Before she could ask, hell, before she could even figure out exactly what question to ask, Caleb continued.
“I’m engaged. To, you know, get married.”
Shock slammed through Maya. She made a squeaking sound. Dottie rolled onto her back, batting at Maya like she was looking for the rubber mouse that’d made that noise. Before Maya could come up with a response, before she could think to ask who’d be crazy enough, or amazing enough, to capture her big brother’s heart, he continued.
“And I’m moving back permanently.”
Her next squeak was a pitch higher. Moving? Back? No way. Usually lightning-fast, her brain struggled to accept what he was saying. Dottie—apparently deciding that if it wasn’t a toy making the noise, she wasn’t interested—padded to the foot of the bed where she curled around herself in a ball of black and white fur.
“I can’t believe…”
“There’s more.”
More? What more? Her big, bad brother, the man who avoided real life to the point that he spent most of his pretending to be other people, was tying himself to another person—and their hometown—for the rest of his life?
Her head spinning like she was on an amusement park ride, Maya made a noise for him to continue.
“I’ve taken on the temporary post of Sheriff.”
Maya couldn’t even squeak this time because her jaw had dropped in shock. She pressed her hand to her churning stomach, wondering if this particular ride was going to make her throw up.
“Maya?”
Staring blindly at her rich purple bedroom wall, she gave a humming sort of response.
“Maya? C’mon. Say something.”
She opened her mouth to respond, then had to swallow. She cleared her throat, pulled the phone away to check the caller ID, which claimed Unknown, and shook her head again.
“My little sister—the chatterbox of North America—with nothing to say?”
“Fine,” she snapped, hating that nickname. She’d worked hard all her life to control her chattering impulses and Caleb knew it. “Who are you and what have you done with my real brother?”
His laugh was rich and warm, coming through the phone and wrapping around her like a brotherly hug.
“It’s a good thing. It’s all good.” He sounded… Maya squinted in the morning light, trying to figure it out. He sounded content. Why the hell would he want to be content?
“I wanted to tell you and…” He trailed off, sounding a little unsure for the first time since she’d spied on him while he asked the head cheerleader on a date. If Maya recalled correctly, Caleb had been fourteen to the cheerleader’s seventeen. And he’d tied Maya to a kitchen chair the night he’d gone on the date to keep her from following.
She wondered if he ever found out that Gabriel had freed her so they could both spy on him, then had covered her eyes and hauled her back home when it appeared that big brother was going to score.
Was it any wonder she couldn’t settle for a guy? None could ever live up to the men in her family.
“And, what?” she prodded, not sure she was ready to hear it but figuring he needed to share. Probably something sappy and sentimental about their father. Begging her to come home, to reconcile. “You’ve already sent me into a state of absolute shock. Believe me, big brother, there isn’t much left you can say to top you’re back home, engaged to a real woman and leaving the DEA to be a small-town sheriff news.”
But her heart pounded anyway. Maya shoved a hand through her hair, wincing when she hit sleep-roughened snarls.
Overcome, she threw the covers back, not realizing until she heard an angry meow that she’d buried the cat in down and silk. She flipped the covers off Dottie and stormed out of her room toward the kitchen. She needed a drink.
“Well, here’s the thing. I’m hoping you’ll come home. Just to visit. I know you have no reason to want to see Dad, or anyone in Black Oak. But I hope you’ll consider it. Pandora’s mom is throwing a party. Some big to-do to celebrate our engagement. I don’t want it. Pandora doesn’t want it, but Cassiopeia is insisting and Dad’s backing her.”
Conflicted over the idea of going home—of seeing her family for the first time in years—Maya paused in the act of squeezing the chocolate syrup into a tall glass of full-fat milk to frown. “Cassiopeia? The psychic?”
Caleb’s sigh was so loud she was surprised it didn’t ruffle her hair through the phone.
“Is your fiancée woo-woo, too?” Maya teased. Then, realizing her glass was now half chocolate to half milk, she quickly uprighted the squeeze bottle and closed the lid. She considered the glass of sugar-overload, then considered this phone call and grabbed a spoon to stir.
“Pandora’s more a student of human nature with woo-woo overtones,” he said. Her glass halfway to her lips, Maya lowered it and sighed as a wave of happiness enveloped her. He sounded so in love. Not gooey, but just really happy and filled with a joy she’d never thought her big, tough brother could feel.
“So, you know, I get it if you don’t want to come back for the party. I don’t blame you and honestly don’t know if I’d come back if the situation was reversed. But I wanted to tell you about it.”
Blinking fast to keep the tears at bay, Maya set her glass back on the counter, untouched. No point ruining fabulously chocolate milk with salt.
“You’d have come back,” she said quietly. “A chance to play big brother, flex those muscles and boss me around a little? You’d have done it in a heartbeat.”
He laughed, but didn’t deny her words. Because for all that Caleb had spent a whole bunch of years lying for a living, he was a painfully honest man.
And he was her big brother. Getting married. Maya grabbed the glass and took a big gulp, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Is Gabriel coming?” she hedged.
“Can’t reach him. You know how it is, he’s probably in the middle of some big scam and flying under the radar.”
Unlike Caleb, who’d taken the complete opposite route as their con-artist father and gone into law enforcement, and Maya, who tried to pretend her father and his criminal habits didn’t exist, Gabriel embraced his heritage. She was pretty sure he was determined to outdo their father’s rep before he was thirty.
“Look, you’re still pissed at Dad,” Caleb said quietly.
Maya winced, wishing like crazy he’d be a typical guy and avoid the tough discussion.
“Actually, I am, too. But if you can’t get past it, I’ll understand. Pandora and I will take a weekend and come up to San Francisco so you can meet. No pressure, you do what you feel’s right.”
With that and a murmured goodbye, he was gone.
And her world was effectively turned upside down.
“SO WHAT D’YA SAY we skip the big parties and spend New Year’s together at my place?” Dave was saying in a continuation of his campaign to take their relationship to the next level. “The two of us, a bottle of wine, a little fun.”
Maya’s smile was stiff enough to hurt her face. She was having major second thoughts about Dave. Sure, he was a nice guy. A perfect fit for her average life. Sure, he didn’t make her heart race or her body melt. But racing and melting probably weren’t average. But was it fair to lead him on if she really wasn’t interested?
Ever since Caleb had called three days ago, she’d felt like this average life was