Natia, who had been busy making faces while still taking pictures of Mo from where she was sitting, coughed. “I can’t believe you even talked to a girl long enough to get her to spend time with you, Hema. Much less have s-e-x with you.”
I stopped breathing and had to fight for every second I didn’t laugh. And that fight lasted two seconds—two seconds in which Jonah choked and his mom gasped—and then I asked, “What?”
“Yeh, you didn’t know he’s shy?” Natia asked, grinning wide.
“Natia,” Jonah groaned, his face already turning pink.
Wait a second, wait a second… I looked at the man sitting across from me and tried to process what the hell his sister had just said and scoffed, “You’re shy? Since when?”
“Always,” his sister responded with a cackle. “You haven’t noticed? If it’s footy he’s talking about, he’s fine. Any other topic with a stranger?” She pinched her index and thumb finger together and drew a line across her mouth, then cackled again. “Really? You didn’t notice?”
Shit.
Now that she mentioned it, I had noticed how he started talking with his Stuart Little voice every time he talked to women, and I know I’d wondered why the hell he was always whispering, but now…
Now it made sense.
And I couldn’t help but grin at him. “I wondered why you were being weird—”
He huffed for the first time I had ever seen. “I was not being weird.”
Oh my gosh. This sweet, little innocent soul. “No, you were not. I’m sorry. You have never been weird around strangers in front of me. You were being shy. Why didn’t you tell me?” I straight-up asked him.
Natia started cackling a little more. “Did he do his small voice? The one that you can barely hear?”
Tearing my eyes away from his blushing face, I nodded at her, trying my hardest not to smile because I was trying to be understanding and supportive over the idea of this beast of a man being shy. Heh. Wow. I seriously couldn’t believe I hadn’t put it together before. “Not with me, but with other people, he has. I never realized that’s what you were doing, Jonah. You talk to my grandpa and Peter just fine.”
“Well, that explains it then,” his sister said. “Wow. We’ve been making bets—”
Jonah groaned. “Nati, no—”
She ignored him. “Lenny, he’s been shy for ages. I mean, forever. His entire life. Even with teachers he would get like that. Did you talk to him first?”
I nodded, switching back and forth between looking at him and then at her.
“I knew it,” she bobbed her head triumphantly. “I knew it.”
A thought entered my head that killed just a slice of the pleasure in my heart. “Wait, but you’ve had girlfriends before. So you’re just shy around certain people?”
His sister didn’t give him a chance to answer. “You mean Hanna and that annoying girl? They were our neighbors. We grew up together. They weren’t strangers. I always thought they were more like your sisters.” She snorted with a shake of her head. “Settled for them, he did.”
Fuck me.
I raised my eyebrows and smiled at her, and she did the same right back.
And poor Jonah just sat there, still pink and at a loss for words.
I liked his sister even more now.
Jonah being shy. Who the fuck would have known? Jesus Christ. And his ex-girlfriends had been people he’d grown up around.
That shouldn’t make me feel nice, but it really, really did.
He let out a deep grumble as he sat back in his chair. I’d cut him a break.
Turning to Mrs. Collins and going back to the question she had asked, I told her, “To answer your question, no, Mo wasn’t intentional. I had never planned on having kids, if you really want to know.” I smiled at how uncomfortable she looked... at me or at the conversation we’d just had about Jonah having girlfriends and having sex? I had no idea, and I didn’t care. “But I wouldn’t change anything. I’m just glad that Jonah’s happy and wants to be part of her life. That’s the most a mom can ask for, isn’t it?” I was sure there was more I could ask for, but that was beside the point.
The other woman took a deep inhale, set her shoulders, and I got ready.
Natia must have sensed something too because she suddenly shot up in her chair and said, “Oh, I have a phone call. I’ll be back.”