Page 92 of Cash

“I can’t believe how good he’s gotten,” she said, watching her son up on the stage. River and Mateo started a band that even Cash thought was pretty good. He was glad about that with how much he had to listen to them. They had pretty much taken over his music room as a practice space.

“Yeah, they sound pretty good.”

Evie gave a little gasp. “This is my favorite song!”

His heart warmed at the fact that she had a favorite song. They tried to see them every time they could, but busy schedules meant he missed more of River’s shows then he would have liked.

“Yeah, they’re great. I’m going to tell Hillary we should have them play during on the game intermissions next season. What a fun story! Our star enforcer’s nephew playing during a game,” Sasha said.

“Do you ever stop working?” Cash asked her.

“No, she doesn’t,” Conner replied before kissing her cheek.

The five of them sat there enjoying River’s set. When they were in between sets River stopped over at the table.

“Mom, hi,” he said pulling her into a hug.

It turns out they got a long much better half a country apart.

“Did you tell her?” River asked Cash, trying to keep the smile off his face.

Cash shook his head.

“Tell me what?” Meadow asked, looking between the two of them.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said.

“It is a big deal,” Cash said.

“What?!” said Meadow, losing patience.

“It’s nothing. I made the Dean’s list.”

Meadow hopped off her barstool and pulled him into a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

“I need to get back, but I’ll catch up with you guys tomorrow at breakfast.”

River went back and got on stage and Meadow leaned over and gave Cash a hug as well.

“Thank you, big brother.”

“For what?”

“For showing me I was being stupid not letting him be a musician. Clearly, he’s thriving here, and that’s thanks to you.”

“No, Meadow. You raised him by yourself. I only gave him a place to live while he goes to college.”

“Regardless, thank you.”

After the band finished up, they went back to Cash’s and were getting ready for bed. River was out with his band, Meadow was in the guest room, and Cash was just about to crawl into bed with his absolute favorite person in the world.

“That was fun tonight,” Evie said as she walked out of his bathroom pulling her hair up into a messy bun.

“It was a good night,” he agreed.

He watched as she crawled into his bed. The rightness of her in his bed never got old. The season had been tough, both of them were busy and they didn’t get to see each other as much as they would have liked, so in the off season they were inseparable.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, my mom called today. She asked if we wanted to come over for dinner on Sunday for my dad’s birthday.”

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