“Actually, Mrs. Chen from across the street is having trouble with the company that is holding her lease. She’s a smart lady, but language is a problem. Her daughter usually helps with that, but she’s away at school...”
“I’ll talk to her.” Sam actually grinned.
It was much nicer to see him smiling. She did her best to ignore any happy thoughts about him. “Ooh! And Lorenzo, the owner of the Italian market, is having an issue with one of his suppliers, too.” She was failing.
“Okay, great. I’ll talk to him, too.” Sam leaned against the wall and stretched his legs out. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” Maya returned to her pile of papers. She tossed aside a thick stack of papers. “What’s this doing in here?” She continued her search for the birth certificate. Only the sound of shuffling papers broke the silence.
“Are you expanding the coffee shop?”
Maya looked up to find Sam deep into the stack of papers she had put aside. “Um, yeah. It’s the next logical step.”
“You buying next door and taking down walls, and all that?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
He flipped through the stack, scanning, grunting here and there. Maya forgot about the birth certificate as she watched him. “Is something not right with that agreement? I had my lawyer look over it, he said it looked great.”
“You have a lawyer?”
“Well, I have a lawyer I go to before I sign papers.”
“You just got these last week.” He pointed to the date. “I could have looked at them for you.”
“Oh, uh, well. I know.” She went back to her search. “You’ve done enough.” She stared him down. “And you’re always mad.”
“Well, mad or not, I can take care of this kind of thing for you.” His voice was still distant, but less angry. “Your guy missed a few things.”
“What?” Maya dropped her pile and crawled over to Sam. “Where?”
She leaned over him to see. Sam pointed out a few places that would eventually cost Maya extra money. Why did it have to feel so good to be close to him?
“Damn it! And I paid him already.” Maya closed her eyes. She couldn’t afford to keep wasting money like this.
“I can fix it.” His voice became soft and kind, almost the way Maya remembered it, except now a bit deeper, older. “And you can pay me in those chocolate chip cookies you used to make.”
Maya risked a glance at him. “Okay. Chocolate chip cookies, it is.” She looked down at her stack. “Ah! Here it is.” She handed it to Sam. “I have a copier in the shop.” She started to gather up the disarray of papers and put them back in the safe, when they slipped from her hands, falling everywhere. “Oh, crap. I don’t have time for this.”
Sam set the certificate down and laughed, helping Maya gather the papers.
“Let’s just get all this stacked together. I’ll have to organize it later. I need to get some things into the oven and my eggs are sitting out.” She frantically gathered papers, trying to make an even stack. Sam gathered the smaller things that had escaped, making a smaller pile of sorts. Before Maya had a chance to register what Sam was doing, he had stopped moving, clutching a small piece of paper in his hands.No-no-no-no!
“What’s this?”
The sight of Sam holding that particular piece of paper paralyzed Maya. Her heart hammered while her arms hung, useless, by her side. She willed them to grab that slip of paper, but even as they tried to comply, Sam moved out of her reach.
“Sam, give it back to me.” Her voice cracked.
It was a check, made payable to Maya Rao, in the amount of ten thousand dollars. It was signed by Hema Hutcherson. And the date. The date was... “This is the day before I came to see you again. After the proposal fiasco.” He looked up at her, pain and confusion lining his features. “What is this?” It was a demand.
Maya remained frozen to her spot. “Nothing. Just forget about it. It’s inconsequential.” She grabbed for it again. He easily pulled it out of her reach.
“I’ll be the judge of that, Maya.” His voice was gruff. “Tell me. Tell me now.” A renewed anger was beginning to ooze from him. But there was a touch of fear in his face, too. Like he had figured out what the check was about and didn’t want to accept it.
“Fine. But remember, you asked. You demanded to know.” Maya looked him in the eye. If he wanted to know, fine.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
