Page 75 of Until Nalia

“Can we?” Cooper asks, looking between his dad and me.

I look at Logan to answer. Zuri and I went home after school and she did homework before we went to the store after she said that she was cool with coming over here for dinner, but I don’t know if Coop has already got his done.

“Yeah, that’s fine with me,” he mutters, and the kids smile at each other before disappearing out of the kitchen.

As we hear their footsteps on the stairs, his eyes lock on mine, and he smiles, closing the distance between us.

“Hey.” He hooks his finger in the loop of my jeans and drags me towards him.

“Hey.” I rest my hands against his chest.

“You have a good day?” The fingers of his free hand slide along my jaw, back into my hair.

“It was okay.”

“Just, okay?”

“My brother Sage stopped by my place to talk this afternoon.” I tell him and he keeps his eyes locked on mine as he waits for me to continue. “My mom told him about the situation with Sharon, and he offered to help me out if I needed it.”

“You have a lot of people in your corner.”

“I do.” I lean into him. “We also spoke some about Sharon.” I drop my eyes to my hands resting against his chest. “He hasn’t been very happy about the relationship I had with our birth mom, so he and I have had some issues over the years.”

“Was he cool when you two talked?” He uses his fingers on my chin to bring my gaze back up to his.

“Yeah, and I was able to be honest about some stuff, and I think that he finally saw things from my point of view for the first time.”

“What stuff?”

“That I’ve felt like I was living a double life for a long time with my family here, never really being able to talk about my life in Colorado without upsetting someone.”

“Upsetting him?”

“Mostly him, but I also didn’t want to hurt my parents’ feelings by talking about Sharon, good or bad.”

“You were stuck in the middle.” His expression gentles. “And trying to protect everyone but yourself.”

“It didn’t work, though. People were still hurt, it’s just that no one talked about it.”

“That’s how those things go usually.”

“Yeah,” I agree, and he pulls me in for a hug.

“I’m glad that you’re all working through things.”

“Me too.” I tip my head back to look up at him, and he dips his chin down and brushes his lips across mine as we hear the front door open.

After kissing me once more, he lets me go, and we both look to the kitchen entryway as Billie walks in.

“Hey.” She shrugs off her backpack dropping it onto the table. “Is it okay if Cat comes over?” She asks walking to the fridge. “We have a history test tomorrow that we need to study for.”

“That’s fine,” Logan tells her as I grab the third Kinder egg Zuri picked up and pass it over to her.

“Thanks. I love these.” She grins at me and opens a can of seltzer water. “What are we having for dinner?”

“I’m making baked ziti.” I go back to unpacking the stuff I brought in. “I also got salad, asparagus, plus garlic bread.”

“Nice.” She rips open the egg and starts eating it while asking me. “Can Cat stay?”