Page 42 of One Touch

“What? You never told me that!” he cried.

“I need to see this,” I said, taking another bite of the outrageously delicious tacos. “Make a joke.”

“I can’t just make a joke on demand! I’m not a performing monkey!”

“Dance, monkey, dance!” Ava said with a laugh.

Ethan scratched under his armpits and, to my surprise, made a couple of “ook” noises. Seeing him like this was a revelation.

“Actually,” Ethan said, “I was just a normal kid at school. Well, as normal as you can be when you’re a triplet. Jack was good at team sports. Cole was good at chasing girls. I was . . . okay at everything. Except art. I was terrible at art.”

I laughed. “What about chasing girls?”

He shrugged. “Well, I was pretty much with Marie from the age of sixteen. So I guess I did okay at that, too.”

“Mom chased you,” said Ava. “She liked your car.”

Ethan laughed. “Yeah. My car was my secret weapon.” He looked at me. “So, what about you, Lily Lane? What were you like at school?”

I bit my lip. “Oh, you know. Just your average nerdy kid who likes books and art and love stories. Guess I haven’t changed.”

I felt Ethan’s eyes trying to communicate something to me. Finally, he said, “Well, thank goodness you haven’t. Or this town would be missing out a very good bookstore, and a lot of romantic connections.”

“I thought you hated romance,” I said, narrowing my eyes.

“I hate it for me,” he replied. “I like it for everyone else.”

I wanted to press him on that, but it didn’t feel right in front of Ava, so I changed the subject. “So, you might be heading out for your first training session tonight?”

“Right. Could be called out at any time. And if not tonight, it’ll be tomorrow night.”

“Did they tell you what you’re going to be doing?”

“Nope.”

“They’ll make you save a cat from a tree,” Ava said.

“I think that’ll be in advanced training,” Ethan joked. Sure enough, his upper lip twitched.

After dinner, Ava scampered off to listen to more of her audiobook, while I helped Ethan clear the table. We worked in silence for a while, and then I said, “Ava needs to do some stargazing for her school project. Up for it? The weather is perfect tonight.”

His jaw clenched. “I don’t normally let her stay up that late.”

“Right, but it’s a one-off. For her project. Astral photography.”

He sighed. “Okay. Guess I need to chill out a bit on the old ‘strict dad’ routine sometimes.”

“Great! I’d love to join in, if you’ll let me.”

“You don’t have to.”

“We didn’t agree to a ‘no stargazing’ rule,” I said, quietly.

Ethan swallowed hard, then nodded. “Fine.”

I clapped my hands together in excitement. “Yay! Do you have marshmallows, or do I need to get some from the store?”

“We don’t need marshmallows to stargaze.”

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