about her day as they drove into town. He'd learned from Maya how to be a little more subtle. If he asked, "How's your day?" which made sense to him, Constance would only grunt and shrug. If he asked, "Did the teacher judge your essay today?" he got a more direct response.
But today, she seemed to pick up on his tension and did little more than cross her arms and glare out the window in unconscious imitation of him.
Being a parent was damned hard, harder even than persuading the town council to talk sense. Kids picked up on all the wrong signals and ignored the right ones. With a sigh, Axell tried the Maya approach. "All right, I'm upset, but not with you. Grown-ups get mad at lots of things that don't have anything to do with kids."
Steering the car around a particularly treacherous curve, Axell felt more than saw his daughter's curious look.
"Maya gives me a code word to let me know when she's angry with me."
That was a new one. "You don't mind if Maya gets mad?"
Constance shrugged. "Everybody gets mad. She says 'we'll talk' is a good code word, 'cause that's what most people say when they're mad and trying not to show it."
Amazed, Axell absorbed this tidbit. How many times had he said "we'll talk" and meant he'd like to verbally chop someone into sushi? He'd probably said it to Maya. The damned woman was entirely too perceptive, and that seemingly open smile of hers hid a mind with more twists and turns than he'd ever explore in a million years. She was downright dangerous. And he'd left her back in that apartment with her lover. Shit.
"All right, then I'll say 'we'll talk' if I'm mad at you," he forced his thoughts back to Constance, "but it still means I just want to talk so we can work things out, okay?"
Constance considered that briefly, then nodded. "Okay. Are you mad at Maya?"
Realizing they were actually having a conversation, Axell was almost disappointed that they had reached town. Communicating with his daughter could have some real benefits. "Yeah, I'm probably mad at Maya, but it's not her fault. And I'm madder because I got mad, and I don't like to lose my temper."
Constance grinned. "That's what Maya said. She says you get mad at yourself and not me."
"I'm beginning to think Maya is a witch," he muttered as he parked in front of Cleo's shop.
"Like Glinda, the Good Witch." Constance nodded knowingly. "Their hair is a lot alike."
Axell chuckled. "Except red."
"I wish my hair was red," Constance said wistfully as she unbuckled her seat belt.
"Your hair is just right the way it is. It matches your eyes. You'll be beautiful like your mother one of these days."
"I want to be pretty like Maya," Constance replied with an almost rebellious tone as they entered the store.
"Well, Maya being a witch and all, she might manage that." Axell prayed Maya had set a spell on her ex while he'd been gone, or he'd have to throw his ass out a window. He didn't think a charge of assault would help him maintain his liquor license. The drug charge rumors were only just settling down.
"The Impossible Dream" blared from the speakers as they reached the top of the stairs to the apartment Maya was fixing up for Cleo. One of these days he'd figure out if Maya's choice of music reflected her mood. Maybe what he needed was more code words. Figuring out women was worse than untangling a Rubik's cube. How the hell was he supposed to tell where things stood?
The first thing he saw as he walked into the front room was the skinny musician in tight jeans cradling Alexa in his arms. Axell wasn't prepared for the fury and possessiveness punching him in the gut at the sight of another man holding his daughter. His daughter. He hadn't fully realized how he'd come to think of her. Alexa was his. And so was Maya. Primitive jungle instincts would have him circling the intruder shortly, waiting to rip his throat out.
Axell automatically swung to the corner where Maya stood, hoping her serenity would civilize his unexpected surge of violence. He knew instinctively where she was at any given moment, just as he'd known to look out his office window when she walked down the street with Stephen.
She wore her fey smile as she rocked with Matty on her lap, but Axell had the gut feeling that she was