“You did something with him, didn’t you?”
“With who?” I asked, playing dumb.
She scoffed. “You know who.” She bobbed her head at Aleesa. “Tell me what’s going on. I don’t like seeing you like this.”
I dropped my fork and slouched back in my chair. “Okay, fine. But I’m going to need you to not overreact.”
She threw her hands in the air. “I never overreact.”
“Yes, we did something.”
She gasped, eyes stretching wide. “Tavia!”
“Oh my gosh, I just told you not to overreact,” I countered.
“I’m sorry, I just—I had a feeling!” she whisper hissed. “Deke called me after the charity event yesterday and was saying he noticed something different about Javier. He said Javier kept looking for you during the event, and when you told me he interrupted your date that other night ... well, now it’s all starting to make sense.”
“Wait.Really?” I asked. “He kept looking for me?”
“According to Deke, he definitely was. I told him that Javier was probably looking for you because you had Aleesa,” Vina went on, “but Dekesworesomething else was going on. He said something had changed between you and him. Said y’all were flirting, girl. Now I get it.” She couldn’t contain her grin.
“Okay, fine, it’s true. But y’all shouldn’t make a big deal about it. It’s just for fun right now. Nothing serious.” At least, I hoped we would still have fun. I wasn’t quite sure after last night.
“Okay, I get it.” She bobbed her head. “And that makes perfect sense for both of you, considering your pasts.”
“Exactly.” Why couldn’t Javier see it that way?
After thinking about it last night, I realized he’d expected a different answer from me. He’d told me he didn’t want us to stop having our fun ... but what did he think would happen the more we had sex?
Someone would become attached, and I was going to make damn sure it wasn’t me. And the last thing I wanted was to hurt his feelings if he asked for more. Why ruin a good thing?
Besides, what good would a relationship between a broken woman and a widower be?
“So this is part of the reason why you’re moody today?” my sister asked, folding her arms.
“I’m not moody.”
“You are.”
“Okay, I might be. Sue me.”
“Iwillsue you if you don’t tell me what’s up.”
Something rattled on the other end of the table, and out of instinct, I reached over to grab Aleesa’s plate before it could topple and hit the floor.
“Sowwy, Tava,” Aleesa said in an apologetic little voice.
“It’s okay, love.” I watched her climb out of her chair just to stand at my side.
“Can I have iPad?”
I sighed. “If you get the iPad, you can only watch it fortenminutes, okay? You watched too much of it in the car, and your dad will never shut up about it if he finds out.”
“Okay.” She smiled at me, almost like she knew I’d forget and she’d fly right past her ten-minute limit. That happened more often than I cared to admit.
I dug into the backpack for her iPad and set it up on the table with the kickstand.
“Kids now are like little geniuses.” Davina watched Aleesa as she moved her finger around the screen. “Imagine if we would’ve had iPads at her age. What do you think we would be like now?”
