. Just, let’s see what he has to say.”

“I love her,” I said. “I love her more than I’ve ever loved anything or anyone.”

“And is a judge going to find you a stable influence? Down here in New Orleans, living in your studio apartment, playing David Copperfield three or four times a week while you take college courses on showmanship?” Dad’s voice held nothing of malice or rancor. He simply asked.

Sucking in a breath, I looked away.

“I’ll re-enroll,” I said in a tight voice. “In the fall. I’ll focus on pre-med.”

I didn’t say like you always wanted.

“Baby,” Mama whispered. And her voice cracked. “You’re talking about giving up your dreams.”

“Only one of them.”

The rest of my dreams centered on Thea. And without her, did any of the others matter?

* * *

I called her that night.

I had to hear her voice…and I wanted to see when we could find a way to talk.

I needed a few days because I had to buy a ring. If it came down to it, on Monday, I’d talk to someone about re-enrolling in the fall, and if it left a bad taste in my mouth, so what? I’d focus on pediatrics. Kids liked magic, right?

But first and foremost, I needed to talk to Thea.

She didn’t answer, so I left a message.

I realized a few minutes after I hung up the phone that it was her weekend to spend at the house with Nicky and her mother and she might be trapped somewhere with the dragon, so I might not hear from her until Monday anyway.

I didn’t think much of it.

Not until she didn’t answer when I called Monday.

Then she didn’t answer Tuesday.

Or Wednesday.

By Thursday, I was getting worried—and pissed.

I’d found a ring and hesitated over buying it without knowing whether or not she’d like it, but if I didn’t hear from her by the end of the day, I’d buy the damn ring and I’d give her that ring—once I saw her, because on Friday, I was making the trip to Baton Rouge.

That was the plan.

But I overslept Friday, courtesy of a miserable, sleepless night haunted by dreams where I tried to get to Thea, but she was in a castle surrounded by thorns and her mother took on the shape of a dragon. Every time I cut through the thorny bushes, though, I’d end up saving Nicky instead of Thea and when I helped him get up, he’d hug me and cry and tell me the dragon tried to eat him.

“No dragon is going to eat you while I’m here, buddy,” I told him. “That’s a promise.”

I finally reached the castle—and Thea—and the dragon stood between us one last time. When I went to shove my sword into her chest, she screamed. But the scream sounded like dull thuds on wood.

And my name.

Someone calling my name.

I jerked up in my bed, sweating, shaking, half sick.

And someone knocked.

“LeVan? Are you in there?”

The voice was familiar.

But it wasn’t, as much I wished otherwise, Thea.

* * *

Naomi had insisted I get dressed and meet her at Café Du Monde for beignets and café au lait.

I wanted to argue and just insist she tell me what was up—I didn’t think Thea’s closest friend had made that long drive just for the hell of it, but once she turned around and started down the hall, I was kind of stuck.

I was wearing a bedsheet wrapped around my hips, and the woman was already at the stairs of my apartment building.

She waggled her fingers at me and flashed an over bright smile. “Twenty minutes!”

I made it in fifteen and that included the haphazard shower.

She was already seated at one of the small tables near the familiar green and white striped awning of the popular coffee joint. She had a plate of beignets in front of her, but whether or not she’d eaten even one, I couldn’t tell. She nodded at the café au lait she’d ordered for me before taking another sip of hers. “I could drink this stuff morning, noon, and night,” she told me.

“We’re college students. Our blood runs on caffeine,” I said. Small talk. That was good. The more small talk there was, the less important this could be.

“I’m here because Thea asked me to come down.”

Aw, fuck….

She swallowed and met my eyes, tugging her sunglasses away. That was when I realized she’d been crying. Not little crying, either. Big, ugly cry crying.

“Whatever it is,” I said slowly. “Thea can tell me herself.”

“She can’t,” Naomi replied, shaking her head. She laid something on the table next to me. “She wants you to know that if you don’t want to wait—”

“She can tell me herself!” I said again, louder.

Naomi slammed her fist on the table. “Listen to me,” she said, her tone remarkably calm. “I had to put her back together this week and I’ll probably have to do it a dozen times before this is done. I’d do it for you, too, but to be honest, there’s not enough of me left right now to do it. Now…do you love her?”

“What?” I demanded. “You’re coming fucking down here to dump me for her and you’re asking me if I love her?”

“Oh, please.” Naomi curled her lip at me. “You know her better than that—if it was as simple as her dumping you, she would’ve done that her damn self, so shut your arrogant ass up and listen to me.”

I was surprised into silence, mostly because I’d never heard the sweet, laid-back girl say so much as boo to anyone.

“Melody put Nicky in a home.”

Ice broke out through my veins. The fury I’d felt, the rage, all of it drained away. I’d reached up to shove my hair back, something that had become a nervous gesture, but now my hand fell limp into my lap. It smacked the table, I was so unaware of my own body. Pain sang through me, but even that felt distant.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No.”

“Yes.” Naomi stared at me with eyes that burned, with venom, fury, and hurt. All of it for Nicky and Thea. “She put that sweet kid in a home—because she found out the two of you hadn’t broken up. And Thea had one of two choices. Either let you go…or him.”

“There’s another choice!” I half shouted.

Eyes came our way. I didn’t want to care.

Naomi saw right through me. Her hand shot out and caught my arm. “For all I know, that old crow had me followed when I came down here. Will you be quiet?”

Quiet was the last thing I wanted but I wasn’t going to give Melody Kent one more thing.

“There’s another choice,” I rasped.

“Thea? Suing for custody?” she said in a voice just as quiet as mine. “You think she hasn’t thought about that? But how long will that take? And is he supposed to just stay in a home until she either wins or loses?”

“So she just walks away from us?”

“Her mother is dying,” Naomi said bluntly. “The cancer is already spreading. Thea overheard her talking to the doctor after additional tests were done. She’s willing to wait. She won’t ask you to…but I think she’s hoping you love her enough to do it.”

She pushed the letter toward me, then got up and walked off.

The beignets remained untouched as I grabbed the letter and did the same.