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“Like Mama?”
Hand shaking, Yana tucked a springy curl behind the girl’s ear and planted a soft kiss on her chubby cheek. “Yes. But—” she trailed her fingers over the little girl’s face and neck, straightening her pajamas, slowly tickling her again, forcing an easy cheer into her voice “—I’m not sad anymore. Now that I can hold my Zuzu girl again.”
Explanation accepted, Zara sneak-attacked her, and they burst into another bout of giggles, made plans for picnics and walks and movie nights and ice-cream parties. The number of promises the girl elicited from Yana restored her faith in her decision to come.
Suddenly, three huge, excited dogs burst into the bedroom and began to sniff and bark and generally make mayhem around the bed. “And who is this?” Yana asked, eyeing the two shepherds and the pug.
One castle and three dogs...He really had gone all the way in making Zara’s fantasy come true. Yana shouldn’t really be surprised after his ruthless determination to get her here. How much further would he go to make Zara happy?
“That’s Leo and Scorpio. And that one,” Zara said, pointing to the cutest among the three, “is Diablo.”
As if he knew how extra adorable he was, Diablo the pug lifted his front paws up onto the edge of the bed. Yana patted the sheets and immediately, the three dogs jumped up and went for their faces, licking them.
Zara suddenly fell quiet.
“What’s wrong?” Yana asked.
“We’re in twouble.” Resolve tightened the little girl’s features. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell Papa I let them on his bed.”
Belly dipping, Yana noted the austere navy-blue furnishings, the starkly functional furniture and an entire wall full of bookshelves that shrank the vast bedroom significantly. The bed was a vast king bed with two night stands—one full of Zara’s pictures in frames and the other held a pile of books and a pair of reading glasses.
This was Nasir’s bed. This was his bedroom. Yana sighed.
Why did all roads seem to lead her to Nasir’s bed?
“I let the dogs on the bed, Papa. Not Yana Auntie.”
Nasir stood still at the entrance to the room, wondering if his heart could rip out of its shallow shell at the entreaty in his daughter’s words. The doubts in her eyes tore him apart, reminding him yet again how badly he’d messed up with Zara.
“Don’t send her away.”
Hands on Zara’s shoulders, Yana pulled his daughter into her body, as if she meant to protect her from everything, including him.
As if she were my own...He hadn’t missed Yana’s almost slip of the tongue that evening at the nightclub. The picture of them together like that on his bed—one achingly adorable with jet-black curls and the other, glowingly beautiful with dark golden waves spilling over her shoulders, packed an invisible punch to his sternum. With the sunlight limning their similar golden-brown coloring, they looked like they belonged together.
They looked right, real in a way he hadn’t known in so long.
Shaking his head at the fantastical thought, Nasir moved toward the bed. With each step he took, Yana’s mouth flattened.
Did she truly think him such a beast as to upset his own daughter over something so small? That although he’d unknowingly made Zara doubt his affection, it made him feel any less awful? Or like Zara, had he only shown Yana the grumpy, grouchy outer shell he’d adopted long ago?
Going to his knees, he gazed into his daughter’s eyes. His hand shook as he straightened the collar of her pajamas. “It’s true Papa doesn’t like dogs in his bed. Because Papa’s a grouchy old man who’s used to things a certain way. But sweetheart, you’ll never be in trouble with me over such a small thing. And definitely not your wonderful Yana Auntie, either.” His five-year-old’s lower lip jutted out in disbelief. “I pinkie promise that I’ll never send her away again, yeah?” He extended his pinkie toward her and he wondered if his heart had moved into that digit now.
That trembling lower lip calmed and Zara tangled their pinkies. Her smile was a wide beam of sunshine. “Next time I’ll close the door so they don’t follow me.”
He laughed and buried his face in her belly. “You’re not promising thatyouwon’t sneak into your auntie’s bed every morning, are you?”
She threw her arms around him again and with the sweet scent of her in his lungs, his pulse calmed. He bopped the tip of her nose before getting to his feet.
His gaze shifted to Yana, and in an instant, a full body flush claimed him as he took in her disheveled state. Her face free of makeup, her wild hair tangled around her shoulders, she looked incredibly young and vulnerable. As if she’d put away the mask she wore for the world. Something almost like approval glinted in her eyes.
“I’m sorry she woke you. I held her off for two hours.”
“It’s fine. Clearly,” she said, waving her hand around the bright sunlight in one of those expansive gestures he was coming to recognize she made when she wanted to hide, “I overslept.”
She asked him something in fragmented Arabic while trying to protect Lila the llama from the dogs so that Nasir had to move closer to hear her. When she repeated it, he laughed. Apparently, it was a morning of shocks. Or the month of Nasir pulling his head out of his backside. “You just asked me why you’re standing in my bed.”
Pink dusted her cheeks and she grabbed the duvet as if she needed a lifeline.
