“Hey.”
“Amy, it’s Raven.”
No shit. She realizes I have her number saved, right?
“Oh my God! Raven?” I gasp. “For real?”
“Yup!”
“Raven, as in my-older-sister Raven?ThatRaven?”
“The one and only!”
She doesn’t seem to get sarcasm today.Pregnancy-brain vibes.
“I didn’t hear you leave this morning.”
“Well, you were snoring like a wild pig,” I protest. “You’d have slept through a nuclear explosion.”
“Hey, apparently you snore louder when you’re pregnant. It’s a thing.”
“It’s an amazing excuse, you mean. Like, ‘Oh, sorry, I forgot to buy milk—I’m pregnant.’ Or ‘Oh, sorry, I left my crappy-ass underwear on your pillow—I’m pregnant.’?”
I can practically hear her rolling her eyes.
Raven clears her throat. “Where are you right now?”
“Just pulling onto campus. Can’t you tell from the tracker I’m guessing you put on my car?” I tut. “You know you don’t have to stalk me every morning, right?”
“I’m just checking in with my baby sister, that’s all.”
“We live together, Raven. We see each other every day.”
“You didn’t come home for dinner last night.”
I sigh. “That’s because I was working late on a Cadillac with RJ. You know, just downstairs. You literally could’ve stuck your head out the window and said hi.”
RJ is the most amazing mechanic with the most perfect garage—the kind of place I’d love to have in a few years. He owns the apartment we rent right above his shop, and I spend most of my free time working on cars with him. Just one of my little… hobbies.
“Did you call Joey to make sure he got to school, too?”
“I don’t need to. He’s six years old; Charlotte dropped him off.”
“And I’m twenty years old, so you can stop wiping my ass for me now.”
“Nuh-uh. I plan on calling you until the end of our days.”
Frustration flickers at my edges. “You have a kid; you’ve got a second on the way. Don’t you have shit to be getting on with?”
“Can you pick up some barbecue sauce on your way home?” she asks, neatly sidestepping the point. She’s good at that.
“What happened to the three bottles I brought home last week?”
“There’s one left, but better safe than sorry, right?” She pauses. “Remember what happened last time I ran out?”
Hell yes, I remember…Raven was clawing at my door like a wildcat. Somehow it ended in screaming and threats.
I sigh. “When’s your due date, again?”
