"You'd better get going."

In a cloud of perfume and the jingle of jewelry, she finaly

alowed him to pul her away. I walked them to the front

door and closed it after them, but it took me until I

reached the kitchen again to realize something. Even a few

months ago, Stela's compliment would have had me

buzzing with resentful gratitude. Now…it wasn't that I

didn't care. It was more that it didn't matter.

My phone buzzed against my thigh and I puled it out with

a smile.

Just showered. Am eating a turkey sandwich. Have a

video to watch. I'm alone on a Saturday night.

He might be expecting an answer, but that wasn't part of

the plan, so I put my phone back in my pocket and turned

my attention to my own dinner.

"Paige!" Tyler bounced into view as I opened the oven and

puled out the pizza, cheese overbrowned. "Guess what!"

I set the pizza on the special marble trivets Stela had

ordered from Italy when they redid their kitchen. "What."

ordered from Italy when they redid their kitchen. "What."

"I got al the way up to level seventeen on Windago

Diamond! C'mon, come and see!" Tyler tugged at my

hand stil covered in the hot mitt.

"Give me a minute, Ty." Together we studied the pizza.

He made a face. "Do we have to eat that?"

"I thought you loved pizza."

He leaned forward. "But it's gross."

"Yeah. Sorry, kiddo, it's what your mom left."

He sighed and leaned on the counter. "Can I have peanut

butter and jely?"

Wow. If the kid was giving up pizza in favor of PB & J

that was pretty bad. "What if I take you guys out? Want to

go to Jungle Java or someplace?"

They had pizza there, overpriced and not much better than

the one Stela had left. At least it wouldn't be burned. And

yeah, it was a little selfish of me. If the boys were running

rampant through the playground or in the arcade I could sit

rampant through the playground or in the arcade I could sit

and read my magazines in as much peace as the constant

noise would alow me.

"Yesss!" Tyler pumped his fist in the air. "Jeremy, c'mon, let's go! Paige is going to take us to Jungle Java!"

One young boy shouldn't have made so much noise, but he

was going to be tal like our dad, and his feet were already

bigger than mine. Tyler thundered into the den with me at

his heels. We found Jeremy sulenly thumbing the controls

of the game hooked up to the big-screen TV in the corner.

He didn't even glance up when Tyler bounded down the

two steps to the sunken room and flew onto the couch to

bounce his brother.

"Get off, retard!" Jeremy shoved Tyler hard enough to rol

him onto the floor.

"Hey!" I shouted before either of them had the chance to

get into it. "Shut up, both of you. Cut it out, or you can

stay here and eat your mom's shitty pizza."

Two pairs of wide eyes looked at me. I knew it was the

language, but it had worked at getting their attention. I

gestured at the TV.

gestured at the TV.

"Turn that off and get your shoes on. Let's go."

"Jungle Java blows," Jeremy muttered as he pushed past

me.

I caught him by the elbow. He stopped, refusing to meet

my eyes. He stood almost as tal as me, but he didn't pul

away.

"They have a whole new arcade section." Normaly his

attitude would have tempted me to tel him to get over

himself. Whatever was bugging Jeremy had spiled beyond

his parents and was slopping onto me, but I thought of

what I'd been like at twelve and gave him a break.

He shrugged and wouldn't give me his face while his

brother rocketed past us blabbing a mile a minute about

what he was going to play and how his friend from school

had spent his tickets on a realy cool neon light for his

room, and…and…and…

"Can it, shorty. Get in the car." I watched them both head out the front door, Tyler stil blabbing and Jeremy

maintaining his unusual silence.

Once we got to Jungle Java, I had to physicaly restrain

Tyler from running across the parking lot. "Dude. Chil.

There are cars here."

He lunged like a racehorse trying to get out of the gate.

"Hurry up, Paige! God!"

"God," I mimicked him, but moved them both inside where I forked over twenty bucks in tokens for each of

them and ordered a large pizza and soft drinks.

"Wow, Paige. You're the best!" Tyler goggled at the

tokens in the special plastic holder that clipped to his belt.

Jeremy took his without comment, but held back until I'd

let his brother loose in the arcade. "Thanks."

Forty bucks wasn't anything for me to sneeze at, but I'd

thought to them it would be chump change. Their gratitude

surprised me. "You're welcome. Go have fun. I'l be right

here."

Jeremy nodded and stalked off toward the arcade. Jungle

Java was reputedly adding a laser-tag section to the rear,

but so far nothing had started. For a little place that had

started off serving coffee and hosting an indoor playground

for toddlers, it had realy grown. I'd taken the boys here a

couple times when they were younger. It was hard to

believe Jeremy would start middle school in the fal. It was

hard to believe a lot of things time had changed.

My phone rang and my heart leaped, but it wasn't the next

text from Eric. I'd set my phone to vibrate for texts, and it

wasn't yet time. I took the cal anyway.

"Austin."

"How'd you know it was me?"

"I have caler ID, dork."

He laughed. "So that means I'm in your address book,

huh?"

I didn't want to admit it.

"Paige? Do you have me in your phone?"

"Yes, but only because you keep caling me al the time."

Around me harried mothers squawked at their kids and I

cupped a hand over the mouthpiece.

"Where are you?"

I sighed. "Jungle Java."

"You got Arty?"

"No. Jeremy and Tyler."

Austin was silent for a few seconds. "Can I come over?"

A screaming child ran by me with his mother in hot pursuit.

The clerk brought the pizza to my table and I craned my

neck to motion for my brothers to come and get their food

before it got cold. Both of them saw me but ignored me.

"Little bastards."

"Huh?"

I'd heard what he said, but pretended I hadn't. "Austin, I

have to go."

"You haven't returned any of my messages." Austin didn't

sound pissed off, but I went immediately on the defensive.

Some tunes just don't change, you know?

"Sorry. I didn't know I was beholden to you."

"Paige, you're not. I'm just saying…I thought maybe we

were past some shit. Christ. Why do you have to beat me

up?"

"You caled me," I pointed out. "What do you want?"

"What do I always want when I cal you?"

"I'm busy," I said flatly.

He didn't take offense at that, either. "I can be there in,

like, ten minutes."

"In ten minutes the pizza wil be al gone and the boys wil

have burned through their tokens."

"Seven minutes."

"Austin…" I sighed and gestured again, standing to make

sure Jeremy and Tyler couldn't ignore me again. "Why?"

"See you."

He hung up before I could say anything else, but then my

He hung up before I could say anything else, but then my

phone gave its tel-tale buzz and I puled it from my pocket

to read the next update.

Halfway through The Life of Brian. Thinking of ice cream.

Again, I didn't reply.

Just the fact he was obeying me had my mind whirling with

al sorts of possibilities. Distracted, I was too busy handing

out soggy pizza and supervising refiling drinks to think

about Austin. It wouldn't be the first time my high school

boyfriend turned ex-husband had promised to meet me

someplace and didn't show. So when I saw a familiar

wheat-gold head moving toward me through the crowd, al

I could do was sit back in my seat with half a slice of pizza

oozing grease al over my fingers.

"Austin!" Jeremy's face lit for a few seconds before he

remembered he was supposed to be furious with the

world. He slumped down and raised a limp hand. "Hey,

man."

"Hey." Austin gave Jeremy the same languid greeting but

slid into the booth next to Tyler. "Shove over, kid. Give

me a slice of that pizza."

Tyler had been in the middle of a long description about

the games he'd already played and the tickets he'd earned.

With fresh ears to bombard, he turned to Austin as though

he'd last seen him yesterday instead of more than three

years ago. I shook my head and laughed as I finished my

slice. Tyler had been just a bit older than Arty when Austin

and I split up, and even while we were together, my dad's

boys hadn't spent much time with us. Yet both of them had

gravitated toward him the same way Arty did. Austin, an

only child, had been a good big brother.

I rarely spent time regretting our divorce, but watching

Austin with the boys guilt flashed over me. There were

other women to replace me, but his relationship with my

younger half siblings had been taken from him, too. His

glance caught me looking, but I didn't look away.