Page 89 of Free Agent

Like… right in the moment.

I knew exactly where he was.

Status, or lack thereof, between us aside, even that was more security than I’d had with a whole ring on my finger, so I was just… appreciating it for what it was.

Until my phone started buzzing.

It was in my room, on the bedside table, and I briefly considered ignoring it. It could be somebody calling about BabyBee, but there was very little I could do from here, and even if I could… it was too damn early in the morning for problems.

Not that thinking about it in that manner would make it go away if there was a problem.

With a deep sigh, I pulled myself from my seat to step back inside for the phone.

Immediately, I was glad I did.

I checked my face in the mirror to make sure it was free from crusties, not that it really mattered, before I hit the answer button on the video call. The screen said it was my brother-in-law calling, but the exact person I expected to see when the call connected was right there.

“Now Mini Mouse, what in the world are you doing this early in the morning?” I asked, unable to help beaming back at her sweet, beautiful face.

It used to hurt looking at her, because she looked so much like Nova. And it did still sting to get to watch her growing up, while her mother never got the privilege.

Now, I mostly leaned into the beauty of it, of getting to see my sister’s face even though she was no longer earthside.

It wasn’t painful anymore.

It was a gift.

“Daddy promised that if I didn’t call last night, I could call first thing in the morning. So here I am,” she proudly declared with a little flourish, making me laugh.

“Yes, indeed, you are. Are you doing okay? Don’t you have school this morning?”

Her little puffs bounced on either side of her face as her head bobbed in answer. “Yeah. Daddy and Miss Amanda are cooking breakfast before they take me.”

“Oh that sounds sweet.” I nodded.

Daddy and Ms. Amanda had been getting quite close, for quite some time at this point, and I was just waiting on my brother-in-law to decide it was the right moment for some sort of official meet and greet.

Not that he had to.

Amina was approaching six years old, and Nova had been gone for most of that time. Amina only knew her in the abstract, through pictures, videos, and our stories of her.

It was okay for him to move on.

In fact, I was glad for him.

He’d loved my sister to the bone, put everything he had and then some into trying to save her, and had grieved just as hard as the rest of us, while fathering a newborn who looked just like the woman he’d lost.

He deserved to find love again.

I just… wished it wasn’t awkward. There was no sort of obligation beyond that of being Amina’s aunt that I might be able to claim to lobby for meeting this woman he had around her so much. And it was a shaky claim, at best.

So of course, I wouldn’t.

Largely since, by all accounts I’d been offered, Amanda was a perfectly nice woman; a librarian he’d met taking Amina to weekend literacy events. It was quite wholesome, actually, and Amina loved Amanda. And it didn’t seem as if she was trying to step into any sort of weird mom-like role.

So there was nothing to do except… be cool.

“Hey, if Daddy and Miss Amanda are cooking breakfast, tell me something Miss Mamas, uhh… what do they think you are doing right now? Because I can tell from what I see behind you that you’re not in the kitchen.”

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