We sat quietly for a while, with her hugging my arm and resting her head on my shoulder. I have to admit, Ava telling me all that made me feel even closer to her than I felt after her affectionate greeting.
“Why did you forgive me?” I heard her whispered question.
“You made up for it.” I said, and she raised her head to look at me questioningly. “You stood up to your friends to make them stop calling me by that stupid nickname. Then you took my side instead of covering for Aaron, when he emptied my bank account. And ... Mia told me that you spent the past few months working to improve my reputation and undo the damage you caused. A lot of the things happening in school make a lot more sense now.”
Now she looked a little embarrassed.
“She told you?”
“Yeah. I’m glad she did. It convinced me that I have a sister that cares about me.” I said, turned my head, and kissed her forehead.
“I really love you, Tim. I don’t think I can ever make up for the years of hurt I caused you, but I’m damn well gonna try. You did so much for me ... Even after I was a bonafide Bitch to you and didn’t deserve your help, you still came through.” I felt her grip on my arm to tighten. “I never thought that what I did to you would have consequences. I just wanted to make Logan and Dad happy. Until I saw you lying in that pool of blood after you got stabbed.” She shook her head. “I thought you’d die protecting us, while Logan just ran away! And the more I thought about everything I did, the more ashamed I became of myself. You deserve so much better than what you got from me. Last year, you asked us all what changed for us to suddenly care about you. That’s what changed for me. I will do everything I can to be the sister you deserve, and make sure you know how much we love you. Because you’re the best thing that ever happened to us.”
That made me smile. I believed her.
“I love you too, Sis.” I patted her hand that was almost cramping from holding onto me.
“Can I come with you?” she suddenly asked.
“With me?” I had completely forgotten that I was getting ready to start working on the condo. “Oh, uh ... that’s gonna be a lot of dirty work. So, the direct opposite of what you wanted to do. You sure you want to come?”
“Yeah!” she nodded eagerly, and I realized that I could really use her help, even if she didn’t get to hold a hammer.
“Alright.” I shrugged, and she jumped off the bed to rush out of the room.
I found her already waiting for me by the door when I came out of my bedroom after stuffing my pockets with some cash. I decided to drive her to the condo first, so she could get a look at it.
“Wow. Looks like you got your work cut out for you, huh?” she commented after walking through every room.
“Looks worse than it really is. But I think I could actually use your help. As you have seen in my apartment, I lack taste.” That made her chuckle. “If I do this alone, I’ll paint everything gray and call it mission accomplished. So ... imagine you’d live here, how would you decorate?”
That made her whip her head around to look at me suspiciously through narrowed eyes.
“Really? You’re asking your sister how she would decorate? Your friend gives you a lot of leeway when it comes to decorating his place, don’t you think?”
“Why? Maybe he’s even more autistic than me when it comes to this?” I grinned.
She accepted that with a smirk and got to work by familiarizing herself with the condo.
“So, if I’m to imagine myself living in this room...” she asked me with a raised eyebrow after checking out all three bedrooms, the smile never leaving her face. “ ... who should I imagine living in the other rooms?”
“Maggie.” Now the smile died. She had obviously expected - or hoped - for a different answer. “The third room ... Don’t know yet. Maybe you and Maggie can think of someone.”
She thought about that for a while, but seemed to quickly catch on and understand what this was for. She made a few notes on her phone, and then we drove to Home Depot. While she got the different paints and wallpapers she had thought up, I went through the different isles with my phone in hand, getting all the tools and parts that I needed to finish the renovation.
She seemed less motivated to help since she learned that she would live here with Maggie instead of whomever she had hoped for. That impression got confirmed a few hours later.
I had spent about two hours installing all the fixtures in the bathroom, followed by another hour of sanding and priming the drywalls in the living room, before I checked in with Ava. She had decided to paint her room in a very faint mint green, which I found horrible, but I didn’t have to live in it. For the first few minutes, she simply ignored my presence as I went about reinstalling the covers for the power outlets where she had finished painting.
“You don’t want us to live with you anymore?” she suddenly asked with a level voice, not turning around to look at me.
“That’s not it.”
“Then what is it?” Now she did turn around. She looked sad and was clutching the side of her shirt, showing me how this was bothering her quite a bit.
I stayed seated on the ground where I had sat down to reinstall the power outlets, and beckoned Ava to sit in front of me. She quickly followed my suggestion and then waited for me to start talking.
“Promise to keep this a secret.” I said.
“I promise.” There was absolutely no hesitation on her part, but her face also didn’t show the slightest hint of her not taking this seriously.
“How much do you know about ... how we solved the problem with Logan’s bookie?” I asked carefully.
“How we solved it?” She mocked. “As far as I know, you went to Austin in some cloak-and-dagger operation, stole the money from their partners, and then pinned it on the bookie.”
I nodded.
“Do you know what happened to the money?”
“I never asked.” she said matter of fact. “But I assume some of it is in your bedroom.”
That surprised me.
“How...”
“Oh, please, Tim. When you came back from the hospital, Mom and I were practically glued to your side since you couldn’t even tie your shoes by yourself. We’ve never seen you use an ATM, but you still paid for most of our shopping with cash. You also paid Mom in cash when she acted as your nurse, and you give us our allowances in cash. Even just now at Home Depot you pulled a wad of cash out of your pocket. And you always go into your bedroom when you need some more.”
“Does Mom know too?” I asked after I recovered from the surprise.
“No idea.” she shrugged. “But I think she’s had too much else to worry about, to also think about where your money comes from. We see you working enough anyway. I just never knew you could buy entire houses in cash.”
“You can ... but we didn’t.” I grinned, and she perked up after hearing me say “we” again. “If you spend too much at once, the government comes knocking to check where it came from. I gave John the cash to buy this condo and a house closer to his, but he used funds from his new business to pay.”
“You also bought a house?”
“The grandparents are gonna ‘rent’ the house.” I nodded again while making air quotes. “The idea is to let you and Maggie ‘rent’ this condo, since this is so close to the HCC campus. Then John banks a few hundred bucks of the cash every month as your rent payments. After you and Maggie finish college, we could collect actual rent payments from the next tenants.”