Seb texted back, and she immediately read it.

His royal highness has requested a Nintendo DS because he’s ‘sick and deserves one anyways.’ Do not get him that. I repeat. Do not come here with a Nintendo DS. Some tissues would be nice.

Sounds like he’s feeling better ;)

Modern medicine, am I right?

Her fingers paused over the keys before she exited out of the text strand and instead called Evan. He answered on her first ring.

“Hey, baby.”

She smiled at his smooth baritone. So familiar. “Hey.” She regretted fighting with him yesterday.

“Whatcha up to?”

She cleared her throat. “Fin and I are visiting a friend from school for breakfast. That guy you met at the farmers market? Sebastian? Well, his kid got sick, so we’re gonna go visit.”

“That’s nice. You knew him from before, right? You had Matty in pre-K?”

She felt a burst of love for Evan. He’d always been a good listener. She had so many students and so many different stories about them. It really was kind of remarkable that he could keep track of all of them.

“Yes. Right before I met you, actually.”

“I remember how worried you were about the kid. His mom had just died?”

“Yeah.” Sadness crept into her voice. “What are you up to this morning?”

She could hear some clicks and pings in the background that indicated he was probably still playing QuizUp while they were talking.

“I’m just hanging out until noon, and then I have a meeting with my dad’s friend from work. Remember, I told you about that?”

“Right!” How could she have forgotten? She’d been wanting to help prepare him for this meeting. It was really important that he got it right. “He’s going to try to pull some strings to get you hired on as a paralegal in BK, right?”

“I guess.”

His noncommittal tone had her stomach sinking. He could come across as very aloof if he wasn’t interested in something. She didn’t want his dad’s friend to think he wasn’t serious about getting a job. “Do you have your résumé with you?”

“Yeah. Look, babe, I really have to jet. You wanna talk more later?”

“Sure, there was just one thing I wanted to say. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry we fought yesterday.”

“Apology accepted,” he replied without any hesitation whatsoever.

Via paused. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant.”

“Right. Look, let’s talk about it tonight, okay? Love you.”

“Love you,” she answered faintly as the call clicked off.

She heard Fin pad, barefoot, into the kitchen. But she didn’t turn around. She didn’t want to see the expression that she knew was going to line her friend’s face. Via caught sight of herself in the shiny toaster. She only had to look at herself to see it in full force.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

SEBASTIAN DIDN’T ANSWER the door to his little brick two-story house. The most beautiful woman that Via had ever seen answered the door. Maybe thirty-five years old with a symmetrically perfect face and rivers of long blond hair, she grinned at Via and Fin and waved them inside.