Page 62 of The Charade

She was texting someone when I walked into the room, so I took the seat beside her and waited for her to finish.

"Sorry, I was just messaging my mom." She set her phone face down on the couch when she'd finished.

"Yeah?" I asked. "And how is she?"

"She's good." Ava smiled. "Her show in Milan went really well and she made it back home yesterday. She said that she wants to come to Eden Falls this weekend so we can spend a couple of days together."

"That sounds like it’ll be fun. Do you know if she's spent much time here since she graduated?"

"I don't think so." Ava shook her head. "When she dropped us off for school, I think she said the last time she'd been here was for her five-year high school reunion. So it's been a while."

"That was probably, like, eighteen years ago, wasn't it?" I asked, doing the math quickly in my head based on the year she and my dad had graduated.

"Yeah." Ava nodded. "I think it was the summer before Elyse and I were born."

"Probably wanted to avoid running into her ex." I winked.

She laughed. "If our assumptions about her and your dad dating in high school are even true. You didn't ask your dad about that, did you?"

"No," I said. "I forgot to ask when the teachers decided to dump a buttload of homework on us."

"Yeah, I didn't ask my mom about it, either," Ava said. "But I'll probably ask her more about what she did in high school when she's here this weekend. Maybe she can take me and Elyse to all the places she used to hang out at when she was here."

"Take a stroll down memory lane?"

She nodded.

I was about to suggest we head downstairs to see what Marie had whipped up for dinner when Ava asked, "You don't think it's weird that our parents might have dated, do you?"

Her golden-brown eyes looked at me cautiously. Like our parents’ history might somehow impact us and what our relationship might be.

I would have to admit that the thought of my dad dating the mom of the girl I was trying to figure out how to date was slightly weird. But it wasn’t like they'd gotten married or anything. And while there was a possibility that they'd also hooked up during that time—since my dad had told me he'd had sex when he was in high school—at least it hadn't ended in a pregnancy. Ava and Elyse were their mom's only children. So it wasn’t like Ava and I shared a half sibling or anything.

To answer Ava's question, I just said, "It's a little weird to think about. But it happened so long ago that I don't think it should be anything to worry about. It just shows that our parents had good taste in high school, right?"

Ava nodded slowly, like she still wasn't sure how she felt about the possibility. But then she shrugged and said, "You're probably right. Probably nothing to feel weird about."

24

Carter

Avaand I headed down to the kitchen a minute later. Dawn was sitting at the large, white marble counter, eating her steak and Dutch-oven potatoes. My mouth instantly watered because Marie's steak was the best, juiciest steak I'd eaten in my whole life. Not even the five-star restaurants in New York could rival the steak I was about to eat.

"Hey, Carter." Dawn looked up from scrolling through her phone as she ate. "Sorry I didn't realize you were here already. I would have waited for you if I'd known."

"Oh, it's fine." I waved my hand at the woman who’d been my mother since my dad brought me here. "I wasn't sure if I'd be eating at the school tonight, so you're totally fine."

Dawn's eyes went to Ava, a curious expression in them. "And who’s your friend?" She arched a dark eyebrow as she looked Ava over from head to toe.

"This is Ava," I said. "She's just started at the academy this year but is a senior." Then turning to Ava, I said, "And this is my mom, Dawn."

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Hastings." Ava stepped forward to shake Dawn's hand.

But since Dawn was Dawn, instead of taking Ava's hand, she stood up and gave Ava a quick hug. "It's so great to meet you, Ava. I think I may have heard a little about you from my kids. You're one of the twins, right?"

Ava nodded, her cheeks flushing at the mention of having been previously discussed at our house. "Yeah, that's me. My sister Elyse and I are twins."

Dawn took a step back and gave Ava a good once-over before smiling. "Well, it was very nice to meet you. Cambrielle, Nash, and Carter have all said very nice things about you."

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