Page 70 of Until Nalia

“Hey, kiddo, you okay?”

“Umm, yeah.” She shifts from foot to foot. “Coop was wondering if you have some extra batteries for his controllers.”

“Sure, come on.” I start up the stairs, but stop when I notice she’s not following.

“Zur,” I call, and she drags her eyes off the kitchen doorway and steps towards me.

“Is Nalia okay?”

“Yeah, sweetheart,” I assure her softly. “Come on,” I urge, and she follows me back upstairs.

“All these are dead.” Coop looks up at me as I walk past him on the way to the closet in the game room.

“I told you to toss the used ones after you take them out of your controllers.”

“I know, I just forgot,” he mutters as I grab the extra batteries I keep tucked away in the top of the closet.

After hooking up both controllers with new batteries, I take a seat in the oversized beanbag chair in the corner of the room and watch him and Zuri while they play some game called Phogs, where two players share the same dog body and have to work together to complete tasks. It’s obvious in the beginning that Zuri’s mind is elsewhere, but before long, Coop distracts her, and the two of them are laughing. Looking to the doorway when something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye, I watch Nalia enter the room. It’s obvious that she’s been crying, but she’s attempted to hide that she has.

“Grandma and Grandpa took off.” She stops at Zuri and leans down to kiss the top of her head. “They said they’ll see you Saturday for your game.”

“Are they okay?” Zuri asks while Coop pauses the game.

“Yeah, they just needed to get home.”

“Okay,” she says quietly, and Nalia moves past Coop, ruffling his hair, making him grin. Holding out my hand in her direction, she comes to me and falls onto the beanbag with me.

“You alright?” I curl my arm around her shoulders, and she meets my gaze with a tired smile.

“Yeah,” she whispers, then continues. “My parents said sorry for just taking off. Mom was…”

“Don’t worry about it.” I cut her off, and she relaxes into me.

“Oh my god, Zur, you suck!” Coop shouts, grabbing our attention. We both look at the TV and watch the two of them attempt to get their dog to go around a pole.

“No, you suck,” Zuri yells back, and Nalia laughs.

Kissing the side of her head, I relax, then smile at Billie when she wanders into the room.

“What are you guys playing?” she asks, sitting on the couch between the kids.

“Phogs,” Zuri tells her, not taking her eyes off the TV.

“Cool.” She looks over at Nalia and me, her gaze pinging between the two of us for a second before she smiles and focuses on the TV. Settling back in the beanbag with Nalia relaxed into my side with her head on my shoulder, we watch the kids play and listen to the three of them laugh, and I have never felt more content. And as crazy as it sounds, since this is so new, I know that I will fight whoever I need to in order to feel like this for the rest of my life.

Twenty

NALIA

Lying in Zuri’s bed with her face close to mine I rest my hand on her cheek as I listen to her explain to me about why she didn’t want to respond to Sharon’s e-mails. That she was scared that if I did give Sharon the money for a lawyer that she might have to go back to Colorado and she doesn’t want to go back there or to her mom.

Her fears are a reflection of my own, and hearing her talk about them kills me.

“I don’t want to make you promises that I don’t know that I’ll be able to keep, but I promise that I will do everything in my power to make sure that you stay right here with me, okay,” I tell her quietly, and she swallows while nodding. “And if something happened and Sharon did happen to get out and you had to go back to Colorado, I’d go back with you, alright?”

“But I like it here.” Tears that cut me open fill her eyes.

“Me too, kid.” I press my forehead against hers.