The little girl panted. “Okay, I’m coming back now.”
“Then we need to go read before bed.”
The little girl gave a pained expression. “Nooooo.”
“Yes.”
Sadia looked at Ben.
He shook his head. “Don’t look at me, kid. I can’t overrule her.”
Sadia whispered loudly, “But you can fly me away and hide me.”
Ben chuckled. “Tomorrow night.”
She perked up. “Promise?”
Beatrice shrugged when Ben looked at her. “It won’t be the first time she’s flown.”
“Because Tenzin flies me!” Sadia flung herself back into the pool.
“What were you going to say?” Ben asked. “About her?”
Beatrice looked at him, then looked away. “Just that…” Her voice was flat. “She never seemed to realize you also weren’t an adult. She never treated you like a child.”
Mentally, Ben couldn’t help but think: Since we’ve had sex, it would be super weird if she had. Definitely, majorly weird. “To be fair, I wasn’t exactly a normal sixteen-year-old.”
He’d killed for the first time when he’d been sixteen. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen someone die, but was the first time he’d killed someone.
“I know you weren’t,” Beatrice said. “But I tried to give you something approaching a normal childhood.” She reached for Sadia and lifted the little girl out of the pool. “Is she a girl or a fish?” She turned her back and forth, pretending to check her neck. “Ben, do you see any gills?”
“I think she hides them.” He walked over and pushed Sadia’s dripping hair out of the way. “Where are they, Sadi?”
Sadia laughed. “I don’t have gills.”
“I don’t know…”
She scrambled out of Beatrice’s arms and ran toward the chairs.
“No running,” Ben and Beatrice said at the same time.
“I’m not.” She slowed to a very fast walk. “I’m walking fast.”
“Okay, well fast-walk into your towel and then into the house please.”
“Okaaaay.” Sadia disappeared under a blue shark-shaped towel before she fast-walked into the house.
Ben turned to Beatrice. “She’s so great.”
His aunt smiled. “We were worried about attachment issues with her, but she’s such a survivor. Stubborn as a little mule sometimes, but that’s just who she is.”
“She’s great.” Ben watched Beatrice. “Giovanni said you’re not talking to her.”
“To Sadi— Oh.” Beatrice shook her head. “To her. No.”
“When she visits—”
“I’m not going to fight with him,” she said. “They’ve been friends for too long, and Sadia adores her. But I don’t have to like it, and I don’t have to hang around.” She stood and Ben watched in mild fascination as she shook and the water fled from her skin. No towel. No drips. “I usually go to Dez’s house when she comes.”
“Does she visit a lot?”
Beatrice shrugged. “A few times over the past couple of years.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets. “Why?”
“For the baby. Sadia loves her, and she asks…” Beatrice wrapped a deep blue robe around herself. “Giovanni says she’s different.”
“Different how?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? She’s like five thousand years old, Ben. Do you really think anyone that old can change?”
“I don’t know.”
“I doubt it.” Beatrice walked toward the house. “I highly doubt it.”
6
Ben was sleeping when Chloe arrived the next day. He woke and heard her cheerful voice in the kitchen, chatting with Dema, Sadia, and Zain.
“And then at school I have three friends.”
“Only three?”
“I play with everyone.” Sadia’s voice was cautious. “But friends are different.”
“I think you’re right,” Chloe said.
“Dema says you don’t have to be friends with everyone, just be polite.”
“That’s good advice.”
Ben paused outside the kitchen door.
“Real friends…” Sadia took a breath. “Those are more special, and Lara Bright, I am not friends with her because she pushed my friend Jason down during free playing time and she’s mean.”
Maybe Ben needed to find this Lara Bright and have a talk with her…
“But what did you do when Lara pushed Jason?” Dema’s voice was slow and steady. “Did you push her back?”
A long sigh from Sadia. “Yes.”
“And did you get in trouble?”
“Yes, because I should have told a teacher and not pushed Lara harder.”
Ben could hear the amusement in Chloe’s voice. “You pushed her harder?”
“Yes.”
Good. Ben approved of that tactic. Little Lara Bright wouldn’t be pushing Sadia or Jason again if he had to guess.
“Tenzin told me that’s what you need to do if there’s a bully,” Sadia said. “If someone hurts you or your friend, then you hurt them back more so they don’t do it again.”
Freaking Tenzin. Again. Ben scowled.
“And we’ll talk about that tactic when you’re older,” Dema said. “But for now, when there is a teacher or responsible adult close by, you tell that adult, all right?”
“But what if—”
“No buts.” Ben walked into the kitchen and rubbed the top of Sadia’s head. “That was good advice from Dema, and I bet Baba and Mama agreed with it.”
Sadia looked up with large, dark eyes. “Baba did, but Mama didn’t say anything.”
Ben muttered, “This family is full of vengeful females.” He looked over to Chloe. “Hey you.”
Chloe was looking at him, her lips pressed together. “Hey.”
He could see some kind of emotion shimmering in her eyes, and he held out his arms. “Two years and I don’t get a hug?”
Chloe blinked hard and walked over to Ben, throwing her arms around him.
“Big dumb boy,” she whispered. “I missed you so much. Don’t you ever go away for so long again.”
“Missed you too.” He pressed his cheek to her hair and inhaled her scent. Chloe smelled like vanilla and plain soap. She’d never worn perfume, but her scent was distinct and comforting. “I’m sorry I took so long.”
She leaned back and looked up at Ben, examining him carefully. “The eyes are throwing me. They’re more noticeable in person. Really bright.”
“I’m still not used to them.”
“You’re paler.” She patted his cheek. “Other than that, you look the same.”
“You want to see my fangs?”
Chloe threw up a hand. “I’ve already seen them on the screen. Don’t be weird.”
Sadia was bouncing on a barstool. “They’re just normal
