27 Truths: Ava's story (The Truth About Love Book 1) Read Online Free

toward the exit.
    “Where is she?” I ask. Normally, she would be with him.
    “There is a houseful of people making Christmas cookies. You two up for that, or do you want to go home?”
    When my parents divorced, Dad kept the house we were raised in. He chose not to sell it even after he and Tessa got married and moved in together. He said we had great memories in that house, and he wanted us to be able to come home whenever we wanted.
    It was our home. Every holiday, birthday, and memory we had all through school seemed to center around it.
    “Are they at your house or Harpers?” Harper is my best friend and lives in the house she was raised in. Dad and Tessa live up the lane about a quarter of a mile.
    “Harpers.” He nods.
    “Sounds good to me. How about you, Loggie?”
    He nods. “Sure.”
    Dad throws my bag in the back of the SUV, and then we are off. We pull out of the airport and take a right. We pass the automotive factory then hang a left, following the path I have traveled a million times toward home.
    Once we’re on Route 34, it starts to snow. I look up at Dad, and he smiles at me in the rearview mirror.
    “Had to beg for that to happen, kids. You’re welcome.”
    I giggle from the back seat and lean up, tapping Logan on the shoulder. He looks back.
    “Santa’s coming soon, Loggie. What did you ask him for in your letter this year?”
    Dad laughs while Logan rolls his eyes and says, “Aren’t we a little bit too old for that shit, Ava?”
    I gasp and cover my mouth. “Daddy!”
    Dad nods. “We’re believers, Logan. Do you need a reminder?”
    “No,” he says immediately.
    “Ava, I think he does.” Dad winks at me.
    Logan threatens, “I swear to you, I will jump out of this—”
    Dad and I start singing, “ Oh, you better watch out, you better not cry …”
    “Oh, for God’s sake,” Logan grumbles as we continue singing Christmas carols all the way home.
    We pull down a dirt road lined with tall pine trees. Every third or fourth one is lit up with dancing, multi-colored Christmas lights.
    “No white lights this year?” I ask Dad.
    “Nope, Piper wanted colored ones, and whatever Piper wants, she gets,” he chuckles.
    Logan looks back at me and snickers. I know he thinks I may be bothered by this. I’m not.
    I roll my eyes at him and look at Dad. “She’s almost three now. It’s crazy that my best friend has a three-year-old.”
    “It’s crazy that Dad’s a grandfather.” Logan laughs.
    “Kind of,” I say, thinking I see a flash of hurt in Dad’s eyes through the rearview mirror.
    Dad and his wife Tessa were high school sweethearts. Apparently, they had a rough go and broke up. Tessa met Collin Abraham and married him shortly after. They had three children—twin boys and Harper, my best friend. Our families were always close.
    Collin was shot and killed. Then my mother’s secret affair was exposed. We found out shortly after that Dad had and always would love Tessa. True to a man with my father’s character, he went after what he loved, and he did it knowing he would have her back.
    What should have been an awkward situation—your father marrying your best friend’s mother—was far from it. We all knew each other. Hell, we vacationed together, played sports together, did so many things together.
    “Does she call you grandpa?” I ask, hoping to make him smile again.
    He smirks. “Pop-pop.”
    “That’s adorable,” I say, and it is.
    Driving past Dad and Tessa’s house, I see a nativity set lit up in the yard.
    “Baby Jesus needs a coat, Dad. This isn’t Jerusalem.” Logan snickers. “Oops, no he doesn’t. He’s God’s son; he’s probably warm.”
    “It was his father who put him on the cross,” I remind him.
    “How jacked up is that?” Logan laughs.
    “Right?” Dad laughs, too.
    We pull down the road and turn onto the paved driveway toward Harper and Maddox’s house. It’s lined with cars, most of which I recognize, all family and close friends.