Page 74 of Until Nalia
“Fuck.” He drops his head back on his shoulders. “You’re right.”
“I… What?” I blink.
“You’re right.” He sits back in his seat. “I hate her; even hearing her name makes me angry, and I have never understood why you’d want to have anything to do with her, especially when you know exactly what she did to us. But it’s not fair that you’ve felt isolated or like you couldn’t share stuff with anyone.” I’m so taken aback by what he’s saying that I honestly don’t know what to say. “I’m sorry you’ve felt like that, and I’ll work on being more…” he looks disgusted, “open-minded when it comes to her, and I’ll try to understand why you care about her so much.”
I sigh because this is where he is confused, where everyone is confused. “I care about her because she is the woman who gave birth to me, my brothers, and the little girl who I love like she’s mine. But she and I have always had a very complicated relationship. She knows that I have never considered her my mom and that I don’t really trust her. She also knows that Zuri is the reason I’ve stuck around all these years. I couldn’t just leave her, not when I’ve seen how Sharon is.”
“Zuri is lucky to have you.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I tell him, and his expression softens and fills with understanding.
“I get that.” He looks towards the hall when my cell phone, that I left in my office, starts to ring. “I should get out of here.” He slides off his stool. “I’m sure you need to get back to work.”
“It’s fine.” I move around the counter. “I’m actually glad that you stopped by and that we were able to talk.”
“Me too.” He wraps his arm around me, pulling me into his side. “I’ll see you Sunday at Mom and Dad’s, right?”
“I’ll be there.” I hug him back then walk him to the door. When I get it open, he stops before he steps outside.
“I know I haven’t told you, but I’m glad you’re back.”
“Me too,” I mutter, and he knocks my shoulder before he steps out the door, saying over his shoulder.
“See you Sunday.”
“See you Sunday.” I close the door, letting out a breath. Okay, that started off good, got really bad, then got good again, so all in all I’m glad that he came over and we were able to talk, and that I was able to be honest with him about how I feel. With a weight lifted off my shoulders, I drag in a breath and head back to my office to work.
“What’s all this?” Logan asks from the front door as I walk up the front steps with two overflowing bags of groceries behind Zuri.
“I decided that I would make dinner since you’re the one who’s always cooking.” My eyes slide closed when he leans down, touching his lips to the corner of mine while taking the bags from me.
“Can you cook?” Coop asks as I stop to give Dozer, who is dancing at my feet, some attention while he closes the door.
“I’m not the best cook, but I can make a few things.”
“I can only make toast,” he mutters.
“Really?” Zuri frowns at him.
“What can you cook?” he asks her with a frown of his own.
“Everything,” she shrugs,
“Yeah, right.” He rolls his eyes.
“She’s been cooking since she was probably five, honey.” I ruffle his hair as I walk past him into the kitchen. What I don’t tell him is that she didn’t have a choice but to learn how to cook with Sharon as her mom.
“What are you making?” Logan asks, standing over my shoulder while I start to unpack the shopping bags.
“Baked ziti,” Zuri tells him as she takes out the three Kinder eggs she had me buy from the other bag, passing one to Cooper.
“What’s baked ziti?” Cooper asks, opening his egg. I don’t say anything about either of them having candy before dinner. Growing up, my parents never made eating junk food a big deal. If we wanted candy, chips, or anything else, we could have it, and I can honestly say that it made my relationship with food so much healthier than my friends, who could only have a treat every now and then because if their parents weren’t around, they would gorge on sweets and junk food until they were sick.
“It’s basically baked spaghetti with mozzarella cheese,” I explain.
“Right on, I love spaghetti.”
“You’ll love it,” Zuri tells him, then asks. “Do you want to play Phogs?”
