Suddenly feeling like a two-year-old, she stuck out her tongue at him, and his smile turned to laughter.
They would have gotten through customs and immigration a lot quicker if every other person hadn’t stopped, wanting to greet Kiah, or Dr. K, as he was known. And every one of them gave Mina the once-over too, many outright asking who she was.
“This is my best friend, Mina,” he told one elderly lady, slinging his arm over Mina’s shoulder.
“Best friend? So when you getting married?”
Kiah laughed, and Mina smiled, too, but when he replied they really were just friends, the lady flapped her hands at them.
“If you find a best friend of the opposite sex, and you love them, you need to marry them. You think is so easy to find that?”
Then she stomped off, grumbling under her breath about the younger generation not having any sense.
Kiah and Mina chuckled together, and she couldn’t help teasing him. “You’ve been saying that ‘She’s really just a friend’ thing for more than twenty years. Aren’t you tired of having to repeat it?”
Kiah squeezed her shoulders. “Ha ha. But yes. Sometimes. Especially when people give me that look, as though there’s something wrong with me for having you as a friend.”
He was navigating through the crowds as he spoke, steering Mina along with his hand, which was now on her back.
“I used to get that at university, too.” She sent him a mischievous, sideways look. “But you must have realized that, since the other women on my dorm were always all over you when you came by.”
Kiah pushed his lips out and twisted them to the side in impish derision. “I used to tell them I planned to steal you from Warren, just to get them off my back. Besides, at this point, I don’t dare get married to anyone else. No woman would stand for me having not only a female for a best friend, but a beautiful one to boot.”
Her heart clenched, and for an instant she was overcome with the ridiculous wish that he’d meant it, and they could go back in time so he could save her from marrying Warren.
But he was just joking, so she replied, “That’s the most sexist thing I’ve heard you say in a long time. You should be ashamed of characterizing all women that way. Besides,” she added, giving him another sidelong look, “that’s just an excuse. You darn well know that’s not the reason you don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Oh?” he said, letting her go to fish out the car keys from his pocket. “So what’s the real reason, Miss Smarty-Pants?”
“It’s because any woman you’re interested in would have to be intelligent, and if she is, she’d be too smart to be with you!”
“Damn,” he said, staggering away from her, clutching his chest. “Straight through the heart.”
And they were still laughing together as they got the luggage and then themselves into the car.
When they reached the house, Kiah’s grandmother, Miss Pearl, greeted Mina like a long-lost child, hugging her so tight she squeezed the air out of Mina’s lungs. Then she beckoned to the young girl standing in the doorway, and said, “Charmaine, come and say hello to Auntie Mina. You remember her, don’t you?”
Charm came forward slowly, not out of shyness, Mina thought, but more cautiously than anything else. The resemblance to Karlene, her mother, was so strong Mina had to fight to keep smiling, suddenly wanting to cry instead.
“Yes,” Charm said, her solemn expression not changing a mite. “I remember her.”
“Well, give her a hug, then,” Miss Pearl insisted.
Mina held up her hand. “You don’t have to hug me if you don’t want to. Why don’t we shake hands instead?”
She saw Charm’s gaze dart to her left sleeve and then back up to meet Mina’s.
“Okay,” she replied, holding out her hand to shake.
“Nice to see you again,” Mina said, glad to note Charm had a nice, firm grip.
“You, too,” the young girl mumbled, before turning away to grab one of the bags and head back inside.
Was she remembering that the last time she’d seen Mina was right after her parents’ deaths? She’d been in shock, frightened and traumatized, but sometimes those were the memories that stuck with you. The aftermath of tragedy. The people who witnessed the worst days of your life.
“Hey,” Kiah said. “Aren’t you going to say hello to your favorite uncle?”
Charm paused and gave him a stare blander than dust. “You’re my only uncle,” she rebutted but stopped to give him a kiss and accept a hug as she went past.
They spent the afternoon settling in, and then it was time for dinner. Mina kept glancing at Charm, often finding the young girl looking back at her. But once their eyes met, Charm looked away.
She wasn’t completely surprised when, as the meal was winding down, Miss Pearl got down to brass tacks.
“So why aren’t you wearing your prosthetic?”
Even though she’d been expecting the hard questions, she still balked when having them fired so head-on. But there was no escape. When she sent Kiah a pleading glance, it was to find him looking down at his plate.
Zero help there.
And she didn’t want to tell Miss Pearl what she’d told Kiah: until there was a prosthetic available that could help her perform surgery, she wasn’t interested.
So, trying to sound upbeat and matter-of-fact, she replied, “I don’t have one yet. I’m still trying to figure out which one will be best for me.”
That was when she found out where Charm got that drier-than-dust look from. Miss Pearl had it locked down.
“Humph,” the older lady said. “You should have had one long ago. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get used to it. And it’s not as though you can’t afford a really good, useful one, too.”
“Granny,” Kiah murmured. “Could you let Mina have a couple of days before you start lecturing her?”
“Humph,” Miss Pearl replied again, as she got to her feet. “Charm, come help me
