Page 33 of A Fighting Chance

He grinned. “I’m glad we ironed out our issues. I’ve really missed talking to you, Ayesha.”

“Joel, it was a week.”

“If we count by the hours, it was almost eight days. Then, with you in Maui, I don’t get to see you or the boys as much as I’d like.”

She nearly asked him how much he would have liked to see the boys, as she could use a break now and again, but the words never made it past her thoughts. And leaving Joel with Theo without a three-day course on Theo-ology would be cruel and unusual punishment.

The engine roared to life.

She nearly moaned.

Curtis would have loved this car.

“Man.” Joel shook his head. “I love this car. I’mthisclose to asking it for its number.”

She elbowed him. “Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

Having things in common with Curtis.

Had Curtis still been alive, he and Joel would have been thick as thieves, and it would have been six guys driving her crazy. All except for Giorgio. Giorgio was the perfect older brother—unhinged and always on her side.

“Nothing,” she lied. “I was trying to get us back to having bad blood between us.”

“So I can feel lost again?” He puffed out a quick, almost disbelieving chuckle. “Ayesha, even though I one hundred percent feel like part of the family, I still get this feeling of…I’m not even sure how to explain it.”

“Kind of like being on the outside?” she asked. “Like, you know you love them, but you feel like everyone’s part of a circle that remains open-ended because of you?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

She backed out of the garage. “I get that.”

“When I talk to you, that feeling disappears for a little while. I know how close you are to them, and we might never get that close, but I’d love for us to be friends again.”

Ocean breezes tossed the awry strands of her hair about, and she tilted her nose in the air to take in the smell of the sea. She lived in Maui, so this was nothing new, but Maui came with isolation and loneliness made worse by Curtis’ extended family’s insinuations and accusations.

Thiswas her family.

Curtis’ family.

He lived inside each and everyone one of the guys, and he’d loved them as fiercely as she did. When she left, at night, once the boys were in bed, she would cry until she ached.

“Joel,” she stopped at a light and looked over at him, “we never stopped being friends.”

Another grin spread across his face, and she watched it appear from start to finish. Between a smile like Joel’s and what she remembered of Kofi, she fully understood Sydney’s predicament. Who could easily walk away from a man like this? But what choice did Sydney have if her and Joel’s futures, regardless of their pasts, couldn’t align?

A horn blared from behind them.

Ayesha jumped, faced forward, and pushed down on the gas pedal.

* * *

As promised, Joel gave her space when she walked down the aisle where, thankfully, both the feminine hygiene products and pregnancy tests were shelved.

To be safe, she bought two, along with a box of saltines, anti-nausea candy, and a couple of bottles of Gatorade. The entire time, she successfully kept what she’d bought from Joel.

But the universe hated her.