Ava: He put an end to it.
Kelly: Why?
Ava: He didn’t want me.
Kelly: Bullshit. Even a blind man can see he’s in love with you.
Ava raised her eyebrows. That was news to her.
Ava: Elaborate.
Kelly: There’s nothing to elaborate on. It’s in his eyes. Even Miles saw it when he was there.
Ava: This is a joke, right?
Kelly: I’m serious, Ava. Ask him why he stopped it. I doubt it had to do with him not wanting to be with you. In all honesty, it was probably because you two had been drinking.
Ava: But wouldn’t he have just said that?
Kelly: Well, I mean, did you give him a chance to?
She hadn’t. She knew that much. Cole had tried numerous times to talk to her about that night, but she constantly shut him down. And the night itself was a blur. While she was belligerent, she had had enough to drink that they definitely shouldn’t have been sleeping together.
Ava looked across the table at Cole once again. Then she looked at Ruby. She was about to get into a messy guardianship battle with her mom and stepdad. She needed anyone she possibly could get on her side… and that included Cole.
Perhaps it was time they had that conversation after all.
Once Ruby went to bed,Ava went to Cole’s room and knocked on the door. He had retreated to his room after dinner while shegot Ruby settled. She thought back to what Kelly had said and sighed. It was a valid point, and she knew she had been unfair not listening to Cole every time he tried to talk to her. But she had been embarrassed about the entire thing.
“Come in,” he called.
Ava opened the door and peeked inside. He was sitting on his bed with his laptop in his lap.
“Hey, can we talk?”
He closed his laptop and set it aside. “Of course.”
She moved around his bed and sat on the other side. “So…”
“So…”
Her face flamed. “I wanted to talk to you about that night.”
He scooted in the bed so he was facing her. “Ava, I want you to know I only stopped things because we had been drinking. If we had both been sober, I wouldn’t have hesitated to be with you that night.”
“Oh. Okay. We’re doing this.” She hadn’t expected him to jump right into the conversation.
“Well, every time I’ve tried to talk to you, you’ve shut me down. So, I’m just going to dive right in.” He took her hands in his. “I care about you, Ava. I don’t want this to come between us.”
She looked down at their hands clasped together, and a small glimmer of hope bloomed in her chest. “Really?”
“Of course. You know I care about you.”
Her eyes bounced between his. “I just felt so rejected.”
“I know. And that was never my intention, but unfortunately it came across that way. I just thought it would be better to explain everything once we were sober.”
“But then I iced you out.”
