Counting Stars

“What time are your parents getting in?” Avery sounds distracted through the phone, like she’s concentrating on something else instead of the phone call.

“Not until right before the game,” Jon frowns; she’s getting more and more nervous as the days have gone by and now it’s Saturday, time for both of them to own up to their respective parents. Hers flew down last night, Jon knows, from the anxiety filled texts since they landed. “I won’t see them until after,” It’s almost a blessing; he’s not sure he’ll be able to lie to his mother about this.

“Hmm, that’s nice,” She says absentmindedly.

He sighs. Kaner knocks on the door between their rooms and shouts, “I’m going to breakfast, are you coming?”

“Meet you down there,” Jon calls back. It doesn’t even sound like Avery has noticed their exchange; Jon sighs again. “You’re not going to disappoint them,”

“No, you’re not going to disappoint your parents,” She says bitterly. “Mine are absolutely 100% going to be disappointed because, oh, look, yet another thing I can’t do right,”

“Well you’re not disappointing me,” Jon snaps, then instantly gentles. “You could never disappoint me, okay? And that’s all that matters right now,”

“Ok,” But she sounds like she’s trying to fight back a smile so he counts it as a win.

“I’ll call you after dinner tonight,” Jon promises. “Let you know how it goes,”

“Ok,” She repeats softly. “Bye Jon,”

“Bye Aves,”

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“You think you could slow down on the wine?” Sid accompanies his muttered words with a soft elbow to Avery’s side. “I am not telling them if you get too drunk,”

“Please?” She asks, but recognizes that he is correct and sets the glass back down on the table for the first time since it’s been filled four times over.

“What are you two mumbling about?” Trina’s had about half the wine her daughter has but Avery knows wine has a way of loosening up her mother. It’s part of the reason she was so adamant about its purchase at the liquor store two days ago.

“Avery has something to tell you,” Sid says smoothly, before Avery can even manage to divert the question.

“Does she?” Troy says jovially. “Well, then, what is it, Avery?”

She takes a deep, steadying breath. Sid apparently takes pity and refills her wine glass with a splash more. She smiles at him gratefully; he nods supportively. “For—for a while now, I’ve been seeing Jon again,” For a second, she can’t even meet their eyes. When she does, she finds her father’s eyebrows raised and her mother’s face red.

“Excuse me?” Troy speaks softly while Trina seethes.

“I’m seeing Jon again,”

“What the hell are you thinking?” Avery winces back at her mother’s rant. “Cheating on your fiancée like that,”

“Like he’s not cheating on her?” Sid snaps.

“Nonsense,” Trina waves her son off. “James is a wonderful man and you’re off—off—off gallivanting with Jonathan.”

“I caught him fucking three different secretaries!” Avery cries. “And who knows who else he’s been sleeping with! He is not a wonderful man to anyone but you!”

“What else do you want to tell us, Avery?” She whips her head over to her father. He’s still sitting calmly on the couch, arm against the back of the couch and sipping his own wine.

She flips her gaze back over to Sid, who looks just as shocked as Avery feels. “I didn’t tell him!”

“You knew?” Trina’s voice is practically a screech it’s so shrill and both of her children wince at it.

“Trina, enough,” Troy chides. “Sit back down; let Avery finish,”

“Um, ok,” Avery takes a large sip of wine. “Well, I’m not marrying James,”

“Like hell you aren’t,”

“I’ve been saying for months I wasn’t sure about this anymore and—“

“Enough,” It wasn’t often that Troy used this tone and as usual when he pulled it out, all heads turned to him. “She’s not marrying James and that’s that,”

Avery looks over at Sid, who again looks just as flabbergasted as she feels. Across the room, Trina’s mouth is opening and closing, like she should be speaking but has no idea what to say. “Wait…what?” Avery finally looks back at her father, realizes everyone has done the same.

“She cannot marry James when she is already married to Jonathan,”

Seriously, how did he know? She only found out at the beginning of the week. Furthermore, how was he so calm about this?

“What?” It’s her turn to be completely shocked and she’s sure she shows it.

“I wasn’t sure who the groom was,” Her father has the smallest smile on his face. “I just found out on Thursday. Avery, you must know we have people working on these things,” She hadn’t really, knows the Pens do and that Sid does his best to keep family things between them, but she didn’t know there were people whose job this was.

“How come you didn’t call right away to yell at me?” She frowns at him.

Her father frowns back at her. “How come you never told me you were so unhappy with James?” She shrugs. “I knew you’d tell me when you were ready,”

Avery smiles brightly at him. “Thanks, daddy,”

“How long have you known?” Trina demands, looking at Sid.

“Since it happened,” He says, avoiding her eyes. He had been on the cruise with the rest of them and like her and Jon, has no memories of anything occurring.

“When did this happen?”

“July,” Avery admits. “We got married on the cruise in July,”

“Why are you telling us now?” Her mother’s voice has finally lost its edge. Avery hopes it means she’s going to be okay with it.

“Because I’ve put it off long enough. We just—we just did it, decided there we were going to get married and since then we haven’t told anyone about it because we didn’t want it getting out.” She’s kind of on a roll now, keeps talking full speed ahead. “This wedding is getting closer and closer and I need to call it off now before it gets too close to do anything. So Jon and I can start working on our lives now, together.

Her father nods. “Are you happy?”

Avery blinks. “What?”

“Avery, all I care about is if you’re happy. Anything else we can handle,” Troy stands, makes his way over to her and wraps an arm around her shoulders as he sits down next to her. “So, I’ll ask again. Are you happy?”

“Yeah, dad,” She wraps her arm around him and buries in for a hug, shocked to find that the words are truthful. “I am,”