Page 36 of For the Win

“Arya Ross.”

My head jerks.“Say what?My Arya?”

She smirks.“YourArya?”

“You know what I mean.”My face heats.

“Yes.Yoga instructor Arya.She said you two went out.”

I feel my jaw loosening and my heart jolts.“Uh, yeah.We did.”

“You didn’t pester her into going out with you, did you?”

My mouth drops even more open.“What?Pester her?Hell no!”

“Good,” Everly says, with a firm nod.“Because no means no, right?”

What the hell?My sister is lecturing me on consent.“I know that!”Then I think back on my interactions with Arya.Was I a little pushy?

“What’s this?”Dad asks.“New girlfriend?”

“I wish,” I mutter.

“She doesn’t know if she wants to see him again,” Everly tells Dad.“I guess he didn’t impress her that much.”

I roll my eyes.

“Oh, I hear someone at the door.That must be Noah.”Mom jumps up and disappears.

“You didn’t mention this,” Ash says to me.

“Nope.”

He shakes his head.“Is she the yoga instructor the team hired?”

“Yes.”

“Also the one he dumped in the water,” Everly adds helpfully.

“Never gonna live that down,” I mutter.“At leastshe’sgotten past it.”

Everly laughs.“I put in a good word for you, doofus.”

I eye her skeptically.She probably told Arya about the time she caught me watching porn when I was fifteen.I’m never going to hear from Arya again.

Noah and Mom come out, we do all the greeting stuff, Mom gets Noah a drink and he sits down, and...a two-ton hush settles over everyone.

Mom looks around and her eyes are shiny, the corners of her mouth tight.“You are the best kids in the world,” she says a little shakily.“I love all of you so much.”

Jesus.Now I’m gonna cry.“Love you too, Mom,” I choke out, as do the others.

She glances at Dad, sitting next to her on the love seat, and takes his hand.I never really paid any attention to the age difference between them, growing up.They were adults and I was a kid.But right now, I see it...Mom in her early fifties, still youthful, Dad looking grayer and sad.My chest aches.

“You know we went to the doctor last week.”

We all nod.

“We actually have been to the doctor about this already,” she continues.

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