you doing?” Jessie asked.
“Calling up a friend of mine. He’s a private investigator. He can look into Danny for us,” I said.
8
Amanda
While the guys were outside, I hung out inside with Ava and Robert. He was absolutely adorable, and I couldn’t resist sitting down on the floor with him and playing with his toys. I had the urge to squeeze and tickle every little wrinkle and roll on his chubby body.
Ava smiled when she saw Robert reach over and grab my cheeks.
“You’re really good with him,” she said. “Do you have a lot of brothers and sisters?”
“Actually, no,” I said. “I’m an only child. I don’t really have a lot of experience with babies at all. But they are just so cute.”
“I’m an only child, too,” Ava said.
“Really?” I asked. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one in the world. It’s like everybody I meet has at least one brother or sister.”
“Or a whole hockey team like the Andersons,” Ava joked.
“That’s true,” I said. “I just can’t even imagine what it would be like to grow up with that many people around you all the time. I mean, my parents split up when I was pretty young. Not like a really little girl, or anything, but young enough that I got used to us not being together as a family. It just felt normal to have it be only my mother and me.”
“Your father didn’t stay around?” Ava asked. As soon as the question came out of her mouth, her face went red and her mouth fell open. “I’m sorry. That was really personal. I shouldn’t have asked that.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine. That’s a perfectly normal question to ask. Especially considering I know your parents are still together.”
“Yeah, they are,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing. No matter what the two of them face, they are always right by each other’s sides. They inspire me.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” I said. “My father left when I was fifteen. After the divorce, he was just gone. It wasn’t like he divorced my mother but wanted to stay a father. He divorced both of us. He walked out, and I just never saw him again. I think that’s actually what made my mother move us to California.”
“You’re not originally from San Francisco?” Ava asked.
“No,” I said. “I’m actually from Virginia. That’s where I grew up. We moved here a little more than a year after the divorce.”
“I thought I heard something in your voice that wasn’t exactly West Coast,” Ava said.
I laughed. “Well, you should hear me when I’m drunk or super tired. The accent starts coming out big-time. How about you? You’re from here, aren’t you? I thought Tom said something about you and Mason being together since you were kids.”
Over the years, Tom had told me a lot about his family and growing up in Astoria, but sometimes it got difficult to keep track of everyone. There were so many of them and so many stories, it got a little overwhelming and everything blurred together.
“That’s right,” Ava said. “I was born and raised here in Astoria, like the Andersons. Mason and I started dating when we were young teenagers, but I actually moved away for several years. I went to Michigan and got a really amazing job there. I actually didn’t think I was ever going to come back to Oregon.”
“Why did you?” I asked.
“My parents needed me,” Ava said. “My father owns a construction company, and even though he is far too old to be doing everything that the crew does, he insists on being hands-on with every project that they do. So, he was up on a roof doing some repairs and ended up falling. He broke pretty much the entire lower half of his body. My mother needed some help taking care of him, and so I came home.”
“That’s right,” I said. “Tom mentioned you came back here after being gone a long time.”
“Yep. Then Mason and I reconnected, and the rest is history,” she said, smiling at her son. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Sure,” I said. “Iced tea would be nice if you have it.”
“I do.” She poured us glasses and carried them back to the living room. “So, does Tom talk about the family a lot?”
“He does,” I said. “I hear a lot of stories. He’s very proud of his family. Though between you and me, he thinks everyone should do things the way he would do them.”
Ava laughed as she