Near To You by Asha King Read Free Book Online Page B

spread. Our Dad is weird and he basically stopped talking to us. He doesn’t want anything reminding him of her around.”
    Pieces of her conversation with Brady slid into place. “That’s when he quit his job.”
    Tracie nodded. “Death brings things into perspective. Me, I was happy for him. I thought he should do what he wanted. But he drifted around. His live-in girlfriend left him because he wanted to live simpler. Then he got it in his head he wanted to leave. I love my brother, I’ll miss him, but I told him he should do what he wanted—and if that involved just driving and seeing where he ended up, so be it.”
    Nia crossed her arms at her midsection, gaze falling to the abandoned cup of coffee in front of her. White threads of steam drifted up and she focused for a moment on that and let everything else readjust in her brain. Everything that had happened yesterday really meant something to him. He was even going to stay that morning, despite his initial resolve to leave.
    And then she’d mumbled the wrong thing and ruined it. Wonderful.
    “His furniture’s in storage and he has bins of other things at my place. Came by around noon and asked me to store a handful of things he ‘didn’t need’ in my basement...” She leaned over to rifle through the diaper bag again and pulled out a big hardback book, with a full color painting of the town’s river on the front cover.
    A yearbook. Silver inscribed date on the corner put it as from twelfth grade. Tracie set it on the table and pushed it to Niara, who gingerly raised it, dragging her fingers over the smooth surface.
    “Now, look who signed the first page.”
    Niara opened the front cover and immediately recognized her girly, cursive handwriting—it hadn’t changed much at all in years—among all the other signatures. Brady: Thank you for all your help this year—it’s meant the world to me. Have an amazing summer if I don’t see you, though I hope I will. You’re a gem. ~Niara .
    And if his sister was pointing this out to her, surely she was like Brady’s friend at the grocery store—she knew. All those years in school, everyone knew and didn’t think to tell her. And Tracie no doubt guessed why Brady was pissed and considered the yearbook he’d held onto all this time suddenly something he didn’t need.
    “Do you remember your yearbook staff photo? Page thirty-seven.”
    Niara flipped until she found the right one, in black and white with big, puffy letters at the top: YEARBOOK STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS. There was everyone smiling, Niara in the center of the photo looking bright and happy with a huge smile of white teeth, holding the painting that would become the yearbook cover that year. Off to the right stood a tall, wiry kid with dark hair, facing the camera and smiling though the photo had been snapped with his gaze on her.
    She felt ill. “You’re not going to tell him I asked about him.”
    Tracie reached for the yearbook and eased it out of Nia’s hands, then closed the cover and returned it to her bag. “If he asks? Sure, I will. If he doesn’t? Well...”
    Shit. “Do you think he’ll ever come back?”
    She glanced at her daughter and smiled brightly. “Can you do Mommy a favor, baby girl? Cover your ears.” Louisa giggled but didn’t let go of her cup, so Tracie reached over and pressed her palms over her little girl’s ears before she met Nia’s gaze. “Whatever this misunderstanding was, whatever you said—you fucked up, honey.”

 
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
    The contractor swore he wouldn’t miss the appointment again, but Niara seriously doubted it.
    For three days, he’d put it off. And for three days, she’d gritted her teeth and not argued because there wasn’t anyone else in town to hire. Instead, she holed up in her house, obsessively cleaning and unpacking and keeping busy so her mind didn’t wander. She had her internet and cable at last, but the T.V. just provided idle background noise to fill the