Why did I suddenly feel like I'd forgotten to put on clothes before coming to the party? Losing Maya's attention made the room colder. Made me feel… naked.
Maya stood; her eyes were wide. “Why are you here?”
I craned my neck to get a look at who she’d addressed. A guy in a suit grinned at her and reached for her to pull her into a hug.
She dodged.
I had no claim on her—zero. None. But now, I felt awfully protective. I didn't snarl or growl, but something inside me wanted to.
“Family friend of the bride," the guy said.
Maya stepped slightly away from him, cutting a glance at me with a flare in her eyes that seemed to be a request. Whatever it was, let's be honest, I'd do it.
Maya pulled her bottom lip between her teeth again. She was nervous.
Good to know: Maya gnawed on her lip when she got nervous. I noted it. Tucked the tidbit of knowledge away in my pocket.
"Can you believe all this?" A brown-haired woman slid her arm into the crook of the suit guy's elbow. "They went all out with this party."
"This is my wife," the guy said, and Maya paled.
"Sherry," the woman said, pointing to herself.
"Hi." Maya flashed a kind of genuine smile that I would've bought without hesitation, except for the little concerned lines that etched around the edges of her eyelids and the way she darted her eyes just a tad too quickly between the two of them. Maya glanced at me again, as though searching for that help.
Honest as all hell, I didn't know what was going on with this, but instinct took over, and I stood, moving closer to Maya like I had her back. I didn't mind it, because I did have her back. Though I hadn't one iota of an idea of why she needed me.
Suit guy finally looked my way. "Who's this?"
I stood a little taller, like a guy did when he sensed a chub-measuring competition about to be thrown his direction.
Maya didn't answer the question about who I was, which was a bummer because I kinda wanted to hear her answer.
"I'm whoever Maya needs me to be," I heard myself say.
She pulled at her bottom lip again in a total disruption to any thought processes happening in my brain.
Damn, but I hated that I liked when she did that. Didn't matter though; I was a good guy who was also starving.
"You ready to hit up that buffet you promised me?" I asked, tilting my thumb toward the exit.
The tense lines around Maya's eyes finally relaxed.
CHAPTERFOUR
MAYA
Sloan hadn't said a word about Dan, but it was clear he had questions brewing behind those brown eyes of his. Anyone would have questions, I understood that.
But he was patient. Didn't say a thing. And that drove me absolutely batshit crazy.
The restaurant we headed toward was just past the M&M Store. Sloan promised he'd been there before, and the food didn't include chicken broth thready things.
So we walked, and Sloan took in the sights. His arm brushed mine when we'd get jostled by the melee of people pushing brochures to pedestrians, smacking them against their hands to get attention, and occasionally shoving them right in our path.
Through it all, as we dodged them, Sloan said nothing.
Nada.
