Page 59 of The Love We Make

“Jay, for crying out loud.” Imani’s not one to shout, but she can put plenty of menace into her voice.

“I know I’m a drama queen. I own it, girl,” Juan says. “And yes, this is about Nora, but that doesn’t mean we can just ignore Austin and me.”

Izzy looks up at Juan with adoring eyes. He looks back at her and gives her another scratch behind her ear. Juan takes a deep breath. “Also, Nora, are you going to enlighten us on how it was with Mimi? I take it things were a bit rusty down there?”

Both Imani and I can’t help but break into a chuckle. We are family, after all. We can go from tension to laughter in the space of a second.

“Everything’s in full working order, thank you very much.” I shake my head. “You know I’m not going to give you any details, so best forget about that now.”

“Even though this is a monumental occasion and I would normally interrogate you until the sun comes down, I won’t,” Jay says. “Mimi’s like… well, let’s just say that if I were the marrying kind, she could become my mother-in-law.”

“Jesus, Jay. How long have you known Austin?” Imani asks.

“About as long as Nora’s known Mimi.”

“And you’re still crazy about him?” While embarking on my own romantic adventure, I’ve forgotten to ask my friend about his. “After all those weeks?”

“Five weeks and six days, to be exact,” Juan says.

“That must be some sort of Juan Diaz record,” Imani says.

“It’s not, but I feel like with Austin, I could break all former records. I’m nowhere near sick of him. My heart jumps in my throat every time he simply texts me. He does this cute thing with his fingers when he’s nervous that just cracks me up. And when he looks into my eyes, I swear I might just drown.”

“Wow. You’ve got it bad, darling.” Imani grins at Jay.

Listening to Juan describe his feelings for Austin makes me wonder if I should be feeling all those things as well. I’m definitely not sick of Mimi—I’m the one who kissed her on that rooftop. When we slept together last night, there were a few times when I believed I could no longer come up for air, that’s how overwhelming it all was.

“I’m so in love with that man,” Juan says. “I want to do it right. But if you tell me not to talk to him about you, Nora, then I won’t. You know my loyalty is always to you first.” He clasps a hand to his chest.

“It’s okay.” I remember what Mimi said this morning. “Let’s not worry about it too much. You can tell Austin. He’s your boyfriend, and she’s his mother. You can’t keep something like that from him.”

“Thank you,” Juan says, as though I’ve just given him Izzy instead of permission to tell his boyfriend his mother’s sleeping with Nora Levine.

“So, it’s a thing?” Imani asks. “You’re… dating Mimi”

“Yeah.” A warm glow speeds through my chest. “Looks like I am.”

“I’ll be fucking damned,” Imani says. “She must be some woman.”

“She is,” I say. A short silence falls as, perhaps all three of us, ponder how utterly out of the ordinary this is.

CHAPTER26

MIMI

Although it’s not unusual for one my kids to drop by unannounced, my heart skips a beat when Austin walks in.

“Mom.” He seems out of sorts when he kisses me on the cheek. “I had to come by because I wanted to do this in person.” Has Juan told him already? “Guess who called me.”

For a split second, I think it might be Nora—although she’s really not the type to do that out of the blue.

“Cathy!” Austin says. “Can you believe that woman?”

“Cathy?” This will be a different conversation than the one I thought I would be having. Good—although it’s not acceptable that my ex called my son. “What did she want?”

“She wants you back, Mom. And she’s making sure I know all about it.”

“Was she drinking? Did she sound drunk?”

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