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He looked away concentrating on his sandwich, but she had seen the look on his face. She knew that she had made a poor choice by sleeping with him. She used him because she was angry at Xander for dating and he didn’t deserve that. She didn’t know how to make it right with David.
She thanked him for the sandwich and went back up to the main house to see if William was awake. He had been with her for three hours, and Brooke might begin to worry if he was away to long. William was still asleep. Gabby had placed him on the couch in the library and covered him with a small blanket. She watched him sleep for a minute and then went to sit on the front porch. It wasn’t as chilly here as it was in New York and she only needed a light sweater.
She must have dozed off because she woke to Sam shaking her. She jumped up and hugged her best friend who had just arrived with Robert. He was lugging two heavy suitcases to the porch.
“You do know that you are going only to be here for three days, right?”
“I wasn’t sure what the weather was going to be, so I packed accordingly. Where are we sleeping?”
Ava took them into the house and up the stairs to her old room, which had a queen sized bed and an attached bath. She had removed most of the childish items during the time she had spent recovering from her accident. Brooke had helped her decorate the room in a more adult motif with new curtains, carpet, and bedspread.
She left Sam and Robert to get settled and went downstairs to let her family know that they had arrived. She desperately needed to get Sam alone to have a talk with her. She was hoping she could soon because what had happened with David was eating at her. She sat in the kitchen listening to the conversations around her as everyone prepared for lunch. Sam came down with Robert saying she wasn’t hungry. Ava took the opportunity to ask if she wanted a tour of the place.
They walked around the property and stopped at the gazebo on the far side opposite the large patio. Ava sat down and started telling Sam about what had happened with David. Instead of Sam chastising her she was sympathetic even after she told her why she did it. Sam told her just to let it go. David would get over her. Then she told her something that made her become enveloped by anxiety. Xander was coming to the engagement party with his girlfriend.
She felt nauseous and wanted to vomit up the half-sandwich she had just consumed. The last thing she wanted was to see him after the email he wrote to her. She asked why Sam invited Xander even though she knew what he had done. Sam told her that as she requested she had not told Robert. He was unaware of what had transpired between them. The wheels were set in motion, and Ava wasn’t going to be able to stop them. At least she had time to prepare to see him, and Kaycee (who she assumed was his girlfriend).
The wedding was the next day, and everyone had a wonderful time. Her father and Felice had only invited fifty close family and friends. The affair was lavish, and Ava hadn’t seen her father so happy in a long time. She was thrilled that he had someone now. The best part was that she got a new brother that she liked.
She danced with David several times, one of them a slow dance where he held her close. She pulled away after it was over to go dance with her father. She had done enough of taunting David, and she felt horrible about it.
Despite her keeping David at arm’s length, he seemed okay. He had hit it off with Robert. She found them behind the wedding hall smoking cigars and drinking whiskey. Robert liked him so much that he invited him to his engagement party. After all, they were related now.
That night after everyone had retired for the evening, Ava went down to the pool house. Robert had just come up from there after spending a couple of hours playing video games with David. She had been avoiding David because she wasn’t sure what to say to him. The awkwardness had grown since yesterday morning. She hoped he was in bed when she got down there.
As she crept into the dark pool house, she noticed that no light was coming from under his door. She breathed a sigh of relief and flipped the lights on in the living room. David startled her. He was sitting on the couch in the dark with his head back.
“You scared the shit out of me. Why are you sitting in the dark?”
“I was waiting for you. We need to talk.”
Ava felt her stomach tighten. She was hoping she could avoid this conversation but he was right, they needed to have it. She sat on the opposite couch to avoid a possible repeat of two nights before.
He sighed, “If this was the way things were going to be between us I would never have had sex with you. I feel like I have to walk on eggshells when you’re around. Why did having sex change how you feel about me?”
Ava hesitated while she searched for the right words to say.
“I think it was more what it changed in you than me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I don’t want to hurt you, David. I like you a lot, and I’m glad that we are friends. I think us having sex meant more to you than you shared with me before I agreed.”
“I’m not hurt. I knew that it was only going to be a one-time thing. I just don’t want things to be weird between us, and they have been since we had sex. Please don’t go back to New York and not talk to me. That would hurt me more than not being able to have sex with you again.”
Ava apologized to him and promised him that she would never stop talking to him once she got back home. She was looking forward to seeing him during Thanksgiving. Her father, Felice, and David were coming to stay at Uncle Daniel’s for the holiday. She was elated that she would see them in three short weeks.
On Sunday she prepared to go back to New York on a late morning flight. She packed the last of her clothes and did a once over to make sure she had taken everything she brought. David was still in bed when she got ready to leave, and she softly knocked on his door. He called for her to come in and she saw he was still lying in bed. She sat near him and hugged him goodbye. He ran a finger down her cheek and pulled her to him to kiss her lips.
“Remember that if it doesn’t work out with him, I love you.”
She hugged him again and left the room before she started to cry. She felt love for David but not in the way he felt for her. She made her rounds to say goodbye to her family. Sam and Robert were leaving later that afternoon. Everyone else was going to stay two more days.
As the plane flew towards New York, she played scenarios in her head about what would happen when she saw Xander. She vacillated between whether she would slap him or kiss him. She wanted to kiss him, but the words that he wrote cut her deep. Those wounds weren’t going to heal so easily. She even wondered how he would have the balls to show his face full well knowing she would be at the party. That was his business, but she decided she wasn’t going to forgive him.
At home that night, she texted David to let him know she had gotten back to New York unscathed. She was not looking forward to work and Jacob drilling her again. She hadn’t done a lick of studying while she was away for the wedding. He was going to be all over her about that fact. She was too tired to do any studying now, and she dreaded that Tim was coming over to see her. She had periodically texted him during her time in Georgia. He told her he missed her very much. She didn’t return the sentiment because she wasn’t sure if she did or not.
She called the front desk to let them know that they should allow him up when he came. She waited and when he arrived he had a bouquet of roses, red roses. She thanked him for them, kissed his cheek and went to put them in a vase.
Tim sat down at the breakfast bar wondering what had happened in Georgia. She had only kissed him on the cheek when he entered her apartment. Before she left, she was kissing him on the lips. He suspected that she had something going with her new stepbrother, David. The texts between them had seemed to get more intimate since she got home. He had seen one joking about being in bed together. Had she slept with him?
He questioned her about what she did and where she stayed. Ava knew immediately that Tim was fishing for information. She told him that she stayed in her old room at her father’s house while Sam and Robert stayed in the pool house. He seemed suspicious of her relationship with David. It was like he knew things that happened that she hadn’t told him about.
After an hour she asked him to leave, telling him that she was exhausted from her travels, not being able to get a direct flight and had a layover in North Carolina for two hours. It had made a trip that would normally take two hours turn into over five. She had to be ready for Jacob in the morning. He reached over to kiss her, and she again offered her cheek. He left her apartment feeling slighted and determined to find out what was going on with her. He’d try to learn more by Friday when he was taking her to dinner again.
