“Miss you all the time, Pops.” She winks.
“Why do you have boots on?” I ask and slip a finger in the top of one, tugging a little.
Ava snaps her fingers. “That’s what I was going to say. I was helping Laura with Lucille since the goat loves me, and your mom wanted me to let you guys know dinner is ready. But I highly suggest you shower. You’re all sweaty and glistening and . . . I need to stop now.”
I grin when she doesn’t hide the fact that she’s scanning my body.
“Tweets,” I whisper. “Keep your thoughts to yourself.”
“Nope. You don’t like to wonder what people are thinking, so I plan to be very,veryobvious about everything going on up here.” She waves her hands around the side of her head. “It’s better to keep everything open. Keeps me honest.”
I laugh. Maybe Dad is right. This is easy. I am relaxed.
I’m happier when she’s around. Always was.
* * *
“I’ve got this, Mom,” I say when she starts cleaning up the dishes.
“How about I clear, you wash.” She gives me a wink and shoos my dad out of the room before he stumbles with a handful of dishes.
“I’ll clear,” Ava says. “You both go away.”
My mom is notorious for refusing anyone to lift a finger. Funny, but today she doesn’t even argue, simply sets the plate on the table, and goes outside to sit on the porch with my dad. Almost like she wants Ava and me to be alone.
At first, we clean up in silence, but soon Ava laughs softly. “They’re hilarious. Do you hear them outside?”
I pause to listen. My mom and dad are teasing each other over some date they went on the other night, and she tried to manhandle the clutch in his old truck. My mother’s laughter is still one of my favorite sounds.
“He makes her laugh,” I say before thinking. “I think that’s why I liked him right away.”
“He loved you right away too. At least that’s what he always says.” Ava lowers her voice to a terrible version of my dad. “Saw the kid and felt like I had a long-lost son I didn’t know about.”
I laugh because it’s not even close to what he sounds like, but it is exactly what he always told people who tried to call me his stepson. He always claimed me as his son, his kid, his pal, his boy, and made sure people knew it.
I stack the baking dish, then lean my back against the counter’s edge. “I’ve never brought my teammates out here.”
Ava stops reaching for the water glasses and glances at me. “Just like they don’t know you have an obsession for Broadway?”
I scoff, a flush of embarrassment fills my face. “Yeah. I guess. A lot of the guys have family close to Vegas. Dax Sage actually played against our high school. I didn’t even realize it until two years ago.”
“Huh. Small world.” She looks at me like I need to get to the point or I’m going to lose her.
I don’t know what my point is, but the words keep tumbling out of my mouth. “I’ve gone to a lot of barbecues at Griffin’s mom’s place and Parker’s sister’s house. I get backstage passes to Perfectly Broken concerts since Parker has known them since they were in kindergarten, so they automatically include the Kings like they’ve known us just as long.”
“That’s . . . cool?”
I turn away and start scrubbing the pan with a little too much umph. “You being here, it’s just making me realize I’ve gone into their personal space, but I never bring them into mine.”
“Why not? There’s no way you’re embarrassed by your parents.”
I give her a look. “You know I’m not.”
“Then why?”
“Pretty sure I do it on purpose.”
Ava tilts her head. “Why do you keep them at such a distance?”
