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We’re back to the Naz and Roz blog series, where once a week, I add a chapter. Enjoy.
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Naz and Roz Blog Series
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The Aftermath (of England): Part 1
Roz POV
Naz was funny in the way he would much rather rent an Airbnb, even if he was only staying in a place for a couple of days, than a hotel room. Roz never understood why, but that’s how it worked for him. She thought it was probably because he didn’t feel at home in a hotel room, or maybe because over the years, he’d stayed in a lot of hotels when he traveled. But who was to say?
Nonetheless, when he figured out she wasn’t going to be leaving England for at least another week, the first thing he did was call back home, and get things settled there. The second thing he did was get on the laptop, and rent them an Airbnb because as he said, he wasn’t sleeping in a fucking hotel.
Roz let him do what he wanted. It was easier, and she really didn’t care as long as she had a bed to sleep in. Even better because he was there to sleep in it with her. But Roz also knew Naz wouldn’t be able to stay in England more than a week—people were waiting on him back in New York. Responsibilities and duties were waiting on him to get back to what he did best. She didn’t fault him for that.
“Okay,” Naz said, hanging up the phone he’d been talking into for the last half hour as he came into the kitchen. “All done, babe.”
She peered over her shoulder at him. “Great.”
“Two weeks from now on Monday, eleven in the morning.”
Roz gave him a look.
Naz arched his brow right back. “What?”
“I thought you were going to make the doctor’s appointment for a month from now? What if I’m still here, Naz?”
He shrugged. “This was the closest opening that the office in New York had, babe. If you’re still here, then we’ll figure something out for a doctor here until you get back home again. Okay?”
She smiled.
He really was something else, this man. She was well aware that he wanted her home more than anything. He wanted to put her on a flight today, and get her back to New York where they could finally start their life together. She wanted that, too, more than he could possibly know. But there was still a part of her that needed to see things through here first. She needed to make sure that Penny was going to be okay … or she was going to help the young woman to get to that place in her life.
Naz was just … going to let Roz do her thing.
She loved him for that.
Naz slipped around the island, and came to stand at her back. One of his arms drifted around her waist, and his hand laid flat to her stomach before he dropped a kiss to the top of her head. She felt her smile grow the longer his kiss lingered. Finally, she tipped her head back, and he dropped a quick kiss to her lips, too.
“How’re you feeling today?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Better—I didn’t throw up yet.”
Yet being the keyword.
It could still happen.
Morning sickness didn’t discriminate.
“You need anything, then you tell me, got it?”
Roz winked. “Got it, Naz.”
He grinned, and dropped another kiss to her lips. Only this time, he wasn’t ask quick to pull away. This time, that kiss lingered long enough to burn her from the inside out. Just like that, the flames of her lust had been stoked in the right way—enough to make her want to pull this man back to the bedroom, and find all sorts of fun ways to spend their morning.
She suspected Naz was feeling the same way given his hands tangled into her loose hair, and tugged gently as his tongue struck out against the seam of her lips, demanding she open up for him. God, she loved that, too. Loved the way their kiss always felt like a way when their lips worked against one another, and their tongues tangled to get a taste.
And then a knock echoed through the house.
Naz lifted up, pulling away from her kiss with narrowed eyes as he looked toward the hallway that led to the front door. She might have laughed at his annoyance at having been interrupted with her, but she couldn’t.
The knocking continued.
Fuck.
Naz gave her a look. “How much do you want to bet that’s—”
“Anybody home?”
“Kyle,” Naz muttered.
Naz let her go just as footsteps echoed in the hallway of the house they had rented. She gave Naz a look, silently telling him to stay in line. Not that she needed to remind him, but she also knew there was something about Kyle that often put Naz on edge.
She thought it might be because Kyle was the one who constantly reminded Roz that love could come anytime. Her career in music, however, had a time limit on it. There was an expiry date to her talent—something could take away her ability to play, or she may simply just become irrelevant in the world as a pianist.
But love?
Love would always be waiting.
Thing was … Kyle wasn’t wrong. She tried not to put love last the best she could—she constantly tried to keep Naz as the center in her life, the one thing that continued to ground her and remind her what was important.
That didn’t mean Kyle had been wrong, though.
“There you are,” Kyle said as he came into the kitchen, looking only at Roz. “Did you get a visit like I did this morning?”
Roz passed Naz a glance. “No?”
Kyle scowled. “At all?”
“No. What’s going on?”
“The Bobbies came around,” he said.
Roz’s brow dipped. “The what?”
“English police,” Naz said from his new spot behind the island. “Better question is why are they making a visit to you, Kyle?”
Kyle stared hard at Naz. “I don’t know—you’re better acquainted with the police than I am, aren’t you? Why don’t you tell me why they do the shit they do?”
Roz didn’t need to look at Naz to know he was tense, and probably ready to jump across the counter at Kyle. She quickly stepped in to stop that from happening. “Well, you must know why they came around to talk to you—they talked to you, didn’t they?”
“It was about Penny.”
Okay, that had Roz’s attention. She turned around on the stool entirely so that she could face Kyle for this conversation. She had a feeling, just by the way his tone turned thick, that she was going to need to be sitting down and staring at him for whatever he was about to say.
“And?” she asked quietly.
“They wanted to know if she’d ever … uh, talked to me about her father,” he muttered.
Roz took a second before she asked, “Why would they ask about that?”
“She’s made allegations while in the ward.”
She was cold, now.
Entirely cold.
Too fucking cold.
“What kind of allegations?” Roz asked.
She didn’t want to ask.
She didn’t want to know.
Still, she felt like she had to.
“That … uh,” Kyle struggled, refusing to meet Roz’s stare.
“That kind of allegations?” Roz asked.
“Sexual abuse?” Naz spoke up behind her.
Kyle swore under his breath, and scrubbed a hand down his jaw. “Yeah, that’s what it sounded like to me. She made some serious allegations when the Bobbies were brought in to talk to her about an investigation they have for something she did in the dorms against another girl who she had beaten up in the communal showers.”
Roz straightened. “Why did she beat up a girl?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she said something that triggered her?”
She looked over her shoulder at Naz, but he was staring hard at Kyle. She could tell by the tension in his shoulders, and the hardness of his gaze, that he wasn’t pleased. And not because of Kyle, but because of the rest of the information they had right now.
“They don’t think she’s saying that just because of the investigation about the girl, right?” Roz asked Kyle.
“I don’t think so … but the bigger problem is this isn’t their territory,” Kyle said, shrugging and looking helpless. “This happened in America—they can’t bring charges against an American for something that happened in America. They’re referring the case on, but she’s underage. They’re going to send her home, she’ll be in the care of CPS until they get this figured out and—”
“No,” Roz said, firmly.
“What?”
“She doesn’t need to be in the care of CPS. We can figure something else out for that. She can stay with me and Naz, even. Right?” She looked back at Naz who met her stare, but said nothing. When he stayed quiet, she pressed again, asking, “Right?”
“Roz, that girl probably needs a lot of help and—”
“Okay, then we get her what she needs, Naz.”
“She might not be comfortable with a man there.”
“We don’t know that if we don’t ask.”
“Okay,” he murmured, clearly not wanting to fight.
Kyle cleared his throat, bringing their attention back to him. “They kept sending her home, Roz. She’d act out, and they’d send her back. Where he was waiting. I got the impression that the allegations she made indicated it had been a regular thing until she left for school, but it continued through the years. So …”
“Every time she got sent back,” Roz whispered.
What kind of father …
What kind of monster?
Roz felt Naz’s had find her back, and he said nothing as he stroked her just below the neckline of her shirt. Like she was the one who needed to be comforted then. It wasn’t her that needed someone to love them and protect them at all.
She had always had people to do that.
Penny, though?
Clearly never had anyone.
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