I know exactly what she’s talking about, but I want to mess with her, anyway.
Mae: Two can play that game.
Cooper: I have no idea what you’re talking about
Mae: So then you’d have no idea what I’m thinking about regarding you
Cooper: Honestly no
Mae: Let me put it this way… it had nothing to do with what you did to me last night
Cooper: I did it with you, stubborn
Mae: Then I was thinking of something else I want to do WITH you
My thighs tense and my stomach clenches. The list of things that could mean are infinite, and I’m hanging by a thread.
Cooper: You’re doing this on purpose
Mae: Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. But you’re busy, so it will have to wait.
Cooper: I will make time
Mae: Just tell me when
Cooper: Here’s a song to hold you over…
I find the one I heard the other day that made me think of her, and saved it for the right moment. This feels like that, and it’s from the 80s: The Cure’sJust Like Heaven.
Mae: You’re not smooth my ass…
I laugh and simultaneously groan, leaning my head back. This is torture. Worth it, but torture nonetheless, and unfortunately, she’s right. What we do with each other will have to wait.
***
I tuck Naomi into her bed, and she yawns, settling back into her covers. Rebekah came over again, and it went really well. She seemed to relax a little, and they both wouldn’t stop talking. Rebekah asked her all kinds of questions, and Naomi was more than happy to tell her. This time I stayed back, keeping a watchful eye, but letting them do their thing.
My goal is not to make this any harder for Rebekah, but making sure she doesn’t get Naomi’s hopes up is the real concern. But if my sister really has turned a page, then this is the next step into a new chapter for her, for both of them.
It’s gone so well I hesitated to call the lawyer again and withdraw my applications for full incontestable guardianship and adoption. I’m not sure what’s right anymore. When I talked to Mae about it, she didn’t seem to have a strong opinion either way, but I think she simply held her tongue because she felt like it wasn’t her place to say.
I read Naomi her book and kiss her goodnight.
“Goodnight, Daddy,” she says, half asleep.
“Goodnight, princess. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she sighs.
I gently close the door behind me and plop down on the couch. It makes sense Mae doesn’t want to give her opinion on something she’s not involved with, and I respect that. But before I let this get any further, I need to ask her definitively where she’s at with a kid in the picture. She didn’t give me a straight answer when I asked, but I didn’t want to push.
It’s a yes or no question. The details come after, and because I’m falling for Mae, I can’t afford to be devastated by anyone or anything when I have a child to raise. If she doesn’t like the fact that I have Naomi, then it was never going to work out.
I pick up my phone and dial Mae.
“Hello?” she says in a raspy voice, and it makes goosebumps rise on my skin.
“Hey stubborn, did I wake you up?” I ask her and wonder what it would be like to wake up next to that voice.
