Page 72 of Finding Fate

Nash

Today

Well hell. Didn't expectI'd need to give the 'keep your trap shut' speech to Mya too. I redirect my approach to Liza to whirl around and face the smallest, fiercest force known to man.

"Mya," I groan and wrap my hands around her shoulders, pulling her back against my stomach. She tilts her head back to look up with a smile, which tells me she knows exactly what she's doing, but I can't be frustrated at her. "You and that mom of yours need to learn something called tact."

"Where's the fun in that?" Liza asks, stepping beside me and draping an arm over my shoulders. "And who are you to talk about tact? You say whatever pops into that mind of yours."

Pops is just staring, wide-eyed. "Not everything. The good stuff I keep to myself."

Liza squeezes my shoulder, directing my attention down to her. "You look good. Better." Her nose comes to my chest and she takes a deep, exaggerated sniff. "Smell better too." A quick look to Fate and she turns, putting her back to the living room, and leans in. "Sorry, I couldn't find anyone to watch Mya. Hope it's okay I brought her."

I shrug. "Honestly, I don't know. We’ll see, won't we." I turn my attention back to Fate, who now looks to be searching for a place to hide from these two. Damn, I love this part of her. The shy, nonsocial side. The innocent, naïve side. "This is my sister Liza and my favorite niece of all time—"

"I'm your only niece, Uncle Nash," she retorts with a hand on her popped hip.

"Right, still my favorite. My niece, Mya."

Mya's wild blonde hair swings back and forth from her high ponytail as she walks across the room and falls on the couch. "Uncle Nash, can I read one of those?" She points to the books laid out on the table.

I start to respond but Pops speaks up first.

"Sure." She slides off her stool and moves toward the couch. Liza moves closer, but I grip her hand, holding her back and allowing this scene to play out on its own. "Have you read any of them?" Hands still tucked into the pockets of her hoodie, Pops points to the stack of books with her elbow.

Mya scans the spines and shakes her head. "No, but I've wanted to read Harry Potter. It's just always checked out at the library when I go by, and Mom says we can't afford to buy them, so I keep waiting."

Liza leans into me and clears her throat. Fuck, what have I missed being so damn self-absorbed lately?

"You know," Fate says as she rounds the couch, "it was the same way for me growing up. Do you read a lot?"

Mya nods enthusiastically. "Not as much as Mom, but more than my friends."

"She reads constantly," Liza says from beside me with a smile. "Between that and movies, I swear she's always in another world in that head of hers."

"Me too," Fate whispers with a half-smile. "How about this." She sits forward to shuffle through the stack of books. "Here's book one. Read it, and maybe next time we can talk about it. You know, like a private book club."

Liza's arm snakes around my waist and pulls me to her. "How's she doing?" she whispers as the two on the couch talk about the exclusive book club they've just created. "She looks okay. Way better than you did when you first came home." Her eyes drift to my leg. "I'm not kidding, Nash. You look good. ‘Happy’ might be the right word. Better than I've seen you, maybe since even before you left for Africa. Have you two talked? Does she know about everything?"

I lean against the doorframe with a sigh. "No, I haven't really had time, and I have no idea how to bring it all up. I'm fucking terrified it’ll scare her away." With a quick glance to the living room, I pull Liza to the front porch. "Where do I start? ‘Oh, glad you're back, and F-fucking-Y-I, I somehow fell in love with you while I was beat to shit every day, and your voice at night was the only thing that kept me sane. I went insane while you were missing from the fear of what was happening to you and I wasn't there to stop it. Even now, the second you walk into the room, it's like all the air gets sucked out and I'm left having no damn idea what to do or say.’" With a groan, I cover my face with my hands and fall onto a porch chair. "She has enough shit to process. I'm not going to add to it."

"You're not shit."

"I wasn't—"

"Yeah you were. Now stop being a damn pansy and just tell her. Girls like that, you know. Damn, did we not teach you anything growing up?" She leans against a post and smiles. "She deserves to know, and honestly, you deserve to know her response or it’ll drive you crazy. I know you. The not knowing will fester until you explode. You never know, Nash, maybe she feels the same way."

Right. If she did, she wouldn't be pulling away every time I try to touch her.

"Did you bring the stuff?" I ask, shifting the conversation from the current topic. Liza means well, but she doesn't know what all Pops is going through in acclimating to being stateside. I won’t add to her burden. Plus, if I never tell her, then I'll never have to hear her rejection or see her walk away fully knowing what she's leaving behind.

Me.

"Of course. You ask and I deliver."

"What stuff?" Fate asks as she and Mya join us on the porch.

Popping up from the chair, I turn to her. "I thought, you know, with you being back, that maybe you'd want to be more like you. The old you, or the normal you. The person you were before all this sh-stuff. So, Liza, I called her because—"

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