Until Nalia, page 5
I look over at Logan and can see he’s trying to hide his smile.
“How about we talk about it tonight? I was thinking that we could go to the movies Saturday,” I say and her shoulders slump. Darn. “Or we could go to the game,” I give in hating to disappoint her.
“Thanks, Namalama.”
“You’re welcome, kid,” I sigh, ignoring Logan’s chuckle.
I continue ignoring him while I listen to Cooper and Zuri talk while they eat. Seeing them interact, it’s obvious that the two of them are friends, where normally Zuri would be shy and unsure around someone new, Cooper keeps her laughing and involved in the conversation. It’s sweet.
“Alright, are we ready to head over to Gigi’s?” Logan asks when the kids are done and start gathering up their trash.
“Yes.” Cooper shoots out of his seat. “Do you like Xbox?” he asks Zuri.
“I don’t know. What is it?”
“What is it?” He laughs. “Only the coolest gaming system ever. Gigi got me one for her house so we can play while we’re there.”
“I thought we were going to pick up a car,” I tell Logan quietly as the kids walk to drop their trash in the garbage.
“We are, Mom’s letting you borrow her Toyota, she never drives it, so it’s just been sitting in the driveway.”
“I’m sorry, I think I just misheard you. Did you just say that I’m borrowing your mom’s car?”
“Yeah.” He gets up and walks to the trash with his cup, so I follow him as the kids take Dozer over to the jeep.
“I can’t do that, Logan.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s your mom’s car.”
“And?” He looks down at me, it really is annoying how tall he is. “What does it matter?”
“I don’t know, it just does.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Where did you think we were getting a car from?”
“I don’t know, I thought maybe you knew someone who rented cars, or someone who had a hoopty they don’t use.”
“Mom’s car is a hoopty and she doesn’t use it, so there you go.” He places his hand on my lower back and uses pressure to get me to start moving.
“Logan,” I hiss, and he leans down so his mouth is close to my ear.
“You should know that every time you argue with me, it makes me want to kiss you to get you to shut up.”
My heart drops, my pulse skyrockets, and my mouth clamps shut, but that doesn’t mean I don’t glare at him when he laughs.
Five
NALIA
“So, you went on a date with him and now you are seeing him again?” Harmony asks from my iPad on the counter in my bathroom, and I look down at the screen at her and Willow.
“I didn’t go on a date with him.”
“You kind of did,” Willow tells me. “Sure, the kids were with you, but you ate a meal together, so that is technically a date.”
“It wasn’t a date,” I repeat.
“So, you’re not interested in him, and you don’t think he’s hot?”
“Nope,” I lie because he is hot, and he smells good. Like leather and cedar with a touch of motor oil, which I didn’t know I found attractive until him. “Anyway, he’s too tall.”
“Wow,” Harmony laughs. “You are just dead set on finding a reason not to like him, which makes me even more curious about this guy.”
“Exactly how tall is he?” Willow asks.
“Ridiculously tall, like a tree.” I dab some blush on my cheeks.
“Like a tree you want to climb?” Harmony bursts into laughter.
“You’re an idiot,” I laugh along with her.
“I don’t know, I feel like you two are basically engaged at this point,” Willow says, and I shake my head.
“How did you come up with that?”
“You met his parents.” I did meet his mom, or Gigi, as she insisted Zuri and I call her, and his dad, Craig, whom Cooper and Logan both called Pops.
I have no idea what I expected his mom to look like, but when she opened the door to the condo, I was taken aback. She looked like she belonged in Manhattan, not a small town in Tennessee, with her jet-black hair that was cut into a sharp bob with blunt bangs, black rimmed glasses, and red lipstick that matched her nails and a flamboyant outfit of bright colors.
She instantly made Zuri and me feel comfortable and welcome, and so did Logan’s dad, who was not flamboyant in the least; he actually looked like a biker with a white scraggly beard and longer hair that was tied in a ponytail, a Harley shirt, jeans, and boots. The two of them reminded me of my parents in the way they were consistently reaching for each other, and how they showed that they loved their son and grandson. It was sweet, they were sweet.
“I met Cole’s parents, and we are not engaged, and he’s actually my boyfriend.”
“So, you spoke to him about the fluid thing?” Harmony asks.
“Not yet, I haven’t had a chance to, he’s got a big project he’s working on right now, so he’s been distracted.” Which is not something new, since we started seeing each other, he’s been the same way, and there have been weeks when I have only spoken to him on occasion and barely seen him.
“Or you’re avoiding asking him about it because you know that if he tells you that it’s okay for you to see other people, then you will have to face the fact that you might be interested in someone else who is obviously interested in you.”
“Anyway,” I ignore everything she just said and take my mascara out of my makeup bag, “I need to finish getting ready so that Zuri and I can be over to the baseball fields by noon.”
“Maybe I’ll bring Ava and Lillian and come join you,” Harmony says and I look at the screen of my iPad. “Promise I’ll be on my best behavior and keep my comments to a minimum.”
“Yeah, except you’ll run and tell Willow about Logan and probably everyone else, too.”
“I will for sure do that, but not with you around.” She smiles.
“Fine, but only because I want baby snuggles.”
“Now I want to come, but I can’t because I have to pack.” Willow pouts.
“Oh poor you having to pack to go to Hawaii for a week, let me just find my tiny violin to play you a song.” I roll my eyes.
“Jealous?” She smiles.
“Yes.”
“You and Zuri could come with us; the house Clay rented is huge.”
“I wish but she really can’t miss school this early in the year, last flu season she got sick and was out for almost two weeks, I want to save her days in case something like that happens again.”
“I can understand that, and maybe we can plan a fun trip for her next break, even if it’s down to Florida for a few days.”
“Yes, let’s do that,” I tell her, then look at Harmony. “I’ll see you in an hour. Call me when you’re on your way.”
“Awesome, see you soon,” she says, then we all say goodbye before we hang up. Unscrewing the lid on my mascara, I lean forward to the mirror and start to apply it as my cell phone beeps with a text. Stopping what I’m doing, I look down at my phone, and my stomach fills with a stupid number of butterflies just seeing Logan’s name on my screen. I don’t open it right away; I finish what I’m doing and put my mascara back before I pick up my phone and open the message.
Logan: Parking is limited where we’re playing today, so it might be easier if you girls just ride with us.
I stare at his message, unsure how to respond. I’m sure he’s right about the parking. I’ve driven by the baseball fields when games are going on, and people end up parking on the road or wherever else they can fit their vehicles. I just don’t think it’s smart for me to be in such close proximity to him for an extended amount of time again. Plus, with Harmony coming, I should go pick her up and have the two of us ride together so she doesn’t have to navigate everything alone with the girls, who can be an adorable handful.
Exiting out of my text with Logan, I call Harmony and explain the situation to her, but leave out Logan, so she doesn’t try to finagle me into riding with him. Even so, she tells me that Harlen has decided to come along, and he’s going to drive them, so I don’t need to worry about her. After I hang up with her, I go back to my message from Logan and start to message him back to let him know that we will just drive and see them there, but mid-text, multiple voices start to get closer, and I turn to the bathroom door as Zuri comes around the corner with her iPad.
“Cooper said his dad can pick us up,” she tells me, then I hear Logan in the background.
“Tell her we’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“He said they will be here in thirty minutes.” She comes to stand next to me, showing me her screen, and I can see she’s playing one of her games, and there is a small box in the upper right corner with Cooper’s face in it. I’m not surprised she’s on FaceTime with him. Him, her, and a few of their other friends from school have been FaceTiming a lot the last few evenings while they play a game where you build a farm and share seeds with friends to grow giant fruits and vegetables. Apparently, it’s all the rage in elementary school.
“We were going to drive,” I tell her and Cooper.
“Save yourself the gas and the headache.” Logan’s face appears behind his son’s on camera. “Just text me your address.”
I really, really want to tell him no and to put up a fight but with the kids both watching us I feel like I can’t do that.
“Alright,” I agree, and Logan smiles.
“See you soon.” He disappears out of view.
“I’ll be ready in just a couple of minutes. Do you mind filling our water bottles?” I ask Zuri.
“Sure.” She wanders out of the bathroom while talking to Cooper about the game.
I pick up my phone and type out a message to Logan, telling him thanks for putting me on the spot, then remember what he said about me arguing and delete it before I just send him our address and finish getting ready.
Zuri
“I think my dad likes your mom,” Cooper says, and I bite my bottom lip. I know I should tell him and Heather that Nalia isn’t my mom, but if I do, they’ll ask where my mom is and why I don’t live with her. It’s always the first thing people ask, and I don’t want to have to tell them my mom is in jail.
“Why?” Heather asks Cooper as I walk into my bedroom after filling mine and Nalia’s water bottles.
Falling to my stomach on my bed, I check how much money I have in my game. I really want another egg and luckily just have enough coins to buy one.
“I don’t know, he just seems weird when they talk.”
“Don’t you have a mom?” Heather asks him.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t live with us; she lives with her boyfriend.”
“Imagine if your dad and Zuri’s mom got married.” Heather giggles. “You guys would be brother and sister.”
“That’d be cool,” Cooper says, and I rub my lips together. It would be cool, and if Nalia got with Cooper’s dad, she wouldn’t be with Cole, who still lives in Colorado, and we would never have to move back there. I don’t want to move back there; I like it here. At first, I didn’t know if I would, but I like our house and everyone at school. Well, except for Matthew, he’s a jerk, but everyone else is nice. And I have a big family here, and Nico and Sophie, who are the best, said that I could come up with a cool name to call them, like Cooper calls his Gigi and Pops.
“Oh my god,” I whisper when the egg I just bought opens.
“What?” Heather asks.
“I finally got the fox.”
“You did?” Heather whispers.
“Yeah.”
“I’m so jealous, I’ve wanted that for so long,” Cooper grumbles.
“Maybe you’ll get it next time,” I tell him excitedly.
Six
NALIA
By the time I’m done, and I have a bag packed with stuff for Zuri and me, it’s time for Logan and Cooper to arrive, so Zuri and I walk out of the house to wait in the driveway for them. I might be spending more time with Logan, but that doesn’t mean that I want him in my home and in my space, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Before Zuri and I even reach the end of the driveway, Logan comes around the corner at the end of the block with a black backwards ballcap on his head and his aviators on. Next to him, a mass of blonde hair blows in the wind, but I can’t make out much of the girl’s features beneath the oversized sunglasses covering half her face. Still, I know it’s his daughter, I saw lots of photos of her plastered on the walls at his parents’ house, and he mentioned her more than once, but she was at a friend’s, so I never got to meet her.
Coming to a stop at the end of my driveway, Logan grins, while his daughter eyes me behind her sunglasses without cracking a smile.
“You didn’t get a chance to meet my daughter, Billie, the other day,” he says, getting out and walking around to us. “Nalia and Zuri, this is my daughter, Billie.”
“Hey.” I smile at her.
“Hi,” she mumbles, and I wonder if I would have caught her rolling her eyes if she wasn’t wearing sunglasses.
“I’ll put this in the trunk.” He takes the bag I’m holding, then tells Billie. “Hop in the back so Nalia can sit up front.”
“But I called shotgun,” she whines like any teenager who called shotgun and won would.
“It’s okay,” I cut in when I see him about to pull a dad move and tell her to do what he said. “I’ll sit in the back with Cooper and Zuri.” I don’t even leave it open for discussion I walk to the open back door and Cooper who is dressed in his baseball uniform scoots over making room for Zuri then Zuri moves to the middle making room for me.
Once I’m in the back and all of us are buckled in with Logan in the driver’s seat, his sunglasses meet mine over his shoulder. “Ready?”
“Yep.” I drag my gaze off his and look out the side of the Jeep as he pulls away from my house. The drive to the baseball fields is quiet except for Zuri and Cooper talking and the music coming from the speakers on low, but the tension inside the vehicle rolling off Billie is so loud it drowns everything out. It’s a relief when we get to the field, and more of a relief when I’m out of the Jeep.
“I’m going to find my friends,” Billie tells Logan as she gets out of the jeep.
“Alright, but keep your phone on and make sure you come back and say hi to your mom and Gigi.”
“Fine.” She sighs before she wanders off, looking at her phone.
“Don’t take it personally that she was rude,” Logan says quietly, meeting me at the back of the Jeep. “She hates everyone except her friends and her grandmother right now, and she was pissed that she had to get up today and come out with us.”
“I was a teenage girl once; you don’t need to apologize,” I assure him while Cooper and Zuri get out of the backseat. Taking my bag, I put it over my shoulder, while Logan grabs a duffel bag and slings it across his back, then grabs a large bucket of baseballs. With the kids both walking ahead of us, we start walking to the field. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and there are so many people here already, along with a few local vendors offering food and drinks.
“How long have you been coaching?” I ask Logan when a group of kids calls out ‘hey, coach’ to him, and he greets them by name.
“Since Coop started playing,” he says, wrapping his finger through the loop of my jean shorts and using it to pull me closer to him as we are passing a group of people coming down the dirt path towards us. “So, about four years.”
“It’s nice that you coach his team.” I step out of his space when I can, but the tension in my lower belly from that move is still sitting there.
“That’s me, nice.” He grins my way and I roll my eyes but can’t stop the smile that creeps across my lips. Entering the area where the fields are I start to look for a good spot to sit that isn’t overly crowded. “You can sit with Ma.” He tells me like he can read my mind.
“My sister and her family are coming, so I’ll probably just find somewhere with room for all of us.”
“There’s room,” he tells me before calling out to the kids and telling them to head to the bleachers. As we get closer, I spot Gigi near the dugout with a large, brimmed hat on her head and a flowy, floral dress, the lipstick she had on when I first met her in place, only she’s exchanged her glasses for ones with tinted lenses. When she spots us, she waves, and I wave back as Cooper runs up to give her a hug, with Zuri waiting for me at the bottom of the bleachers. “You good?” Logan asks, and I focus on him.
“Yeah, good luck today.”
“Thanks, babe, see you after the game.” He smiles then grins when I roll my eyes at the nickname before he walks onto the field calling for Cooper to follow him. Watching him walk away for longer than I should and curse myself for doing it.
“Do you know where your friend is?” I ask, walking over to Zuri.
“I don’t think she’s here yet.”
“How about you hang with me until she gets here?”
“Okay.” She follows me up the stairs to Logan’s mother, who smiles at the two of us.
“I’m so glad you came,” Gigi tells us getting to her feet, air kissing my cheek then her eyes move to Zuri. “Hey, honey.”
“Hi, Gigi,” Zuri says, quietly leaning into me.
“Sit, sit,” Gigi orders as she takes a seat. I take a seat next to her, and she leans around me to look at Zuri. “Zuri, honey, do you want some snacks? I brought lots.”
“No, thank you,” she tells her while scanning the crowd and the people coming up the dirt path.
“She’s waiting for her friend to get here so they can hang out together,” I explain.
“I understand.” Gigi pats my leg. “When Billie was her age, I’d only see her if she needed money; now I don’t even see her.”
“I used to do the same thing when I’d go to football games with my parents.” I laugh as she digs into her oversized bag and pulls out a container that looks like something you’d keep fishing lures in only each small box is filled with snacks from Goldfish crackers to M&M’s.
