“You’re going, aren’t you?” Mads guessed.
“I have to. She’s my sister, I don’t know who her team will be; I need to make sure this thing is legit. Not a setup. Not a way to use her for something else down the line. And I want to have her back.”
“Then we’ll go, too,” Nelle said, looking around at the others for agreement. “We’ll all go . . .” Everyone’s gaze settled on Tock.
“Can you fit that into your schedule?” Mads asked Tock.
With her gaze locked on them, Tock stretched out her hand, picked up her phone. She put in her twenty-digit passcode and opened up her schedule program without even looking at her phone. Just at them. “What day?” she asked Max.
“Tonight. After the game. But I can’t ask you guys to—”
“It’s in my schedule,” Tock said after typing into her phone again.
“How many thirty-minute blocks did you give us?” Mads asked with great sarcasm.
“Hopefully enough for your lazy ass.”
“Okay!” Nelle cut in before it became nasty. “That’s it. We’re all in this. We’re going to do this to support a woman that at least four of us are absolutely terrified of. But we’re going to do it because she had Mads’s back when she didn’t have to. So we do this together,” she said, swinging her forefinger in a circle, “because we are . . .” She prompted again as they all gazed at her continuing to make that big circle with her fingers. “Because we are . . .”
“What?” Max finally asked.
“Girlfriends!”
Streep clapped happily in agreement. Tock looked again at her watch. Max and Mads just made sounds of disgust until Mads suddenly said, “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
“We’re not alone.”
They all sniffed the air and then looked up.
“Why are you up there?” Max asked her baby sister, who hung from the ceiling.
“I wasn’t going to stay, because it looked private, but then it got interesting. So I stayed.”
“I thought you were doing that ballet thing.”
“I did. But Oriana was a little hungover and she vomited on the current prima ballerina of the company and . . . at that point, I figured I’d just go home.”
“And listen in on my business.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting so bitchy. It’s not like any of you have inside voices.”
“Not a word to Charlie. Understand? And get down from there!”
“Be caref—” Nelle winced when Stevie hit the table.
Mads shook her head. “You’re half cat, but you didn’t even try to land on your feet.”
* * *
Zé walked into Max’s bedroom. She was stretched out on the mattress, gazing up at the ceiling, her hands behind her head. He stretched out beside her.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
“Thinking.”
“About what? Life? Death? Existence?”
“Underwear.”
“Underwear?”
“Yeah.”
“Lucky underwear?”
“No. Just underwear that matches my uniform.” She sat up. “You are coming tonight, aren’t you?”
“Of course. Your sister already invited me.”
She got up and went to a pile of dirty clothes on the floor. He would need to get her a proper laundry basket. Just having dirty clothes lying around one’s room was tacky. “Stevie must like you if she invited you.”
“Stevie didn’t invite me. It was Charlie. I’ll be attending with her and the triplets.”
Max faced him, three pairs of bright yellow panties in her hand. “Wait . . . Charlie’s coming? To the playoff game?”
“Yes. Then she said you, your teammates, and Charlie would be going off to kill a bunch of people after the game.”
Max’s eyes widened and she might have stopped breathing. “Charlie told you that?”
“No, that was Stevie.”
Those wide eyes slammed shut and she now gripped her dirty underwear. “She can’t keep her mouth shut!”
“It’s not her fault. I just happened to overhear her talking to Shen, who swore up and down he wouldn’t say a word, but I was on top of the china cabinet again.”
“What is it with you and that china cabinet?”
“I don’t know, but I am so comfortable up there.” He watched her for a moment, then asked, “Want me to back you up?”
“No. I want you to protect Stevie.”
“She’s got a giant panda to protect her.”
“And he loves her. He’ll make stupid mistakes because of that. You won’t.”
“You worried about your crazy cousin?”
“Yes. We want to lure her out or track her down or something—”
“Bring the fight to her.”
“Something like that, but we don’t know how yet. Until we get her, though, anyone close to me is in danger because that bitch is nuts.”
“Am I close to you?”
“Yeah, but you can take care of yourself. Also . . . you can take out my cousin without taking out the entire neighborhood. I can’t count on that with Stevie.”
“Because she’s a genius and might blow up the place?”
Max gazed at him for several long seconds before replying, “Sure. Let’s go with that.”
“You know, based on your tone, I feel like there’s something about your baby sister you’re not telling me. Is there?”
“No.” She started toward the door.
“Are you lying to me?”
“Probably.”
“You going to wash those in the sink?”
“Ewwww. No. I’m putting them in the washing machine.”
“Don’t most women hand-wash their underwear?”
“I’m not one of those. I don’t buy underwear that can’t handle the delicate cycle on a washing machine. Who has time for that shit?”
“Many women. Some of whom I’ve known.”
“Good for them. They can have their delicate lacy things. I like my shit cotton and sturdy.”
“There’s something you should know,” he called after her just as she’d stepped out the door.
“God,” she whined. She walked back into the room. “What else did Stevie say?”
“A lot of things but nothing you have to worry about.”
“Then what?”
“After last night, you and me . . . I got it bad for you.”
“Bad for me? What does that mean?”
“That I could possibly, kind of, with the right incentive . . . fall in love with you. Maybe. Possibly. It feels a little soon but for some unknown reason that feels right. I’m just not sure, but I thought I’d warn you. I also may change my mind. So you should stay on your toes.”
Max sat down next to him on the bed before asking, “Could you be more cat?”
“I think, with very little effort, the answer to that is yes. Besides,” he added, “I need to hear that you love me first before I can even begin to commit to the effort it would take on my part.”