“Ava, I do have a life of my own.”
The look on Ava’s face mirrored Aine’s insecurities. Outside of dating Stuart, she didn’t do much other than spend time with Ava and Sam.
“I’m going back to school.”
“Why?”
Aine shook her head. “Because I want to.”
“But you hated school.”
“Actually, I didn’t. You did.”
“Yeah, that sounds right. Where would you go?”
“The University of Oregon has a Neuroscience and Behavior graduate program. If I wanted to, I could get my Ph.D. there too.”
“Isn’t the university over two hours from Yachats?”
“Ava, as you said, I don’t have anything ‘to get back to.’” Aine used air quotes to make her point. “It’s time I had a life of my own.”
“You couldn’t commute that far every day.”
Aine sighed. “No, but I could come home on the weekends.”
Ava looked over at Sam, sound asleep in his stroller.
“Your nephew will miss you.”
“He’s four months old, Ava. He doesn’t know whether I’m around every day or not.”
“I do.”
“There will come a time that I don’t live next door to you. Maybe you should start preparing yourself now.” Aine smiled, but Ava didn’t.
“Why did Striker break up with you?”
“Whoa. How did me saying I won’t live next to you all our lives segue into my ex-boyfriend breaking up with me?”
“You never said why.”
“I was too immature and inexperienced for him. Part of it was that I didn’t have a life of my own.”
“He said that?”
“Not those exact words, but he said his life was ‘established’ and mine wasn’t.”
“That’s a pretty shitty thing to say. Your life has been in turmoil since we graduated from Barnard
. Both of our lives have been.”
“It hasn’t stopped you.”
Ava rested her elbows on the table. “I married my bodyguard, Aine. Let that roll around in your head for a couple of minutes.”
Aine laughed when Ava did. That much was true. Her sister’s relationship with her husband had started out with him protecting her.
“Quinn did too,” Ava added, still laughing.