He was about to say something when Maria appeared from the kitchen.
“Jake!” Always demonstrative, she walked across to embrace him just as Paige glanced across and noticed him.
Their eyes met and held briefly, and then she turned back to her friends.
The way she smiled at him had changed, he thought, releasing his mother. Everything was colored with new shades of intimacy and knowledge.
Maria gave him a questioning look. “Are you joining your friends or are you expecting another guest? Matt told me you’re seeing someone.”
He wished now that he hadn’t confessed to Matt that he was seeing someone. He also wished that Paige wasn’t so stubborn about not telling her brother about the shift in their relationship.
But even while part of him was working out how to persuade her it was the right thing to do, another part of him was wondering how Matt would react.
He’d made Jake promise that he wouldn’t lay a finger on his sister.
That had been almost a decade ago, he reasoned. She’d been a vulnerable teenager. This was different.
“No guest. Not tonight.” And the person he was “seeing” was right there in front of him.
He strolled across and took the seat next to Paige, surprised by the lift in his mood.
Being with her always did that to him.
They all shuffled across to make more room but still space was tight.
“How was your trip to San Francisco?” The bright, cheery way Eva asked the question told him that she knew what was going on, and it didn’t surprise him. The three women were as close as sisters and shared everything from makeup to confidences, so there was little chance that this new development hadn’t been noted.
As someone who had never felt the need to hide his relationships, it didn’t bother him. The only thing that bothered him was that Matt didn’t know.
He was going to address that.
On the other hand, was there any point in telling him about something that was probably going to end soon?
Maria put a heaped plate in front of him. Spaghetti with meatballs.
It brought back memories of his childhood. For a moment he was six years old again, sick to his stomach, and scared. His life had unraveled like a ball of wool in a cat’s paw. His world had been blown apart, his future dark and uncertain.
He’d learned a lot of things that night. He’d learned that adults talked in quiet voices when they didn’t want children to hear, he’d learned that Maria, their neighbor, was the best cook and the kindest person he’d ever met, and he’d learned that love was the most unreliable emotion there was.
He glanced at his plate and then briefly at Paige.
Her open, honest smile shook the foundations of his confidence.
She’d said that she was tough enough to handle their relationship, but could she?
What if he hurt her?
“How was business?” Matt pushed a beer toward him. Normal. Friendly.
The fact that he was so friendly made Jake feel worse.
It was time to be honest with his friend.
“Business was good.” He reached for his fork. “How is Urban Genie?”
“Busy.” Frankie had abandoned her pizza and was scribbling notes on a pad next to her plate. “Right now we have more business than we can handle.”
“But we are handling it.” Paige picked at her food. “We have good contacts, and we weren’t the only ones that Cynthia got rid of. I’ve been on the phone for the best part of two days.”