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“I’ll try, brother, but you know how hot a good gamer is to me.” He darts out of his seat when I go to hit him, and he bounds away from me, laughing. “Careful, Stone! She’ll be mad if you hurt me.” I roll my eyes, because it’s probably true.
It’s Sunday morning and I’m officially going crazy. She hasn’t left her room. At least I know she’s eaten, but enough is enough. Ava will not be alone again today. I’ve spent enough time away from her, and she’s been hurt enough when I haven’t been there, so that’s the way it’s going to be.
I know her door is unlocked because I left it that way when I came out earlier. So I haven’t technically left her alone as much as she wanted, but I’m no saint. I left her room in the early hours of the morning and slept some, but now I’m up and ready to see her. Mason calls before I can.
“Hey, dude, how’s she doing?” I think if I ever hurt Ava again, these two would firmly be on her team.
“I’m about to find out, I’ll let you know,” I answer, planning to hang up.
“Wait… Should we take her out today? Distract her?” They’re both as worried about her as I am.
“Take her where?”
“I don’t know, wherever you want. I thought it’d be good to get her out before we go back to school tomorrow.” That is a good idea. I’d had thoughts of shackling her to me, but there’s no reason we can’t leave the house as long as I’m by her side.
“Okay, I’ll ask.”
“I’ll grab Reid on the way. Don’t piss her off before we get there,” he jokes. I don’t dignify that with an answer, hanging up and heading over to Ava’s room. I knock, but there’s no answer, so I let myself in, eager to see my girl. She’s not in the bedroom, but the bathroom door is open and I can see her in there brushing her teeth.
“Morning,” I say as I head over to the doorway, but she glares at me before rinsing her mouth. “What are your plans for the day?” I ask, and more silence follows as she tries to pass me. I step to the side so I’m fully blocking the doorway. “I don’t like to be ignored.” She stares up at me, but I can see vulnerability beneath her defiance and it hits me straight in the chest. I hate her not looking sure of herself. I reach out and wrap my hand around the nape of her neck, making sure she has to continue looking up at me. “I’m so fucking sorry, baby. More sorry than I’ve ever been in my life. If I could change it, I would. If I could take back everything I did to lead to it, I would, but I can’t. I will destroy whoever it was just as soon as you tell me. Until then, all I can say is I’m sorry, and I will regret it for the rest of my life.” Her eyes are wide and her face is open, for once. If me baring my soul does that, then I’ll do it more often. It’s not long before she pulls herself together and swallows.
“I don’t forgive you,” she says softly.
“That’s okay. You will, I promise. Did you decide?” She blinks at the change in conversation and I release her, stepping back so she can get back into the bedroom.
“On what?”
“Plans for the day. What do you feel like doing?”
“You can do whatever you like,” she says as she gets back on the bed, TV remote in hand.
“Okay,” I say simply as I leave. She doesn’t say anything else, and I don’t expect her to. I shower and get dressed in my room and head down to greet the guys before going back up to find Ava.
“Some people wait to be invited in,” she says as I walk into her room. I shrug.
“It’s a waste of time. We’re ready when you are.” She’s still sitting on the bed, watching some cooking show on TV.
“For what?”
“Plans.”
“I don’t have any plans.”
“Yes you do, and you said I could choose.”
“Yeah, your plans.”
“No, our plans.” She scoffs and turns away from me again as she increases the volume, so I walk straight to her and lift her over my shoulder before walking across the room and setting her back down in her wardrobe. “We’ve got plans. If you’re not ready in half an hour, I’ll be back to dress you myself. Feel free to call my bluff.”
She’s glaring at me again, but I don’t miss the flash of heat at what I insinuate. I wonder if she’ll try and lock me out the second I leave, but she joins us in the kitchen half an hour later. That’s my girl. She looks great in oversized jeans and a cropped T-shirt, pulling on a pair of white Converse at the island.
“Ready?” Mason asks.
“I don’t see why I have to go,” she huffs.
“Good luck trying to get out of Stone’s sight,” he chuckles, and Reid elbows him.
“You need distracting,” he tells her, more diplomatically. “Mini golf it is.”
“Yes! We haven’t been for ages,” Mason says as he rubs his palms together. He is super competitive, so he loves anything with a winner.
“You three play mini golf?” she asks incredulously.
“Yep,” I say simply. “Let’s go, baby.” She tries to shrug my hand away from her lower back, but it’s halfhearted and she gives up quickly, which makes me soar. When we’re queuing at the course, Mason has her full attention as he tells her about the previous games we’ve played. While she’s happily distracted, she leans into me, and I love it.
Mini golf is always fun, but we haven’t done it in a while. It’s a little way out, and no one from school ever goes there, which is part of why we love it. I’m not sure why nobody else comes here—the place is cool. It’s decorated with graffiti and junkyard obstacles, and even in the daytime it’s dark inside, lit up with neon lights. They also do a huge range of drinks, and Mason encourages Ava to get some cocktail that looks like pure food colouring and sugar syrup. I really appreciate him leaning in hard to distract her, but I think it’s a great excuse for him to try the ridiculous drinks too. She seems lighter by the time we start, and she’s actually pretty good, making Mason practically drool.
“I need my own Ava, one who’s not like a sister,” he says after she gets her first hole in one and has high-fived us all.
“You really need to meet Millie,” she says with a laugh, after getting yet another below-par hole.
“You keep teasing me with this girl, but I see no action, Aves. It’s cruel.” He holds a hand to his heart as though he’s wounded, and she shoves him away.
I do okay and manage to stay level with her up until the last couple of holes. Reid and Mason give me questioning looks, but I ignore them. Leaning into Ava’s ear, she instinctively turns her face up to me, and I can’t help but drop a kiss to the bend of her neck, my dick twitching in my jeans when she shudders breathily.
“If I win, you have to let me sleep in your bed tonight,” I say against her ear. “Just to sleep.” I don’t want to push too hard after whatever happened last night.
“Don’t fancy breaking and entering tonight?”
“I’ll do that if I lose, but if I win, I’m in your bed.” She shivers again and pulls away so we’re all standing together again, putting on her unaffected mask.
“And if I win?” she says louder.
“You can carry on pretending that you don’t want me there and I won’t come in.”
“I love a good bet,” Reid says as he and Mason both grin at us.
“Deal,” she says, offering her hand to shake, which I do.
“Your turn,” I offer, and she saunters over to the next hole. She’s consistently good and gets the first one in on par, although her grin falters when I get a hole in one. On the penultimate hole, she does well again, but her mouth drops open when I get another hole in one. On the final hole, she glares daggers at me and at my third hole in one.
“You tricked me,” she accuses.
“The hustler becomes the hustled.” Mason laughs as he flings an arm around her shoulders. She jabs him in the ribs with her elbow, which makes him laugh harder. “Come on, Aves, bar time!”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” she grumbles, but he shrugs.
“And? Day drinking is the best.”
She’s laughing again by the time we get to the bar, and I can’t help but touch her, like I’m reassuring myself she’s actually here with me and is okay. Maybe it’s the dark atmosphere or the drinks, but she leans into me, and my fingers brush the bare skin calling to me above her jeans. By the time we’re on our way home to get some dinner to soak up the alcohol, my hand is resting lightly on her thigh as she sits in the passenger seat next to me, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world.
“You okay?” I ask her as Reid and Mason settle themselves into the back.
“I’m fine. You don’t need to ask me fifty times a day.”
“Okay.” I nod. It must be pretty full on with all three of us. “But, for the last time tonight, are you okay?”
“He didn’t rape me, okay?” she blurts out, but she covers her mouth like it came out involuntarily. She lowers her hand but turns away, looking out the window.
My hand tightens on her thigh and I consciously relax it, trying to keep my voice steady when I answer her. “Ava…” She doesn’t say any more, so I gently take her chin and face her back to me. “You were clearly touched without your consent, and made to feel scared and uncomfortable. Him not raping you doesn’t mean that doesn’t matter.” Reid and Mason are silent and stock-still in the back, we can almost forget they’re there. I appreciate them leaving me to take the reins.
“I feel like I overreacted and you’re all gonna have a good laugh at how broken I was.” She shoves my hand off, and I let her, but only so I can wrap it round the nape of her neck.
“Baby, you were never broken. Something really fucking shit happened to you and you reacted like anyone would. I swear none of us have found an ounce of amusement in this situation. We wouldn’t use your worst moments against you.”
“Not again, huh?” The hurt in her voice cuts right through me.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you told everyone how I hate storms so they could all have a laugh at the stupid scared girl.” Shit, I forgot about that. Before I can explain, Mason leans forward between our chairs, and I let Ava go so she can look at him. I know that her thinking we’d done that to her would be killing him just as much as it does me.
“That wasn’t us, princess. Winnie got hold of my phone and was looking for crap to blackmail me with, but she saw some messages between me and Stone instead.” She looks as if she wants to believe him but doesn’t.
“What messages?”
“I was checking in on you a couple of weeks ago.”
“The night after you stayed at Cole’s,” I remind her, and her eyes burn as she flicks them back to me, obviously remembering that night. “I can show you.”
“No. It doesn’t matter now anyway.”
“It does matter. We would never do that to you,” Reid insists, coming forward to squeeze in beside Mason.
“Okay,” she says, turning back to the front and putting on her seatbelt, effectively ending the conversation. Does she believe us? “Can we get back? I’m starving.”
The guys sit back and strap themselves in while we exchange looks in the rear-view mirror. God, she has them both under her spell, but none more so than me. I need her to believe in me, and I need to prove to her I’m worth it more than I need to breathe.
