Summer Spent with You

Chapter Sixteen: I wanna Know You

Ava's POV

"Do you want me to talk to your dad?" Parker asked.

We were lounging by the pool at my grandparents house, alone - thankfully. Even though my brothers had agreed to keep my secret and were accepting my relationship with Parker, they still didn't like it very much. They had been watching us like hawks. It had been days since we had anytime to ourselves. I was just grateful that Andrew had summer work outs for football and Aiden was with his band, otherwise I had no doubt that they would have been there with us.

"No, I'll talk to him," I sighed. I still was not looking forward to that.

"I'm gonna have to tell Molly and Brandon." He frowned.

"Do you think they'll be mad?"

"Knowing my aunt, I'd say probably. Everything I do makes her mad these days."

"Can I ask you something?" I rolled on to my side so that I could face his chair. He quirked up an eyebrow but nodded, "Why did your parents send you to stay with Molly?"

He didn't answer me right away. He sat staring at the pool and I immediately regretted bringing it up. It was obviously a sore subject.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said. I didn't want to make him uncomfortable or feel like he was being pressured.

"I was getting into trouble back home. I started staying out all night... I almost got arrested once, but the cop let me go with a warning. I quit football, I let my grades slip... My parents couldn't handle it, so they shipped me off to Molly."

"But what made you do all of that? I mean, you're not the kind of person to just go "hey, I think I'm gonna strive to piss my parents off". Something must have happened."

"I don't want to talk about it Av," He stood up and started for the gate towards the front yard. I guess pool time was over. I jumped up and grabbed his hand.

"I'm not gonna make you talk about it. Just forget I even brought it up, if that's what you want. But, if you decide that you want to, I'll listen."

"It's just not something I like to talk about."

"Okay, I get it." I assured him, "I just feel like I don't know a lot about you is all. I mean, you know my entire crazy family, you know what my bedroom looks like, and pretty much everything about me... I just want to know about you."

He wrapped his arms around me and placed a kiss on my forehead, "How about we go get some lunch and I'll tell you anything you want to know about me."

"Excluding why you started acting out." I clarified.

"I promise that we can talk about that one day Ava, just not today."

I planted a kiss on his cheek, "I can live with that."

*********

An hour we were settled in a booth at the very back of Kae's diner. Being that it was the middle of the week, it wasn't too crowded, which was perfect, it meant less of a chance of being interrupted. I waited until Michelle brought us our burgers before I started asking him questions.

"Okay, so you don't have any siblings, right?"

"Nope. It's just me. I use to beg them to give me a sister, but that never happened."

I quirked up an eyebrow, "Why a sister? Most little boys want a brother."

"Well I knew that if I had a brother then I would've had to share my toys with him."