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I nodded. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
“Because I know how hard it is, chasing ghosts around the house you grew up in.”
Although I didn’t actually live here anymore, what she said made a lot of sense. Especially coming from her.
“I’m not worried about the ghosts,” I sighed, jerking a thumb. “I’m worried about her.”
Ariana nodded. “Mom will be okay. After all, she has you.”
“Yeah, but she should have all of us,” I grumbled, growing frustrated and angry. “Jackson calls once a week, but he’s all the way on Long Island. Andrew hardly calls at all, and he’s even closer.”
I thought about my sisters, too. Both had married boyfriends they’d met in college and settled down clear on the other side of the country. Annie was a teacher down in Savannah, who visited once a year, tops. Lillian was a lawyer in Connecticut, and while she sometimes sent money to help with the bills, she never wanted anything to do with the logistics of taking care of mom.
None of this would matter if I could just convince my mother to move in with her sister. My aunt Janet had been begging her to come down to Florida for years now, but my mother never wanted to leave. She and my father had gotten married, raised children, and built a life in this house. Abandoning it now would be like ‘leaving a piece of him behind,’ as she so succinctly put it.
When I thought about it that way, it seemed a whole lot less silly. In fact, I respected her for it.
“You sure you don’t want me to call them and kick their asses for you?” Ariana asked. “Lillian hates me anyway.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “She sure does.”
“And Jackson loves me enough to do whatever I tell him,” she went on. “In fact…”
I stood up and made my way to the closet. The object of my search was right there, on the top left shelf. When I pulled it down, Ariana gasped.
“What are you doing with that?”
I turned the object over in my hands a few times, then blew the dust off it. It looked every bit as beautiful as I remembered.
“Taking it out of retirement.”
“Your championship goalie mask?”
“Yup.”
We both knew that when I took this thing off a few years ago, I vowed never to put it on again. I’d shut out almost every team in the division that year, throughout the playoffs. It was a performance that could never be matched.
But for what I was about to do, I needed the luck.
“Actually, I should be asking how you feel,” I told Ari, turning to face her. “And not the other way around.”
“Me?”
“Yes. After what we kind of… sprung on you.”
Ariana tossed her hair, then looked up at me and smiled coyly. “Are you talking about what you boys sprung on me the other night? Or what you sprung on me the morning after?”
Damn, she looked adorable on my bed — more sexy and sensual than ever before. Thoughts of jumping her came immediately to mind, but of course that was impossible. At least for the moment.
“Anyway, I’m fine,” she said sweetly, in answer to my question. “But thanks for asking.”
I studied her expression. “We just didn’t want you to be overwhelmed.”
Ari shook her head slowly and let out a low whistle. “If I was, it was a good overwhelmed.”
“Yeah, still…”
She stood up abruptly and bounced over to me, not stopping until we were toe to toe. Her eyes gleamed as she tilted her chin upward. Her dark hair danced around her perfect face.
