Chapter 13 – Logan #2
“Yeah,” she agrees in a whisper, then tips her head to the side. “How was Kristy when she found out about what happened?”
“Worried about Coop and disappointed that he got into a fight. She came over and spent a couple of hours with him before he went to bed.”
“That’s good.” Her voice gentles as she asks, “Have things improved between her boyfriend and the kids?”
“She’s been keeping them separate, so she and the kids are good, but things with them and Aaron haven’t improved.”
“That must be hard on everyone involved.”
“I think she’s making it harder than it needs to be, and that if you don’t make things a big deal, they won’t be.”
“But she’s mom,” she whispers, and something about that causes me to pay closer attention to what she is about to say.
“You’re dad and I’m sure you’re amazing, but moms are different and it’s harder for kids to realize that their mom’s life doesn’t just revolve around them, especially if it’s always been that way. ”
Shit, I didn’t even think about it like that. “I’m sure that it’s not easy for Kristy to be in the middle where on one side she has someone she’s fallen in love with and on the other she feels like she might have to sacrifice that relationship in order to save her relationship with the kids.”
“You’re right,” I agree, and her eyes widen with surprise. “I might not have agreed with you a couple of hours ago, but when I told Billie I was coming over here to see you, she didn’t even bat an eye.”
“You told her that you were coming here?”
“I’m not lying to her about where I’m spending my time, especially when I want her to get comfortable with the idea that it might happen a lot more often.”
“Logan.”
“You need to let me know how much I owe you for lunch.” I change the subject when I see her start to put her guard up.
“I’ll tell you after you let me know how much I owe you for my car.”
“I’ll tell you Saturday night after you come hang out with me and a couple of my friends who are going downtown to watch Hector perform at one of the bars.”
“I—” She starts to speak but cuts herself off, her attention goes to the back door when it’s opened. I turn my head as Zuri pokes her head outside. “Hey,” Nalia says as I feel her sit forward so she can place her glass down on the coffee table. “Did we wake you?”
“No, I just wanted some water and thought I heard you out here.” Her eyes come to me, and she offers a small, sleepy smile and a soft “Hi.”
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“I’ll come tuck you back in?” Nalia tells her starting to stand and Zuri shakes her head while taking a step back.
“I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, honey, I’m right out here if you need me.”
“Alright.” She looks at me, then Nalia. “Night.”
“Night,” I tell her, and Nalia whispers the same as she closes the door.
“I really thought that she was out for the night,” Nalia tells me, taking her seat back while picking up her glass.
“It’s early. Normally, Coop isn’t out until after nine thirty on school nights.”
“Her too, but she had her first soccer practice this evening and was worn out by the time we got home at seven. I swear I caught her falling asleep in the middle of dinner.”
“Coop’s done that more than once.” I laugh. “How was practice?”
“Good,” she smiles, “Hot. I need to get one of those fancy chairs with a cover over the top if I’m going to make it through the season without getting sunburnt.”
“Give it a few weeks, and it will cool down and start raining every other day.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing, but I’m looking forward to fall; it’s my favorite time of year. Well, that and the first few weeks of winter, and by winter, I just mean the weeks leading up to Christmas and Christmas day. Right after that I’ll be wishing it was summer again.”
“Good to know.” I grin while taking a swig of my drink then tell her. “You’ll have to give me her schedule and we’ll try to make it to a few of her games.”
“She’d love that, I know she wanted to go to Cooper’s game Saturday, but I’m not sure we’ll be able to make it.”
“You have plans?”
“My parents want us to come over. Since school started, we haven’t had a lot of time to visit with them.”
“Do you have plans Saturday evening?”
“You really are relentless.” She shakes her head with a small smile that offers a bit of hope. “No, I don’t have plans, but I also don’t have a sitter.”
“I got one, and Zuri can hang out at the house with Coop, and the sitter can keep an eye on the two of them at my place.”
“I don’t know your sitter and I’m not…”
“You’ve met my mom a few times,” I cut her off. “She’s mostly trustworthy.”
“Mostly.” She smiles.
“I let her watch the kids one Saturday, and by the time I got home, we had a new puppy. Another time I came home to the kitchen covered with slime, and then there was the LEGO fiasco.”
“LEGOs don’t seem as bad as coming home to a puppy you weren’t planning on or slime everywhere.”
“You’d think so, but I hate LEGOs, and she bought one of those architecture sets that’s like five thousand pieces. Billie was younger then and really wanted the castle for her bedroom, so who do you think ended up spending forty hours putting it together?”
“At least it wasn’t a rat,” she mumbles, and my brows drag together. “That was the surprise my parents gifted Zuri when we moved in here.”
“A rat?”
“Yep, a real rat. His name is Pippin, and I hate admitting it, but he’s cute.”
“Yeah, you win,” I mutter, and she nudges my shoulder as she laughs. “Gotta love grandparents.”
“Yeah,” she agrees softly and there is something about the way she says it and the look in her eyes that tells me she actually means that.
“So, Saturday?”
Dragging her eyes off mine, she looks out towards the dark backyard for a long time before she meets my gaze again and lets out a deep breath.
“Alright.”
“Alright?”
“Yeah, even if it’s just to see Hector sing on stage since I can’t imagine him doing that.”
“He and his ex would play together every other weekend downtown; this will be his first time on his own and back on stage since shit between them went south.”
“They don’t have a good relationship?”
“Not even a little. She cheated, they tried to work through that shit, and when he decided that he couldn’t get over what she did and told her that he wanted a divorce, he became enemy number one.”
“That sucks.”
“No, what sucks is that they have two girls, who don’t know about their mom cheating, they just think their dad woke up one day and decided to put an end to their happy family and a seventeen-year marriage that from their perspective was perfect.”
“Poor Hector,” she whispers with her face soft.
“Yeah, baby, poor Hector,” I whisper back.
She takes her eyes off mine, then says quietly, “It makes you wonder why people get married at all.”
“You don’t see yourself ever getting married?” Her eyes come back to mine.
“I don’t know.” She takes a sip of wine.
“What about kids? I know you have Zuri, but…”
“No.” She cuts me off before I can finish asking if she wants kids of her own one day. “I know Zuri’s not mine in the way that I gave birth to her, but she’s it for me unless I adopt an older kid one day, which is something I’ve thought about.”
“I can respect that.”
“Do you want more kids?” I’m actually surprised she’s asking, even if she’s only doing it because I asked her first. Progress? Maybe, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
“I haven’t ever put much thought into it, but I love kids, so I wouldn’t be upset if I ended up with one or a couple more, however that came about.”
“How would your kids feel about you adding to your family?” Shit, now that question coming from her really shocks me.
“I’m not sure, but I guess they’d adjust.”
“How would Zuri feel about having siblings?”
“She has two older brothers, who she misses like crazy, and she loves all her cousins who are here, so I would guess she’d be over the moon with glee at the idea of having a bigger family.
” She yawns, covering her mouth with the sleeve of her sweater.
“Sorry, I think the wine and the day is catching up to me.”
“Don’t apologize, it’s getting late, and I should probably head home.”
“Yeah.” Her face softens. “But this has been nice.”
“We’ll have to do it more often.” I get up, grab both bottles, and my empty glass.
“Maybe.” She gets up with her glass and grabs the other two from the table.
After dropping the stuff in the kitchen, she walks me to the front door and leans against the door jamb with her arms wrapped around her middle after I step outside.
“Night, Logan.”
“Night, baby.” I step into her space, wrap my hand around her jaw, dip my chin down, and brush my mouth across hers. “I’ll see you Saturday.”
“Saturday,” she agrees, softly lifting her eyes to mine. Fuck, it’s hard to let her go, but I force myself to release her jaw and head down the steps. When I get to my Jeep, I look back towards the front door and watch her wave before she steps back, closing the door.
Getting into my Jeep, I don’t even bother trying to wipe the smile off my face.