Page 83 of No Way Home
Look what I got Willow!
He sent me a pic of a whiffle ball set, bases included.
Hey, Captain Obvious, she’s a baby. She won’t be able to play whiffle ball for at least 4-5 years.
Fletcher
We’ll get it warmed up while she waits. Right? #iamagenius
"That tracks.” I snorted. Fletch had the gift-giving skills of a twelve-year-old boy.
Just then, Magnolia squealed. Instinctively, I whipped around. Now she and Liam were sitting cross-legged on the paddleboard, splashing each other with water. The water fight picked up in intensity, each yelling at the other, “You stop!” “No, you stop!” “No,youstop!”
“How about you both stop?” I hissed.
Suddenly, I was in another headlock. “Bowen, my boy,” Uncle Holden said, trying to cut off circulation to my brain. I looked over to see not just him, but Ford, Ashton, and Blue too. “We need to have a little talk.”
Chapter Thirty-One
BOWEN
Ten minutes later,the five of us were in Uncle Ford’s library. I hated this room for…reasons. But I realized as I glanced around at the shelves lined with Ford’s awards—AMAs, CMTs, Grammys, and People’s Choice Awards—that we, his nieces and nephews, probably took for granted just how cool our uncle was. Last year, he was even inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The four of them were spread out between two couches, while I stood awkwardly, wondering if our last name had suddenly changed to Corleone and we were about to have an official ‘sit-down’.
I scratched my eyebrow. “Am I about to be remindedwho really has the power?” I asked in my best Italian accent.
Ford chuckled. “Dang. Maybe we should give you a part in a movie sometime.” He glanced at Uncle Ash. “Do we have any roles we need to cast for The Kiss and Kill Files?” That was the series that Ashton and Tally wrote after Spy vs Sigh.
“Maybe Johnson Billiards,” Ashton said, rubbing a hand over his beard, as if he was actually considering it. “He’s plenty good-looking."
“Oh, heck yes,” Uncle Ford said. “I can totally see Bowen as Johnnie.”
My forehead lifted. “You brought me here to cast me in a movie? Sorry to break your hearts, but I can’t act.”
Blue chuckled, rubbing his hands over his thighs, excited for…whatever this was. “Oh, don’t you worry. That’s definitely not why we’re here.”
“But it could be,” Ford said. “Not too late for us to back out.”
“Wuss,” Ashton coughed into his fist.
“Seriously?” Ford scoffed. “You’re not the one Mom’s going to pop in the back of the head when she finds out. I am.”
“Mom’s not going to find out,” Ashton said.
Holden twiddled his thumbs. “We brought you here for a reason. We’re just waiting on?—”
The door opened and my dad walked in—board shorts damp from where he’d been in the water with my mom. Looked like he wished he was still in the water right now. He gave me an uncomfortable smile, like he thought we were doing something naughty, meeting like this.
As soon as the door shut, he hissed, “Mom will kill us if she finds out we told Bowen.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, gaze darting from man to man.
“Mom’ll get over it,” Holden said.
Ashton leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “We agreed that if the time came that any of them needed to know, we would tell them.”
“Yes,” Dad whispered. “But when I agreed to that, I couldn’t picture a single scenario where any of them would need to know. Most especially one of mine.” He eyed me for a second. “I still don’t.”
