I saw a flash of Maia’s dark curls just inside the door as she took a tray from her assistant and retrieved something else for them to bring out.
She was hiding again like a goddamn coward.
You’re better than that, Maia. Come and play with me. Show me another spark of that fire.
I’d been sleepwalking for months and suddenly I was humming with energy.
I took a bite of Brussel’s sprouts so flavorful it made me want to moan, and said loudly to my older brother, “Dude, can you not afford a real chef? What is this hippie rabbit food?”
Maia snatched the plate back from her assistant and charged out with it herself.
Got her.
She skewered me with her eyes.
I gave her a polite smile, the smile I might give a stranger, and took another bite.
Her jaw tensed, but she forced a pleasant expression and set the plate down in front of my mother. “Here you go, Linda. I knew you’d have a hard time using utensils with one arm, so I made you a plate with everything cut into bite-sized pieces.”
Just how well did Maia know my mom? Enough to recognize that she’d hate asking one of us to cut her food for her, so Maia made it simple. Did my mom know she’d met Maia before under very different circumstances? There was no way she remembered even if it was engraved into my brain.
My mom thanked her, then Maia tore her gaze from mine and turned to my brother. “I’m gonna head out, boss. I hope y’all have a lovely dinner.” She turned back to me, fury blazing in her glare. “Enjoy your hippie rabbit food.”
God, I’ve missed that look.
5
ZANE
Now
* * *
Idon’t know where I am.
I sat up with a jolt, willing my brain to catch up and make sense of my dark surroundings, far too slow to piece it together.
The panic only lasted a second, but it was a disconcerting feeling that hit me sometimes in the middle of the night, usually when I’d been on the road for a while. Not a great sign since I’d been home for months and we were leaving the next day to start an eighteen-month-long world tour.
I’d been in motion for so long that standing still was disorienting.
I grabbed my phone on the nightstand across the giant bed.
3:12 a.m.
It was officially my birthday.
I was no longer in my twenties.
I was so fucking lonely.
Now I wished there was someone, anyone, in bed with me to chase away the memories that haunted me.
Maia had me twisted in knots. I had every right to hate her for the way she’d broken my heart, but that didn’t seem to stop me from wanting her.
It had been three days since I’d seen her and I couldn’t get her out of my head. What would it be like now if we took all the feelings and complications off the table and let the chemistry between us burn unchecked?
I was lying there trying not to think about a rumor that reached me the day before and the possibility it contained.
