Meant To Be (The Callahans #4) - Monica Murphy Page 0,57

active one. The one who was going to make a difference in the world, while I was just…Ava.

“Hey, it’s true. You’re gorgeous.” His eyes turn a shade darker as he continues to watch me, and I want to squirm in my chair. I recognize that look. It’s the same one he gets right before he kisses me. “Never knew I could be so gone over a blonde.”

“Blondes have more fun,” I tell him with as much seriousness as I can muster.

“I’ll say.” He shakes his head, making me laugh. “Jake looks just like your dad.”

“He acts like my uncle Owen, though,” I say.

“Now there’s the one I want to meet. That guy is cool as fuck. I was a Drew Callahan fan when I was young, but I straight up idolized Owen Maguire. He was a badass on the field. Always causing trouble. Talking shit. Getting fined.” He glances around after all those bad words slip out of his mouth. “Hope no one heard me say that.”

I shake my head but say nothing. Mom’s admitted she had a terrible mouth when she was young. Dad too. I guess it just runs in the family.

“What’s it like, being surrounded by pro football players all the time?” Eli asks.

“I don’t know anything else,” I say with a shrug. “It’s been that way my entire life.”

“Even Asher Davis is a part of the family,” Eli says with a shake of his head.

“We’ll probably see Ash after the game, and you can meet him,” I say, my voice low. “I’m sure he’ll come see my parents and Autumn.”

“No shit? That would be amazing.”

We keep eating, Autumn calling out to Eli every once in a while, asking him a personal question, which he always answers vaguely. At one point, Jake tells her to knock it off, and Autumn glares at him.

“I’m just trying to get to know your significant others,” she says with a little sniff. She’s been giving Hannah the third degree too.

“Well you should freakin’ ease up a little,” Jake mutters at Autumn, who looks ready to fight him.

I feel her pain.

“Jake,” Dad says in warning.

It takes everything I’ve got to hide the smile that wants to spread across my face. I love it when my brother gets called out for his shit.

“We need to pack this up soon so we can head into the stadium,” Mom announces a few minutes later, rising to her feet. “I hope everyone enjoyed dinner.”

Dad gets all the compliments for his beer butt chicken, but I’m the one who goes to Mom and tells her how much I love her potato salad.

“If you told me twenty years ago I’d be making potato salad for a tailgate party with my family, I would’ve laughed in your face,” she says, shaking her head as she grabs a trash bag and shakes it out before dumping dirty plates inside.

I start to help her, putting lids on the salad bowls and tossing miscellaneous trash in the bag. “Why do you say that?”

“My life before I met your father…I couldn’t imagine having a family. Let alone wanting one,” Mom explains with a little sigh. She turns to look at me, really look at me, and I stop what I’m doing, wondering what she’s about to say. “Your father changed my life for the better. I was young, and I never believed in love. I didn’t believe in any of it. I thought it was all a crock of shit being fed to me my entire life.” The words are bitter, and it’s like she’s spitting them out.

“What made you change your mind?” I’m so curious. They don’t talk much about their past. About those first moments when they met. It’s shrouded in mystery, with snippets revealed here and there.

“Your dad. I saw what his family life was like. He had all the money in the world, and he was still miserable. I had nothing and was completely miserable too. But at least I had my brother, who loved me unconditionally. I realized your father had no one, and I wanted to be that someone.” Mom’s gaze is gentle as it settles on me. “I saw the same thing in Ash, and honey, I see the same thing in Eli. He feels like he has no one but you. I see it in the way he looks at you. I saw it in the way he grabbed onto your father’s attention when he gave it. That boy is starved. And not just for