Page 36 of Kobalt

“What do you mean?”

“I seem to be inviting trouble into your life—first Kevin and now Norrell. What’s next?”

I gently rubbed her back. “You couldn’t have known they would do that, and it’s not your fault.”

“I know that, but I came up here for peace and relaxation, and you’ve had everything but that since my arrival.”

“I don’t care; I want to be here for you.”

“I need to call your sister and tell her what’s going on.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Kobe, she’s my best friend. She needs to know what’s going on with me. She’s worried about me, checking my mail, and always checking in to see if the police have learned anything new. I don’t want her to continue worrying when she doesn’t need to.”

“Her worrying the way she is now is a piece of cake compared to how she’s gonna be if she finds out what happened. You know my sister will nut up, and that’s the last thing any of us needs or wants right now. I can already hear her cursing me out for letting something happen to you.

“Then she’s gonna be on the front porch before we can blink our eyes good, and she won’t want to leave your side. If my sister doesn’t leave your side, then I can’t give you all this good dick, baby, and it’ll be going to waste.”

She rested her head on my shoulder, but my remarks didn’t warrant even a ghost of a smile on her lips.

I rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. “I’m your protector now. We’ll let Niagara know when she needs to know. There’s nothing that she can do right now but get in our way.”

“Get in the way of what?”

“Figuring out all the pieces to this puzzle.”

“Like what?”

“Don’t worry about all that.”

She pushed up off my lap and climbed off the bed. With her arms crossed over her midsection, she let me have it. “Kobe, this is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you any of this from the beginning. I knew you would come in and take over and become all possessive. You don’t get to take over my life and tell me what to do and how to live it. If I want my best friend by my side, I should have her by my side.”

“And if I say I don’t want my sister all up in my face when I’m trying to love on my woman, then I don’t want her all in my face.”

“Is this how it’s going to be with us?” she asked, throwing her arms up in the air.

“If you keep pushing on things that I tell you to chill out on, then yes, I guess it is.”

“Why are you being like this? You’re not telling me something, and I want to know what it is.”

“Baby girl, why can’t you just trust me? Everything ain’t for you to know. You didn’t sleep well all night, you’ve been unfocused most of the day and haven’t done any of your work, and you can’t settle down. Why do I wanna add to that shit? Let me figure some things out, and I promise that I’ll tell you everything in time.”

“That’s fine. If we’re doing that, then trust that I know what I’m doing when it comes to your sister. I know how to handle her and get her to back down as much as you can, but I want to tell her this. I need to talk to her, Kobe.”

“Fine, do what you gotta. Shit, we need to get ready to return home anyway.”

“What? Why?”

I sighed as I pushed off the bed and headed to my drawer where I kept my weed. I hadn’t smoked in years, but as soon as I retired, I returned to my first love. I grabbed my paraphernalia to roll a blunt before I faced her again.

“We need to return to our lives, baby.”

“What about your training camp?”

“We’ve got a few weeks before it opens. I’m ready to get home, check on some things back there, and I want you by my side. I don’t want to leave you anywhere.”

“But you said that Norrell was gone.”