Page 32 of Hear Me Roar

“Oh, um, sure,” I answered, my voice shaky, pulling the strap over my head to pass him the dufflebag.

You’d think I’d be used to this type of treatment, considering Dima and Maksim were equally as courteous as this man, but the circumstances were way different and suddenly, I felt very out of place. We were all just standing there, looking at each other, no wordsexchanged.

“Are we ready?” Manny asked as he shut the trunk door, the loud slam nearly jolting me out of my ownskin.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Knox said, eyeing me keenly as he retreated several steps to open the front and back passengerdoors.

Here we go. Welcome home, Iguess...

God,this was awkward. More so than I’d initially anticipated when I told Maya we’d be picking her up from the airport. Even with Knox and Manny’s presence holding me down, I was still having a hard time keeping the conversation with her running smoothly. I’d ask a question, she’d answer, and boom, silence. Granted, I knew this had to be a lot for her to adjust to, but it was a lot for me, too, as it would be for my boys, and the silence didn’t help one bit. It made me anxious and gave me far too much to think about a dozen possible negative outcomes, something we all knew I was great atdoing.

“So… Think you’ll miss New York?” I asked, as Knox pulled up to one of the last lights before ourcommunity.

He squeezed my hand as though that wasn’t the smartest question to ask, and I didn’t realize why until way after the fact. Oh well, too late, not like I could retract my query and ask somethingelse.

Maya cleared her throat but answered anyway. “Probably not. When we first moved over there, I fell in love with it, especially since we were right in the heart of the city. But then this nightmare with Dimitri started, and little by little, I began to hateit.”

“Understandable,” I said, catching view of her in the sidemirror.

Her brown eyes were glued out the window, as they had been for most of the drive. She really did look so much like Bernie, it was scary. I’d been expecting similarities based off the few pictures I’d seen, but she was literally his twin. Her personality, however, was not. Bernie would’ve been back thereinitiatingconversation, putting everyone at ease and giving us all a good laugh. It only occurred to me then...if she was having a hard time communicating with me, how was I ever going to ensure she’d be okay with Manny, alone. I wasn’t expecting her to tag along everywhere I went, and I certainly didn’t want her to either. Apparently, though, she was so terrified of her husband, she wanted someone with her twenty-four-seven, and that’s where Manny came in. But they hadn’t said a single word to each other. Not a good sign, if you asked me. I could feel Knox’s eyes on me, prompting me to give him my attention. The look he gave me told me he knew exactly what I was mulling over silently. It also saidbe patient.I mean, I guess he was right. We just met the girl not thirty minutes ago. Did I really expect this all to be like wham bam, thank you,ma’am?

“Anything you missed about L.A. while you were up there?” Knox questioned as he made the turn into ourcomplex.

About time,babe…

“The palm trees. The beaches too. New York beaches just aren’t thesame.”

“I’ve heard they’re beautiful, though,” Iadded.

“Oh, they are, but there’s nothing like thePacific.”

“You’re right about that,” Manny agreed, which led me to wonder if I’d been thinking outloud.

The entire ride here, I’d be the one pulling teeth and nails to chat with my old man’s daughter, and now that we were parking in front of our building, these two were magically jumpingin.

Assholes.

I chose to stay quiet on the short walk up to our floor. No point in dragging out the conversation when it wasn’t likely we were all going to sit around and shoot the shit once we made itinside.

“Where do you want these?” Manny asked me as we filed into the living room, the question swinging Maya’s eyes to where I stoodtoo.

“Guest room.” I smiled. “Babe, can you show them? I’ll be right there, I just wanna get the veggieschopped.”

Knox flashed me one of his usual killer winks and I blew him a silent kiss as I retreated into the kitchen, then blew out a deep breath between puffed cheeks like a deflating balloon. I know I said it already, but God, this was fucking awkward. My late coach’s daughter, who hadn’t spoken to him in almost a decade because he didn’t approve of her relationship, was now staying in my home because her husband actually turned out to be the scum her father – aka said late coach – had warned her about.Thatwas a damn mouthful. What would Bern have to say if he were here? Would he be happy to have his baby home or would he be hitting her with the ‘I told you so’ lesson. Somehow, with the man Bernie was, I think it’d be a mixture of both. He wasn’t someone that enjoyed dwelling on the negative, but when errors helped you understand your mistakes, he was all for pointing them out. I assumed this would be one of thosetimes.

“She’s all set,” my man said from behindme.

I swiveled around with a chopping knife in hand, to find him and Manny joining me. My eyes shifted between the two, wondering whereshewas. Manny caught on first and cleared histhroat.

“She said she was going to take a nap. Jetlag and allthat.”

Right. It made sense. Jetlag was no joke, believe me. I nodded and turned back to the rainbow of peppers laid out on the choppingboard.

“Want a beer?” Knox asked Manny as he poked his head in the fridge, the bottles clinking in hisgrasp.

“Nah, I’m gonna headout.”

“So early? You going somewhere,” Iprodded.

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