At least we had seen the fashion and attitude before her mother got sick, so we knew not worry that it was in response to the loss. It was simply her teenage self, taking shape to confuse all of us.
“What did you think?” I asked. “Look comfortable?”
“It’s weird to see my stuff in another house,” Ava replied.
“Indeed,” I agreed. “That is a weird feeling.”
I pulled together the rest of the food and announced that dinner was ready. Frankie and I chatted a little while everyone made their plates, but as usual, Ava didn’t say much, just responding briefly in her deadpan when asked a direct question.
Not that I blamed her. Frankly, I was impressed that she could hold herself together enough to shoot us the occasional sarcastic comment.
“You’ll be ready to move in tomorrow?” I asked. “The other half of your stuff will arrive in the morning.”
“Aunt Colleen’s guest bed is better than my bed.”
Frankie chuckled. “Does Aunt Colleen still have those scratchy sheets, though?”
Ava giggled as she rolled her eyes, then turned to her burger. I watched as she ate, feeling content just to see her fed and taken care of.
After finishing the meal and cleaning up the kitchen together, I finally caved and asked about K-Pop, throwing the only card I had to keep her from disappearing into one of her fantasy novels until Colleen came to pick her up. Ava dove into a long story about a group called Girls’ Generation and how some people in the group formed smaller groups within it, and so now the original group was kind of the same but kind of not, or something like that.
I nodded along, asking appropriate questions with Frankie for a while. When I offered her a cup of tea, I got to show her how we make it at our house and watch, even though I already knew, when she showed me how she did it. Soon enough, she had her backpack slumped on her shoulders, and she was scowling at the ground again and back out the door with Colleen.
“What did you think?” I asked Frankie as the sedan drove away. “Good first dinner?”
He stepped forward, then straightened my glasses for me. “I think so,” he said. “And she didn’t put her headphones on while someone was talking to her.”
I chuckled, then pecked a kiss on his mouth. “Glowing praise.”
We walked together to the living room couch. I thought about fetching us each a glass of bourbon, but when Frankie hooked his ankle over mine and leaned against my side, I couldn’t bring myself to move and tucked my arm over his shoulders instead. “You have everything you need for tomorrow? What time is Asher getting here?”
He shifted his weight, then smoothed down the front his shirt, fussing his nerves. “In the morning. I think around nine.”
“Something wrong?” I asked. “Didn’t it go as well working together today?”
“No,” he said quickly. “You saw how much we got done.”
I paused, waiting for him to continue.
“The thing is,” he said, “I kind of caught myself checking him out.” He turned up to me, and there was a wince on his face. “Sorry.”
I caught his eye, then burst out with a chuckle. “What are you sorry for?”
“Checking out another guy!”
I rolled my eyes, then pulled him closer. “Frankie, I know you better than that. I’m sure you turned your eyes on him for one brief second and then almost fainted once you realized what you had done.”
“Lightheaded, but I wouldn’t say fainted…” he mumbled to himself.
“You didn’t say anything inappropriate to him, did you? Or behave unprofessionally?”
“Of course not.”
I leaned down to kiss the top of his head. “Then don’t beat yourself up. You have plenty of other things troubling you. It’s not a sin to notice that someone is attractive.”
Hell, even I noticed that, and I only have eyes for Frankie.
“Well, for any matter, I definitely shouldn’t hire him to help fix and reorganize some things at the store,” Frankie said, as though trying to convince himself. “When I was there, I noticed some repairs that needed tending to in the back, and of course I’m just as disorganized at Northstar as I am at home. I thought I might keep Asher on, but that would be inappropriate now.”
