“I called him,” Arthur laughed from in the door way causing the two girls to spin around the color returning to the brunette’s face.

“How’d you know…”

“…who your father is?” she nodded, “Your last name and Raife is a good friend of mine, comes over for dinner once a month with his family, he said you can stay for dinner and if you like the night,”

Ashley was happy her father was alright with where she was and who she was with, turning her head she saw Spencer bouncing with joy and impatiently waiting for her answer, “Sure I’ll stay,”

Spencer shot forward wrapping Ashley into a hug, immediately her arms came up to engulf the other teen, “Dinner now,” Arthur interrupted causing Spencer to release her and run to the kitchen.

“She loves to hug, huh?”

“Oh yeah,” Arthur laughed putting his arm around Ashley’s shoulders leading, “Glad you two are getting along, haven’t seen her smile this much in a long time,”

“We’ve only known each other for like three days, if that,”

“Well she’s smiled more in these three days than in a year,” he sighed, she could see the evidence of wearing down from everything he’d had to go through.

“Dinner!” Spencer called, they both turned at the same time to see Spencer smiling up at them from her chair at the kitchen table.

“Okay!” Arthur yelled back with a large smile stretching from ear to ear.

Ashley sat down beside her new friend and watched Arthur grab a plate of fried chicken placing it in the middle of the table than sitting down, “So how was your day Spencer?”

“Great da-dd-y, I a-ced my test a-nn-d t-a-lked to Ch-elsea,”

“Which test was it?” he wondered tearing the white meat with his teeth, his whole attention aimed toward his daughter hanging on every stuttered word as if it held the holy grail.

“Math,” she beamed, the one thing she could really figure out herself with out any real help, her fork dropped from her hand, she picked it up trying to get some potatoes but it dropped again, she growled deep in her throat.