Page 69 of Off Camera
“That’s when we dressed up likeFrozencharacters,” June tells me. “Uncle Reid was the snowman.”
“He and Maverick have been in your life a while, haven’t they?” I ask.
“Since I was born. I didn’t have a mom when I was younger, and when people teased me, I didn’t really care. I had three dads, and three is much better than one. Uncle Reid helped me learn my ballet dances.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. We practiced in the living room. He’s not very good, but he did his best. He even wore a tutu. Uncle Mav took me shopping while Daddy was playing football. We always had fun. Then Mom got here, and everything is even better.”
My breath catches as I stare at the photograph. I imagine Reid holding June as a baby, rocking her to sleep and singing her a lullaby. Letting her braid his hair and paint his nails. Being her bonus dad so she never felt alone, and showing up when she needed him the most.
Fuck him for being a nice fucking guy.
“Three is better than one,” I agree. “And four is better than three. You got lucky with the best mom in the world, June. She’s letting you help me make a mess out of Reid’s office, and that’s cool as heck.”
The three of us work in tandem. We climb over each other, going around and around the metal legs and laminate tabletop until his desk is a mess of plastic.
The chair and computer are next, and it takes two more rolls and Maven wrapping his stapler for us to finish the job.
“Wow.” June presses her finger into the wrappings and giggles. “That’s going to be hard to undo.”
“This is brilliant, Ave,” Maven says. “I wish we could watch the game here. Look at this view.”
“I wish I could see his reaction.” I grab a sticky note from a stack on his bookshelf and draw a heart followed by my initials. I tack it right on his covered computer and step back to admire our hard work. “There. Now it’s perfect.”
“Guess we need to get going,” Maven says. “It’s almost game time.”
“Can we tell Uncle Reid we need something from his office during halftime so he has to come in here?” June suggests. “Then he can see the damage we did.”
“I like the way you think.” I ruffle her hair. “Will you film it for me?”
“Duh.” June grins proudly and knocks her knuckles against mine.
“I have to run. Duty calls. Text me later?” I ask, and Maven hugs me tight.
“I will. Have fun, Ave. Are you wearing your sunscreen?”
I hug her back. “Yes, Mom. Enjoy your air-conditioned luxury box and pray for me. I’m going to sweat my butt off down there.”
I make it to the sidelines after the coin toss. I high-five the Thunderhawks players, going through the special handshakes I have with a few of them, and filming their huddle.
“You seem distracted, Avey baby,” Justin Jones, star running back and longtime veteran, says. He rests his elbow on my head and looks down at me. “You good?”
“I’m great.” I beam at him. “How many yards do you think you’re going to have this afternoon?”
“I hope over a hundred. I played like shit last week and we lost, so I need to make up for it. Just wish the Titans weren’t so damn good.”
“You and me both,” I grumble.
It’s our first time playing them, and the possibility of getting blown out frays my nerves.
Our defense takes the field, and I let myself lapse into five seconds of looking for Reid. I do my best to be casual about my search, a quick glance to the Titans’ sideline instead of a full-on scan of the stadium, but I can’t find him.
He must be hiding somewhere.
I’m going to give him shit for that later.
By halftime, I still haven’t seen him, and I don’t know if I should be worried.
