Livvy grimaced and started cleaning out the French press. “Ugh. Sorry for what she said out there. You look fabulous today, and you always look fabulous.”
Sadia huffed out a laugh. “You caught that, huh? Don’t worry about it. Your mother is in the minor leagues for backhanded insults. Last time I saw her, my mother asked if I wanted Noor’s old clothes. Hermaternityclothes.”
Livvy groaned. “Oh God, Mama Ahmed, why.”
“Because she is who she is,” Sadia replied prosaically. “Can’t change that. Can only accept it.”
“Saint Sadia.”
“Hardly a saint.” Her chair scraped against the tile. Sadia got up and came to stand next to her at the sink. She grabbed a sponge and began efficiently cleaning up the coffee grounds Livvy hadn’t even noticed on the counter.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind. Let me help.”
Livvy placed the carafe on the drying rack. “You’re always helping. You’ve been here for years taking care of Mom. I haven’t.”
Sadia stopped cleaning. “Hey. Did you hear that?”
Livvy listened for a moment, but all she could hear was the muted T.V. show, punctuated by Kareem’s high-pitched chatter. “What?”
“That shirt you just put on. All that hair is so loud.”
Livvy’s lips twitched. “Shut up.”
“You left for your own reasons, good reasons. I don’t blame you a bit.”
“Paul did.” Livvy winced. “Sorry.” Though they’d shared a lot over the years, they’d tacitly agreed the second Sadia had started dating Paul that her role as Livvy’s best friend would be separate from her role as Paul’s significant other.
“Paul blamed a lot of people for a lot of things,” Sadia said, breaking the rule herself. “I know he was hard on you. I tried to convince him to give you a break, but I’m afraid I wasn’t successful.”
Livvy had barely talked to her brother since the day after Kareem’s birth, when she’d driven in to see the baby and he’d confronted her in the hospital hallway.Mom’s getting older, and I’m the one who’s been stuck here taking care of everything while you’re gallivanting all over the country having fun. Grow up, Livvy.
Paul hadn’t seemed to grasp Livvy wasn’t wandering around aimlessly with the family fortune backing her. She’d traveled because... well, because she had to, and she’d worked her ass off, more often than not in menial jobs that her childhood of comfortable wealth hadn’t exactly prepared her for.
She wasn’t sure what her big brother had wanted of her. To stay here and occupy the same role she’d been raised to play from birth, even though their roles had been eliminated?
She supposed it didn’t matter. It was too late to ask him. “Thanks for trying to change his mind. It’s not your fault he considered me some sort of flighty playgirl.”
Sadia made a dismissive noise. “I don’t think you were wrong to leave, and I think it’s incredibly brave of you to come back right now.” Sadia rinsed the sponge in the sink and dried her hands. “And you never need to feel guilty about anything I choose to do. Paul may be gone, but you’re still my sister, and Tani’s my mother.”
“Ah, there it is,” Livvy said dryly, in an effort to hide the lump in her throat. “Perfect Asian daughter-in-law sense of responsibility.”
Sadia snorted, but she sounded amused. “Lord knows, I’ve been neither the perfect daughter-in-law or the perfect daughter.”
In her worn jeans and soft T-shirt, no one wouldguess Sadia had grown up rich. Not as rich as the Kanes or Chandlers, but her parents were both successful cardiologists, which was how they’d been able to afford to send all five of their daughters to the same private schools Livvy had attended.
Sadia’s family hadn’t had a problem with her dating a man who wasn’t Pakistani or Muslim—but they’d had serious opinions about her quitting school and marrying a man who was no longer heir to a fortune. Sadia and Paul’s elopement had driven a wedge between her and her family, though they’d softened since Kareem’s birth. Livvy dried her hands as well. “You’re perfect to me.”
“Same.” Sadia faced her, leaning against the sink.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. She meant to say thank you, but instead she blurted out, “I saw Nicholas a few days ago.”
Sadia’s nostrils flared. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Do I need to kill him?”
Livvy gave a half-laugh. Standard. Her friend was forgiving when it came to slights against herself, but hurt a person she loved? She’d pull a knife. And she didn’t even know about Livvy’s and Nicholas’s unconventional arrangement over the years. “I knew there was a reason I loved you.”
“There’s many reasons you love me. Shall I? Kill him?”
