He wanted to ignore it, but her eyes looked away from his in the direction of the ringing. She stepped away and turned back to the kitchen.
Sliding his phone out of his pocket with the hand that had just been touching her, he almost cursed when he saw Math’s name on the screen. Again. Did the man have cameras set up in this apartment? Because he knew exactly when to call to break up anything Hue was trying to start with the man’s sister.
“Math,” he mumbled and looked at her. “I will see you later.”
“Yeah, bye, Hue.” She leaned against the counter as far from him as she could get.
Leaving the apartment, the phone was still ringing. Hue was still mad at his friend. But at his apartment door, he answered anyway. “Math.”
“Hue, what are you doing?”
“Just watching a game,” he lied. Sure, he had been watching a few minutes before, but his mind had been on Mandy, not football.
“Mom wanted me to tell you that you are invited to Thanksgiving at her house if you want to spend the day with a bunch of Nordskovs.” Math sounded excited, just like when they were in high school.
He wanted to spend the day with only one Nordskov, and it wasn’t the one he was talking to. But with the invitation, he would be in the same house as Amanda for a few hours.
“Sure, my mom is going to Jill’s this year.” His mom actually almost always went to his sister’s for holidays. His sister had produced four kids, all girls, for her to spoil. Hue was invited every time also, but he usually passed to let his mom and sister have some time together.
“That’s what Mom thought. Hey, did you hear that Mandy named the baby?” Math said.
“No.” But he was very interested. Anything about the woman was interesting to Hue.
“Yup, she was holding her at book club and just said, ‘Call her Zia.’ It was perfect, and so is Mandy. All she had to do was look at the baby, and the perfect name came to her. So, Zia is named for her mom, just like I wanted. My sister came through for me,” Math stated, as if Mandy had actually been on his side of the argument.
Hue was sure she was not.
“I doubt she came up with it just so you could win an argument with your not-wife.” Hue threw in the last part because his friend should be marrying the woman. He knew Math had proposed countless times and had been shot down on every one of them.
“Don’t start. We have talked about it, and we are not ready.” Math said the same excuse the two always said. The excuse the woman was constantly giving him, because there was no ‘we’ in the reasoning. Math would have married her months ago.
“What are you waiting for? Another baby? She wants a ring.” Hue chuckled.
“I’ll get there. I need a ring and a perfect moment.” What he needed was to wear her down. Tess Thorn was a stubborn woman, and Math had to put in the time to get her to be his wife.
“Any moment is perfect if she loves you,” Hue told him in all seriousness.
“You’re such the romantic, Hue.” Math laughed with him, taking no offence.
“That I am,” Hue mumbled.
“We have to find you a woman. Have you even dated since the divorce?” Math asked interestedly.
“No, but neither did you, and you got some chick knocked up,” Hue deflected, wondering if Amanda had gone back to bed or if she had left her door unlocked so he could join her. He couldn’t knock her up, but he would sure like to give it a try for a while.
His friend just laughed. “Not just some chick, that would have been easy. I had to knock up a stubborn chick.”
“Who I am going to tell you called a chick on Thanksgiving.” Hue laughed, knowing exactly how badly that would turn out for his friend.
“If you do, you will not get to be best man when I do marry her,” Math threatened.
“I already was your best man; didn’t seem to work. Maybe you should try someone else this time.” Each had been best man at each other’s failed first marriages.
“Nope, I’ll take my chances. Because I am going to be there for your wedding one day.”
“Never again. I am not going through that again.” He was done with marriage and everything it entailed. Not even his sexy neighbor could change his mind about that.
“For the right lady, it is worth it,” Math said dreamily.