“So your friend called me,” Mari said as she and Jay sat next to one another in the mall courtyard midway through the next week.

Jay looked up in surprise, in the middle of trading half her peanut butter sandwich with half of his hummus and veggies one. “Really? Which one?”

“Which friend you mean?”

“Yeah, either Marcus or Eli, I assume.”

“Those are your only two friends?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Those are my only two friends who would call you.” He chewed thoughtfully. “I hope it was Eli who called you.”

“Why?”

“Because Eli is friendly, a charmer. And Marcus is…not.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Jay considered his words very carefully. “He’s not an asshole or anything. He just has rougher edges. And he’s not, I don’t know, friendly with women. But somehow they still fall at his feet.”

Mari grinned now. “You think there’s a danger of me falling at Marcus’s feet?”

“I would say no, because I know you. But I’d also say yes, because I know Marcus. Seriously, chicks seriously dig whatever it is he puts down. And on the dance floor? Game, set, match. There’s something about the way he dances that makes women just line up to get dumped by him.”

Mari’s eyebrows rose. “I think I’d like to see what all the fuss is about.”

“Yeah,” Jay said, giving her a slight side eye. “I’m just saying, I’m relieved he wasn’t the one calling you.”

“Well, you’re right,” Mari admitted. “It was Eli. He invited me and Linc to that party that you invited us too last week.”

“Oh yeah?” Jay’s sandwich turned to chalk in his mouth. “And?”

Mari cleared her throat. “I can come. But Linc can’t. He’s gonna be out of town at a big conference for Cavanaugh’s Kids.”

“Ah,” Jay said carefully. He was unsure how to react to that news. He was thrilled that Mari was coming. And thrilled that Linc the douche in a suit would not be coming. But he knew that revealing all that wouldn’t go over that well. “Well, I’ll be glad to see you then.”

“Sure.” She chewed and propped her ankles up on the edge of the fountain. “It’ll be nice to get to know some more people in Ocean City.”

“Are, uh, are you guys here to stay?” Jay forced himself to ask the question in that way. To include Linc in her future plans. He refused to ignore that asshole’s presence. In a way, if he was petty enough to ignore Linc, then Linc was winning. It was a strange game, but it made sense to Jay in a twisted way.

Mari glanced his way. “I guess. This is where Linc’s business is. And I don’t have a burning desire to live someplace else.”

“You were ready to leave Boston?”

“Yeah. I’d been there for so long. I knew the city well enough to know what it could give me and what it couldn’t anymore.”

“When did you move there?”

“About fifteen years ago. Right after high school.”

“Right after your parents died,” Jay said, his eyes sad as they searched hers.

Mari’s breath caught in her throat. Not because of the reminder of her parents, but because Jay had brought them up. No one ever brought them up. People generally assumed that she’d rather not talk about them. Which meant that she often went months without speaking a word about them. And here he was, remembering enough about her life to understand the timeline. Mentioning her parents like he wasn’t scared of their memory, or scared of Mari’s pain. The simple act showed her that he accepted her pain. That he’d never hide from it.

Mari swallowed quickly. Maybe she was reading too much into it, but she really didn’t think that she was. “Yup. I definitely couldn’t stay in Sioux Falls. Everything reminded me of them.”

“No other family there?”

“I have an aunt and uncle. Sister to my dad. They still live there and they’ve been out a few times to Boston to visit me. They’re good people. And I love them very much. But they don’t get me. I think it’s that I’m Latina. They have no idea what to do with that. Aunt Grace is Irish, like my dad, and Uncle Ira is from Sioux Falls originally. That’s why my mom and dad moved there when they got married. To be by family. But, yeah, they love me. They just don’t understand the environment thing. The surfing thing. The Spanish speaking thing.”

Jay nodded, propping his feet alongside hers on the fountain, he was careful not to disturb a row of pennies someone had left on the ledge. “That sounds like my dad, except for the good people part.”

“He didn’t get you?”

“Nah. No. He’s a real ‘American dream’ kind of guy. A car mechanic. But he was always into some scheme or another to try and figure out how to make more money. How to build prestige and clout and all that bullshit. Needless to say, he did not understand his son who went to yoga with his mother and clipped six-pack rings and scrupulously saved his allowance to be able to donate to a Save the Whales charity.”

Mari grinned, totally able to imagine the picture that Jay was painting of himself as a young boy. “Did you ever do car mechanic stuff with him?”

“Yeah, of course, I know my way around a popped hood.” He gave her a lascivious grin that had her raising an eyebrow and swallowing down her smile. “But even then I was reading about greenhouse gases and realizing that cars were the enemy.”

“You drive now,” Mari pointed out.

Jay nodded. “It’s electric. And I pretty much only drive it when I need to haul my surfing gear someplace. Otherwise I bike.”

“Hmmm,” Mari considered. “Boston was too big to bike. But maybe I could do that in Ocean City.” She side-eyed him. “You bike to work every day?”

He nodded. “Most days.”

She side eyed him further. “But you’re all… fresh.”

Jay laughed. “Are you telling me that I don’t reek of B.O.?”

She shrugged.

Smiling, Jay leaned toward her. “One, I change clothes when I get here so I don’t offend my coworkers’ sensitive sensibilities. And two, I do reek. Just a little bit.”

He lifted his arm and leaned toward her even further. Mari squeaked out a surprised laugh and tried to lean away from him in indignation, but she didn’t manage it before his scent washed over her. He didn’t smell like B.O. Not in a bad way. He smelled like Jay. A scent that Mari had thought of a hundred times since the island. It was unique and earthy. Like copper and the ocean and the forest all at once. Suddenly, the morning that they’d hiked through the forest to get to the waterfall washed over her all at once, the scent of him ripping the memory out of her. She thought of the moment he’d picked her up, pinned her against a tree to get a good smell of her. She thought of joining him in the waterfall. The intensity of his stare.

Mari got a distinct pain in her chest that radiated up in waves. The heat of the pain settled behind her eyes and she rubbed at it.

“You alright?” Jay asked her, pushing her thermos of tea into her hand.

Mari took a grateful sip. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly.

He held her eyes, and realizing that she was seconds away from pulling away from him, he frantically changed the subject.

“Anyways, we were talking about you. About living in Boston.”

“Right. Right. Yeah. Anyways. There were things I liked about it and things I was over. And it just felt like time for a change.”

Jay’s ears perked up. Time for a change was very different than I couldn’t live without Linc.

“So you two were in a long distance relationship for a while?”

She glanced at him, assessing. “Yeah.”

“And then you were suddenly living together?”

She assessed him further. “Yeah.”

“So you were suddenly living in a new place, living with your boyfriend, engaged all at once, and you weren’t regularly surfing?”

Mari frowned. “What are you getting at?”

“Nothing in particular,” Jay shrugged. “That’s just a lot to adjust to in two months.”

Mari didn’t understand why something in her wanted to insist that it hadn’t been that big of a deal. That it had been easy. That she had no doubts that everything had gone exactly according to plan. But she did. She wanted Jay to stuff whatever he was really saying.

“Well, I’ve been through bigger, faster adjustments before. And I handled those just fine.” She stood and shoved her food into her lunch bag. “I gotta get back. But I’ll see you this weekend, okay?”

Jay nodded. Watching her scrambling to get away from him. “Sure. Alright.”

He handed up a Tupperware she was forgetting and searched out her eyes. He didn’t mention that there were two more days that they could potentially eat together before that party. He already knew, from the set of her shoulders, the determination in her lips, that she wouldn’t be eating in the courtyard.

“Later, Jay,” she muttered. And then, because she was who she was, she raised her eyes to his. He held them for a second, even though it was like trying to harness lighting. The spark of temper and confusion and vulnerability swirling through those green, green eyes.

***

Mari stood outside of Eli Bird’s house and shifted from foot to foot as she chatted with Linc. He was in London, trying to start an international chapter of his charity. And with the time change, this was probably the last time she was going to get to speak with him tonight.

“You sound a little nervous,” Linc said, knowing where she was and what she was about to do. “Is it because Elijah Bird is so famous?”

She quirked her lips up at that. “Nah. You know I don’t really care about that kind of thing.”

Linc cleared his throat. “Is it because Jay is there?”

“No. Jay doesn’t make me nervous, and besides, you know I’ve been seeing him at my lunch break every now and then. So it won’t be weird to see him tonight.” Mari had been scrupulously honest with Linc about everything that was going on with Jay.

“Okay,” Linc answered carefully. “Then why are you nervous?”

“You know I’m not great at parties. Especially ones with women. I should have dressed up a little.” She muttered the last part to herself, looking down at her slim black jeans and the midnight blue sweater she wore. She tugged on the lapels of her black bomber jacket. Vegan, of course.

“How many times do you have to learn that lesson, Mari? You hate dressing up and then you always feel out of place if you haven’t.”

The irritation in Linc’s voice didn’t surprise her. Her personal style was something of a sore spot between them. But his manner certainly ignited a little something in her own. She resented that representation of herself. “I don’t feel out of place. I just, I don’t know, you saw how all those women were dressed at the last party for Elijah Bird. There’s no way I’m gonna go out and buy something just to fit in at a dinner party.”

“Mari, that was a gala. I’m sure things will be more casual.” Linc was gripping the bridge of his nose, she was sure of it. He’d grown up in high society, and was often frustrated with her complete lack of a grasp on things like dress code. It all came so natural to him. “If you’re so worried about it, leave and change and come back.”

“No, I don’t want to be late.” It was ridiculous, standing out on the curb, arguing with Linc about something she barely even cared about. She didn’t want to stick out as a too-casual shlub, of course, but in the end, Mari didn’t really care about that. She was more nervous about something else. Something she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Well, then, you better go.”

Mari frowned into the early evening. “So, you are mad that I’m going to this party without you?” She and Linc had already discussed this at length earlier in the week, and she’d thought they’d gotten to a good place about it. But he was being so annoyed with her right now that she suddenly wondered if he’d changed his mind.

“No, no. Of course not, my love. I’m sorry, I’m being irritable. It was a long day, and not a very successful one. I think I’m taking it out on you.”

“Oh. Good. Not good that you’re taking it out on me, but good that you’re alright with me going.”

“Uh huh.”

“You know? Linc?”

“Yeah?”

“I think it’s natural to take stuff like that out on your partner every once in a while. We’ve got a long life ahead of us, you know? It’s gonna happen from time to time.”

Linc was quiet for a long minute before he cleared his throat. “You think that’s true?”

“I do,” she answered without hesitating.

It wasn’t until they’d hung up with one another and she was striding toward the front door of the house that she wondered if he’d been asking about taking things out on your partner, or whether or not she and Linc were going to have a long life together.

***

“If you don’t chill the hell out I’m going to pin you down and make you eat mayonnaise,” Marcus growled at Jay, threateningly extending a shivering spoonful of the disgusting white condiment in question.

Jay scowled at Marcus, the longevity of their friendship making both of them perfectly comfortable being jerks to each other. “I’m chill, asshole.”

Marcus raised a dark brow at his friend. “Yeah, that’s why you’ve rearranged that vegetable platter in fifteen different ways.”

Jay looked down at the handful of carrot sticks he’d been artfully arranging over a plate for the last twenty minutes. He tossed them down in disgust. “You’re right. I’m nervous.”

Marcus nodded. “Because she always makes you nervous or because she’s meeting your mom or—”

“I don’t know, okay?” Jay hissed temperamentally.

Eli walked into the kitchen at that moment and raised his eyebrows. He’d never known Jay to hiss temperamentally. Jay was cool, calm, very adept at yoga breathing.

Eli and Marcus exchanged looks.

“Dude,” Eli began, snatching a carrot stick off the platter. “I gotta be honest, this isn’t a good look for you.”

“What?” Jay looked down at his t-shirt and worn jeans. “You think I should have dressed up?” Stupid. He’d known he should have dressed up. But a fit of stubborn energy had kept him from putting too much energy into it.

“I don’t mean your clothes,” Eli said, and then raised an eyebrow. “But I mean, you are dressed like a hobo. No, I mean your attitude. Wired, nervous Jay is not nearly as cool as relaxed, confident Jay. You’re not doing yourself any favors.”

The doorbell rang and Jay turned away without answering his friend’s comment. There wasn’t anything to say anyways. He knew he wasn’t at his best right now. He didn’t need to have to defend it. Of all the people who were coming to this gathering, only Mari would ring the doorbell, so he knew it was her.

He strode through the house, ignoring the eyes of the guests in the other room, who also knew that it must be Mari at the door.

Jay flung open Eli’s front door to find Mari taking a quick, defensive step backwards from the aggressive movement of the door.

“Mari.” His eyes swept over her and all the nervous, uncertain energy just sort of funneled out of him. She was here. Where he could hear and smell and touch her. She was here and that was all that mattered to him. Even if she was here as another man’s fiancé, honestly, Jay couldn’t care less right now. All he cared about was that she was here, looking up at him. So flipping good looking that his mouth watered. God damn, she was an attractive woman.

“Hey, Jay.”

“You’re wearing blue,” he observed, somewhat obviously.

She looked down at herself and then back up to him. “Yeah.”

“I’ve never seen you in blue before.”

Mari gave him a long look. “Is that going to be a problem?”

It was her words from the morning they’d surfed together. He knew what those words really meant right now. That his feelings were showing. He was looking down at her so tenderly and his feelings were leaking out all over the place. She was telling him that if he kept looking at her like this, then it was going to be a problem.

Jay swallowed. He figured he had a few choices here. He could suck those feelings back in, and act like she wasn’t making his heart swell, or he could channel that energy a different way. Never one for retreat, Jay made his decision. “Nah, not a problem. I’m just saying, you look pretty in blue.”

Her eyes darted up to his. Maybe she was surprised at his honesty, he couldn’t tell, but he didn’t give her too long to think on it. “Come on back, most people are already here and we’re gonna eat pretty soon.”

“Did I get here late?”

“No, but Eli and Tia have an open door policy, people are always showing up early and leaving late for parties.”

“Tia is his…?”

“Girlfriend,” a woman’s voice said down the hall to Mari’s left.

A taller woman with a squarish, very attractive face walked gracefully down the hall toward Mari. She wore clear, thick-framed glasses, black leggings and a white, flowy tunic. She had the shiniest hair Mari had ever seen.

“Hi,” Mari said, holding out her hand. “I’m Mari Brady.”

Jay’s stomach flipped when she said her name. He knew it was the name she’d been born with. But he couldn’t help but feel as if she’d somehow taken his last name.

The two women shook hands. “Tia Camellia. Welcome to my house.”

“I hate it when you call yourself Eli’s girlfriend,” Jay said from where he observed the two women together. He’d known Mari was short, but she looked so much smaller than Tia it was almost comical.

“Why?” Mari was the one to ask, not Tia.

“Because Jay thinks me and Eli should just get married already. Is that right?” Tia raised her eyebrows affectionately at her friend.

“Uh, and that’s Jay’s business why?” Mari asked skeptically.

Tia laughed, delighted. “Exactly.”

“Fine,” Jay said as he held his hands up in surrender. “Do whatever you want with Eli, I’m just saying, I’m gonna start referring to you as my sister-in-law, alright?”

Though her face remained very serious, Mari could see the glow of love there. The two of them were obviously close. Tia fiddled with a gold chain around her neck that held what looked like an engagement ring on it. “Fair enough. And you can be my brother-in-law. Even though you and Eli aren’t technically brothers and he and I aren’t technically married.”

“Works for me,” Jay shrugged, leaning forward to kiss Tia square on the mouth, the way he often did.

He didn’t notice the way that brought a flush to Mari’s cheeks, the way her eyes followed Jay’s lips, but Tia noticed it just fine.

A jingling down the hallway behind Tia had them all turning to look.

“Oh. My. GOD,” Mari semi-shrieked. It was the girliest Jay had ever seen her act. She ripped off her coat, shoved it in Jay’s arms and fell to her knees right there in the entryway to Eli and Tia’s house.

The source of the jingling sound waddled right into Mari’s outstretched arms, obviously recognizing he’d just accrued another diehard fan.

Ham the dog was an ugly, pudgy bulldog mutt. He was shaped like a sausage link and as friendly as a daisy. The second he was in the circle of Mari’s arms, he flipped onto his back and let himself be adored. It was what both of them wanted anyways.

It wasn’t unusual for someone to be taken with Ham, he was a hell of a companion. But Jay hadn’t been ready for the sheer, walloping force of seeing Mari squinch her face up, kiss the air, whisper sweet, soft nothings into the dog’s ugly little ear. She immediately found the spot on his belly that had his leg kicking and his tail thumping.

Mari laughed in delight and looked up to Jay to make sure he was watching the brilliant dog’s response.

Tia bit her lip. This was an intense moment. Eli had told her that things between Mari and Jay were very murky. That there was love there, but there was also reticence and confusion. Tia did not sense the second two things at all. She sensed a holy love whipping off these two people like wind off the ocean. She sensed comfort, protection, understanding, rightness. And as Mari turned back to the wiggling Ham, and Jay’s eyes darkened as he watched the tumbling fall of her hair over her shoulder, Tia sensed white hot desire.

She didn’t know who these two thought they were kidding. But they were going down hard. Feelings like this ended up in devotion or wild, life-changing heart break. Glancing at her dear friend’s face, Tia desperately hoped it was devotion.

***

Two hours later, Mari cornered Jay in the kitchen; it was their first chance to be alone since she’d walked in. And she was, frankly, a little pissed at him.

“What?” he asked in alarm, the second he saw her face as she swung through the door of the kitchen.

She strode forward, one finger out in front of her. Suddenly Jay found himself with his back literally in a corner and he wasn’t quite sure how she’d managed to back him up so quickly and efficiently.

“This isn’t a party!” she hissed, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one else could hear her noxious, accusatory tone.

“I’m sorry?” He raised an eyebrow at her. He considered sliding out from the front of that pointing finger, but he realized that this was pretty much the closest they’d stood since they’d hugged at the gala and he didn’t want to waste the moment.

“I said, I was invited here under false pretenses. I was told this was going to be a party.”

Jay raised an eyebrow even further and tried to catch up. “I mean, it’s not a rager, sure. But there’s beer and food and music and chatting. What would you call it?”

“I’d call it a frickin’ family reunion plus Mari!” She threw her hands up in the air.

“Oh,” Jay furrowed his brow and reflected on the guest list. It was Eli and Tia, Marcus, Kat, Ryan, and Laura and her boyfriend Jace, who also happened to play on Eli’s football team. “Yeah, I uh, guess you kind of have a point. We’re sort of a family unit.”

“I mean, you even sprung your mom and her boyfriend on me? What the crap is that?”

Jay’s mind completely blanked for a second. “What? My mom doesn’t have a boyfriend. You mean Ryan?”

Mari threw her hands out to the sides like Duh.

“No, that’s not her boyfriend. Ryan is Eli’s dad. He’s like my dad too. He raised us. All three of us pretty much.”

Mari gave him a look like he was being dense. “And he couldn’t be both? Your father, for all intents and purposes, and your mom’s boyfriend? You know, those two labels often go hand in hand.”

“I—” his brow furrowed, completely stymied. It was this look of true confusion. True bewilderment that saved him from any more of Mari’s wrath. Wow. He really couldn’t see what had been so obvious to Mari. It was actually kind of cute that the idea of his mother with a boyfriend befuddled him so much. Jay cleared his throat. “You really think so?”

Mari sucked in her lips to keep from smiling. “Sorry to spring it on you like that, but I didn’t think there was anything to spring. The way they were acting, I thought it was something you all already knew about. It was so obvious.”

The door to the kitchen swung open and Laura backed into the kitchen, balancing dirty trays and plates on her hands.

“Laura!” Jay hissed, beckoning her over. He needed a second opinion.

Laura set the plates down and hurried over. She could sense gossip from a mile away. And she was anxious to have a good moment with Mari. Laura could tell that Mari had recognized her tonight, from the hallway in the gala, where Laura had been whispering Jay’s ear. In the way of women, Laura had sensed a small, but very real wall up between her and Mari. Laura’s feelings weren’t hurt over it, in fact, she recognized it as a good sign. It meant that Mari was capable of feeling a little jealous over Jay. That was a very good sign.

But, eager to show that she and Mari were on the same team, Laura bustled over, tossed her light, curly brown hair over her shoulder and leaned in. “What’s up?”

Jay, his brow still furrowed, eyed Laura for immediate reaction to his words. “Mari thinks that my mom and Ryan are together.”             

“Oh!” Laura laughed in surprised delight. “Are we finally allowed to talk about this? Excellent!”

Jay’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about?”

Laura waved a hand through the air. “Tia and I have been pretty much positive about it for months, but she said that we shouldn’t talk about it because you three are all so protective over Kat. She said we should wait until Kat and Ryan brought it up.”

Jay’s mouth dropped open even further. “What do you mean? You’ve seen them kissing or something?” He knew he sounded extremely juvenile, but he found he couldn’t help it. He was spinning a little bit.

Laura and Mari both laughed outright and it soured his mood even further.

“No,” Laura said as she shook her head. “Nothing like that. It’s just the way they are together. You can tell.”

“What do you mean?” Jay felt like a parrot, squawking the same question over and over again.

“You know, when two people are really into each other, when they’re comfortable and intimate in a million different ways, there’s no way to hide that. Look.” Mari, demonstrating, stepped a few inches closer to Laura. “See, too close for an acquaintance or friend, but close enough for a lover.”

Laura, immediately understanding the game, played along. “Right, see? Mari and I are at a dinner table together. I notice that her water glass is empty,” Laura mimed the next part. “I fill it for her.”

Mari picked up the thread, also miming her actions. “I’m all full from a huge meal now and I have to lean back. Perhaps I’ll just lean my arm along the back of Laura’s chair.”

“When Mari’s hair falls forward, I’ll brush it back. When she laughs, I’ll watch her mouth, when she tips toward me, I tip toward her.”

“Alright, I get it,” Jay grumbled.

“See?” Mari said, holding her hands up like she was presenting evidence.

Laura smiled to herself, apparently neither Jay nor Mari had realized that all the things she’d presented as evidence could also be directly applied to things they’d done during dinner. Kat and Ryan were obviously intimate with one another, but it was nothing compared to all the subconscious ways Jay and Mari showed their feelings for each other.

Actually, it was getting Laura a little hot and bothered just to be in the same area as the heat between the two of them. She and Jace were going to have an interesting night when they got home and she expelled some of this pent-up energy.

Jay frowned at the two women. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re both loony.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “Your mother wanted us to bring out the desserts, right?”

Relieved they were changing the topic, Jay nodded and the three of them brought out the cakes and ice cream, vegan variety for Jay and Mari, of course.

Kat watched the way her son held the door for Mari as they came back into the dining room with the desserts.

It thrilled her. And scared the hell out of her. His entire life Jay had been so calm, so collected. And here he was with a storm in his heart. With a mother’s intuition, Kat could see exactly how much Mari lit Jay right up. Like a Christmas tree.

She was over the moon to see her son burning in that way. But she was also terrified.

Mari was… hard to read. She was gorgeous and obviously very strong, inside and out. Kat had always imagined that her son would fall for someone a bit gentler. More open. Sweeter?  But there was a toughness in Mari, a series of walls that Kat was having trouble navigating. It was almost like the girl had built a maze in front of her heart that everyone was required to find their way through.

Kat didn’t dislike that, it just surprised her.

Being a very fair, intelligent woman, Kat reserved judgment—anyone could tell that the girl hadn’t been expecting this intimate gathering of family and loved ones. She’d been uncomfortable from the first few minutes on. She couldn’t be blamed for that.

It wasn’t until after dessert was cleared away, when Eli had started a fire in the hearth and all of them had gathered on the plush couches in the living room that Kat saw something that took her breath away.

Mari asked about all the different swatches of color on the walls of all the rooms. And Tia had explained that she’d moved out of her smaller house to live in Eli’s. And that the two of them were still trying to figure out how they wanted to decorate.

“I keep telling her that she can do whatever she wants,” Eli insisted from where he sat on the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him and his back against Tia’s legs.

“Well, then you’re obviously missing the point, dummy,” Jay said. He was stretched out in front of the fire like a cat, laying on the floor like he always did when presented the option to choose between a couch or a good stretch of floor.

“Excuse me?” Eli asked with a dry disdain that was effectively ruined by the smile on his face.

“Yeah,” Jay punched at a couch cushion he was currently using as a pillow. “The point isn’t the paint, the point is the choosing it together.”

“Disagree,” Eli dismissed his friend, closing his eyes in relaxation and pulling Tia’s legs into his side with supreme confidence.

Ryan pursed his lips and decided that at 35, his son was old enough to learn this lesson without supervision.

“What do you mean, disagree?” Tia asked pushing up to a sitting position on the couch.

Eli cracked an eye. “I mean that no matter what, even if you and I come to a moment of blazing harmony over one of these paint colors, it’s not gonna matter. The only color we’re gonna go with is one that you don’t think is ugly. So just tell me which one you don’t think is ugly.”

Tia’s mouth fell dead open, and across the room Mari began to really smile. It was weirdly satisfying to see that life was occasionally hard for everyone, including millionaire star quarterbacks who were about to play in the Superbowl.

“Excuse me?” Tia asked, her eyebrows in her hairline and her voice enunciating every letter of those words.

“What?” Eli asked, palms up and shoulders shrugging.

“Jesus,” Marcus muttered into the hand he scrubbed over his face. “Even your two chronically single friends know the answer to this one, my dude.”

“What?” Eli asked again.

Jay sighed. Sometimes it was hard having all the answers. “First of all, Tia has great taste, so the colors you’re choosing from are never gonna be ‘ugly.’ Second, a little bit of ugly in a family home never hurt anybody. Third, home isn’t a noun. Or at least it shouldn’t be. It’s a verb. It’s about doing. Living isn’t passive.”

Jay rolled his hand out in front of himself from where he lay, in a fancy, smug bow. And everyone laughed. Except for Mari. And except for Kat who watched Mari.

Kat watched as the girl’s eyes glued themselves to the side of Jay’s face. As a hundred different sadnesses raced over her expression. Kat watched as Mari leaned forward, elbows to knees, and absorbed the words that Jay had just spoken so easily. Kat watched as Mari dropped her head in thought, raked her hair back, and looked back up at Jay. This time, for the first time that Kat had seen, all the barriers that Mari had brought with her were smashed to pieces. Kat watched as Mari looked at Jay through those startlingly green eyes; there was tenderness there. There was fear and inhibition there. But more than anything, there was love.

The expression on Mari’s face was there for only a matter of seconds before she rose up, made her excuses to leave.

Kat bit her lip as she watched Mari say goodbye to each person there. She thought, perhaps, her first impression of the girl had been wrong. She didn’t think this girl was made of walls. She thought this girl was made of windows. And when you got the opportunity to peek through one, it was brilliant and blinding.

When Mari made her way to Kat, Kat didn’t hesitate. She pulled the girl into her arms and gave her a hug, a real hug. A hug that meant something. Maybe it was a little too tight.

When Mari stepped away, there was a blurriness to her eyes. Kat didn’t care if she’d embarrassed herself. All she knew was that this girl loved her son. Kat didn’t know what that meant, or if, roughly translated, it meant a hell of a lot more heartbreak for Jay. Kat didn’t care right then. All she cared about was the love she’d seen there. It was the look of love that she’d never forget.