“You don’t know that, besides you weren’t actually miss sunlight and honey when that woman wanted to take the last pair of boots sitting out.”
“Cal needs boots, they were meant to be his,” she mumbled in a low voice.
Selma laughed, “That’s what I thought.”
They walked out the store with their purchases and visited several others before they stopped for a much needed break.
“This is what’s wrong with the mall,” Aviana said as they made a side trip to the car to drop off their bags. Now their hands were free of bulky packages.
“What’s wrong with the mall, Aviana?” Paige asked looking around the food court they were walking into.
“We’re young, at least one of us is single.”
Selma snorted drawing all eyes to her for a minute. “Keep going.”
Aviana ignored Selma to keep talking, “And then you come in here, the food court, the place to meet and mingle, not that I want to mingle mind you, but how is a single woman supposed to mingle in a place like this. That’s my problem, I have no mingling skills.” She threw her hands wide with a big sigh before reaching for Mckayla’s hand.
“You must know how to mingle some, I mean…”
Aviana’s face pulled tight and her haunted eyes skimmed Mckayla and looked away. The look stopped Paige in her tracks making her close her mouth.
“Mommy?”
“I’m ok, Baby. Mommy just had a scary thought.” Dropping to her knees, she fiercely hugged Mckayla. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Hey, I thought we were hungry,” Mckayla said trying to make her Mom smile.
“I’m starving, but don’t they have a restaurant in this mall. The food court feels crowded today.”
Aviana nodded her head at Paige’s statement. They turned to look for a quieter restaurant.
“Paige, what are you looking at?” Selma turned her head in the direction Paige was staring.
“What are the guys doing there?” Aviana asked, looking at them.
“I bet their doing last minute Christmas shopping,” Selma replied, her voice was happy enough to touch everyone around her.
“How do you do that with your voice?” Paige looked at her, caught up in the temporary glow that was surrounding her.
“You’ll do it eventually. One day it will become something that happens automatically, the broadcast of your moods. Doing it with a feeling of happiness touches hearts, but with anger…” She shivered, lost in her thoughts.
“Busted,” Victor leaned over and kissed Selma.
“What are you planning to do today, Love?” Selma repeated her earlier question.
“Nothing, Darling. The guys and I are just going to hang around the house and take a quiet day while you hang with the girls.” Victor repeated his response from earlier.
She raised an eyebrow before lowering her arms to catch Vick, giving him a hug and a peck on the cheek.
“Mom! We’re at the mall!”
“You’re too young to be embarrassed by me kissing you, Vick. Remember that.”
“Mom.” He shook his head and grinned up at her.
“Did you just get here?” Aviana asked pointedly ignoring Rylan.
Cal looked smug, “Nope, we’ve been here for a while. We’re going to grab a meal before we head back home. We’ll be lazing around the house looking innocent before you get back.”
“I’ll make sure to look for you in your underwear when I get back,” Paige managed with a straight face.
They all broke up into laughter.
“Why don’t we eat together, we’re all done also.” Selma’s hand took Victor’s signaling the end to their women’s day out.
“Sounds good to me.” Victor and Selma led the way to a restaurant that was busy, but quiet.”
They were seated quickly despite the number in their party.
“Gabe, how was your day? Yours too, Joaquin?”
They both murmured the day was fine and fell silent.
Paige looked at them wondering if their silence was due to the fact they weren’t paired off with anyone.
“Cal, are they alright?”
“They’ll be fine. We’ve been here a long time Paige, the desire to bond is one that is natural to us. We look for it in all of our encounters.”
“Then it must be a universal desire. We are always looking for the right person. The one we will spend the rest of our life with. I guess there are some like me who gave up because they were sure the perfect guy for them didn’t exist. Then I met you. The more time we spend together, the more I know you’re perfect for me.”
“Imagine waiting for hundreds or thousands of years.”