I quickly school my features even though it’s apparently too late. Damn alcohol.
Her eyes narrow in on me. “That’s fine, you can keep your secrets. For now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” I walk away as steadily as I can and am treated to Hollie’s laughter following me down the hall.
Chapter Thirteen
Carson
“Did you have fun at Aunt Gloria’s?”
“It was fine.” Oliver is staring out the window watching the street go by.
“Just fine?”
He gives a shrug without looking over at me. “She doesn’t have any art stuff. I only had my pencils and the sketchpad I brought.”
He’s been obsessed with art since Bianca introduced him to it. I know that the class at the college tomorrow can’t come fast enough for him. “What if we pick up a few things this weekend so you can keep them there?”
He finally tears his eyes away from the window and looks at me in excitement. “Really?”
“Sure, buddy.” I pull into the driveway, happy to finally be home. I quickly glance at the house next door and don’t see any lights on. For a house that has three girls supposedly living in it, the place always seems surprisingly empty. Then again, they’re young, they’re probably out living it up like they should be at that age.
“Can we get a present for Bianca?” I whip my head around to Oliver who’s climbing out of the car with his backpack.
“What are you talking about? Why would we get Bianca a present?”
“Because it’s her birthday.” The way he says it makes it sound like I’m the biggest idiot in the world. Please don’t tell me this is a glimpse into how he’s going to be as a teenager.
“It’s her birthdaytoday?” I ask.
He rolls his eyes at me. “That’s what I said.” Yeah, he’s definitely going to be a pain in the ass as a teen.
I open the door and quickly type in the code to the new alarm system that was just installed before closing the door behind us and making sure it’s locked. “Well, since you seem to know so much, how do you know it’s her birthday today?”
He tosses his backpack onto the kitchen table and climbs up into the chair, waiting for me to get him his dinner. Things are finally starting to settle into a routine and that’s letting him feel secure enough to come out of his shell a bit more.
“She told me. She says she’s having a party. It’s only for grown-ups or she would have invited me.”
“Really?” I pour a glass of milk and hand it over to him while I pull the leftovers from last night’s dinner out of the fridge. I glance at her house through the window but it looks just as empty as it did five minutes ago. If there’s a party, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be over there. “Did she say where this party was?”
I should feel bad about pumping my own kid for information. Ishouldbut I don’t. He just shrugs at me. Some help you are, kid.
“What do you think we should get her?”
“A sketchpad,” he says, pulling out his own to draw while I heat up dinner. I pull a beer from the fridge, pop off the top, and take a long pull from the bottle before I answer. “We already got her one of those remember?”
“Oh. Then we should get her a ring,” I almost spit the beer out all over our dinner. The hoppy liquid went down the wrong pipe and it takes me a minute to stop coughing.
“Why do you think we should get her a ring?”
“Luna from school says when a guy likes a girl, he gives her a ring. We like Bianca,” he states matter-of-factly while drawing away, like I didn’t just almost die from drowning by beer.
“Well, that’s a little different, buddy. That’s something a boyfriend gives a girlfriend when he really likes her.”
His pencil stops moving and he stares at the wall, his face scrunched up like he’s mulling something important over. “But she is your girlfriend. She’s mine too.”
I let out a sigh, I really don’t know how to get out of this conversation. “Actually, Bianca is a girl that is our friend, she’s not our girlfriend.” He looks like he’s about to argue with me, so I hurry to change the subject. “How about we look for a present after your art class tomorrow?”