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“It was. She’s not Angela.” Miriam turned back to look at us both, a serious frown on her face now. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore, I promise. Don’t get me wrong; Ang hurt me a lot, but I’m over it now. Moving on.”
“You’re going on another date, then?” I broke off a bit of muffin and put it in my mouth, suppressing a groan of pure ecstasy.
“Yep. When we get back from Baltimore.”
“But not before we take my little muffin out for her birthday.” Stef pointed at me.
“No, definitely not before then,” Miriam agreed, running her fingers through her cropped, dark red hair.
“I hate that we won’t be here for it.”
“You can make it up to me by finding a manager there and getting signed to a multi-million-dollar record deal.”
“Deal!” Miriam reached across the table and shook my hand, sealing the deal.
“What are your plans for the day?”
I shrugged, turning the coffee mug in my hands as I avoided Stef’s gaze, trying to be nonchalant. “Not much.”
“The kids’ll probably do something for you.”
“No, they’ll be at youth camp, remember?” As soon as I said it, I knew I should have just agreed, because it gave me such a good out.
“Fuck, so you’ll be on your own for the whole day?” Miriam asked.
I shrugged again. “Sure, but it’s fine. I’m a grownup, not a little kid who needs to have a big fuss made of them on their birthday.” Not that anyone had made a fuss even when I was a kid, I thought bitterly, but didn’t say.
“I’m gonna cancel.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve sold three hundred tickets to that gig. You can’t cancel.”
Stef’s shoulders slumped. “No, you’re right. I can’t. God fucking dammit.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m not exactly the world’s greatest party animal, or anything. A quiet night in, with popcorn and a good movie, is all I need.”
“You know what you really need?”
“What’s that?” I asked, eyeing Stef cautiously. She was prone to the wildest ideas.
“A hot date.”
I threw my hand up reflexively, rejecting the idea instantly. “No, that’s the last thing I need. As if I’ve got time for that.”
“You are way too young and way too pretty to not have a bit of fun. God knows, you deserve it.”
“Hard agree,” Miriam said, closing her eyes in bliss when she took a big bite of her muffin.
“I appreciate the thought. Honestly, I do. But who would possibly want an almost twenty-three-year-old with four kids?” I glanced out the window, at the traffic crawling along Main Street. At the summer sunshine painting everything in eye watering shades. The years stretched ahead of me. Belle was only five, so I had a good thirteen years left of being responsible for another human being. That would make me thirty-six by the time all the kids were off my hands. I couldn’t imagine anyone willingly taking that on. Anyone wanting to step into the trenches with me and slog it out for that many years. So, yeah. “It is what it is.”
And if my mind drifted to a certain tall, handsome man with bronze skin and gold-flecked eyes, well, that was my own wistful imaginings and no one’s business but mine.
CHAPTER4
Wolfe
Traffic in downtown Raleigh was bumper to bumper. From where I stood, high on the top floor of Rivers Towers, I imagined I could hear the car horns blaring, smell the hot dog stands.
“A week and a half in Esperance, and no closer to securing the land deal. Dad’s gonna be pissed.”