The assistant aspect of my job isn’t the greatest; I’m either shopping, picking up Macon’s meds and whatever else catches his fancy, or bringing meals. But mostly I field his calls. So many calls. And Macon doesn’t really want to accept any of them. I’ve become the queen of giving lame excuses.

His issues aside, there is one personal issue I have to manage, and fairly quickly. I hunt Macon down and find him in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee.

“I have a problem,” I say without preamble.

“Oh? Is it sex related?” With a brow waggle, Macon leans against the countertop. He’s tall enough that his butt rests on the top of it. The perfect height that, if he wanted to, he could set a woman on that cool marble, spread her legs, and . . .

What is wrong with you? Stop thinking about sex, you hussy. A shudder moves over my shoulders, and I push those thoughts away. Push, push, push. So many unwanted thoughts. It’s getting crowded in my mind now, harder to hide away from things I don’t want to address.

“Hardly. My mother keeps texting me. She wants to know about my new job and is asking questions.”

“So answer her.” He pours me some coffee and slides it my way. “Or are you having trouble with what you should say?”

I shake my head. “No, I’ll tell her . . . something. I’m not sure what at the moment, but it’ll come. Thing is, I owe her a birthday lunch.”

Macon pauses and looks at me from under his straight brows. “You were preparing her brunch when I first texted.”

“I never finished.” I set my cup down. “I want to go home and host a makeup brunch.”

“This is your home now,” Macon says in a quiet tone. “Host the brunch here.”

My home? It doesn’t feel like that in the slightest. “Here? You’d be okay with that?”

His dark eyes are guileless. “Why wouldn’t I? I love your mother.”

“I know.” After he befriended Sam, Macon was at our house at all hours. Mama took him in like a stray puppy. There was always a seat open to him at our table. Even when he was being a shit to me.

“You two need to put aside your stubborn pride and mend this rift, Delilah,” my mother said when I complained. “If that boy needs safe harbor from his homelife now and then, I’m not going to deny him because you have a bee in your bonnet.”

To this day, I have no idea why she thought of Macon’s visits as a safe harbor, given that his favorite pastime at my house was to dog me at every opportunity.

I shake those memories aside. If I think of them for too long, I’m going to want to throw my mug at him. I have to live with my nemesis now. The past needs to stay in the past.

Macon is frowning at me as if he’s working things out in his head. Maybe he’s remembering things as well. Sometimes I wonder how he views our past. Does he imagine himself the wounded party? I suppose he was at times.

Whatever the case, he crosses his arms over his chest and gives me a level look. “Quit trying to pick a fight, and call your mother, Tot.”

Patronizing . . . I bite my bottom lip and shake my head. “All right, then, prepare to be invaded.”

Macon raises his cup in salute. “Bring it on.”

Exactly one day later, Mama and her best friend, JoJo, descend upon Macon’s house with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

“Well,” my mother says. “I can see why you’d give up trekking around Asia if you get to work here. It’s simply beautiful.”

So far, I’ve told Mama the bare minimum—that I took a job as a personal executive chef—and left out the part of assistant because I knew she wouldn’t buy it. I insisted that the pay and opportunity were too good to pass up, all the while fighting down the bitter taste in my mouth that came from lying.

When she pushed for more, I promised to fill her in when she came for lunch.

We have the house to ourselves. Macon and North are down in LA, doing God knows what. I think they made up an excuse in order to flee.

Mama’s blue-gray eyes, so like Sam’s, are alight with interest. “Who on earth are you working for, Dee?”

“Let me guess.” JoJo grabs my wrist in excitement. “Someone famous. It has to be. Famous people value their privacy,” she says to Mama.

Maybe it’s because they’ve been friends for so long, but despite the fact that Mama is pale and blonde, and JoJo is dark and brunette, they look remarkably alike. Both wear their curly hair cut in bobs that pouf out like triangles around their delicate faces, both are of a height, and both love to wear loose-fitting capris and flowing tunics in various animal prints. Standing together now, they look as if a cheetah collided with a zebra.