Besides that, even though it wasn’t Gerald’s business, he was wrong—it wasn’t Reno taking her on a date. Maya’s friend Jill had set up a blind date for her with a guy named Nick. She’d seen his Instagram profile. Although Maya wasn’t into lawyers, Jill had insisted he had none of the stereotypical traits and that he was a nice guy. And he was cute, so Maya had agreed to go out with him after work.

  “Whatever,” Gerald said. “That’s still a bullshit excuse for me not to get to see my kids.”

  “And if you take them outside of the court appointed time, I’ll have you arrested like last time. For once in your life, Gerald, you’ll need to follow the rules.”

  “When can I see them?” he asked, ignoring her threat.

  He had been a functioning drunk when they were married until he came home in the early morning hours one Sunday and threatened to kill her. Maya had been forced to call the police. They arrested him, and the judge gave Gerald probation after a mandatory stint in a recovery program. It didn’t take. Six months later he showed up at the house loud and sloppy again, but by that time the divorce was in progress and Maya didn’t want to deal with even more emotional trauma—and not calling the cops on him that time had been a mistake. Gerald had been willing to disobey the judge’s order once, he was capable of doing it again. Maya didn’t want him anywhere near the kids, but unfortunately, he still had the right to see them.

  “Why don’t you try checking your emails? You’ve got them next weekend.”

  “I can’t take them next weekend. Cameron and I have plans.”

  Cameron. The mere mention of her name made Maya gag. Cameron had become Gerald’s mid-life crisis—thin, blond, young, and dressed like a stripper.

  “Not my problem,” Maya said, mocking what Gerald had said to her earlier.

  Gerald scoffed. “Whatever.”

  Then he ended the call.

  Maya let out an exasperated sigh as she set the phone on her nightstand and then lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. She could feel sleep running away; the verbal sparring with Gerald had sent adrenaline surging through her system. Her body ached, and yet her mind raced.

  That bastard.

  4

  “Come on, guys. We gotta go.”

  Aiden and Laura continued to fumble around with their electronics and chargers, illustrating an epic fail of stalling while Page waited for them, tail wagging. As the kids had gotten older, the dynamic with their grandmother had changed. They loved her and enjoyed the time together, but at the same time, they hated leaving the comfort of their own house.

  “Do we have to?” Aiden asked again as he made his way toward the door, stumbling along like a zombie.

  “Yes. Nonna has fun stuff planned for you.”

  “But I want to stay here with my PlayStation.”

  “You’ve got your Nintendo thingy in your bag.”

  “My 3DS? But that doesn’t have Horizon Zero Dawn on it. I’m so close to beating it!”

  “Sorry, kiddo.” She rubbed his head. “You need to spend more time outside anyway. You can take a break from your games.” Maya wished he would take a permanent break from his sedentary, indoor lifestyle; her son had gained weight while beating video games and learning guitar solos off of Dookie. More time outside would be good for him.

  “All right,” he said, shuffling past her and out the door.

  “Laura!”

  Maya’s daughter was silent as she came around the corner. Her head buried in her phone, she texted without looking up as she approached her mom.

  “Hey,” Maya said, grabbing Laura by the arm.

  Laura looked up, but still said nothing.

  “You feeling better today?”

  “I’m fine,” she said in a tone that told Maya she was anything but.

  Maya wanted to prod, but she knew the problem—Gerald always seemed to be the problem. Maya herself hadn’t been able to fall asleep the previous night until an hour and a half after the argument she’d had with him on the phone.

  So, instead of trying to talk to Laura, Maya nodded and patted her daughter on the back.

  Elizabeth Talbot, Maya’s mother, lived north of Nashville in the town of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Maya’s parents had bought the house the year before Maya was born. It was the first and the last house they’d purchased. Maya’s mother had lived alone ever since a car crash had taken her father’s life in 2001. It had been a devastating time for the Talbots, but it had also been the first time Maya had considered becoming a paramedic.

  At five-foot-nine and about 120 pounds, Elizabeth had made it a priority to “keep her figure” as she approached sixty years old, and Maya could only hope she’d resemble her mom when she got to be her age. She had let the silver streaks remain in her brown hair, which accentuated her green eyes, and if Elizabeth were any indication, the Talbot women would all age gracefully. But beyond appearances, Elizabeth was someone Maya knew her kids could look up to; the women at the church were among the many who appreciated Elizabeth’s warm heart, and she was always the first to volunteer with their annual fundraiser. Maya wanted her kids to have her as a role model, and have her in their lives, and that meant honoring weekends like this, however it might annoy Gerald.

  When they pulled up to the two-story house, neither kid had spoken during the entire twenty-five-minute drive from their own house in East Nashville, even ignoring Page who darted from one partially open car window to the other.

  Maya unbuckled her seatbelt. Laura sat in the passenger seat, still scrolling away on her phone. Aiden sat in the back playing his 3DS. Both children had headphones on.

  Maya twisted in her seat and said, “Look, I know you guys don’t want to be here this weekend.”

  “Then take us back home,” Laura said.

  “No. Your grandmother has been looking forward to this. And if I take you back home now, I’ll end up being late for work.”

  Laura rolled her eyes and went back to thumbing at her phone.

  Maya ripped the phone out of her daughter’s hand and took her by the wrist.

  “I’m tired of the attitude, Laura. Do you understand me? Do not roll your eyes at me. You can take your hands off your phone for a minute while we talk.”

  “You can keep my stupid phone!” Laura said, tears popping up instantaneously at the thought of it. She did get out of the car, though, slamming the door behind her.

  Maya took a deep breath. She looked at her daughter’s phone in her hand. She wanted to get out of the car, throw it onto the ground, and stomp on it. But she resisted.

  “She’ll get over it, Mom,” Aiden said. “I didn’t really want to come either, but I get it. Grandma wants to see us, and you need some time to yourself.”

  Her son’s smile almost made Maya cry. “Thanks, Aid.”

  They stepped out of the car and Maya gave Aiden a big hug while Page ran into the backyard, chasing after a squirrel.

  The front door opened and Maya’s mother stepped outside. She greeted Laura, who gave her a half-hearted hug before marching into the house. Maya met her mother in the yard, and Elizabeth thumbed at the house.

  “She okay?”

  “She’ll be fine,” Maya said. “She’s had a rough couple of days.”

  “Well, I’ll take her mind off that. Ain’t that right?” Elizabeth smiled and hugged Aiden.

  “I’m going to go inside,” Aiden said.

  “All right.” Maya kissed and hugged her son one more time, and then he went into the house.

  “Don’t I get a hug?” Elizabeth asked.

  Maya laughed and embraced her mother. When she pulled away, they held hands for another moment. “Sorry it’s taken me a few weeks to get over here.”

  “It’s fine. I haven’t had the chance to come to your place, either. We all get busy. How’s work been going?”

  “You know. It goes.”

  “I saw that crazy accident on the news. The thing on Broadway where the woman ran off the road and hit those people? Were you involved in that?”

  “I was the first one on the scene.”

  “My God, Maya. Was it—”

  “Mom…”

  “Sorry,” her mother said, frowning.

  Even though Elizabeth knew Maya didn’t like talking about the things she saw at work, she sometimes forgot. Maya understood. She had a job that piqued people’s curiosity, and her mother could be a little nosy.

  “You excited about your date tonight?”

  Maya shrugged. “Yeah. It should be fun.”

  “I’m glad to see you going out. I know it’s hard being a single mom, but you’ve got to do things for yourself. You’ve got to try and move on.”

  Since her divorce, Maya had only gone on a few dates. Instead of a love life, she’d focused on her job and her kids. Plus, Laura and Aiden still loved their father—and this was something Maya was grateful for even if it complicated matters whenever she considered bringing another man into their lives. Her mother constantly reminded her that Gerald had Cameron, but that was different.

  The kids didn’t live with Gerald.

  Maya looked at her watch. “I’ve got to get going. I want to try and make it over to the hospital a little later. Here’s Laura’s phone. You decide when she gets it back.”

  “All right. Take care of yourself.”

  “I will. And don’t worry about Laura. Like I said, it’s just been a rough few days for her.”

  “You don’t worry about Laura. She’ll be fine.”

  Maya smiled. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow night.”

  The two hugged again, and Maya went to the car. She waved at her mother as Elizabeth went inside to join the kids.

  When her mother was out of sight, Maya pulled out her phone. She checked her texts and found the short string of messages she’d passed with Nick, her date for the night.

  Maya sighed as she typed.

  Then she sent the text, and reread it to herself.

  Sorry to do this last minute. Won’t be able to make it tonight. Something came up. Will reschedule. K? Really sorry.

  She exhaled and shoved the phone into her pocket before she pulled away.

  Mission accomplished, Gerald.

  Maya no longer felt up to her date and blaming her ex-husband seemed like the easiest way to rationalize her cold feet.

  5

  Transcript of news broadcast, WLVG Channel 2 Las Vegas

  Sally Whitehead: Earlier today, scientists across North America and Europe began buzzing about an exciting new discovery. Apparently, a high level of gamma-ray emissions is being detected from a star 300 light years from Earth. Now if you think this sounds like something right out of a science fiction movie, you’re not alone. Our senior science and medical correspondent, Ashley Acuff, is reporting from the Nevada SETI Center with more. Ashley?

  Ashley Acuff: That’s right, Sally. While it’s too soon to jump to any formal conclusions, astronomers around the world are excited about what they’re seeing. I spoke to Dr. Helson of the National Science Institute, and he told me that, normally, gamma rays exist throughout the universe, and the detection of them is neither unusual nor unexpected. However, the frequency of these newly detected rays and their origin is what’s causing so much excitement in the scientific community.

  Sally Whitehead: And when you say “origin,” what do you mean?

  Ashley Acuff: Astronomers are pointing terrestrial telescopes and gamma-ray detectors at a set of coordinates in a distant galaxy. Helson told me that gamma-ray observation has been around since the 1960s—the technology is not new. But computers have come a long way since then, and scientists are now able to feed the data into a computer system and analyze the results in a way that just wasn’t possible even ten years ago. Even still, the detection of this spike is quite rare. While computers capture billions of bits of data from the cosmos, scientists are lucky if they can interpret even a fraction of it, and detecting a variance within that subset is even rarer. You might say this discovery is like finding a needle in a haystack the size of a galaxy.

  Sally Whitehead: I’m sure that’s fascinating work, but our viewers are probably wondering the same thing that I am. What could be causing these gamma-ray emissions?

  Ashley Acuff: Again, Sally, I’m not an astronomer or a scientist. But I’ve learned that gamma rays are created by such things as cosmic ray interactions with interstellar gas, collisions between electrons and magnetic fields, and the most common and abundant source—supernova explosions.

  Sally Whitehead: Which is?

  Ashley Acuff: A supernova is when a star explodes, spewing debris across the galaxy.

  Sally Whitehead: Wouldn’t astronomers be able to see evidence of a supernova?

  Ashley Acuff: Definitely. But you have to remember that they believe the source of these newly-detected gamma rays is 300 light years away, which means that if the supernova explosion happened today, we wouldn’t “see” evidence of it for 300 years. There isn’t really a consensus in the scientific community as to what’s causing the emissions. Therefore, it’s quite possible that an electron and magnetic field anomaly is behind the spike in the readings. So for now, NASA and other global space agencies are continuing to gather data and analyze it. As they draw more solid conclusions, they’ll continue to share them with the general public.

  Sally Whitehead: So, Ashley, I guess we don’t have to worry about the arrival of ET. We’re not being invaded from outer space.

  Ashley Acuff: Ha! No, no. I don’t think you should stockpile your weapons and food just yet.

  6

  “Thanks, Sam.”

  “We’ll see you later, Maya.”

  Maya smiled as she winked at the cashier and then walked out of the convenience store. Reno sat in the rig off to the side of the parking lot, waiting for her. The Mapco Mart on the corner of Jefferson and Rosa Parks, located on the fringe of downtown Nashville, was a place they stopped at every day during their shift to grab a coffee or pick up a snack.

  Maya opened her water bottle and took a sip before climbing back into the driver’s seat. There, she opened a small bag of peanuts and dropped some into her hand to toss them into her mouth.

  “You know, you’re lucky I don’t have a peanut allergy. You’d have to get a new partner.”

  “And you think I’d have a problem with that?” Maya asked.

  “You’re saying you’d pick peanuts over me?”

  Maya shrugged and grinned.

  “Ah,” Reno said, an insincere frown trying to hide a smile. “I’m a little hurt.”

  “Yeah, whatever. You sure you don’t want anything? Sam was a little bummed you didn’t come inside today.”

  “I’m sure he was.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I’m sure he’s glad I wasn’t in the way.”

  Maya furrowed her brow.

  “I mean, he’s got the hots for you,” Reno said.

  “What?” Maya asked, scrunching up her face. “He’s at least thirty years older than me.”

  “So? Some women are into that.”

  “Well, I’m not.”

  “What are you into, then?”

  Maya felt herself blushing and started up the rig. She glanced in the mirror to make sure the area was clear.

  “Come on,” Reno said. “You don’t wanna tell me about this guy you’re going out with tonight?”

  “Not particularly. You’re my partner.”

  “And your friend. Don’t pretend like we never talk about our personal lives.” He playfully winked and smiled. “Come on. Tell me about… what’s his name? Rick? Or was it Dick?”

  “It’s Nick, you jerk.”

  “Yeah, Nick. Tell me about Nick.”

  “There isn’t much to tell. I don’t know the guy. And I don’t think I’ll be getting to know him anytime soon.”

  Reno shook his head. “You did it again. Didn’t you?”

  “I don’t wanna talk about this, Reno.”

  “How many dates are you going to break off? This is like, what, the third one in six months?”

  Maya said nothing. Sweat beaded on her forehead. What Reno had said was true, though his numbers were off—she’d canceled four dates in five months, almost a stand-up a month.

  “I’m sorry,” Reno said. “I shouldn’t be messing with you about this.”

  “No, it’s all right. Like you said, we’re friends. Friends rib each other.”

  “Friends can talk, too, you know.”

  Maya looked at him then, suddenly thankful to have a partner like Reno. She could tell he was a good guy, and he was a heck of a lot more enjoyable to have around than her previous partner, Doug. Doug had been twenty-five years older than Maya, and they’d had virtually nothing in common.

  “I don’t want to bore you with my single-mom life.”

  “You think that bores me?” Reno let out a small laugh. “My mom raised four kids on her own. I know more about it than you might think.”

  Maya turned away and swallowed. “Things have just been a little hard lately. Everything’s fine with Aiden, but Laura’s got that teen girl thing going on where she thinks she knows it all. I figured it would come eventually, but now that it’s here, it’s even tougher to deal with than I’d imagined. Now I know how my parents felt.”

  “You? A know-it-all phase?” Reno laughed at his own sarcasm.

  She grinned and shook her head, smiling until she thought of the underlying reason for her family’s dysfunction.

  “And Gerald… God.”

  Maya had complained about Gerald to Reno before—a lot. And it wasn’t fair to Gerald. Reno had never met the man, but he probably thought he was the worst guy on Earth. Maybe she was too hard on her ex-husband, despite his constant arrogance and inconsiderate nature, but it was hard not to be. She believed that he loved his children, at least, even though he spent too much time trying to please the new girlfriend instead of them.