Page 16 of Until Nalia

“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.”