about the hair and nails thing.”
“Pedicures are kind of fun.”
Louisa shrugged. “I’m gonna be trying out for a soccer league in a couple of weeks. I don’t need to worry about pretty pink toenails when I need to kick the ball.”
“That’s new. I thought you were more into gymnastics and dancing.”
“I am,” she said, “but I like soccer. I like sports. More than they do. And I think with Jake finished with football, Mom won’t mind if I shake things up. She already said I could try out and then we’d discuss it. ’Cause, it’s a commitment you know.”
“Yes it is…” Then I laughed. “You wanna know a secret?”
“Sure, I know how to keep one. As long as it isn’t something about my brother, because that’s just gross. I still can’t believe you kiss him.”
I chuckled. “I promise, it’s not about Jake. I’m not big on all the girly froufrou stuff either. I can barely do my makeup.”
“You’re not wearing any.” The sage wisdom of being eleven years old.
“Nope,” I said. “So go for it with the soccer, and I want to hear all about it. If you don’t want to do the pedicure thing, what do you want to do?”
“There’s a Wide Event place here,” she glanced up, her pale blue eyes filled with animation for the first time since I picked them up. “They have everything from batting cages to hoops to places where I can practice my kicks.”
“Sold.”
She froze and glanced toward the changing rooms, where Becca and Blake had vanished to try on new jeans and shirts. “It’s expensive. I don’t know if I have enough…”
“Between you and me, I’ll cover it. It sounds like fun, and I suck at shooting hoops. But I’ve never been that good at kicking a soccer ball. At least when your brother and Coop weren’t around to make fun of how bad I am at it.”
Snickering, she glanced at the changing rooms, then back to me again. “Well, if you really don’t mind…I probably have enough for most of a ticket.”
“My treat,” I offered, and pulled out my phone to check the place. “We can drag them with us and make them do something we want. After all, girls’ day should be for all of us.”
“You rock,” Louisa said with a little fist pump. “I swear my brain cells are dying the longer we do all this girly girly crap.”
I probably shouldn’t have laughed, but I did. “You know, some of that girly stuff is useful to know.”
“But not all of it, right?” Louisa said, and we shared a look. The girl was taller than me already, but I didn’t care. We fist bumped.
“Right.”
Twenty minutes later, accompanied by a harried Blake and Becca, we paid for a few rounds in the soccer arena. Bless Louisa, she beat the pants off of all of us, but I hadn’t laughed that long or hard in a while. Especially when Blake humdinged a ball at the goal, and it bounced off and hit her back. I managed two goals, so I’d call that a win. Becca managed three, and I was pretty sure the third one was purely from her need to beat Blake.
“You know…” Blake said when we got back to the car. “We took a vote before we came out today.”
“Blake,” Becca snapped. “Don’t.”
“Nah, Frankie’s cool.” Blake leaned against the backdoor of my car, Becca had already claimed shotgun, and Louisa had her door open but she stared at her sisters with a resigned look. “We know about the dating all the boys thing and we weren’t sure we were cool with you doing that, but you’re cool. Just…you gotta promise to pick Jake if you have to pick any of them. ’Cause he’s way less a pain when he’s with you.”
Louisa stared at the sky, and Becca sighed.
Sucking on my upper lip a second, I studied them. While the sun was out, the air was not balmy. If anything, the wind had just grown more bracing. “I love your brother,” I told them, and didn’t even mind when Louisa grimaced, but Becca grinned.
With a knowing nod, Blake said, “We figured that out.”
“Shut. Up. Blake.” Becca pushed each word out between her teeth while still smiling. Impressive technique.
“I’m just saying that I love him and I have no intentions of ever hurting him. I like all three of you, too. And I suppose…” I paused to consider them. “You’re all right, too.”
Becca snickered, and Blake grinned. “See, I told you she