Page 64 of Where Roads Lead

“I’ll be fine,” Ava assured, waving me off when I tried to take some of the stuff from her arms. “Thank you!”

“Watch out for her,” my mother mouthed to me.

I rolled my eyes and turned to follow Ava to the truck.

Even though Ava was only my sister through marriage, my mother had treated her as part of the family for as long as I could remember.

And for most of my life, it had been fine. Normal. She wasn’t really my sister, but she might as well have been for all the time she spent by our side growing up.

Me, her, and Matthew—we did everything together, and I guess I figured we always would.

Matthew dying altered our lives in a way that couldn’t be undone, but that wasn’t what changed the dynamic between us.

Ava had done that herself five years ago, and try as I could to get past it, I wasn’t a good enough man yet to move on from what had happened.

Maybe I never would be.

But for my mother’s sake—and for Matthew’s, I did what I could for her. I was cordial with her while running the café together. I helped her when I could. I sat beside her every damn Friday night to appease my parents, who still didn’t have a clue in hell that anything was wrong between us at all.

And if sometimes Ava still looked at me like she was heartbroken over the way things were between us now, well then, I just pretended I didn’t notice.

We drove in silence for a few minutes, and because I knew the girl so well, I could feel the tension radiating off her in waves, filling the cab of the truck unbearably.

Ava had offered to walk to Tessa’s house, but it was on my way home anyway and I didn’t see why she would even offer when she knew she’d be lugging a load of crap through the streets with her if she did.

The only reason she wanted to was because she was pissed none of us thought she could handle a night alone with a feral kid, but I wasn’t going to let her stubbornness make her life harder.

I pulled up to Tessa Brooks’s house, ready for the detour of the evening to finally be over, but Ava made no move to leave.

“Well, call me if you need anything,” I told her, hoping she wouldn’t.

“Are we okay, Will?” she asked, hand hovering over the door handle.

“Why wouldn’t we be?”

I knew it was a shitty response, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to go home. I didn’t have the time or energy to dissect the breakdown of our relationship.

“Things feel different lately.”

“Literally nothing has changed between us,” I told her truthfully. Everything was the same as it had been for the last five years—since the day she married my brother.

“Ever since Elsie showed up—”

“Why do you keep bringing her up?” I turned sharply. “And while we’re at it, why have you been such a dick to her lately?”

Her brows pulled together.

“You’ve been acting different ever since she got here. You’ve changed—”

“I didn’t change, Ava.” I shut her down. “Things changed, and you know exactly the reason why. Unless the memory of your wedding day has suddenly evaded you somehow—”

“Please,” she clenched her eyes shut, “don’t bring that up.”

“I didn’t bring it up. You did by opening up this conversation.”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly into the darkness of the car. “It’s just hard for me, the way things are. We used to be friends, Will.”

“Yeah,” I scoffed, “well, that changed a hell of a long time before Elsie got here.”