“And you still blushing.”
She bit her lip. “Stop it.”
I stepped closer and pulled her into a hug, slow and intentional. She melted into it for a moment longer than I’d expected before she pulled back. Before either of us could say anything else, a voice cut in.
“Excuse me . . . Westside Zay?”
I grunted and closed my eyes before turning in the direction of whoever it was that spoke. A man with his iPhone pointed in our direction stood a few feet away.
“I’m with GNZ,” the man said. “Is this family time in Los Angeles today? How has life been since finding out you had a daughter?”
I didn’t answer. I slid one hand onto the small of Princess’s back, grabbed her suitcase with the other, and gently guided her in the direction of the car that had been waiting for us.
“How about you, Ms. Love Tate?” the man continued, following behind us. “How has life been after having a best-selling novel turned into a movie? Pretty good feeling, right? How long are you in Los Angeles?”
“Yeah . . .” Princess responded politely. “It’s a pretty good feeling.”
“How about you, Zay? You have your family now, number one soundtrack. You feeling pretty good?”
Heads turned in our direction, and more phones came out. Voices through the crowd overlapped and spread quickly.
“That’s Westside Zay!”
“That’s that girl that wrote that movie . . .”
“Is that his baby mama?”
We made it to the car, where the driver already had the door open for us, and hopped inside. Our driver shut the door behind us and hurried to the front to drive off. The cameraman did his best to hold his phone close to the window, and I was thankful they were tinted.
Princess leaned close to me and whispered, “You good?”
“Yeah, you okay?” I asked.
“I’m okay. That was crazy.” She chuckled.
Yana sat in the seat before us and turned with the phone still pressed against her ear. “Y’all okay? What happened?”
“We good, baby girl. Everything is good,” I said.
The terminal blurred past us as we drove away, leaving the small crowd and a few flashes behind us. Yana turned her head back to the front and continued her conversation.
Princess and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
The camera stayed behind, but what mattered the most was right here with me.
4
By the time we got back to the house, the night had settled into that soft, city quiet with the warm air that blew just right.
Yana kicked her shoes off at the door. “I’m starving.”
“What do you mean?” Princess huffed, strutting into the house behind her. “We ate at the airport before we took off!”
“Earlier, I was justairporthungry. This ishungry, hungry.”
Trailing behind them both, I closed the door and smiled. I listened to them bicker over food and watched as they moved through my space like they belonged there. Yana headed straight for the kitchen and opened the fridge.
“You still got those frozen fries?” she called.
