Page 21 of Swift and Saddled

“Ada Althea Hart,” I said, sure that my mother would be thrilled that someone had asked my full name. Althea was my grandmother’s name. The grandmother who gave my mom the money she needed to get to the United States from Greece when she was twenty-two.

Riley nodded in what looked like approval. “That’s pretty,” she said. “I like your drawings.” She pointed at my arm that was covered in a tattoo sleeve.

“Thank you. I like your pink soccer uniform.”

“My dad has drawings too, but you can only see them when we go swimming,” Riley stated. I liked that about kids—they would just tell you things. No secrets, no filter, just vibes. “And Uncle Wes told me that Uncle Brooks has a drawing on his butt, but I’ve never seen it.”See what I mean?“So I don’t know for sure.”

I heard Gus sigh, and Cam started laughing again.

I felt a laugh bubbling up too, and I didn’t know how to react to it. It felt like when you eat a bunch of sour candy and wash it down with a soda and the back of your throat fizzes. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but it was a feeling I didn’t know how to handle.

“Riley,” Gus said.

Riley looked at him. “What?”

“It’s not polite to talk to someone about your uncle’s butt when you’ve known them for less than five minutes.”

“Oh.” Riley looked confused. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Thank you for telling me about all the drawings.”

“On that note,” Cam said, “I need to get this little chatterbox to soccer practice”—she looked at Riley—“and we’ve gotta do something about this thing your dad calls a ponytail.” Wes gathered up the papers he’d signed and placed them back in Cam’s folder and then put the folder back into her messenger bag, since her hands were full.

“I did my best, Cam,” Gus said with a shrug.

Riley groaned in a way that hit a little too close to home coming from someone who couldn’t be older than five or six. “Can I be goalie today, Mom? I hate running.”

“I’ll think about it,” Cam said with an amused smile. Gus took Cam’s bag off the table and gently slung it over her shoulder.

“Kick ass, Sunshine,” he said to Riley. “Love you.” He kissed his daughter’s forehead, and she kissed her palm and pressed it against his cheek.

“Love you.”

“Can you pick her up tomorrow?” Cam asked.

“Yeah, I should be able to,” Gus said. “If something comes up, I’ll send Brooks or Emmy.”

Cam nodded. “Thank you,” she replied. “All right, Riles. Say bye.” Riley waved her little hand, and Wes, Gus, and I all waved back.

“Love you, kid,” Wes said. “Thanks, Cam. For helping out.”

“No problem. I’ll drop these off, and I’ll text you with anything else. And, Ada, it was nice to meet you. Let me know if you ever want to grab coffee or something—we can really get those Meadowlark tongues wagging.”

“Sure thing,” I said, even though the chances of my joining her for coffee were slim. I wanted to—Cam seemed great—but I just didn’t know how to have friends, really. I was afraid that if she talked to me for more than five minutes, she’d decide she didn’t like me as much as she thought she did. I was best in small doses.

“See you all later,” Cam called as she walked to the door, and Riley waved to us again, and I couldn’t help but wave back.

I turned toward Wes, who was looking at me.

He was always looking at me, and I was always looking at him.

It was a problem.

A big fucking problem.

So I decided to look at Gus instead, but he was already looking at his brother with one eyebrow raised, and his brother was looking at me, so we were just in a big weird lookfest, and I needed it to stop.

“I’m Ada,” I said, reaching my hand out toward Gus. He kept his eyes on his younger brother for a second longer before turning to me.

---