"Do me, do me, do me!" Luna yelled after watching one of Aiden's nieces take flight from Ava's arms through the air and into the water.
"Who needs a gym with you guys around?" Ava groaned while smiling widely. She had been standing in the shallow end of the pool for a while, tossing kids up into the air and listening to them squeal as they splashed about. Her arms were burning from the lifting. "How about a snack break?"
The kids hurried for the steps and ran across the grass where Kiki put out her arms to stop them from running into Deborah's kitchen.
"You guys sit down and I'll bring the snacks to you," she ordered them with her mom voice and disappeared inside.
Ava made it to the door just as Kiki was exiting and gladly took the towel she was handed. She dried off completely. She even waited for Kiki's nod of approval before stepping foot inside. Who was she to argue with a fierce Kiki?
"Does that stern voice develop in your body as you are growing a human being or is it something they give you when you leave the hospital? Can't leave without it or your parking won't be validated," Ava said to the only person in the kitchen. Deborah looked the girl up and down, admiring all the skin on display in the bikini top and matching shorts. Ava lowered her voice to issue a warning: "Don't look at me like that."
Deb did the maddening thing with her tongue where she pressed against the inside of her cheek and Ava decided they were now even. That simple tongue movement got her every time. Granted, she wouldn't be having the privilege of seeing Deborah in a bathing suit today, so maybe being even was relative.
"You need to reapply sunscreen," Deborah told her.
"I put some on an hour or so ago," Ava whined.
"Yes, and you have been in the water most of that time. And you're sweating."
Rather than test Deborah's logic, Ava grabbed the bottle from the kitchen island and stepped outside to apply it. She had actually been listening when Deborah told Kiki not to use the spray sunscreen in the kitchen or the marble floor would be dangerously slick.
Deb tried mightily to avoid watching Ava as she sprayed her body, particularly her chest. She failed miserably. A dangerous slickness had developed, just not on the marble floors.
"Thanks," Ava popped back in and placed the bottle back where she found it.
"Mmhmm."
The tone was a clear indication of Deborah's arousal and it hit Ava right between the legs. She made the bold decision to test the day's unclear boundaries, walking up behind Deb, close enough to feel the heat radiating off of her, but not close enough for their bodies to actually touch.
"Do you need help with anything?" Ava breathed.
"I need…" Deb placed her hands on the counter and braced herself. "Ava, you are playing with fire."
"Mmm…I wouldn't mind being burnt if you were doing the burning."
"Mom, we need a—Jesus!" Ava spun around and looked at DJ before bolting for the door. DJ was quicker, putting out her arm to stop the girl from a clean escape. "Nope, you stay right here and listen to me. You two either let everyone in on this little secret or you don't get the backing of those of us who were in the know when shit hits the fan. Are you listening, Deborah?"
At the way her daughter held out each syllable of her name, Deb turned around and shot daggers, likely not because DJ had used her mother's given name, but because she was throwing around ultimatums. Deborah was not a fan of ultimatums unless she was the one giving them. However, Deb had a lot to make up for. She hadn't initially supported DJ's marriage. And she had been a terrible mother. She hardly deserved her daughter's support in this. It was when she looked to Ava and saw the fear in her eyes that she agreed to DJ's terms. She would not allow Ava to live in the fear that this was all going to come crashing down. She had caused her enough pain. She nodded at DJ and continued to hold eye contact with her daughter when Ava was released. The redhead scampered out of the kitchen; she was aware the Vance women were not done with each other.
"For god's sake, what did I walk in on?" DJ continued toward the fridge and started getting the drinks that she then realized were on the counter behind her mother.
"Nothing, actually," Deb pursed her lips. Of all the times to be walked in on, nothing had happened…yet.
"You're still worse than fucking teenagers and I'm not kidding, you're coming clean about this with your circle of people or whatever."
Soon they were side by side, filling glasses and loading them onto trays to take outside.
"I say it because I love you, Mom," DJ threw over her shoulder as they made it outside.
Deborah rolled her eyes.
…
"Ah! Fuck." Ava hissed. She was standing in front of the mirror with a brush in her hand when Deborah came through the door to see what was wrong. "You didn't tell me to spray the part of my hair!"
Deb tried to hold back the laughter by biting her lip but soon she was gripping the door as she laughed.
"How is this funny?" Ava pouted.
"You are a grown woman who shouldn't need lessons in how to apply sun screen!"
"I'm from Boston!" she reacted petulantly. "Do you know how long winter lasts in Boston?"
"You are aware that cold and sun can happen simultaneously?" Deborah pushed her aside and began rummaging through the bathroom vanity, finding a particular bottle and handing it to Ava.
"This won't make my hair greasy?" she looked back and forth between the bottle and Deborah.
"No more so than anything else you put in that mop. It's aloe, for chrissakes."
Ava was left to it and she cringed as her fingers touched the strip of her scalp that got far too much sun. Before she had finished, she poked her head around the door to find Deb sitting on the couch and thanked her. Her smile left her lover breathless.
Once she had finished in the bathroom, she turned off the light and joined Deborah on the couch. She took the magazine out of Deb's hands and pulled the woman closer.
"Come here," Ava breathed into Deb's neck and placed gentle kisses along her jawline. "Are you and DJ okay?"
"Honey, when are DJ and I ever 'okay'?" she breathed through her nose, barely keeping her mind focused with Ava's mouth on her.
"You know what I mean…"
"Yes," Deb melted into the fluttering kisses along her neck.
"I'm taking her axe throwing before I go back to work," Ava hummed. She had started slipping the shoulders of Deborah's robe down to reveal more skin.
"Are you going to continue to talk about my daughter while your mouth is on me?" Deb chided her. "Because that will severely limit where I will allow that mouth."
When Ava didn't utter another word, Deborah untied and opened the robe.
…
Marcus was staring at his boss. The night after Aiden's party, they all had dinner and were at a club for Deborah's drop-in set. She had been doing these from time to time since the special aired. It kept the material fresh. And it kept her busy.
"If you have something to say, say it now while it's just the two of us," Deb demanded, looking at him in the mirror as she freshened up her makeup and adjusted her wig.
"You seem different," he commented.
"Yes, of course I do. I'm going on stage."
"Deborah, you seem happy," he continued to look at her.
Rolling her eyes, she shot him a look that suggested he was being ridiculous.
"If she makes you happy, I can't fault you for it," he spoke as if he had always been in on the secret. Deborah wondered if Marcus hadn't liked Ava all along because he saw the potential for his boss falling for her. She doubted it.
Leaning back in the chair, Deborah sighed.
"We are going to need a PR plan, Deb," he spoke as Ava walked through the door into the green room.
"A PR plan for what?" she inserted herself in the conversation. She failed to catch the signal Deborah was sending her.
"You."
It was a single word uttered from lips that could be both reverential and brutal. Ava's head snapped up to see both of them looking at her. She glanced back and forth until her eyes settled on the woman who had said it.
"I see," she didn't, actually. "Why do we need a PR plan? Deb, we haven't talked about this."
Marcus looked between them, wondering how long something had been going on and what exactly they thought would happen when the public learned that septuagenarian Deborah Vance was in a relationship with her former millennial writing partner whom she had fired and who was now in Vegas with Deborah nearly as much as she was in L.A. where she had a house and a job.
"There is a difference between not caring that people know and protecting ourselves from paparazzi, Ava," Deborah forgot how naïve Ava was to this world and softened her tone considerably.
For the first time, it dawned on Ava that the press might seek out Nina Daniels for comment.
"Oh god," she sunk onto the couch beside Marcus. "My mom doesn't need the harassment."
"It's a bit late to start thinking about who might know and be asked about it, don't you think?" Marcus was inexcusably smug.
"Enough," Deb angrily pointed at him.
Marcus nodded his agreement and looked away from them both.
"Deb, she lost her husband. She's alone. Her mental health is precarious on any given day; aggressive reporters and paparazzi will break her. I can't be certain what she would even say," Ava's concerns mounted. "I haven't even had the chance to tell her yet."
"Marcus, please give us a minute?" Deborah instructed him. He grumbled and left the room.
"Sweetie," Deb joined her on the couch. "We can play this however you want, but you know there are eyes on me. With your star rising, there will be on you, too."
"I know you are right. I wasn't prepared for it is all," Ava said as Deb's arms wrapped around her. She relaxed into the embrace.
"We don't need a plan today, but can we talk about it when you come back next week?" Deborah pushed a stray hair behind Ava's ear and kissed her temple.
"Of course."
"I should probably tell the rest of my staff, too. Marcus broached the subject before I got up the nerve to," she shook her head at his gall.
"Well, well," Ava smiled and they both laughed.
"Stand in the wings while I'm on stage?"
Ava grinned. She could hardly believe that they had actually found their way back to this place.
…
"You didn't!" Ava's voice was once again coming through the speaker of Deborah's phone. She made it back to L.A. that morning just in time to be on set. The flight was far too early and she felt the exhaustion in every part of her body.
"What about this is shocking to you?" Deb carried on with the nightly routine for her beloved dogs.
"You outed us during the weekly staff meeting."
"Did you not hear DJ? You know what she is capable of, Ava," Deb reminded her of the feisty ultimatum.
"But during a staff meeting? It's probably a good thing you never hired an HR person," Ava had a shit-eating grin on her face and Deborah could hear it in her voice.
"Oh, for chrissakes, Ava. I didn't sit them all down and tell them in great detail how I spent the weekend."
"And how did you spend the weekend?" Ava taunted.
Deborah stopped fussing over Barry and Caro. She leaned back against the counter, feeling her body react with the memories that sprang to mind. Her breathing changed noticeably.
"D…?" Ava's voice was lower, desperate even. "Maybe you should go upstairs and we can FaceTime."
"I refuse to have phone sex; I'm too fucking old for it," Deb repeated a refusal she has made on more than one occasion.
"You know I don't buy into that age bullshit," Ava bit back. "How did they take it when you told them?"
"Damien shrugged. Ambivalent, I think. Josephina smiled and commented about how not having to keep the guest room up will give her time to rearrange the butler's pantry. And Marcus nodded in that self-righteous way he can when he thinks he is behind something I chose to do."
Running her hand through her hair, Deb waited for Ava to say something and when there was silence, she questioned, "Ava?"
"There's a butler's pantry? Was there a butler?"
This made Deborah cackle and though she knew Ava was serious, she found her cluelessness absolutely endearing.
"God, no. It's the room off the kitchen," she was smiling so much her cheeks hurt.
"Marcus does have the height and demeanor to pull off Lurch."
And they both collapsed in laughter.
…
"Is that everything?" Deborah was leaning against the car as Ava locked up.
"Yeah, I think so. Everything else is in boxes for the movers."
Deb put on her sunglasses and got behind the wheel. Ava put the last tote in the trunk. When she closed it, Deborah could see her through the rearview mirror as she looked at the place that had been her home for mere months. Her face was uncharacteristically unreadable.
"Everything okay?" Deborah asked her as she climbed in and buckled her seatbelt.
"Yeah. One hundred percent."
Convinced, Deb put the car in gear and pulled away from the apartment.
"If I put the furniture into my townhouse, Marcus says I can ask a couple hundred more a month," Ava commented. "It really is cheaper to live without a couch. Here I thought couch shopping was just inconvenient."
"I recall you sending me an article about off-gassing when I bought you that couch," Deborah looked over at Ava with a raised eyebrow. "Which was it that kept you from buying your own damn couch?"
"Or, hear me out on this, a person could buy a bed and spend all their time in it. Who needs a couch?" Ava wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner
"You are impossible."
"I always thought you bought me that couch as a housewarming gift. But you didn't know I had this place. Why did you buy me the couch?" she asked, not letting up in the way she was looking at her…what? That wasn't a matter she was ready to tackle. Her Deb.
"A bonus for the success of the special," Deborah refused to meet Ava's stare and it was a dead giveaway that she wasn't telling her everything.
"Guilty conscience?" Ava tested her first theory.
"There was plenty of guilt."
"A reason to get in touch with me?" Ava tested her second theory.
"There were much cheaper ways of getting in touch," Deb retorted.
"What was it then?" Ava was genuinely curious.
"I heard you and Marcus talking about your place once and he asked you if it had furniture," Deborah was rather uncomfortable admitting the real reason behind sending Ava a couch. "After you were back in Los Angeles, I would sit on my couch watching television late at night and I'd think about how often we sat there together."
Ava had tears in her eyes. She was constantly amazed by this woman.
"D—" Ava's voice cracked. "You are such a softie."
"If you tell anyone, I will let DJ break your legs."
The way Deborah could say something so categorically outlandish after admitting to being a truly caring human being had always been a paradox and one Ava found in her from the beginning. Kiki had made this clear to her first with her hand-me-down Rolls Royce and Deborah Vance couture. But it was the things that didn't have a price that solidified Deb's goodness for Ava—knowing about the individuals in her fan club to the point of following their health battles, flying across the country for the funeral of a man she had never met, inviting Marcus out on tour when it was clear he was struggling following his breakup with Wilson, telling Ava to take the punch-up gig despite the taping at the Palmetto being on the schedule. And yes, the couch had a price tag, but it was the reason behind the gift that was meaningful.
"Deb?" she turned her body as best she could in the car. "Thank you."
A raised eyebrow was all she received. Deb thought they were still talking about the couch. She considered telling Ava it was only a couch, but she remembered it being much more than that at the time. For them both.
"For letting me back in," Ava elaborated. And actually, the couch was the tool that opened the door for just that.
Deborah said nothing. She didn't need to. When she reached for Ava's hand and gave it a squeeze, she was speaking clearly in a particular language she had sporadically but powerfully used over the course of their working relationship—the language of touch.
They arrived at Deb's L.A. house and sat in silence for a moment, hands still linked. When Ava spoke, she told Deborah she loved her with action: "Sit with me while I call my mom?"
If Deb was surprised, she didn't show it. She simply nodded and released Ava's hand so she could dig out her phone and dial Nina.
Ava took a deep breath as the phone was ringing. When her mother's voice came through the speaker, she tensed slightly. Deb placed a supportive hand on Ava's thigh.
"Hey, Mom," Ava tried for cool, but failed.
"Ava. What's wrong?" Nina's voice reflected growing alarm. Or so Deborah thought. It was hard to know what calm sounded like coming from a woman she had only met twice.
"Nothing is wrong," she sighed.
"You don't sound like nothing is wrong. And you haven't called in over a week!"
Deborah's hand was moving slowly to soothe and ground the adult Ava who would always feel like an anxious child when her mother spoke to her like this.
"I've been busy," Ava didn't go into the details. She would be skipping a step if she admitted she was moving out of her rental and into Deb's house in L.A. Even if it was a temporary arrangement. "Look, I called to tell you something."
"Do I need to be sitting down?" Nina used her most demanding tone and Ava flirted with pulling the plug on the whole idea. But when she felt Deborah's thumb rub the back of her hand, she couldn't do that.
"Are you sitting down already?"
"Yes, but I could have been doing something important. On my feet. You never know," Nina spoke as if it was the most natural conversation when in reality neither woman felt natural at all.
"I want you to know that I'm seeing someone," Ava cringed at how ridiculous she sounded. She had nearly two months to plan how to say this and she floundered. "Not just someone. I'm with Deborah."
"Right this minute? You're at her house? Why are you with her? Ava, she fired you."
The negative vibe coming from her mother caused Ava to tense up. She was white-knuckling the phone so Deborah took it from her and held it herself.
"No, listen to me. Deborah and I are in a relationship. We're a…couple."
Ava rolled her eyes at the woman beside her when she pursed her lips in amusement at the language chosen.
"You're what?!" she hadn't exploded. No, Nina Daniels was more confused than anything. "I don't understand."
"I started talking to her again a few months ago. Then we saw each other. We…" she paused when she felt her heart rise into her throat and lodge there. "She makes me happy, Mom."
"She has always made you happy, Ava. But when you're apart it makes you miserable. I thought you were going to have to move home when she fired you or worse, I was going to have to come to Los Angeles and drag you out of bed every morning like I did when you were a teenager."
Deb's eyes stung. She knew Ava was clinically depressed as a teenager and the thought of Ava struggling in a similar way after being left in L.A. was hard to hear. They had never talked about those first weeks apart. Deborah could only trust that Ava wasn't doing anything reckless because of the pact she had made with DJ. And Ava only knew that Deborah was unbearable to her staff in those weeks.
"I love her," Ava spoke her truth to the one person aside from Deb who she couldn't stand the thought of losing. Not after losing her dad.
Deborah felt a tear hit her cheek and she was unable to do anything to hide it. Both of her hands were occupied. Holding on to Ava was far more important than any attempt to hide her emotions.
"Oh, Ava…" Nina was exasperated.
"I get that it's unconventional. And yes, we had a tumultuous past. But Deb and I have always understood each other."
Silence dragged on until Ava couldn't stand it anymore.
"Mom?" she bit her lip.
"Do you remember how your dad would turn on the radio in the kitchen?"
"I—?" Ava didn't understand where her mother was going.
"He would turn it on while we made dinner or while I'd do dishes and every so often a song would play and he'd get this glint in his eye," Nina explained. "Gosh, he was charming. And we would share a look. That's all. One look and we were both transported to the same time and place. He didn't have to say anything at all."
Ava was getting choked up hearing about her dad whom she missed terribly.
"When I met you in Memphis, I saw that kind of look pass between you and Deborah. I didn't realize what it was at the time. She left with that good looking young man. And you were different without her. Sad. Even though Kiki and I were there, we didn't have that same ability to connect with you."
Glancing at Deborah, those sparkling blue eyes told her it was a mistake—perhaps a means to an end—in Memphis and Ava wordlessly responded that she knew and it didn't matter. Then Ava's lip quirked and she shook her head at the realization that this was exactly what her mom meant.
"That is hard to find in another person, Ava. While I might not understand why this person is where you found it, I know how incredible it is to find it."
Nina's tone was reflective of her own journey with grief. It had nearly been a year since she lost her husband and some days, she missed him so much it was physically painful. Her grief hadn't lessened, she had only adjusted to the weight. Some days, like this one, she wished he was still there so he could parent their child. She had never understood Ava. Some days she could admit as much to herself.
"Thanks, Mom," Ava was overwhelmed and grateful.
"Just don't do anything stupid and blow it," she said because she wouldn't be Ava's mother if she didn't. "It'll be worse than Ruby not taking you back, you know."
"That isn't what happened…" Ava sighed heavily and squeezed Deborah's hand.
"What about your job? Are you going to move to Vegas again? How will you work?" Nina set off with her questions and Ava knew it was best to shut her down.
"Hey, how about I call you in a couple of days and we can talk about this some more?" Ava said to her and avoided looking at Deborah who was amused by Nina's panic.
"Don't forget this time," Nina issued a reprimand in advance.
"I won't. I love you, Mom."
"I love you. Bye, Ava."
Deborah pressed the 'end call' button.
"Are you alright?" Deb asked after allowing the stillness and silence in the car to calm Ava.
"I'm reminding myself that you have an addict daughter."
Laughter bubbled out of Deborah and she released Ava's hand to make it possible to shove her shoulder.
"DJ would be thrilled," she quipped.
"Somehow I think Nina could give DJ a run for her money," Ava leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
"It's a jewelry MLM waiting to happen."
Finally, Ava laughed. The smile on Deb's face was brought on by relief that Ava was okay. If they could joke about it, they would be just fine.
"Let's go in the house. I need a shower."
"Is that an invitation?" Ava was hopeful.
"It depends how fast you get inside and get your boots off."
"Wait!" Ava stopped Deborah from getting out of the car. "Anita Baker isn't going to be playing still, right? I don't think I can handle that right now."
"It's your dealbreaker, not mine."
Ava kept her eyes on Deborah who stepped out of the car and headed for the house. Grabbing for her backpack and phone while opening her own door, she caught her foot on the backpack strap and toppled out of the car with a groan.