Page 63 of Last Call

Pete shrugged. “Nah. He’s actually a pretty cool guy.”

“Mr. Avery? Come on!”

“What? Did he fail you?” Pete asked.

“No. He gave me a B+. A B+! It nearly killed my GPA.”

“You really are an overachiever, Foster.”

“Why? What did he give you?” Fallon asked.

Pete shrugged.

“Come on. You failed, huh?”

“Nope. I got an A. Andi did, too.”

“Andi got an A in Avery’s class?”

“Yep. We were study buddies,” Pete said.

“What do you mean, study buddies? Holy shit! Wait. Did you and Andi…”

Pete laughed so hard that beer spurted from his nose.

“Well?” Fallon urged him.

“I wish,” Pete said. “Nah. Andi and I were always friends. Just friends.”

“I can’t believe she aced Avery’s class.” Fallon shook off the thought. “So, you hired Mr. Avery’s kid?”

“She’s great. You’ll love her.”

“How old is she?”

“Thirty-six. She just moved back to the area. Her mom had a pretty bad car accident over the holidays—needed pins and plates in her leg. Parker stayed to help. I met her at the garage when she came by to check on the car repair,” Pete explained.

“Wow. Does Beth know you hired someone to help?”

“Not yet. I planned to tell her about it last night. Then everything happened with Marge. Like I said, I’m not going to push anything with Beth.”

“Can I ask you something?” Fallon wondered.

“Sure.”

“What do you hope happens between you?”

Pete shook his head, sipped from his bottle of beer, and sighed. “I’d like it to be permanent.”

“Momma!” Owen screamed. “I caught Evan!”

“Wow. You’ve gotten fast,” Fallon called back.

“You’re really lucky, Foster,” Pete said.

“Yeah. I know. Pete?”

“I don’t want to let them down. You know? I’m the cool friend who plays with Hope and teaches Evan about cars. I don’t know anything about being someone’s parent.”

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