Under the Radar // Devin Booker

Chapter 34

Devin

The rest of the night at Marlon's house went by without a hitch. Marlon chose to open Nimali's present for his one present, which was a custom, solid gold Rolex with a personalized engraving on the inside.

First Kelly, then her dad. I was taking note of how special each one of her gifts were. She really took notice of the small things and capitalized on them. I just prayed that she would like the gift I got her.

"You ready to get out of here?" Nimali asked through a yawn.

"I'm ready when you are."

She stood and stretched. When she did so, the bottom of her shirt rose just enough for me to see a slither of her stomach. I had to stop myself from looking because my mind would have gone to a different place and this was definitely not the place for that.

She held out her hands and attempted to pull me up from the couch and I gave her a little resistance to make her feel as if she helped me up.

"I need to find my dad, and we can break outta here." I nodded as she ran off to the kitchen where I assumed Marlon was. They both came out a moment later and Marlon walked us to the door.

After a long hug from Mali, he gave me a handshake and pulled my in for a hug.

"You take care of my little girl out there in Michigan." He told me.

"Yes sir."

"And you remember what I told you." He said in a more serious tone.

I nodded in response.

"Okay, okay. Bye Papa." Nimali said prompting Marlon to release me.

"Bye baby." He responded, switching back to a much softer tone.

After a few minutes of trying to say goodbye, we finally were able to leave. I helped Nimali into the awaiting SUV before getting in behind her.

"So..." She pried. "How was it?"

I shrugged. "It was... not what I expected." I admitted.

"How so?"

"Well, first off, I prepared myself for death -- and I'm not dead." She rolled her eyes at me before laying her head in my lap. "And, I actually really like your dad. He made me feel welcome even though I know it was probably killing him to see his little girl with any guy. Don't get me wrong, he still scares the hell out of me, but I know that he loves you enough to do anything for you, even if it means causing me bodily harm or death."

She nodded with a little smirk on her face.

"So, with that being said, you are gonna come into my territory and see how we do things." Her smirk dropped. "What?"

"Do you think your family will like me?" The question came out low and strained as if it had been on her mind for a while.

"Of course. Don't tell me you're getting nervous."

She just shrugged.

"Come here." She sat up from her slouched position and sat on my lap, resting her head on my chest. "They're gonna love you. If not, oh well, they're not dating you, I am."

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" She quirked her eyebrow up at me.

I kissed her forehead and she relaxed a little, but the stress lines showed that it was still bothering her.

"Listen. They are going to love you. We'd be lucky if they don't try to steal you away from me."

She let out a breath. "If you say so, Devin."