SWNOVELS The Charade: Chapter 24
AVA and I headed down to the kitchen a minute later. Dawn was sitting at the large, white marble counter, eating her steak and Dutch-oven potatoes. My mouth instantly watered because Marie’s steak was the best, juiciest steak I’d eaten in my whole life. Not even the five-star restaurants in New York could rival the steak I was about to eat.
‘Hey, Carter.’ Dawn looked up from scrolling through her phone as she ate. ‘Sorry I didn’t realize you were here already. I would have waited for you if I’d known.’
‘Oh, it’s fine.’ I waved my hand at the woman who’d been my mother since my dad brought me here. ‘I wasn’t sure if I’d be eating at the school tonight, so you’re totally fine.’
Dawn’s eyes went to Ava, a curious expression in them. ‘And who’s your friend?’ She arched a dark eyebrow as she looked Ava over from head to toe.
‘This is Ava,’ I said. ‘She’s just started at the academy this year but is a senior.’ Then turning to Ava, I said, ‘And this is my mom, Dawn.’
‘It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Hastings.’ Ava stepped forward to shake Dawn’s hand.
But since Dawn was Dawn, instead of taking Ava’s hand, she stood up and gave Ava a quick hug. ‘It’s so great to meet you, Ava. I think I may have heard a little about you from my kids. You’re one of the twins, right?’
Ava nodded, her cheeks flushing at the mention of having been previously discussed at our house. ‘Yeah, that’s me. My sister Elyse and I are twins.’
Dawn took a step back and gave Ava a good once-over before smiling. ‘Well, it was very nice to meet you. Cambrielle, Nash, and Carter have all said very nice things about you.’
‘They have?’ Ava looked at me, her expression full of questions. ‘Now I’m really curious what they’ve said.’
Dawn laughed. ‘Well, Cambrielle says she’s excited to have new girl friends to hang out with. Nash may have told me all about how beautiful the new girls at school were. And Carter…’ Dawn glanced at me, as if trying to remember what I might have said.
Honestly, I couldn’t remember what I’d said about Ava. I was sure I hadn’t been the one to bring the twins up in conversation, but if my siblings had mentioned them at dinner, I had probably added my two cents.
Then Dawn seemed to remember what I’d said. ‘Oh, yes. And Carter said something about either your sister or you being a lot to handle.’
Ava giggled. ‘He was probably talking about me then.’ She raised her hand. ‘Let’s just say the first day of school was quite the eventful day for us.’
I chuckled at the memory. ‘Yes, let’s just say that Ava has a way of keeping me on my toes.’
Dawn studied us with the kind of look I only saw from her every once in a while. The kind of look that told me she’d noticed how happy I’d been the past few weeks and was realizing just now that Ava was probably a big part of the reason for it.
She caught herself smiling at us a second later, though, because she cleared her throat. ‘Anyway, I wasn’t sure who’d be coming home for dinner since Nash and Cambrielle had their drama club meeting, so I had Marie put the rest of the food in the fridge for you to heat up later. So go ahead and take as much as you’d like.’
‘Thank you,’ Ava said with an appreciative smile. ‘It smells so good in here.’
‘Just make yourself at home.’ Dawn picked up her dishes and started rinsing them off in the sink.
As I was pulling the containers of food from the fridge and setting them on the kitchen island, Dawn spoke again. ‘Oh, and Carter?’
‘Yeah?’ I peeked around the stainless-steel fridge to look at her.
She wiped her hands on the towel after putting away the dishes and closing the dishwasher. ‘Did Cambrielle tell you and your friends about the party three weeks from now?’
‘The one on October sixteenth?’
‘I think that’s the date,’ she said, and from the hint of anxiousness in her eyes, I couldn’t help but wonder if my suspicions from earlier had been founded.
‘She mentioned it.’
‘And did it sound like everyone would be available to attend?’ she asked, seeming to be holding her breath as she waited for my answer.
‘Yeah, pretty much everyone said they could come.’ And then to test my theory, I added, ‘I made plans to visit Yale’s campus that weekend, if you remember, so I’ll probably have to miss it. But I’m sure everyone will have a great time.’
‘What?’ Dawn said in a louder voice than she’d used before, clearly surprised.
Ava narrowed her eyebrows. She was probably confused about it too, since I’d just said earlier today that my schedule was wide open that weekend.
‘W-why did you plan it for that weekend? I, um…I thought you’d be around.’ Dawn frowned like she was trying to solve some sort of problem in her head. She said, ‘Would you be able to reschedule your tour? We have just put so much into planning this already, and we’d really like for you to be there.’
Of course they would.
Cambrielle might have said it was just for fun and a way to live out her fantasy of dancing with a duke while wearing a fancy ball gown. But the timing was too coincidental for me to believe that they weren’t planning exactly what I suspected.
I could probably keep this going on a little longer, but since I loved Dawn and I really didn’t want to cause her too much stress even if she was doing the exact thing I’d told them I didn’t want, I said, ‘I was just teasing you. I don’t have any plans for that weekend.’
Dawn placed a hand to her chest, and then she shook her head and said, ‘You enjoyed that, didn’t you?’
I grinned and shut the refrigerator door. ‘What’s the use of being a teenager if I can’t tease my mom every once in a while?’
Dawn rolled her eyes at me, but I could tell she wasn’t really mad. ‘Anyway, I think I’m going to go take Penelope for a ride.’ Penelope was her Thoroughbred horse. ‘It’s been a few days since she’s gotten a good run in.’ She turned her gaze on Ava. ‘It was so good to meet you, Ava. I hope we’ll be seeing more of you in the future.’
‘I hope so too.’ Ava smiled at Dawn. ‘And it was great to meet you.’
‘SO, WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?’ Ava asked as we heated up our plates of food in the microwave. ‘Why did you tease your mom about not going to the party?’
‘Oh that?’ I raised an eyebrow, leaning back on my palms against the counter. ‘That was just me testing a theory.’
‘A theory?’
‘Yep.’
‘And what theory was that?’ she asked.
‘A theory about why they’re really having this party.’
‘And that theory would be what?’ Ava asked, folding her arms across her chest, not seeming to like that I was making her work for the answers.
The microwave beeped, so I opened the door to grab my food, which was steaming hot. I pulled it out carefully. With our plates and glasses of water in hand, I nodded toward the back door, indicating for Ava to follow me out to the terrace where we could eat our meal.
‘Are you going to tell me why you think they’re really having this party?’ Ava asked impatiently as we seated ourselves onto the striped cushions.
I set my dishes on the patio table and started cutting into my steak with the steak knife. ‘I’m pretty sure they’re planning a surprise birthday party for me.’
‘Really?’ Ava’s eyes widened, and she started cutting into her steak as well. ‘Is your birthday October sixteenth then?’
‘No, it’s the next day.’ I put a bite of steak in my mouth and had to resist the urge to moan because dang, it was so good. I closed my eyes as I savored the taste for a moment.
‘Did you just grunt like a caveman?’ Ava asked, amusement in her voice.
I opened my eyes and saw her staring at me openmouthed. Apparently, I hadn’t been able to hide my neanderthal tendencies as much as I’d hoped.
But since I had better manners than a caveman, I made sure to finish chewing my steak before I said, ‘This is so good.’
‘Kind of like the chicken at the back-to-school barbecue?’
‘Even better.’
Deciding to test it herself, Ava put a piece of the steak in her mouth, and when her eyes lit up as she chewed, I knew she was impressed. She swallowed her bite and said, ‘Um, do you think Marie has time to come cook for the school, too? Because I’m pretty sure this is the kind of steak that they serve in heaven.”
I laughed, but since I was a bit territorial when it came to Marie, I said, ‘Sorry. She only has time for my family.’
‘Well then, I may just need to invite myself over to dinner every night.’
‘I think I could get on board with that,’ I said.
And when our eyes met, I couldn’t help the goofy smile that took over my face because I realized that I really did want something like that to happen. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with this vivacious girl who always had me on the edge of my seat.
Ava cut into her steak again. ‘So how do you feel about this surprise party of yours? Is a soirée the kind of party you had in mind for the big eighteen?’
‘Honestly?’ I asked.
‘Of course.’
‘Well…’ I skewered a potato with my fork. ‘If it was actually up to me, I wouldn’t have a party at all.’
‘What?’ Ava pulled her head back, obviously caught off guard by my answer.
I looked at my plate and swallowed. ‘I’m just not a huge fan of my birthday.’
‘What?’ she said again, clearly never having met someone who didn’t like their birthday before. ‘Why don’t you like your birthday?’
I pressed my lips together, wondering how to explain it. With a sigh, I said, ‘I guess it’s just that the first birthday I remember having ended up being one of my worst memories.’
Ava’s expression immediately turned somber. ‘Did something bad happen on your birthday?’
‘Well, it wasn’t on my actual birthday.’ I rubbed the back of my neck, not sure if I really wanted to get into the story tonight. But I was starting to like this girl and knew that if I ever wanted anything to happen with her for real, then it meant I would need to open up to her and show her everything that made up Carter Dominic Hastings. I said, ‘The bad memories came from what happened the day after my fifth birthday.’