“That means I belong here?” she asked.
“You been belonging here. Bracelet just catching up,” Pops said gruffly.
She looked at me, then at Kyleigh, then at the whole table. “Okay,” she said, and smiled like the sun.
After dinner, we migrated to the living room. Kids rolled around on the floor. The grown folks argued about whether to watch a game or a movie. Max made his rounds like he was running for office.
I ended up on the couch with Kyleigh tucked under my arm, Aziza sprawled half on my leg, half on hers. The tree lights blinked softly. Outside the big front windows, I could see the glow from the hill in the distance where the big tree and a few of the pines were lit. Not all the way, not every night, but enough.
“You still good with it?” I asked quietly.
“The lights?”
“Yeah.”
She thought for a second. “I’m… learning to be. One section at a time.”
I kissed her hair. “We can cut them off whenever you want.”
“I know. That’s why I don’t feel like I have to.”
She smiled. Aziza craned her neck to look up at us. “Y’all whispering about grown-up stuff?”
“Always,” Kyleigh said.
“You don’t wanna know,” I added.
“Yes, I do.”
“You wanna know algebra?”
She made a face. “No.”
“That’s grown-up stuff.”
“Then I don’t wanna know,” she decided, satisfied.
Ola Kate dropped into the armchair opposite us, a plate of pie balanced on her knees.
“Well, y’all look disgustingly happy. I guess the Lord really do work miracles,” she announced.
“He do. Even when we don’t,” Mrs. Amanda agreed.
She sat on the other side of the room, but her eyes were on us. Soft. Proud. Between the two of them, I felt like I was eight again, getting double-teamed by aunties. I didn’t mind.
“What you thinking about?” Kyleigh asked.
“Nothing,” I lied.
She lifted a brow.
“Okay, not nothing. I’m thinking about how this time last year, I didn’t even know I had a daughter. Didn’t know I was coming home for real. Didn’t know I’d be sitting on this couch with both of y’all, watching my people fuss over y’all like they been doing it forever.”
She looked at me, an entire conversation in her eyes.
“I’m thinking about how we still got a whole lot to fix,” I admitted. “But it finally feel like we got time to fix it.”
She nodded. “We do.”
