Page 183 of Offside Devil

“Fine,” she huffs. “Hypothetical #1: You take a shower and do your hair and then Zane knocks on the door and comes to apologize. What do you do?”

‘Wrap my arms around him and never let go’ doesn’t seem like the answer Taylor wants, so I shrug. “I listen to him. I apologize for my part in everything.”

“And if he asks you to come work for him again?”

I open my mouth and… nothing comes out.

“Mimi?” Taylor presses after a second.

“I… I don’t think I could do it. Not after everything we’ve been through.” I heave out a sigh. “If he needed me to come back to make sure he gets custody of Aiden, then I’d do it. But he doesn’t need me anymore. Zane is such a good dad, Tay. He doesn’t need my help.”

She snorts. “Not according to Daniel.”

I snap my attention to Taylor at the same time she goes rigid. Her face flames with guilt. “Has Daniel been over to see him?” I demand. “I thought Zane wasn’t answering his calls?”

Taylor mutters something I can’t hear under her breath. I stand up and shake her shoulders. “If you have information, you better spill, woman!”

“I wasn’t supposed to tell you,” she whimpers. “Because Daniel and I both agree that you and Zane need to sort this mess out yourselves. You need to talk to each other and communicate like?—”

I wave her away. “Yada yada yada. Has Daniel seen Aiden or not?”

She hisses like a wet gremlin. “Yes! Yes, okay? Daniel has seen him. Zane wouldn’t answer his calls, so Daniel went over there yesterday afternoon.”

“And?!” I press, eyes so wide I’m surprised they don’t pop out. “How are they? Is Aiden recovering? Is he back at school?”

I got so desperate this morning that I almost went to his preschool to see if he was there. But if those tiny babies had to go in a lockdown drill because some psycho ex-nanny was freaking out on the phone, I never would have forgiven myself.

“You know what?” She jabs a finger at me. “No.”

“No?”

“No,” she repeats. “If you want to find out how they’re doing, you can trot your childish ass to the shower, put on some clothes—bra included—and go talk to Daniel yourself. I’ll let him decide if he wants to tell you what he knows or not.”

I gape at her. “You’re not serious.”

Taylor grabs my shoulders. “I am very serious. Usually, you’re the responsible, logical one. But only one of us has brushed their teeth today, Mimi. As that person, I feel obligated to give you some tough love.”

I run my tongue over my teeth and she’s right. They feel gritty.

I’m disgusting.

I duck under her arms and walk towards the hallway.

“Where are you going?” she calls after me. “Are you mad at me?”

I bite back my first teeny-tiny hint of a smile in days. “I have a date with the shower.”

73

ZANE

I’ve walked through the halls of this arena countless times over the years. But it feels different today.

Everything feels different lately.

Love. I’ve been testing the word out a lot since Daniel dropped it on me yesterday.

I can’t think about it without seeing Mira’s face.

---