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Then Jo mumbles, “Twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve.”
We all stop what we’re doing and look over at her.
“Twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve.”
“Are you saying the time?” Ava asks. “Because it’s only 6:40.”
Jo shakes her head as she turns to us, her fingers tapping at her temple. “Twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve.”
“It wouldn’t be the time,” Trevor mumbles. “She’d use military time.”
“In here,” Jo says, frustrated, as her fingers move from her head to her heart. “Twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve, twenty-to-twelve.”
Trevor adds, “See, she’d be saying 1140 if it was the time.”
“Mama?” Ava asks, stepping toward her. “What’s twenty-to-twelve?”
“In here!” Jo almost shouts, hand to her chest.
“In your heart?” asks Ava. “Your heartbeat?” Her eyes narrow. “What…?”
Jo shouts. “The Happiness!”
Ava’s head moves side to side, slowly, slowly. “The Happiness is at 11:40?”
Jo’s nose flares with her exhale, a frustrated groan forming in her throat.
“Wait!” I stand quickly, my mind racing. “She’s talking about the score!”
Ava huffs out a breath. “What score?”
I can’t stop smiling as I approach Jo. “The score, right? From our one-on-one the other night?”
“No,” Trevor whispers. “It can’t be.”
“Yes!” Jo nods, her smile huge. “The score!” Her arms go up, victorious. “I remember!”
“You remember!” Ava cries out, laughing.
“Holy shit,” Trevor says through a chuckle. He stands, too, lifting Jo in the air and spinning her around.
When she’s back on her feet, she laughs out, “Twenty-to-twelve!” Hand to her chest, she adds, looking right at me, “The Happiness. In here. My heart.”
“Your heart?” I ask through the knot in my throat, then lean back, my eyes to the heavens as I take a calming breath. “Shit, Miss D. You damn near broke my heart when you didn’t remember.”
Jo laughs. “Twenty-to-twelve.”
“That’s right.” I nod.
She smiles wide. “I won.”
“You did not,” I laugh. “You owe me dinner!”
Jo giggles. “I don’t recall that part.”
“Oh, so you have selective memory loss. I see how it is.”
Behind me, Ava wraps her arms around my waist. I tug on her hand until she’s tucked in at my side.
