AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A Girl’s Gotta Eat
The two weeks pass by quickly. Despite having cut my hours, I’m spending more time at the bakery, and my personal calendar has filled with the projects Grayson’s teammates keep sending my way.
I’m burning the candle at both ends.
I’ve started taking Sundays off so I can watch Grayson play, whether I’m in person at the stadium because they’re playing in Vegas and he sent me yet another jersey to wear, or I’m at home watching from the comfort of my couch with my slippers on.
And when I watch, I feel this strange sense of ownership over him. That’s my guy.
He is. Except…he’s not.
When Friday rolls around, Beck texts me that their plane landed. My mom brought her boyfriend, and they’re both going to be staying with me, and it all just feels so weird.
But if she’s happy, if she’s out of the fog that’s lasted since my dad died, then I’m happy for her.
Beck rented a car, and my doorbell rings about an hour after I received his text.
My brother stands in front of the group, looking clean-cut as always, and I glance beyond him while I hug him first.
My mom looks…different. Cleaned up or something. She’s wearing a dress, and her hair is dark when it was always platinum. She’s wearing makeup, and the deep bags that were under her eyes for so long seem to have lifted. She looks like she has joy inside her again, and this woman reminds me of the woman I knew when I was six or seven. She looks like the kind of mom I would have loved to have had when I was a teenager and needed my mom.
My eyes flick to the man she brought with her. He’s tall and handsome, and he’s wearing a suit. They look like a power couple in town on business, and somehow…it suits her.
“Mom,” I say, and she squeezes me tightly. She holds on a few extra beats, and she smells exactly like I remember her smelling. “It’s so good to see you. You look great.”
“I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve been out to Vegas to visit you since you moved here,” she says softly.
“Eight years now,” I say. “Better late than never, right?” It’s something my dad used to say to us all the time.
I still remember it in his voice when I think hard enough.
She presses her lips together and tilts her head, a secret acknowledgment of his words, and then she looks at the man standing beside her. “This is Thomas,” she says. “Thomas, my beautiful and talented daughter, Ava.”
“Pleasure,” Thomas says as he shakes my hand.
Weirdly, he doesn’t remind me of my dad in any way, but I still like that he’s here. I like that he’s perhaps the vehicle that helped my mom feel like she could enjoy life again.
“Come on in,” I tell them. I show them to the guest room—which happens to be Kelly’s old room—and leave to let them get settled in while I meet Beck in the kitchen.
“You okay with dinner tonight?” he asks.
“A girl’s gotta eat,” I say, and he shakes his head.
“Are you okay with Grayson being there, I mean.”
“Oh, uh…yeah. Of course.” Of course I can handle a meal with Grayson. I love him.
And that’s the whole problem. I’ve been so skittish to jump back in that I’ve been content with seeing him on Sundays at his home games, talking to him during the week, and staying far, far away so I don’t fall into that body-betraying syndrome where I’m so attracted to him that I can’t help but get naked and jump on top of him.
Not that I haven’t thought about it. Especially late at night when I’m home all alone with just my vibrator.
“Great. We have reservations tonight at Prime Cellar. Eight o’clock. Can you get Mom and Thomas there?”
I nod. “I sure can,” I say, and my tone is a little too bright.
It’s fine. I can eat a meal with my ex, whom I still love, and his best friend, who is also my brother, plus my mom and her new boyfriend. No problem. It won’t be awkward at all.
And since I’m the driver, I won’t even get to drink.
