“Sure.” Amber jumped up promptly.
Micky ushered her into the utility room. “What do you think of Martha?” she asked.
“She is really nice. So interesting, well-spoken, and frankly, gorgeous. I say go for it!” Her voice shot up.
“I thought you would say that.” Micky tried to hold Amber’s gaze, but her glance kept flitting away.
“What do you mean?”
“Instead of giving her the yoga speech, you just invited her to one of your classes.” Micky couldn’t keep a note of indignation from her voice.
“So?”
“In all the years you’ve discovered yoga, I’ve never known you to not give the speech.”
“What are you insinuating?” Amber asked.
Micky took a breath. “You like her.”
“No, I don’t.” There was no conviction to Amber’s words. She was incapable of lying, especially to Micky.
“You were just summing up all her good qualities.”
“For you, just to tip you over the edge. She likes you, any fool can see that.”
A knock on the door startled them. “Everything okay in here?” Kristin asked. “You probably didn’t hear, Micky, but your doorbell just rang. Has the stripper arrived early?” she joked.
“What?” Instantly, Micky thought about the children. Where was her phone? Had Darren tried to reach her?
“Do you want me to get it?” Kristin asked.
“I’ll get it,” Amber offered. She was probably in a panic as well—or happy to not be subjected to Micky’s questions any longer. She scooted out of the tiny utility room where they had been cramped together.
Micky had completely forgotten why she had come into the kitchen in the first place, apart from wanting to quiz Amber.
“Micky.” Amber stuck her head into the kitchen. “You may want to come out here.”
“What is it?”
Amber looked more amused than anything else.
With a thudding heart, Micky made her way to the hallway, only to find Robin standing in her doorway.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Amber said, and ducked past Micky, back into the living room.
Apart from a closed-off washroom, the ground floor of Micky’s house was one big space, and the only separation between the hallway and the living room, where her guests were gathered, and probably wondering what was going on, was a small dividing wall with no door.
“I’m sorry,” Robin said. “You have guests. I should have called or texted.” Just then, a cloud broke, and rain started pelting down on the sidewalk.
Micky didn’t know what to say or do, so she just pulled Robin inside and closed the door behind her.
What was she doing there?
✶ ✶ ✶
“I’m having some people over,” Micky said after the first shock of Robin turning up out of the blue had subsided. “Do you want to join us? You can hardly go out in that rainstorm.”
“I don’t want to intrude, Micky. I just wanted to say something… in private. But I guess that’s out of the question.” She took a step backward toward the door. “I’ll come back some other time.”
“Don’t be silly.” Micky had no idea what she was doing. She wanted to hear what Robin wanted to say so badly.
“Look,” Robin whispered. “I get that you don’t want to be just friends. Turns out I’m not so keen on the idea either, what with not being able to stop thinking about you.”
Micky’s eyes grew wide. Had she heard that correctly? Had Robin just said, in hushed and conspiratorial tones, exactly what she had wanted to hear?
“That’s all I wanted to say. Why don’t you give me a call tomorrow?” Robin made for the door again. “You’d better get back to your guests.” She cast one last glance at Micky, opened the door, and disappeared into the pouring rain.
Micky just stood there for a while longer, savoring the moment, though it had already passed. Goodness. Robin wanted to be more than friends. Damn. Martha was sitting in her living room. And Amber… she would have to come to her rescue once again. She’d have to come down from her moral high ground and turn up the flirting with Martha. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t already been doing it anyway.
Micky stepped back into the living room to find all four of them staring at her. Micky hadn’t told Martha about Robin. What was she supposed to say?
“Sorry about the interruption.” She headed to the kitchen. Which course were they at again? Oh yes, she’d served the mains and it was almost time for dessert. Underneath the panic about the food and keeping her company entertained, however, Micky was in full rejoice mode. Robin’s words were starting to really sink in. She wanted nothing more than to run after her, tell her how she felt—although she guessed she’d made that clear already.