“Teenagers are complicated,” she reminded him. “Maybe Maddie doesn’t think she has a choice. Or maybe she’s just not thinking at all. I mean, her mom just died. She’s probably still completely overwhelmed.”
“So…how do I broach that topic?” Pete asked.“Hey, Maddie, is there anyone else out there, instead of me, that you’d rather live with?”He shook his head. “I don’t want her to think that I don’t want her.”
“But you just told me that she already believes that,” Shayla pointed out. “Was there anyone you saw at the funeral—”
“I wasn’t there,” he said. “I didn’t get called until, well, it was a week and a half after Lisa was buried.”
“Seriously?”
“Maddie didn’t mention me to anyone,” he confessed. “I gotta assume she was in shock. And Kiyo has Alzheimer’s, plus a bunch of other health issues. Maddie was already placed in temporary foster care when one of the longtime staff at the nursing home thought to ask aboutthe Navy SEAL father. Thank God. That’s when social services finally tracked me down.”
“Wow. Forgive me for asking this, but it sounds like, well, do you have a sense of how Lisa…” Shayla stopped and then started again. “It occurs to me that Lisa may not have painted the, um, most flattering portrait. Of you.” As she glanced at him again, it was clear that she knew he wasn’t quite following, so she went point-blank. “Is it possible that Lisa trash-talked you to the point that Maddie would’ve rather risked going into foster care than live with, you know, her horrible monster of a father?”
“Jesus,” he said.
She attempted to soften her words. “Even the nicest exes can be shitty when under duress. And if you ever had any trouble, say, making child support payments, Lisa may have—”
“I didn’t,” Pete cut her off. “No. Not ever.” But then he corrected himself. “At first, because they moved around so much, the checks sometimes came back as undeliverable. But about twelve years ago, we set up a direct deposit account, so…Problem solved. Of course, that kept me from knowing where they were.” He sighed, because Lisahadbeen pretty crazy. “With that said, I really don’t know what Lisa told Maddie about me. All I know is that every time I tried to set up a visit, there was some ‘emergency’ and Lisa canceled.” He looked at her again. “And you’re right. It’s definitely weird that Maddie didn’t mention me to any of the social workers.”
“That’s another really awkward question to ask Maddie,” Shayla said. “You don’t want to put her on the spot withPlease repeat to me all the nasty crap your mother ever said about me, so I can attempt to refute it in the face of her permanent absence. If I were you? I’d put on my amateur PI hat and sleuth it out. There are questions youcanask Maddie, things likeWhere exactly did you live?andWhere did your mom work?AndDid your mom have any good friends?Then you and Maddie can make another road trip to Palm Springs, let her visit her Great-Grandmother Kiyo while you go and round up some of Lisa’s neighbors, co-workers, and friends, and askthemthe hard questions.” Her smile was filled with encouragement. “A bonus is that Maddie might really appreciate the chance to talk about her mother. And to hear about Lisa from you—you know, the fun stories, from before things went south.”
He nodded again. “That’s…good advice. Assuming I find Maddie.”
“We’ll find her,” Shay said. “But if we don’t—and I meandon’t find her right awaybecause we’ll find her eventually…Well, another thing we could do is get a list of everyone who was at Lisa’s funeral or memorial service, go talk to them.”
She’d saidwe. Four times.
She’d noticed, too, and was instantly embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said quickly.
Pete was used to beingwe-ed by the women he encountered.It’s noisy here tonight. We could go to your place…This whole bizarre evening started to feel significantly more familiar—aside from his odd flare of disappointment that Shayla was no different from the rest.
But she had more to say. “It’s a mom thing,” she explained. “Even when it’s someone else’s kid that’s in trouble, there’s this…well, it feels like a biological urge to help. So if you need any help—finding Maddie, or even just, you know, afriendto talk to—I’m here.”
Okay, she’d definitely added extra emphasis to the wordfriend,and now Pete was oddly disappointed bythat.
“I appreciate it,” he managed.
Earlier, Shayla had both squeezed his hand and patted him on the knee, like she was some kind of mom-to-the-universe. It had bugged him, because she wasn’thismom—not even close. Yes, she was older than he was, but not by more than a few years. And she was smart, funny, and cute.
Although moms usually came with dads, and he’d expected her to be full-family equipped and filed undertaken. But it didn’t take him long to note that she wasn’t wearing a wedding band, which had kind of made his head explode.
Not that Pete was actively looking for a date or a hookup or any variation of the two. Because, really, all he ever had to do to find a little no-strings fun was go to the LadyBug Lounge. The Bug was well known as a SEAL hangout, and he could almost always find an enthusiastic young tourist-type ready towehim for a few hours, because she wanted to addNavy SEALto herThings I Did on My California Vacationlist.
Except, he hadn’t been to the Bug in a long time. And not just because he now had a fifteen-year-old for a housemate. Over the past few years or so, even the several hours’ investment into a no-strings bar hookup had seemed too labor-intensive.
And even though there was no way in hell that he was going to have any kind of a thing with a woman who lived across the street—complications and repercussions would abound, and breaking up would involve having to move house—he was suddenly curious about Shayla’s lack of ring. Maybe she was allergic to metals. Was anyone allergic to gold? He didn’t think so. It just seemed so freaking unlikely that she was divorced. Widowed, maybe, but then wouldn’t she have kept wearing her wedding band?
He got some answers with an easy fishing expedition. “You, uh, talk about, um, shitty exes like you have direct experience. Or is that just, you know, research for your books…?”
She glanced at him as she slowed to make the left turn into the mall parking garage, again whispering a smallshhbefore she answered. “My ex is actually a friend. At least he isnow. Okay, maybe he’s more of a frenemy, but we definitely get along. We have to. The boys need us to.”
And now Pete was curious about what kind of fool would fuck up his marriage to this woman.
Shayla was still explaining. “And FYI, it’s never going to end. I’m going to be eighty and attending Tevin’s as-of-yet-unborn son’sson’swedding, and Carter is going to be sitting right there, too. With whatever number child-bride he’s up to by then—Ding!That’sthe kind of snark I make sure I leave out when I’m talking about him to the boys.” She laughed as she glanced at Pete again. “I’m going to blame you for that. I think there’s something about you being so honest with me that makes me a little too honest in return. I just…Well, silly me, I thought forever actually meantforever,so I was…blindsided when he told me it didn’t.”
“Lisa completely vaporized my heart,” Pete found himself saying. It was weird. He hadn’t meant to say that. He’d just opened his mouth and the words had fallen out. He was almost too shocked to be embarrassed. “Whoa. Sorry. I’m…”
Shay glanced at him again as she continued down another level. “Vaporized,” she whispered back. “That is afantasticword. It’s called a broken heart, but it feels more like a complete Alderaan than…Well, it feels like it’s just gone, with this weird empty hole in its place. But Carter didn’t do that to me. It was my best friend, Kate, who vaporized not just my heart, but, really,allmy internal organs. And part of my brain, I think.”
