A Tribe United Again

Chapter 23

Jude stared at the message on his phone. It was new but the contents weren't. She wanted to see him. He didn't know how to reply so he didn't, just staring at the text.

"What are you doing?" Karou scared the hell out of him.

He jumped and nearly dropped his phone. He hurried to put it to sleep and shove it in his pocket. "Nothing!"

Karou had seen the missive. Can I see you? She hadn't seen the name but she was willing to bet it was another woman. "We need help with the balloon archways."

He nodded before running off.

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at his back, her lips pursed in thought. So Paris was right. Jude was hiding something. And Karou was going to find out what.

ATUA

Marcy was sick of the drama surrounding her family and just wanted to be around good vibes. So she sat next to Xindi, who was blowing up spare balloons with a helium tank. "Hey."

"Hi, Momma." Xindi smiled.

"How are you?"

"I am fine. How are you?"

"Tired. Don't start working."

Xindi giggled.

"You know you can tell me about him."

Xindi was terribly confused. "Whom?"

"Your boyfriend." Marcy stared at her steadily.

Xindi colored. "Boyfriend?!"

Marcy remained silent.

Xindi gulped. "He hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend."

"He will. Tell me about him."

Xindi smiled before quietly gushing about Jaxon.

ATUA

Maddie checked her phone for the tenth time in as many seconds.

Marc narrowed his eyes, watching her.

"What's up?" Arnold noticed.

"Maddie. She keeps checking her phone like she's waiting on a call."

"She might be." The blond pointed out.

Marc found that suspicious. "Who and why?"

Arnold shrugged.

Marc was going to find out.

ATUA

Laura gushed about her new space while she, Mercedes and Quinn set out fresh flowers. "It's in the perfect location!"

"I'm so proud of Marc!" Mercedes chirped.

"Marcy was wrong." Quinn got a kick out of saying that.

Laura was happy Marcy was wrong, too, albeit for a different reason. "It's a two story and I think I'm going to paint it a dusky rose with white trim."

"That'll be nice." Mercedes hated pink.

"Thank you, sweetie." Laura beamed. "Upstairs is going to be the offices and downstairs is going to be the showroom. It's going to be great."

ATUA

"What's wrong?" Mal asked.

Sebastian was frowning at Mari, who was soothing their daughter. "Huh?"