A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now up!

January 14th 2020

Chapter 14
Their Year to Breathe

Maya had gone up to Houston the very next day. She wanted to keep her promise to Shae, and she knew that when Siobhan would call her back, with good news or bad, she might have to cancel on her young friend, and she didn't want that. She doubted she'd be hearing back from her mother's boss before the day after that, so it worked for everyone.

As promised, they had gone and seen Shae's new favorite movie a whole three times in a row. Candy was acquired, in quantities fitting of the amount of time they'd be in that movie theater. It made for a very giddy sort of day, and Shae's happiness did not let up for a minute, which in turn made Maya happy, too.

"You sure you had time to digest everything before you go and give me some of those dance moves?" Maya asked as she followed Shae up to her house after the movies. The girl looked at her and Maya gave her a short, demonstrative sort of shimmy.

"I don't think the sugar's going to be my biggest problem," Shae sighed, pulling her house key from her pocket.

"Which will be…"

"My feet… my arms… everything in between…" she declared dejectedly.

"Oh, good, so your head's not on the list, give them a bit of this," Maya made her head 'dance,' which pulled a smile out of the girl. "You can do this, okay? You don't have to become the world's best dancer, but you can still learn enough to get by."

"How long is that going to take?" Shae asked. She wanted to believe her, Maya could see it, but it seemed impossible to her, which made it hard to be particularly optimistic. Maya knew how that felt, all too well.

"More than one day," she admitted. "But, hey, even if I can't be here every day, I know someone else who might be able to help, locally."

One call and an hour later, there was the doorbell, and Maya and Shae had been joined by Sophie Zvolensky. She was all for helping Shae 'unlock her inner dancer,' whenever her schedule permitted, which by her count would be three times a week. Maya had gone back to Austin that night, feeling like they had really done something. As a bonus, the whole thing had given her loads more ideas for her to bring to Siobhan… if she said yes… oh, she hoped that she said yes…

X

Five days later

Lucas worked three days a week at the bookstore, Saturdays through Mondays. The rest of the week was all for school, no work evenings, which would have been sort of difficult anyway, with the time he tended to get back into Austin every night, Tuesday through Friday. He'd only had one full week of class so far, but after that first one, he could already tell he would spend his Mondays at work with this eager feeling in him to kick off another school week the following day.

This wasn't to say that he didn't enjoy his work at the bookstore. It was a different vibe from Coleman's, more space, more products, more people, customers and employees both. He was still learning names in some places, but at least on his floor he had a good team going. There were always four of them each day, though in total he had five co-workers up on the third floor with him. Saturdays and Sundays brought Aarti and Mona, while Mondays had Tanner and Julia in their place, and then there'd be Maeve, on all three of his days. Maybe for that, he was closest to her out of the lot.

She kind of reminded him of Rosa, of all people, which might have facilitated things in his befriending her from day one of working here. It wasn't necessarily because of personality, although he could see them getting along. No, she reminded him of Rosa because how she looked. The raven hair, the glasses, even something in the shape of her face, features… The first time Maya had met Maeve, she'd told him that Maeve was like a taller, more Irish version of Rosa.

On their second day working together, they'd realized they had gone to the same schools all the way through high school, although with a five year gap between them. Then he'd told her he'd been on the basketball team and she'd chuckled, asking him which Shelbys he'd played with, which made him laugh.

"Started with Nate, finished with Scott. My fiancée played with Julianne," he counted off.

"I played with Kate," Maeve had turned a smile his way. Lucas didn't know her as much as the younger ones, though he knew she was the next oldest after Nate, second in line of the lot of them, preceded only by Matt Shelby.

"You were on the team, too?"

"Nope," she'd kept on smiling, bursting out laughing when he'd figured out what she meant.

"Nate told me once how his sister and her friend got in trouble their senior year for ditching the class on their trip to Australia…" he'd recalled, and Maeve's face had just read 'guilty as charged.'

"Long story," was all she'd volunteer.

So far, he'd decided that the best way to describe Maeve would be 'wild card,' because you really could not predict what she'd do. Oh, she took her job seriously, and you could not find someone more apt for it. But then if you were looking for someone to keep you on your toes on long days and slow hours, she was your woman. She wasn't above… well, a lot of things… nothing disrespectful though.

Today, as they hit the lull in late afternoon before the home stretch to closing, he couldn't go around the floor without spotting Maeve dancing about, letting the music over the store speakers be her choreograph. Okay, definitely just looks like Rosa…

"Hey, isn't that your girl?"

He turned to where Tanner stood near the escalators, in the midst of rearranging a display table. Lucas moved to join him, the only other guy in either his weekend or Monday quartets. He pointed, and Lucas looked below just as Maya started making her way up to the third floor.

"Yeah, that's her," Lucas confirmed with a curious smile. She'd spotted him standing there as the escalator rolled on up, and as soon as she got off she approached him with a face that said 'I am a customer now, totally random.' "Afternoon, miss," he smiled. "Can I help you find anything today?"

"I think you might, yeah."

"Any genre in particular?"

"Whichever one you keep behind those doors," Maya pointed to the back.

"Yes, of course," Lucas led her there, turning to face her after the doors had swung shut. "What's up?" he asked, guessing she hadn't come looking for a book, or just to see the back of the store. The way her whole demeanor shifted as soon as they were alone was a solid indicator, too.

"I swear, I was going to wait until you got back, but you know how I get when impatience creeps in…"

"A lot of baked goods, usually," he shrugged. He couldn't complain when that happened, although one of these days he had a feeling he would get home and all the furniture would have been rearranged.

"I got the job!" she just went right for it, her face splitting into a grin.

"What?" he blurted out before snatching her up into a hug that made her laugh. "She said yes?" he asked when he'd set her back down.

Maya gave him a quick rundown of how it had happened. Siobhan had called her, just after lunch, and asked if she could come to the theater at three. When she'd shown up, the woman had brought her into one of the unoccupied offices so they could talk. There, she had told Maya that she'd thought about her plan, discussed it with the rest of the team. They'd gone over a lot of things, and what they'd come to was this: They would give her through the end of the year to set everything in motion, with a target start for January. This was her project and it was going to stay that way, which meant she was in charge, yes, but also that she would either soar or crash along with it. But Siobhan had said that she'd known her long enough to have faith in her to take flight.

"She says I can start next week. And that's my office now, I have an office," she half-whispered the word, like it was too wild to imagine. "I'm going to need a picture of you and a frame."

"That can be arranged," Lucas smiled.

"Do I get to pick the wardrobe?"

"So long as there is wardrobe," he gave her a knowing look.

"I really need to be careful with the wording…" she shook her head. He loved when she was giddy like this. He looked around to make sure no one was coming before stealing a quick kiss.

"Wait downstairs, I'll meet you in two minutes?"

He went and found Maeve, asked if she and the others could cover the last few hours and closing for him, explaining that he needed to go. She didn't need more of an explanation. Maeve wished him a good week and said goodbye until the following Saturday, and as promised Lucas met Maya down on the main floor two minutes after they'd left the back room and split.

"When's Sam getting out of class?" he asked as they got in his car.

"Uh…" she looked at the time. "If we go now, we should arrive more or less when he gets out."

"Perfect."

As it turned out, they made excellent time, so they ended up waiting outside his last class.

"Who else knows?" Lucas asked Maya as they waited. "Your mom?"

"Not even," she shook her head. "She was out this afternoon, check-ups with MJ and Haley. She'll be home by now."

"Right, okay," he took out his phone and started to type out a text. When Maya tried to lean in and see what he was doing, he turned the screen away so she couldn't see.

"Hey!" she protested weakly.

"Watch for Sam," he gestured toward the door.

"But…"

"I am writing to some people to see if they are free tonight and if they can meet us at an undisclosed-to-you location. Good?" he asked with a smile before getting back to his typing.

"I can work with that," Maya smiled back.

When Sam came out of class, he didn't see his sister or his future brother-in-law right away, though they saw him. He was talking to a pair of students who'd also come from the class just ended. Looking at the guy and the girl, both Maya and Lucas would have been willing to put money on their being twins. They looked to be freshmen, like Sam, although in their case with the ages usually fitting someone who'd finished high school last year and was now starting college.

"Well, look who made friends," Maya smiled a proud sisterly smile.

Sam had waved them off before he ever spotted his welcoming committee waiting for him. He finally looked up and they waved back at him.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked, jogging over.

"Came to pick you up, of course. Totally not spying on you and your new friends," Maya smirked.

"You busy tonight?" Lucas asked Sam.

"I'm fifteen in a new city where I don't go to school with any other kids my age. If I'm going to be anywhere that's not with you, I kind of have to tell you first," Sam pointed out.

"Oh, he's good," Maya laughed. "Want to be busy tonight?" she asked her brother. "You can invite Dora," she added, turning to Lucas. "He can invite Dora?" she asked.

"Yeah," Lucas confirmed.

"Invite her where?" Sam asked, failing to appear cool at the mention of his crush's name.

On the ride home, Maya had filled her brother in on her offer to Siobhan and how she'd accepted it, which meant she now worked at the theater, or she would, as of the following week. Sam loved the idea for her Stage Ready class, and he gained several points with his sister for congratulating her on her not having to shout at the job listings anymore.

"I wasn't… shouting…" she played coy.

As they'd arrived at the house, Lucas had informed the Harts that they had reservations for seven o'clock and they should aim for semi-formal. Sam headed upstairs, saying that if he hurried and got changed quick enough, he might have time to get one of his readings done.

"I fully support this!" Maya called after him before pivoting on her heels to face Lucas again. "Semi-formal?"

"It's your night, I can go full formal for you," he whispered. She nodded with a grin.

Taking her out to dinner, inviting the others, it had been a no brainer. Her job search issues had brought her down, but then to find that job… She hadn't just found it, she'd literally created it for herself. There was potential in the project for it to become something that would grow and grow, could last on beyond her and just help others reach their dreams. It was kind of perfect.

"Hey, we should have movie nights again," he suggested as they headed upstairs to get changed. "It's been way too long since we've had you and me and Zay and Nadine and Asher and Dylan and Riley… And now there's more of us…"

"You had me at movie nights," Maya stopped so suddenly on her way up that he nearly ran into her. "Sorry," she laughed. "Okay, so I've been thinking, since I left the theater earlier, I'm going to need a couple weeks to get everything started, with the office, and… the actual job… We might not get to have band practice before all that, so… We could have our first practice in two weeks, and after that…"

"Movie night," Lucas filled in with a smile. She nodded.

"You guys are still not changed?" Sam appeared at the top of the stairs, changed for dinner and carrying his textbook under his arm. Lucas and Maya stepped to the side so he could pass them by and go sit in the living room.

"You want to walk to the restaurant, Genius?" Maya reached to ruffle his hair, which Sam just barely dodged, reaching anyhow, in case she'd moved anything out of place. "Ask. Her. Out."

"Go. Change," Sam imitated her. Maya turned back to Lucas.

"I'm so glad he's here," she smiled as they continued on to their room.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners