Her own terms. Reliable, responsible, organized Maya Flores.
The lump in her throat got bigger.
The car stopped at the bottom of the hill, near the old Mackaby garage. The door opened, and a small, familiar figure got out. She looked along the street at the row of old-fashioned wooden buildings, then down at the paper in her hand, because of course she’d printed out the map instead of relying on her phone.
Her mom. In Hideaway Cove.
She took a deep breath.
“Mom!”
The little figure looked up. Could she really have heard her from this far away? Maya waved, and her mom waved back.
“Okay,” she said, half under her breath. “I can do this.”
Corin pressed a kiss to her head. “Wecan do this.”
Her mom waited for them to walk along the waterfront. Was it Maya’s imagination, or did she brace herself just as they got within talking distance?
“Mom! What are you doing here?” Internally, she winced.Okay. Try that again, sounding less like you wish she WEREN’T here.“This is such an amazing surprise. I didn’t know you were planning to visit this soon!”
“Well, not so much planning, but it seemed like a good idea…” Her mother’s voice meandered off, as though she wasn’t convinced it had been such a great idea. She smiled anxiously at the others as they tried unsuccessfully not to hover at Maya’s shoulders. “I’m interrupting you and your friends?”
“Oh, not at all, this is—”
“We were just about to head off, but I’m so glad we caught you before we did!” Mrs. Blackburn introduced herself and the Dans and swept off, giving Maya a meaningful look as she did so. The meaningful look could have meant any of a thousand things, but she optimistically assumed it meant Igraine was going to keep the guys out of the way.
She bit back a sigh of relief. “And you remember Mr. Bla—Corin? Corin, this is my mother, Gabriela.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you at last,” Corin said, extending a hand.
Her mom took it tentatively. “And you as well,” she said politely. “Maya, sweetheart, I know this is unexpected…”
“Not at all!” She laughed, but it sounded kind of panicked, so she stopped. “Um. I mean, you were probably going to tell me, but this week has been…”
Life-changing.She exchanged a fleeting look of wonder with Corin, then got back to fretting.
“Did you stop to eat on the drive? We’ve got a great restaurant on the waterfront. We can stop off at mine to drop your bags and freshen up, then head out for dinner?”
Caro was experienced at keeping human visitors head-down in their meals so they didn’t see anything unusual. It would have been the perfect plan.
So of course Maya’s mom preferred to stay in.
Which wasgood,Maya told herself as Tomás ran ahead, pointing excitedly to his home. Her house was a controlled environment. She could limit the people around. She knew most of Tomás’s tricks he liked to play there.
But it was somessy.
“You seem very settled in,” Gabriela said, looking around. “It’s so much bigger than your apartment!”
“Well, you know, city living…”Three times the storage space and there are still piles of mess everywhere.
“Maya?”
“Mom?”
Her mom shook her head, her eyes warm. “It’s lovely.”
“It’s amess,” she groaned.
