Page 94 of The Girl He Loves
He presses a finger to his lip, mulling it over for a beat. “Hmm…. that would be you.”
I laugh out loud. “Totally agree.”
He grabs my face with both hands, and kisses me hard. “But I love all your crazy… I always have.”
Epilogue
Six months later.
Ava is struggling a bit. She’s just as hopeless as her dad at this game. She’s on her sixth shot — par for the hole is three. She sets herself up carefully, and putts the ball gently. It slowly rolls in. She jumps for joy, in spite of the fact that she has scored six, which is the maximum. I love that about her — she’s always so cheerful, never gloomy. She’s a joy to be around.
Trevor and Tristan are both stifling grins. They’re much better at mini-golf than she is. Tristan easily gets par on this hole, and Trevor scores a four. Brian wraps an arm around my shoulder as we watch them. His turn is up next.
He needs to time his first shot perfectly — there’s a rotating windmill which will either let the ball pass or deflect it.
The ball bounces back and we all erupt into laughter, enjoying Brian’s misery. “You’re as bad as I am at this, Dad,” Ava says. She calls him Dad now, and he likes it. This is a very new thing and it feels a little strange for all of us.
Ava and I are standing side by side as we watch Brian struggle. She’s a lot taller than I am, but she could easily be mistaken for my daughter — we both have dark hair, a fair complexion and light eyes. And she is my daughter after all — it’s taken me a little while but I’ve come to think of myself as her mother, and she treats me as such. She often comes to me for advice about school, about boys, and we occasionally have lunch and go shopping together.
Honestly, I think she’s been looking for a mother all her life. We don’t often talk about Renee but I get the impression that they’re not very close. I don’t think her mother has ever been very involved in Ava’s life. Even less so these days, since Ava decided to show Joel her mother’s texts. This led to an immediate separation and divorce proceedings. I thought Renee would end up with Grant, but apparently he’s married — the scumbag probably doesn’t want to leave his wife.
I secretly enjoy when Ava talks about her dad — it gives me little glimpses into his life — he sounds happy. This doesn’t surprise me. Joel is a glass half-full kind of guy — that’s what I loved about him. He’s apparently just met a beautiful redhead named Amelia at his yoga class. Ava seems to like her.
“And he scores five points. Such an amazing feat,” Tristan calls out, mocking his father.
“Shut up,” Brian scoffs.
I’m up next. I couldn’t care less how I do. I’m just happy to be here with my family. We’re at the eighth hole, with ten to go. I haven’t done so well so far. Trevor is keeping score, but I have no clue how I’m doing. All I know is that it’s a beautiful day, and that life is not bad at all.
When I finally get the ball in on my third shot, I bounce off my feet. “I got par.”
Brian kisses me on the cheek. “You rock.”
I reach up to him, and slap a kiss on his mouth.
“Ugh.” Tristan smirks. “You guys are not going to start making out in the middle of mini-golf, are you?”
We laugh. “Of course not,” Brian says. “We’re saving that for later.”
“Ewww…” the kids all say in unison.
Like kids do.
The End.
