Page 85 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
I nod and reach for her hand, softly gripping it in mine.
She looks down at our joined hands. “She married someone who left her to raise their kids while he traveled the world, only to want her back twenty years later after she did all the hard work on her own,” she mutters, almost to herself. “Marriage is so pointless. Never in a million years.”
Her words hit me loud and clear. It feels like a vault locking over the nerve I was building to bring up our conversation from earlier before her parents interrupted us.
Thisis why Maya never wants to get married, because of her parents’ messy relationship.
Thisis why she was so shocked when I brought up the topic of the two of us getting serious.
Thisis why she’s only interested in hooking up, in keeping things casual.
Maya doesn’t do serious relationships. She’s been pretty damn adamant about that from the start. And now I know why.
The side door swings open and Gage steps out in a white chef’s jacket, glancing around until he spots us.
“There you are,” he says. “Austin and Declan are about to do their toast. They’ll kill you if you miss it.”
Maya tells him we’re on our way in. Gage darts back inside the restaurant and I move to follow, but Maya catches me by the wrist.
“Hey. Sorry you had to see that weird moment with my parents. Especially them kissing.” She winces.
“I’ll survive.”
She chuckles before her expression sobers the slightest bit. “And, um, sorry I unloaded their marital history on you like that. I guess I just got a little caught up in my emotions.”
“Hey.” I cup her face in my hands. I take a second to savor the impossibly soft feel of her skin. “You don’t have to apologize, Maya. I’m here for you through it all. When you wanna talk or unload or vent or rave about something. If you wanna read from the dictionary, I’ll happily listen with a smile on my face—”
She leans up, grabs my face, and kisses me so hard, I forget where we are and what we’re doing. When she pulls away, she gazes at me, the look in her eyes intense and soft.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” she says.
“So are you.”
“You were in the middle of saying something right when my parents barged out here. What were you going to say?”
I swallow back the sting of disappointment and smile, hoping I don’t look as deflated as I feel. “Nothing. We should head back inside. I don’t want to be on your cousins’ shit list.”
She laughs and I follow her into the restaurant.
Chapter28
Maya
Theo gawks in the direction of the main dining area of my dad’s restaurant where my brother Tyler is currently breakdancing.
Right after Declan and Austin’s touching toast, our older relatives headed home, leaving the rest of us cousins to do what we do best after most family gatherings: turn it into a karaoke dance party.
He gawks at Tyler doing the worm on the makeshift dance floor that he and Gage created by shoving aside all the tables and chairs in the main dining room of the restaurant.
“Wow. I didn’t know your brother was so…limber,” he says, his eyebrows knit with what looks like concern and confusion.
I burst out laughing. “This is Tyler’s party trick. He looks like a frat boy, but he’ll cut a rug like an ‘80s breakdancer until the wee hours of the morning.”
Millie walks up to us with a snoozing Evelyn cradled against her chest and tells us goodbye. We hug her and Peter. Theo insists on helping them carry their diaper bag and baby carrier to the car.
I silently swoon as I watch him walk off with them. And then, for the millionth time this night, I think about our moment in the outdoor seating area of the restaurant, when I thought we were going to take our relationship from casual to serious.
“Do you want this to be serious, Maya?”
