“You have her number?” I asked, after taking a swallow of water to wash down the chips.
“Lucas gave it to me.”
“Lucas?”
My tone must have been disbelieving, because Connor smiled a little and replied, “Well, I guess they do have their ways of keeping in touch in case of emergency or something. I know my brother had it, since he was the one who patched the call through to Maya when I was trying to transfer to ASU.” At the mention of his brother, Connor’s smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. We’d deliberately danced around the issue, had hardly mentioned Damon to one another. I didn’t know if that was the best way to handle it, but I also didn’t want to reopen any barely healed wounds. Better to allow Connor to decide what he wanted to say…or not say. “Anyway, when I told Lucas what our plans were, he gave me Maya’s number, said it was a good idea to have it with me, since we were going to be traveling through her territory.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said, my tone neutral.
He had to wait to make the call, though, because then the waiter came by to ask what we wanted. I’d barely glanced at the menu, but made a quick choice and ordered a chimichanga, while Connor got fajitas. That should be enough to hold us on the drive across the desert. After the waiter left, Connor picked up his phone again, scrolled through his contacts, and selected Maya’s number. After waiting a few seconds, he said, “Maya? Hi, it’s Connor — fine, we’re fine…. No, we’re already on our way back home. But we’re going to be in Phoenix in about four hours or so, depending on how long lunch takes, and Angela would really like to stop by and talk to you, if that’s okay…. Sure, we’ll call again when we get into town…hang on, let me write down the address.” He made a frantic writing gesture with his free hand, and I scrabbled in my purse for a pen. Luckily, I actually had one, and I gave it to him, then watched him write down an address on his napkin. “Okay, thanks, Maya.” He ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket, then said, “We’re set. She’s actually in Scottsdale, not Phoenix proper.”
“Well, that makes sense,” I said. “I mean, the prima of the de la Pazes should live in the high-rent district.”
I’d meant it halfway as a joke, but Connor appeared to take my words seriously, asking, “And what about the prima of the McAllisters?”
“Well, Paradise Lane is the high-rent district in Jerome,” I pointed out.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “Lucas is already pressuring me to look for a different place. He says I’m the head of the family now and shouldn’t be living in a loft apartment above a storefront.”
“I like your apartment.” How could I not like it? It was where we’d fallen in love, where we’d made love for the first time. Even more than that, it felt like Connor. I really couldn’t imagine him anywhere else…although of course I’d had daydreams where he’d come to share the big Victorian in Jerome with me. But that was before Damon died, before the unwanted primus powers had passed to Connor. There was no way he could relocate permanently to the house on Cleopatra Hill.
“I like it, too.” He lifted his eyes to meet mine, and once again I was struck by the layered shades of green in those depths, sage and moss and dark, dark emerald, all fringed in black lashes so thick they almost didn’t seem real. “But Angela…it’s no place to raise a child.”
Almost unconsciously my hand went to my belly, to the secret hidden there. I still hadn’t begun to show at all, so sometimes I felt like I could almost pretend I wasn’t even pregnant. But of course I was…and that child was the reason we’d come to California in the first place. “So you’re going to move?”
“Eventually. To get Lucas off my back, I told him he could start looking around for me. He was thrilled, of course. The only thing he likes better than spending his own money is spending someone else’s.”
I laughed at that, albeit a little stiffly. “And so…how is this going to work? I want to be with you, but….”
“I know. I feel the same way. I like that big creaky Victorian of yours…well, except for that bathtub…but there’s no way the Wilcoxes would ever let their primus live in McAllister territory.”
“And of course the McAllisters feel the same way about Wilcox territory.” I sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Too bad we can’t just elope and, I don’t know, go live in Wyoming or something. I’ve heard it’s really beautiful.”