Good…I think. That wasn’t the most reassuring response he could have gotten.
He thought about texting back for more details, but decided this would be a conversation better to be had over the phone. Before he went to bed tonight, he’d call her and find out. He was messaging her back to let her know that he’d call her later when he heard the sound of a basketball being dribbled behind him.
“Hey, man! You gonna text your girlfriend all night or play ball?” Dorsey shouted from the sidelines, not knowing just how on the nose he actually was.
No one knew that he was seeing Ava. Except Jenna, that is. And that was only because she’d guessed where he’d been the morning she showed up and also when he’d come in at four the morning after the Pine Cone Festival.
He hadn’t confirmed her suspicion, but he knew that she knew. Which made her talking to Ava even sketchier. But he’d find out if he needed to do damage control or not soon enough.
Asher put his phone in his gym bag and joined his friend on the court. Logan had been asking him to play since he’d gotten to Hope Falls, but tonight was the first night he was actually out on the court. He’d agreed because Blake was volunteering at the community center again, this time she was helping with a photography class for seniors.
He’d figured if she was volunteering, the tall kid would probably be around and he was right. Noah was on the other side of the gym working with five and six-year-olds on dribbling. The official story was that Asher was there to play basketball with the boys, but unofficially he was there to keep an eye on the tall kid.
Unfortunately, things did not work out as he’d planned. The weekly pickup game lasted longer than Asher wanted. He kept checking the clock on the far wall and the minutes felt like they were hours. He was anxious to get home and call Ava. Not only that, but Noah’s practice had ended thirty minutes before his game was over, which meant that was half an hour of unsupervised time Blake could be spending with the tall kid in this very building, right under his nose.
But there was no way he was going to be the guy to bow out early of the three-on-three game. If he did, he’d never hear the end of it. He may have started to guard a little less aggressively those final three minutes, which may have led to the other team shooting the winning basket. But, hey, he’d never claimed to be a saint.
After saying his goodbyes and insisting on a rematch, not because he actually cared, just for the optics of his poor performance, he walked down the darkened hallway of the community center. He checked the room that Blake had been volunteering in and there was no one there.
It wasn’t until he walked to the very front of the building that he found his daughter and surprise, surprise who was she with? Noah. The two were huddled together, sitting on a pony wall and appeared to be deep in conversation.
“Blake, let’s go.” Asher barked to break up the cozy moment.
Blake looked up and appeared startled and, if he wasn’t mistaken, sheepish. Guilty. It was an expression that he was familiar with considering most of his days had been spent sitting across from criminals.
His daughter quickly masked her reaction, hopped off the wall and turned to give Noah a hug, which Asher didn’t love seeing.
When she started across the lobby, Noah lifted his hand in a wave. “Hi, Mr. Ford.”
Blake, on the other hand, ignored her dad completely, walking right past him and out the double doors without saying a word or even acknowledging his presence.
As they drove home, the silent treatment he was on the receiving end of continued, which was very uncharacteristic for Blake. Usually, she had a lot to say. She had opinions and feelings about anything and everything.
The longer she stayed quiet, the more concerned he grew. “What were you talking to that kid about?”
Asher wasn’t looking in Blake’s direction, but he could practically hear her roll her eyes as she seethed, “That kid has a name.”
“Fine, what were you talking to Noah about?” He glanced over at her.
She sighed and looked out the passenger window. “Nothing.”
“It didn’t look like nothing.”
“Really?” She crossed her arms and shifted so she was facing him. “And what did it look like exactly? Did it look like me talking to my best friend? Because, news flash Dad, that’s all it was.”
“The tall kid is your best friend now?” That was a new development.
“Yes. Noah is my best friend. Do you have a problem with that?” she challenged.
“So he’s not your boyfriend?”
“The two labels are not mutually exclusive. Wasn’t Mom your best friend when she was your girlfriend and then your wife?” Blake huffed as she shifted back to stare out her window.
He and Jenna had always been good friends, but Asher couldn’t remember ever having a best friend. As soon as he had that thought Ava’s face appeared in his mind.
Until now. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but somehow Ava had become his best friend. He talked to her about things he never talked to anyone about. He wanted to tell her everything that happened in his day and he never talked about himself. And it wasn’t one-sided, he wanted to know everything that happened in her day. And he meant everything, from when she woke up, whether she had a green tea or a mocha latte, what she had for lunch, what trash TV she watched before she went to bed. No detail was insignificant, he was captivated by all of it.
But that was not who he should be focused on now. His daughter was obviously upset about something and she was hiding it from him.
