When You Were My Sister

Chapter Twelve (Who is in her bed?)

Neima 

James kissed my shoulder as water cascaded over me, in the aftermath of our steamy shower love making. I turned to admire the chiseled plains of his body, running my hands over his chest, kissing him where my hand caressed.

"At this rate, we will never leave this bathroom." He teased, kissing me.

"Is that so bad?" I looked up at him beneath my lashes.

He smirked at me. "As tempting as that is, you have something important that you need to do."

I rolled my eyes. "I know."

"Don't roll your eyes at me." He warned with a raise of an eyebrow.

"I don't mind continuing this conversation in bed." I wrapped my arms around his neck pulling his face closer so I could kiss him some more.

He groaned and slapped me on the butt, then pulled away walking out of the shower. I rolled my eyes.

"I know you just rolled your eyes at me again, you will pay for that later." He warned.

How did he know that? He never failed to surprise me. I turn off the shower and stepped out, he had a towel waiting for me in his hand. A towel hung low around his hips.

"I am looking forward to that." I teased. I took the towel from him and wrapped it around my body, while he used a smaller one to dry my hair.

When he was done, he dropped the towel in the hamper. "Go get dressed and sit down with Nola and have a talk with her. Don't stop until you tell her the truth." He ran his hands up and down my arms.

"Ok." I was resigned to doing it this time

"I am going to shave, now go."

I ran my hand against the stubble on his face. "I like it, you should keep it for a while longer." It made him look ruggedly handsome, and it was doing crazy things to my heart.

He grinned. "Whatever the lady wants."

I laughed walking out of the bathroom. I dug through our bags that we hadn't bothered to unpack and found a summer dress and got dressed.

When I walked out into the hall, there weren't any music coming from Nola's room. I assumed she was down stairs, so I went looking for her.

Mama and Auntie were busy making dinner when I walked into the kitchen. Naomi was in the living room watching her cartoons and Avery was on his laptop computer. There was no Nola to be found.

"Have you seen Nola?" I asked.

"She is in her Room." Avery said without looking up from his computer. "I don't think it is a good idea for you to disturb her right now."

I put a hand on my hip. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "I think she may need some alone time right now." He was avoiding looking at me. I knew when he did that he was hiding something.

"Avery." I snapped my fingers at him, trying to get his attention. He looked up, but he stared at a spot over my shoulder, he was deliberately avoiding eye contact. "look at me, what's going on?"

He opened his mouth and closed it.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

He finally looked me in the eye. "No."

I knew he was lying.

"Avery." I said in a warning tone.

"Neima." He had a guilty look on his face, he was a terrible liar.