It’s not what you’d expect from someone who swore she would never eventalkto her half sisters. Ava’s looking at them like she looks at Imo and me, like she loves them.
“Shh,” she whispers into Jordie’s hair, her arms around them both. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.”
Bianca looks up. “Will you braid my hair again, Ava?”
Ava nods. “Of course. Always.”
Jordie sniffles and wipes her nose on Ava’s shirt.
The intimacy. I know I shouldn’t watch. Slowly I start to back away. But I must step on a branch because Ava whips her head around, looking at me. Her eyes are soft and misty and she smiles a bit.
“Couldn’t let you have all the fun with them this summer, I guess,” she says.
Bianca laughs, covering her mouth with one small hand. “Ava’s the best sister. Besides you, Jordie.”
Jordie snuggles up into the crook in Ava’s arm. “I know.”
Ava shrugs, her lips tugging upward. “Guess I do love them after all.”
---
Ava’s outburst is old news by the end of the day thanks to color war, to all the kids running around, hoping to land their team more points, more goals, more wins.
Mellie gave Ava a stern talking-to before our lifeguarding shift. Imogen and I can only see them from afar, but after, Ava barrels down from the swim hut, rolling her eyes. “It was worth it,” shesays, gazing off at her sisters, sitting with their color war team in the sand. “No one messes with the Cantor girls.”
Imogen looks at me, surprised, as if we both can’t believe the one-eighty Ava had done on her sisters.
“I checked, by the way,” Ava says.
“Checked what?” I ask.
“Where my dad was the night Heller died.”
“And...?” Imo asks.
“In Geneva, of all fucking places.” She leans back against the towel wall and sighs. “Then they took a luxurious trip to a five-star chalet in Lake Lucerne, according to the stepbitch’s Instagram.”
“Geezus,” I say.
“He was probably doing crimes or whatever, but he was definitely not here.” Ava blows out a puff of air. “And get this: I obviously googled him to see what was going on, and turns out he’s dead set against giving up his clients’ names. It’s going to take the IRS years to untangle the whole mess.”
“Why wouldn’t he spill?” Imo asks.
Ava shrugs. “No clue but that twerp was right. This means he’s going to jail for a long-ass time.” She rests her cheek on her knee. “Guess he’d rather keep their privacy than watch his daughters grow up. Selfish asshole.”
“Ave,” I say softly, patting her hair. She leans into my hand.
But no one says what we’re all thinking, which is that we still don’t actually have a plan to find the answers to all our other questions. Instead, we look out at the lake and watch the kids finish up water carnival, the most anticipated color war event of the summer. They’re all huddled on the beach in sweatshirts, damp hair stuck to their skulls, waiting for Levin to announce the winners.
Ava’s eyes are trained on Jordie and Bianca, whose sad faces from earlier have been replaced with wide-eyed excitement from all of the kayak races, deep dives, and underwater breath-holding competitions. They knock their knobby knees together, anticipation coursing through them.
“How long?” I ask Ava. “How long have you been hanging out with the twins?”
Ava stares down at the sand, burrowing her toes deep into the ground. “Since they got here,” she says. “I started talking to them one day at woodworking and... they’re cute.” Ava laughs. “I don’t know. They look so much like me. I wanted to get to know them. Without our parents. Without... anyone. Some things are just for me, you know?”
“I get that,” I say. And I do. It’s why I kept so much hidden.
Ava looks right at me, then over to Imogen. “I guess we don’t have to tell each other everything, huh?”
