I was dry and wet at the same time.
It was as if all the saliva in my mouth had evaporated, and in its place my panties were wet. It wasn’t often that anyone could leave me speechless, but with Nola I had met my match. She told me everything I needed to hear, whether I wanted to or not, and then she was able to surprise me, knocking me off my axis and keeping me on my toes.
“Noted.” I nodded and stepped away because if I wanted the home opener to go exactly as we wanted, I would stay as far away from her as I could possibly manage.
“Okay, now can you answer my question please?”
“Right…uh honestly, each sibling is going to get their own rating.” I tried to remember what we were talking about.
“Great.” She huffed.
“You’ve met Aaliyah and Amir in a professional setting, but the dating part…”
“Is another layer.” My girlfriend finished for me.
“Right. Amir is a one; he’s loves everyone. It’s actually really hard to get him to hate you. Aaliyah, well, I’ll be honest she’ll be an eight.”
“An eight?! I don’t think I’d even rate my mom that high,” she said, and my stomach flipped at the idea of meeting Olivia Young in thehi, I love your daughterway.
“She’s a skeptic. She’s never seen me date—actually none of them have—so you actually might have to do some cartwheels and backflips to impress her.”
“I can do neither of those things.” Nola shook her head and pushed my plate in front of me.
“That is the least surprising thing about you.”
“The best I can offer is my culinary skills.” I took a bite and nodded my head, because yes, even if Nola and I hadn’t fallen in love the way we had, it would’ve eventually come from the way she could cook a meal.
“Celeste and Colette were easily five on the scale, but for separate reasons. Colette thinks we should’ve kissed a while ago—no she doesn’t know, but she’s cynical so she might think you’re playing the long game or something. Celeste doesn’t believe in love, so that’s her own hill.”
Nola stared blankly at me which I knew meant her brain was processing the overload of information I just gave her. This was the first time she’d be around all five Lees, with varying personalities and attitudes. I never thought about what it’d be like on the outside looking in, how we looked to everyone, howwe sounded. Our parents raised us with no care for outside opinion but now, maybe just ever so slightly, I wished I could remove myself to better prepare my girl.
“You’re going to do amazing. Everyone loves you, which for me four years ago was the worst thing I could’ve ever said. But today,” I grabbed Nola’s hand from across the kitchen island. “Just be yourself and they’ll fall in love. Like I did.”
Her eyes softened at my confession, it was easy to make Nola melt, and I never took any moment I did for granted.
“Okay, I think I’ll head out now, grocery shop, let everyone, including you, talk shit about me. Then I’ll make my grand entrance.” I was so unbelievably content with Nola. The only thing that could break this euphoria was if we got on that court in two days and gave the league and the Miami fans the biggest flop they’d ever seen.
But my gut felt solid; the same it did when I blew everything up and came to Miami. It couldn’t lead me astray now.
I just needed to remember to think with my head and not my heart.
For once.
As it turned out, all five Lee siblings fitting in the same bed only worked when we were in our parents’ king-sized mattress.
“Bee-sting, get your bare feetawayfrom me,” Celeste growled.
“I’m not trying on purpose, Nessie, I told you guys twenty minutes ago we needed to get ready for the beach!”
My siblings had entered the townhouse with a tornado of complaints and bitchy attitudes. Colette was stuck in the middle seat, Amir upgraded to first class without telling Aaliyah, and Colette nearly screamed at the state of her hair in the humid Miami heat. I was actually grateful Nola had been out of the townhouse for half the day. We were, indeed, a lot.
“Will your arch nemesis-turned-lover be joining us? We could actually use a fourth person to play mermaids with,” Colette asked, the most excited of the bunch to see Nola in the flesh. Aaliyah and Amir claimed they were too old to play mermaids, but they’d been pulling that excuse since they turned sixteen.
“She’s not my arch nemesis,” I retorted for the third time.
“Anymore.” Amir clarified, and squinted at me like he had x-ray vision. Amir had been the only sibling to comment on every, and I meanevery, post showing a sliver of Nola in the background. As soon as everyone walked through the front door he’d whispered in my ear asking if mymahalwas around.
I was at least grateful that he hadn’t made the announcement to everyone else yet.
