Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“We were going to drive,” I tell her and Cooper.
“Save yourself the gas and the headache.” Logan’s face appears behind his son’s on camera. “Just text me your address.”
I really, really want to tell him no and to put up a fight but with the kids both watching us I feel like I can’t do that.
“Alright,” I agree, and Logan smiles.
“See you soon.” He disappears out of view.
“I’ll be ready in just a couple of minutes. Do you mind filling our water bottles?” I ask Zuri.
“Sure.” She wanders out of the bathroom while talking to Cooper about the game.
I pick up my phone and type out a message to Logan, telling him thanks for putting me on the spot, then remember what he said about me arguing and delete it before I just send him our address and finish getting ready.
Zuri
“I think my dad likes your mom,” Cooper says, and I bite my bottom lip. I know I should tell him and Heather that Nalia isn’t my mom, but if I do, they’ll ask where my mom is and why I don’t live with her. It’s always the first thing people ask, and I don’t want to have to tell them my mom is in jail.
“Why?” Heather asks Cooper as I walk into my bedroom after filling mine and Nalia’s water bottles.
Falling to my stomach on my bed, I check how much money I have in my game. I really want another egg and luckily just have enough coins to buy one.
“I don’t know, he just seems weird when they talk.”
“Don’t you have a mom?” Heather asks him.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t live with us; she lives with her boyfriend.”
“Imagine if your dad and Zuri’s mom got married.” Heather giggles. “You guys would be brother and sister.”
“That’d be cool,” Cooper says, and I rub my lips together. It would be cool, and if Nalia got with Cooper’s dad, she wouldn’t be with Cole, who still lives in Colorado, and we would never have to move back there. I don’t want to move back there; I like it here. At first, I didn’t know if I would, but I like our house and everyone at school. Well, except for Matthew, he’s a jerk, but everyone else is nice. And I have a big family here, and Nico and Sophie, who are the best, said that I could come up with a cool name to call them, like Cooper calls his Gigi and Pops.
“Oh my god,” I whisper when the egg I just bought opens.
“What?” Heather asks.
“I finally got the fox.”
“You did?” Heather whispers.
“Yeah.”
“I’m so jealous, I’ve wanted that for so long,” Cooper grumbles.
“Maybe you’ll get it next time,” I tell him excitedly.
Six
NALIA
By the time I’m done, and I have a bag packed with stuff for Zuri and me, it’s time for Logan and Cooper to arrive, so Zuri and I walk out of the house to wait in the driveway for them. I might be spending more time with Logan, but that doesn’t mean that I want him in my home and in my space, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Before Zuri and I even reach the end of the driveway, Logan comes around the corner at the end of the block with a black backwards ballcap on his head and his aviators on. Next to him, a mass of blonde hair blows in the wind, but I can’t make out much of the girl’s features beneath the oversized sunglasses covering half her face. Still, I know it’s his daughter, I saw lots of photos of her plastered on the walls at his parents’ house, and he mentioned her more than once, but she was at a friend’s, so I never got to meet her.
Coming to a stop at the end of my driveway, Logan grins, while his daughter eyes me behind her sunglasses without cracking a smile.
“You didn’t get a chance to meet my daughter, Billie, the other day,” he says, getting out and walking around to us. “Nalia and Zuri, this is my daughter, Billie.”
“Hey.” I smile at her.
“Hi,” she mumbles, and I wonder if I would have caught her rolling her eyes if she wasn’t wearing sunglasses.
“I’ll put this in the trunk.” He takes the bag I’m holding, then tells Billie. “Hop in the back so Nalia can sit up front.”
“But I called shotgun,” she whines like any teenager who called shotgun and won would.
“It’s okay,” I cut in when I see him about to pull a dad move and tell her to do what he said. “I’ll sit in the back with Cooper and Zuri.” I don’t even leave it open for discussion I walk to the open back door and Cooper who is dressed in his baseball uniform scoots over making room for Zuri then Zuri moves to the middle making room for me.