Page 26 of Drum Me Away
“It’s easy to use social media to paint exactly the picture you want everyone to see.” Didn’t we know it. Hell, that was exactly what we’d been doing for four years.
After a few beats of silence, Faith said, “I’m glad she stopped by. And I’m looking forward to spending time with her tomorrow.” She gave me a swift glance. “Are you okay with having a two-year-old running around here?”
I was okay with whatever made Faith happy. Which was my problem and not one I needed to lay on her shoulders. Especially while she was raw and overly emotional.
“Totally fine,” I assured her with a firm nod.
CHAPTER10
Faith
Maria and Rileyshowed up shortly before ten. Lucas was out for a run, according to the note he’d left on the kitchen counter. In typical Lucas fashion, he’d made a pot of coffee before he left. He drank the stuff but not much; brewing an entire pot was all for me.
Although when my sister arrived with to-go cups from a local place that served the most spectacular coffee I’d ever had, hands down, I happily abandoned the cup I’d made for myself. “Don’t tell Lucas I’m not drinking his coffee,” I told Maria with a chuckle.
She crouched and began pulling toys out of her gigantic purse for Riley, who grabbed a plastic train and immediately dropped to her hands and knees, crawling around on the wood floors saying, “Choo choo!”
“Vic hasn’t done something that considerate since our honeymoon, and Lucas does this for you every single day?”
I lifted one shoulder, let it drop. I’d missed him more than I’d been willing to admit, even to myself, when he had disappeared without warning for those six weeks. And the fact that he made coffee for me every single morning was only a small fraction of the reason why. But since, like I said, I hadn’t even been willing to admit it to myself, I still hadn’t analyzed that reason entirely.
“And why are you not climbing this guy like a monkey?”
We both sat on the couch, hands wrapped around disposable vente-sized cups, a bag of pastries on the coffee table. Every few minutes, Riley would stop what she was doing to trot over to her mother, who would feed her a chunk of Danish and cut up strawberries she’d also pulled out of her gigantic purse.
“It’s so weird how instantly you and I connected yesterday when we basically haven’t spoken since I moved to LA,” I noted instead of trying to come up with a response to her question.
“My wedding was eight years ago, so we’ve obviously spoken since you left for college.”
“To be fair, we hardly spoke at your wedding, and actually, that was sort of the catalyst of why Lucas and I are just friends. Or were before the whole charade started.”
Maria made a squiggly motion with her pointer finger, like she was finger painting over my face. “You’re going to have to re-explain all that, using more words.”
“I was dating someone pretty seriously when you got married. He was my plus-one to your wedding.”
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Dark hair, lots of muscles, super flirty.”
“Yup, that’s him.” I paused and spent a moment squelching the image of Hank that popped into my brain. He’d fit right in at Maria’s reception, chatting up the bridesmaids and Vic’s parents like they’d been friends for ages, when he’d only met all those people that day. “I thought he was the love of my life. I actually thought he was going to propose to me at your reception.”
Her eyes widened. “Holy shit.”
“Obviously that didn’t happen.” I waved my to-go cup before taking a sip.
“No kidding.”
“Why do you sound so shocked?”
“Because I caught him screwing one of my bridesmaids in the ladies’ room at my reception. They were going at it like rabbits!”
I spewed coffee all over, ironically, the coffee table.
Riley said, “Bunnies!”
Maria waved her off while I hurried over and grabbed a wad of paper towel from the kitchen counter.
“You didn’t know,” Maria said matter-of-factly.
“Of course I didn’t!” For a few moments I took out my shock and maybe a little aggression on wiping off the coffee table, and then I slumped onto the couch next to her.
