Chapter 20
ANDERSON
Jack and I are finishing up cleaning the kitchen while Rumi, Ava, and Emerson move from the dining table to the living room.
The three of them each take a seat on the couch while Georgie sits cross-legged on the floor, settled on Evee’s playmat as the toddler waddles around, bringing Georgie different toys and stuffed animals.
Her little feet are covered by her footie pajamas that Georgie helped Rumi get her into just after dinner, and her brown curly hair is wet from her bath and brushed back out of her face.
“You’re so good with her, George,” I hear Ava say as I clear the dining table.
“Does it remind you of when Georgie was that age?” Rumi asks, and I find myself moving slowly as if it’ll help me hear more of the conversation happening just a room over.
“A little bit,” Ava answers after a moment, and I can picture the way her lips move to one side and then the other as she thinks about saying more.
I’ve noticed she does it when she’s asked a question, as if she’s considering every possible outcome or reaction someone may have to what she shares. Always careful not to say too much and just enough.
Emerson’s voice chimes. “What’s the age gap between you and Georgie?”
“Fifteen years,” two voices say at the same time, and I turn over my shoulder from where I stand at the sink, seeing Georgie smiling up at where Ava sits on the couch.
I wish I could see Ava’s face, aching to see the smile I know she’s returning.
Ava goes on to explain how she was a sophomore in high school when Georgie was born, just before Georgie calls Ava old because she’s “two years away from being thirty”.
Ava and I arrived here together, and if it weren’t for Georgie, I’m sure Rumi or Emerson would have said something about it.
I could see the way Rumi’s eyes widened and the look the two of them exchanged when we walked into the kitchen and said hi to her and Jack.
I texted Ava this morning, offering to grab Georgie’s stuff from her car—since she didn’t bring it in when she got home last night, I figured she’d left it there.
Ava was reluctant at first, saying it was fine, but she eventually agreed.
She said she told Georgie about going over there to grab it all, leaving out some details about her mom trying to throw it all away and wanting to give up her parental rights.
I’m hoping that Georgie, seeing all her stuff in her new room at my place tomorrow, will help her feel more comfortable—ever since she opened up to me about not feeling like her house was a home, I can’t help but want to change that for her.
Even if it is just for a little while.
“You will be such a great help to Sadie when we’re in Vegas,” Rumi tells Georgie. “You’ll love her. She’s a junior at Stonehallow University, and Evee has so much fun with her. I think you three will have a ton of fun staying here.”
During dinner, the five of us ironed out all the details for our trip to Las Vegas at the end of the month to see the Cross My Heart tour, including childcare for Evee and Georgie.
I think Ava was nervous about having Georgie stay back, but when Rumi had the idea of her staying with her babysitter, Sadie, Georgie seemed more excited to spend the long weekend with a “cool college kid”, as Rumi described her, instead of us.
Emerson’s friend in the opening band gave her some recommendations for some restaurants and things to do, so we chatted about what everyone was looking forward to after Ava shared all the details for the hotel and the flights she booked for all of us—and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she booked one room for me and her.
It makes sense—we’re about to tell everyone that we’re a couple, and we’re going to be living under the same roof in less than twenty-four hours.
But with what almost happened between us…
My mind drifts to last night, just before I left Ava’s apartment.
I was less than three seconds away from kissing her.
The way she was looking up at me, the smell of her hair, the darkening of her eyes, the catch of her breath, it had me completely undone.
I didn’t care about the consequences anymore or how just even one kiss would complicate everything between us.
One kiss that didn’t just lead to sex.
One that actually meant something.
Because even though our relationship isn’t supposed to be real, there was nothing fake about the way I wanted to kiss her.
“Jack?” Rumi calls for the living room, bringing me back to the moment. I finish loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher as Jack walks over to the living room.
“Can you put Evee to bed?” she asks him.
Jack gives his girlfriend a curt nod, his lips curving as he walks over to their daughter, picking her up from where she sits next to Georgie.
“Say goodnight to everyone, Evee girl,” he says as he holds her in his arms. She gives the room a sleepy smile, shy all of a sudden as she rests her head on her dad’s shoulder as we all say goodnight.
“George, wanna come sit on the couch?” Emerson asks, patting the cushion next to her. I make my way over to join the rest of the crew as Georgie sits down next to Emerson, her hair in soft curls, wearing a sweater that I recognize as one of Ava’s.
The only spot left on the couch is right next to Ava, and, unless she moves over, there’s barely enough room for me to sit without basically being on top of her.
Half of her red hair is twisted back in a clip, her long-sleeve sweater is tight against her body, the sleeves wrapping around her arms but leaving her shoulder and chest on full display.
It’s very distracting.
“Want to sit?” It takes me a moment to register Ava’s voice, directed at me. When my eyes meet hers, she’s smirking—like she caught me staring.
I feel my cheeks heat, but I try to recover quickly. “Please,” I answer, settling in the spot behind her. I assumed she’d move closer to Rumi, but she doesn’t—and I can’t say I’m disappointed.
Angling myself, I squeeze into the sliver of space between her and the arm of the couch, my thigh brushing hers as I pretend not to notice how little room there actually is. The cushion dips and traps me there beside her, close enough to feel the warmth of her through my jeans.
I must be imagining the way she slightly leans back, her back against my front as she follows the conversation between Rumi, Emerson, and Georgie—the teenager’s face bright and eager to fill them all in on the drama happening with her seventh-grade peers after they asked her how school was going.
My lungs struggle to fill completely, and I blame it on the coconut scent of Ava’s hair enveloping me, making it hard to think straight.
Jack comes back with the baby monitor, setting it down on the coffee table as he settles on the other side of Rumi.
“So,” Emerson starts, stretching out the word, as her conversation with Georgie finds a natural end.
“What else is new?” Her voice carries a tone as if she’s offering it to everyone, but by the way Ava slightly stiffens against me, I can assume she’s on the same brainwave as me—this question is directed at us.
With Ava and Georgie moving in tomorrow, she wants to give Emerson a heads-up before just disappearing from their apartment, and now with Georgie’s mom wanting to give up her parental rights, everything with the adoption is moving quickly.
With how busy tonight has been so far, there hasn’t really been a moment to tell our friends about our marriage and fill them in on Georgie’s adoption.
Apparently, until now.
“Yeah,” Rumi adds, trying to be nonchalant as Jack wraps an arm around the back of the sofa where she sits. “Anything else going on with, you know, anyone?” Her shoulders lift and fall as she avoids looking in my and Ava’s direction.
“Wow, smooth, Rue,” Ava quips, gently bumping her shoulder against Rumi’s.
“Sorry,” Rumi laughs. “But we’ve been waiting patiently all night for you guys to explain this.” She gestures with her hands to the two of us.
Ava chuckles, but it sounds a little forced. She turns to look at me. There’s a smile on her face, but her eyes look worried. I give her a nod that I hope conveys what I’m thinking—Go ahead. I’m right here.
I got you.
“We’re a—” she pauses, turning back to Rumi, Jack, and Emerson. I notice Georgie trying to hide a smile, her fingers interlaced on her lap like she’s watching someone watch a movie she’s already seen, waiting for them to get to the plot twist. “We’re together.”
The room goes silent, eyes blinking at us.
“And?” Emerson prompts after a few beats.
“What do you mean ‘and’?” Ava asks.
“Well, we figured you two were together, probably have been for a little bit with how badly you are sneaking out of the apartment in the middle of the night to—” she stops herself, eyes glancing at Georgie before continuing “hang out.”
I cough into my fist to hide my laugh, Ava’s hands covering her face as Rumi barks out a laugh, and I swear I see Jack crack a smile too.
“Wait, what’s so funny?” Georgie asks, smiling even though Emerson’s words went right over her head.
“Nothing,” Ava and I say at the same time.
“No, but seriously,” Rumi continues after her laughter dies down. “That’s it?”
“Well, no, there’s more. But I thought you guys would be more surprised to hear, or at least a little pissed that I didn’t tell you we were dating,” Ava says as she puts her hands in her lap, tapping each finger against her inner thigh before pausing for a moment and then starting up again.
“I can speak for Em when I say that we had a feeling there were feelings involved between the two of you. We were just waiting for you to tell us when you were ready.” Rumi places her hand on Ava’s thigh and squeezes, something unspoken passing between the two best friends as Ava puts her hand over Rumi’s.
I can’t say I’m surprised to hear they thought there was something between us—I know I wasn’t being too careful with trying to hide how I feel.
But it does have me wondering what they think they saw—and whether it was on Ava’s end, too.
“You said there’s more?” Emerson asks, raising a brow. She blows her bangs out of her eyes, taking a sip from her beer bottle with a raised brow.
Ava turns to look at me as her hand returns to her lap. Some of the nerves she had a moment ago seem to settle, and that makes my own anxiety lessen.
Here goes nothing.
I blow out a breath, letting my lips sputter with the exhale. “We’re getting married.”
This time, when the room goes silent, it stays silent.
Ava and I watch the jaws drop one after another as we look at the three of them, Georgie crossing her legs under her and resting her chin in her palms with a smirk, like she’s enjoying the show.
“What the hell?” Emerson exclaims first.
“Emmy,” Jack hisses, nodding to Georgie.
“It’s okay,” Georgie says with a shrug. “I said the same thing when I found out.”
“Are you serious?” Rumi asks, looking from Ava to me. “It’s only been, like, what? Eight months since your first date?”
Ava opens her mouth to explain, but I answer, not wanting her to feel like she’s taking the brunt of this. “It’s definitely quick and not exactly what we had planned, but it makes the most sense for us and for our other news.”
“There’s more?” Emerson complains, dramatically leaning back against the couch, throwing her tattooed forearm over her eyes.
My lips tip as I look at Georgie as she laughs at Emerson’s antics. The way the warm sound curls in the air has me grinning like a crazy person, but I don’t even care.
She needs to laugh more often.
I feel Ava’s body shake, her quiet laughter barely audible.
She needs to laugh more often, too.
“I’m with Em. What more could there possibly be?” Rumi asks, looking to Jack, who doesn’t say anything, barely showing any surprise at the news—nothing more than a slight raise of the brows.
“Can I tell them, George?” Ava asks her sister, everyone’s eyes volleying between the two of them.
As Georgie’s laughter fades, a soft smile remains on her face as she nods.
Ava exhales, sitting up a little straighter until I don’t feel her against me anymore. I miss the contact instantly, but she leans back almost immediately, her body molding to mine as if it never left.
I don’t know if she does it on purpose.
Either way, I’m happy she’s leaning on me in more ways than one.
“I’ve decided to adopt Georgie,” she announces, her voice clear and strong—just like her decision to do this, never a doubt in her mind.