I know she’s been seeing Anderson, but he’s working today—on the same shift rotation as Jack—and doesn’t get off until tomorrow morning.
Holding my arms out toward Evee, she reaches back to me and settles in my hold. She babbles her version of “mama” a few times—her first and only word since she first said it a few weeks ago. She smiles, showing off her fourth tooth that has grown in at the bottom as she tangles her little hands in the loose strands from my braid.
Ava squares her shoulders, schooling her features, never one to not own up to her decisions or actions. “To drop Evee off at Jacks’ mom’s. I texted you.”
“Dressed like that?” I ask, eyeing her outfit one more time.
“Yep,” she says, a little too cheerfully. “I’ll let Angela know you’ll pick Evee up at 8?”
I nod, rolling my lips to hide the smiling threatening my lips. “Then where are you off to?”
Even though she’s been seeing Anderson, it’s possible they haven’t made things official or both are seeing other people. But, from what she’s told me, Ava seems completely smitten with the firefighter.
“I’m meeting Jett.”
My eyes widen, and I feel my whole body tense with anger. “The hell you are.” The volume of my voice surprises Ava, her brows lifting in surprise.
Jett is her emotionally abusive ex, the one who turned her into a shell of a human until she left him last year, weeks before my path crossed with hers.
She’s gone no-contact with him since, but she’s mentioned a few times how he still has some of her things. He’s basically holding a few boxes of hers—the ones she couldn’t fit in her car when she left one morning when he was at work—hostage to get her to talk to him, but she’s held strong.
Until now, apparently.
“I thought you had him blocked.” My hold on Evee tightens—just the thought of Ava seeing Jett, possibly putting herself in harm’s way, makes me hold my daughter closer.
“I unblocked him two weeks ago,” she admits, and I wished she was more embarrassed over the admission—that she felt some semblance of guilt for going back on all this progress she’s made.
“And what? You guys are talking now?”
She lets out a humorless laugh. “I don’t remember needing to answer toyou.”
Her words sting, and I have to resist the urge to step back. The way she says it, laced with malice, catches me off guard.
This doesn’t sound like my best friend.
We’ve never fought, barely ever disagreed, so to hear her say something with such distaste rears me silent for a moment.
I inhale, trying to calm the frustration bubbling under my skin.“Do you really need that stuff he has?”
She shakes her head. “It’s not about the stuff. It’s about closure.”
“What closure? You and I both know that men like him don’t change.” She of all people should know that best, having been the one to tell me time and time again whenever I doubted my decision to leave Trevor at the beginning of moving here.
“It’s none of your business,” she says, taking a step toward me.
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”
Ava rolls her eyes. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get her to Angela’s.” She reaches for Evee, but I instinctively hold her closer to me, and Ava looks like I slapped her across the face.
But the look of hurt is gone as quickly as it came, and she shrugs her shoulders, walking past me toward our car in thedriveway. “Suit yourself,” she says without even turning to look at me, and I don’t wait to watch her get to the car.
Instead, I storm into the house, throwing the door shut behind me, turning the lock, and leaning back against it.
How could she be so stupid?
Going to see the person who constantly put her down, called her names, made her feel guilty for anything that would allow him more control over her.
Jett messed with her head to the point she started doubting herself, and she’s the most confident, headstrong, fearless person I know.
