“You’re so cringe, Uncle Cash,” Zoe says.
“Do you know what that means?” I whisper to Aspen. I overheard the younger kids talking aboutUtah fit checkearlier and wasn’t honestly sure if it was good or bad, given the context.
“It means she loves you,” Aspen whispers back.
Zoe makes a noise that tells me she definitely doesn’t mean she loves me.
Her younger brother comes charging through, and I snag him by the back of the collar before he gets too close to the fire. “Other way, Hudson.”
“Skibidi toilet GYAT!” he yells, then heads back the other way.
“I don’t remember this from last year,” I murmur to Aspen.
“It’s because you’re old and your memory’s going,” Levi tells me.
“He remembered your birthday this year,” Aspen points out.
“He forgot the words to ‘America’s Sweetheart’ yesterday.”
Aspen laughs.
She knows I didn’t forget the words.
I’ve spent so much time entertaining myself with alternate lyrics that I slipped into them instead of the original words for our Bro Code debut hit.
“Good point,” she says. “I should take him home and get him to bed. Old man bedtime and all that.”
I’d object, but I never object to going to bed with Aspen.
“What time is it? Where am I? Am I wearing pants?” I intone.
Someone asked me right after we went public if being with her made me feel younger.
It doesn’t.
Being with her makes me feel lighter. But not younger. I don’t think about how old either of us are much anymore. We’re too busy having fun to worry about that.
“Seriously, though, dude,” Levi says, “when are you releasing that album?”
I slide a look at Aspen.
She shakes her head.Wasn’t me.
“When I get phone calls asking why Cash Rivers is in a studio and I’m still not…” Levi adds.
“Fucking big mouth.”
Aspen introduced me to her producer, who didn’t tell me my songs suck, and it’s been fun being in the booth again myself.
Still not ready to own them in public though.
“You should glitter bomb him,” Aspen murmurs.
I choke on a laugh.
“Don’t say that any louder around here,” Levi mutters.
She giggles.
