Page 78 of Just Like Summer

“Pretty much, but I can tell you what, every one of us loved y’all.”

Kamilla pulled in a deep breath and swiped a tear from her cheek. “And here I was, thinking I was going to be alone.”

Fredo took her hand. “If you let me, I got you.”

Tearfully, she nodded. “I actually need you because I have no idea what I’m doing. And I’m scared out of my mind.”

“Being scared is ok, Kamilla. It makes you strong. There’s no bitch in your blood. You keep fighting. You keep getting up. You’ll make it to the other side, hear me?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I hear you.”

Fredo pulled her into an embrace he knew she needed. One he’d been longing to pull her into since their first conversation. This was his chance to right his wrongs involved with his lineage. When he released her, he took her in with fatherly eyes. “I don’t have any pull at OSU, but there’s a spot for you in the valley and a house you can stay in.”

“You sure?”

He nodded. “It’s yours. Bought it when I found out about you. Say the word and I’ll make the call.”

“Word.”

He accepted her acceptance. “I’ll be there every step of the way. If you want to keep working until it’s time to have that baby, that’s up to you.”

“I need to work. I don’t want to feel like I’m a charity case. Been there, not looking forward to going back.”

“You’re my granddaughter, taking care of you is my honor.”

“Just be here. I’ll work.”

thirty-two

“What’s the boxes for?” Dania asked, stepping into the house with Nate behind her holding a duffle bag.

“Uh,” Kamilla huffed. “I’m moving to the valley.”

“Alone?” Nate questioned with a look of disagreement. “Girl, hell no. That nigga would kill me if I let you go to valley alone. Especially like that.”

Nate gestured to her midsection.

“You told him?” Kamilla questioned.

Nate swayed his head and poked his lip out. “Nah, K. That’s your business to tell him. He’s my boy, love that nigga. But you’re his lady; and I’m with the nigga when he’s right and the nigga been hitting every shot. But this, I’m not with. I won’t tell him and I won’t leave you hanging, aight? So if you’re moving to the valley, we’re all moving to the valley.”

“I’m happy you said that because I was going the minute she said it,” Dania shared with a smirk.

“Girl, stop playing with me,” Nate grumbled, nipping his lip. It was obvious that Dania’s personality was what had Nate on the hook and would keep him on the hook. She talked back and stood her ground. “What’s the plan with the house?”

Kamilla shrugged. “Rent it out. Passive income, keep his books stacked up.”

Nate nodded in agreement and moved over to the small kitchen table. “Come here, K”

He placed the bag on the table and unzipped it. When she stopped by his side, he pointed to the stacks of rubber-banded money. Cairo’s life savings. “This is everything he had stashed. The money from the album is going in an account Fahaad set up. I got the account info in that envelope, and all this is yours.”

Kamilla looked into bag and scrubbed her face. “Did you take yours?”

“I did,” Nate replied. “He was very serious about you going to school.”

“Fredo got me in at the community college in the valley,” she said, pulling in a deep breath. “We got to make sure that he comes home and to something.”

“Kamilla,” Nate warned. Everyone knew that when Cairo made his mind up, there was nothing no one could do about it.