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Yeah, I’m seriously thinking I should make a real play for Moira. This pretend thing is already feeling like a sham and it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.
The morning passes quickly and I’m having a horrible time concentrating. Also, I’m pretty sure Abigail is on to us. She’s been walking around glancing between Moira and me with a very curious expression on her face. I think that might have something to do with her witnessing our exit from the storage closet. Together.
At noon, the boys come piling into the diner and make a beeline for my table. I manage to put my laptop away before they take over. Wyatt sits next to me, as he tends to do, and Ash and Colton sit across from us. “What have you fellas been up to this morning?” I ask them.
“I caught a cricket and put him in a jar, but Colton felt sorry for him and let him out when I went in the house to use the bathroom,” Ash says, glaring at his twin.
“You had him out in the sun. He was going to fry,” Colton tells him.
“He was fine.”
“Was not.”
“Was, too.”
Moira zips over, carrying empty plates from a table she just cleared. In a low (and surprisingly menacing) tone she says, “Knock it off, the pair of you, or you’ll be on dish duty in the kitchen all afternoon.”
They shut their mouths immediately.
“That’s better. Tuna melts on whole wheat and a side of fruit for each of you. What about you, Ethan?”
“I’ll have the same.”
After she disappears into the kitchen, I glance over at Wyatt. He looks a little down in the mouth. “You okay, Wyatt?”
Shrugging, he says, “One of the kids on the five to eight-year-old team has a grandpa who owns a Denny’s in Anchorage. He’s offering free coffee to anyone who buys a raffle ticket. He’s sold hundreds of tickets just this week.”
“Oh, man, so it’s not looking good for your team to win.”
He sighs and rests his chin on his fist. “Not unless we come up with something real amazing.”
“Amazing, like, say, the actual jersey LeBron James wore inSpace Jam?”
His eyes light up. “Do you know someone who has that?”
“Ihave it. It’s signed, framed, and authenticated,” I tell him. “I’d be happy to part with it, for a good cause.” I like Wyatt a lot, but the thought of taking him and his mom to LA is where my real investment lies. I want to see Moira in my hometown and get a feel for how she likes it. If I want to make her my girlfriend for real, I’ve got to see what she thinks of where I’ve spent my life.
Wyatt beams at me. “So if people buy tickets from us, they get a ticket for the jersey, too?”
“Exactly,” I answer. “All we have to do is get a flyer with the details and a roll of tickets to distribute to your teammates. I can have the flyers made up by tomorrow and have the jersey shipped here within a few days. Maybe your mom will let us put it on display in the diner to create some buzz.”
“You’re the best, Ethan!”
“I want you to win.” I’d like to see a lot of good things happen for this family.
“You and Aunt Harper have the best lives,” he says longingly.
“We’ve definitely been lucky, but life in Hollywood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
Narrowing his eyes, he says, “It’s got to be better than here.”
“Different, but not better. Gamble’s got a lot going for it too.”
“Yeah, right.”
“No, seriously—there’s no smog here, you don’t have to sit in traffic for hours every time you want to go somewhere, and you don’t have to worry about getting mugged if you find yourself in the wrong part of town late at night.”
“But there aren’t any famous people here,” he answers. I have to suppress a smile because I’m willing to bet that he never even thought about famous people before Harper came to town.
