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“You’re thirty-eight years old,” he accuses, pocketing his phone. “What is wrong with you women?”
“Lissie brings out my fun. She’s still a baby.”
“Don’t blame Lis. It’s the girls.”
“Nina, Luce, and Megs?” I question, feigning hurt.
“I heard my name. Am I in trouble?” Nina questions, slipping into the kitchen and dropping her bag to the floor. I hear the house come alive as her children disperse. “Charles.” She leans in to quickly kiss his cheek. “Looking extra scrumptious tonight, if I do say so myself.” She’s wearing her dance tights and a leotard, her shorts pulled up over the top. She looks at me. “We having a bitch?”
Charlie sighs when I laugh. “I’m not even going to attempt it with you two tonight.” He heads toward the door.
Nina grins at his back. “Don’t be a spoilsport.”
“Goodbye, girls.”
Nina shoves her bag under the counter with the back of her foot, then moves around the kitchen, snatching the chilled bottle of rosé from the fridge. “I saw Lance set up in the lounge…” She walks to where our wine glasses hang. “How’d that go?”
“I’d love one,” I tell her, and she takes down two glasses. “And it went better than I could have hoped. I cried. Everyone got a little teary, actually. But it was… okay.”
“I told you it would be.” She pours the two glasses of wine and then slips onto the stool at the island. “That pie smells incredible,” she hums.
“Mase in with Ave and Lance?”
“Yep. We’re trying to talk Ellis into not choking Lance out WWE-style. Thought it would be good to introduce them formally before we sit them at the dinner table and put a fork in his hand.”
“Hmm.” I brush it off, sipping the wine she hands me. “I can’t help but root for Ellis’s hostility. He gets away with everything I can’t as a mature adult woman.” I give her a sarcastic smile.
“You want to off him with a fork?”
My face screws up. “Off him is a bit strong.”
“Make him bleed a little bit?”
I let my eyes light up. “Exactly.”
“I get that. Sometimes Mase will breathe wrong, and I’m just like,die.”
We both start laughing at the same time, Nina’s glass lifting first before I clink mine against it.
I love that she gets me.
“Feel better?” she asks through her laughter, a slight frown creasing her brow as she observes me. I know she’s worried. They’re all worried.
“Yes. I didn’t realise I needed to laugh so badly until I spoke to Lissie on the phone just now. I miss…”
“The lightness.”
I nod. “I wished those seven years away for the sake of them both. I never truly thought about how heavy everything would hit when the time came.”
She gives me a sad smile, just listening.
“I don’t think I know where to start with him. I don’t know what to say.”
“He probably feels the same,” she offers. “I can only imagine how lost he’s likely feeling after being stuck in one place, no contact with us or his family, for seven years. I get it was his choice, but…”
“I know.” My shoulders drop, that weight pulling me right back down. “I can’t tell you how badly I need to see him be him again, you know. To say something Lance-like.”
“Mase would say the same thing whenever he’d get back from visiting the hospital. We’ll keep an eye on him. He’s here now and…” She pauses, the children’s shouting and laughter ensuing from somewhere deep in the house. “I mean, if that can’t fix a person, I don’t know what will.”
