“Probably,” I said, leaning back and sighing. “Leave me alone on this, okay, Nova? I’ve never gotten hung up on a woman like this before. Let me adjust.”
“Hung up isn’t the right way to put it. You love her.”
Noticing the girls watching me, I mumbled, “Sure.”
“Don’t hide from your feelings, Dan.”
“I don’t think I am.”
Nova picked up her plate and walked to the kitchen. The girls stared at each other while filling their little mouths with buttered noodles. They were clearly feeding off my tension.
“Did you like it at Lula’s house?” I asked the girls who nodded in unison. “What did you like?”
“It’s pretty,” Lyric said and sighed. “I like her baby dog. Xena is my friend.”
“How about you?” I asked Skylar.
My niece shrugged, unsure how to explain. She reminded me of myself. I tended to hide in my head rather than put words to my feelings.
Nova stepped out of the kitchen. “Not that you asked, but I liked having people around.”
Studying my sister, I noticed she was falling into a bad mood.
“We never seemed to make friends around here,” I admitted. “Not with the neighbors or the moms at the park.”
“I blame the club guys. Most of them don’t have girlfriends, let alone wives. The few old ladies are from Baton Rouge. They have friends, so I’m always the outsider,” Nova said and dropped dramatically into her chair. “I thought it was just me. Like, I’m not fun enough. But Lula and the other Little Memphis foxes were friendly with me.”
Exhaling deeply, I took my sister’s hand. “Lula wants to get a place down here. Something big enough for her and Dillon. I’ll be there instead of here.”
The girls stopped eating and watched me like I’d shit in their plates.
“So, you’d move out?” Nova asked in horror.
“Or,” I said and reached over to stroke the girls’ heads, “we could all move together to a new house.”
Skylar and Lyric looked around, seeming confused. Nova stared hard at me.
“I don’t want to live alone with the girls,” she said as tears pooled in her big eyes. “I’m afraid to be here without you.”
“Before you drove to Little Memphis, I felt torn in two directions. I don’t know how we’re going to make it work. But there’s no space for Lula and Dillon here. We’d have to find a bigger place with space for all of us to be comfortable together.”
Nova swallowed hard. “I like this house, but it also reminds me of when we first moved here. I fixed it up as if I were fixing myself. Now, the house is beautiful, but I still feel unfinished.”
“Lula is tight with her family. It’ll be difficult for her to live down here, even part-time, but she understands why I need you to be close.”
“I wish we could live up there,” Nova said and sighed. “I wasn’t really ready to leave.”
“Good news then,” Zodiac said from the shadowed foyer.
Nova screamed at the sound of his voice, and the girls quickly joined in. Skylar fell out of her chair and scrambled away from the scary man at the doorway.
“What the fuck, man?” I demanded of my president while I picked up Skylar and calmed her panic. “I could have shot you.”
“You didn’t even know I was here. Sloppy, Exile.”
Nova picked up Lyric and stared in horror at Zodiac. “Why were you spying on us?”
“I came over to talk to your brother. You should be more careful.”
