CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED and SEVEN
(part four)

She crossed her arms across her chest.

“He used his circle to get me my lab,” Ava said. “Didn’t he?”

Seth nodded.

“And my sister? Her spot at the DA?”

Seth nodded.

“Fuck.”

“You’ve earned your lab now,” Seth said. “No one‘s going to take it away from you. When you got there, I think everyone thought you would just be there for a year or so before you moved up the chain. But you’re still there. You’re still doing great work. You belong there.”

Ava gave him a partial smile.

“You know what I think,” Seth said.

“What?”

“I think we should go for a swim,” Seth said. “Shake off the parental blues, get dressed go out, dance until we drop, make love until dawn and do it all over again tomorrow.”

“I thought you had to work tomorrow,” Ava said.

“You can sleep while I work,” Seth said.

“You don’t think I should fly back and facilitate this parental crisis?”

“Nah,” Seth said. “Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Your father made his deals and took his chances a long, long time ago; he’s going to get his own consequences. There’s nothing we can do now.”

“And Yvonne?”

“Say a prayer that Yvonne makes it through this day,” Seth said. “Because if she survives today? She’s going to be fine. Rodney’s love for her is as strong as hers for him. He’ll find her and they will work out whatever needs to be worked out. If she survives today…”

Ava closed her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Praying for Yvonne.”

“Oh,” Seth closed his eyes to say a prayer for Yvonne. His phone rang. “Do you mind? It’s Bumpy.”

Ava shook her head. Seth answered his phone.

“O’Malley.”

“You heard this junk?” Bumpy asked.

“Is he blaming the whole mess on me?” Seth asked.

“How’d you know?” Bumpy laughed.

“Have you seen Yvonne?” Seth asked.

“I’ve been out at Dearfield,” Bumpy said. “We’re just coming into town now. But I just talked to Dionne. She hasn’t heard boo from Yvonne.”

“That’s not good,” Seth said.

“How’s Ava?” Bumpy asked.

“Like you’d expect,” Seth said.

“Poor girl,” Bumpy said. “How can two selfish stupid people have such a wonderful daughter?”

“Yeah, LaTonya’s pretty great,” Seth said.

Bumpy laughed and hung up the phone.

“Any word?” Ava asked.

Seth shook his head.

“You really think it’s okay to just go on with our day?” Ava asked.

“I think we should,” Seth said. “There’s no way to know what’s going to be needed from us in the future. We need to use the time we have to gather our strength. People we love are going to need us.”

Before he could say another word, Ava hopped up, shucked her clothing, and ran out the sliding door to the beach. Chuckling to himself, he followed her.

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow…

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