AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The table goes silent.
Harry glances to his left again to where his brother is seated. Their sister separates them. “I would never allow Roxy to participate in or witness any of that, in case…”
His voice trails, but everyone knows the unspoken words. In case the unspeakable happens, and he’s badly hurt or worse.
I shudder at that thought.
“We’ll ditch the fireworks,” Ryden says. “Just ice cream and surf and sand for us.”
“Yay!” Roxy pumps a fist in the air.
“You’re welcome to come with us, Ava,” Ryden offers. “The more the merrier and all that.”
Sean clears his throat. “I’m going to grab the dessert that Harry so graciously had delivered from a bakery earlier.”
“He’s a prince.” Ryden scoffs. “Harrison to the rescue as always.”
Damn. I thought my brothers had the rivalry thing down pat, but Harry and his brother have taken it to another level.
Their feud is real, unlike the jesting that goes on between Sean and Declan.
I push back from the table, dropping my linen napkin next to my empty plate. “I’ll help.”
Harrison moves to stand too. I expect him to offer to help, but he waits for me to stand before he sits back down.
It’s a gallant move I wasn’t expecting.
There’s a lot I don’t know about him, but that will never change. He hasn’t said a word to me tonight, and although I was expecting that, it still stings.
The sooner dessert is served and eaten, the better because I’ll be able to head out the door and away from the man I want to kiss again.
“What do you do, Ava?”
I glance to my right and down to see Roxy standing next to me.
I’m in the hallway of Sean and Callie’s apartment, gazing at the framed print of the playground. Even though I have a duplicate hanging at my place, I always spot something new in it whenever I look at it.
“I play the piano, and I go to school.”
She nods. “I go to school and invent things.”
I can’t help but smile. “Oh, yeah? What have you invented?”
“A little brush you can attach to your fingertip to brush your teeth.” She demonstrates by swiping a finger over her front teeth. “That was kind of invented already when I thought of it.”
“It was a super smart idea, though.”
“Yep.” She bounces in her sneakers. “I’m working on a heart rate monitor for my gecko now.”
“For that gecko?” I point at her stuffed animal.
She laughs. “This one is pretend. I have a real gecko. Mr. Greenface.”
“You have a gecko?” Surprise edges my tone.
My mom wouldn’t even allow us to have a goldfish when we were growing up. I can’t imagine if one of us would have brought a lizard home.
She sighs. “I love him a lot. He’s staying with me at Harrison’s house right now.”
Just as his name leaves her lips, I look up to see him on the approach.
Being ignored all night by him hasn’t been a confidence boost, so I brush a fingertip over Roxy’s shoulder. “I’m going to use the washroom. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Okay.” She smiles brightly.
I smile, too, before taking a few steps to the open washroom door and shutting it behind me.
I stand there with my ear resting against the wooden door until I hear footsteps trailing away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Ava
The knock at my apartment door surprises me enough that I jump off the piano bench.
Since no one buzzed to come up, it has to be one of my neighbors.
I can’t blame them for stopping by this late. I was working on a composition, and when I get in the zone, I let myself go. I haven’t heard any noise from either of the apartments that sandwich me, so I assumed they couldn’t hear me either.
It seems I was wrong.
I sprint to the door and stop just short of it. Skimming a hand over the front of my sweater, I take a deep breath and take the last step before I swing open the door.
Immediately I regret it. I know it’s not wise to open it without looking out the peephole, but that slipped my mind in my haste to apologize to the person I thought I woke up.
“London.” My nickname snaps off of Harry’s lips. “You’re awake.”
I’m instantly annoyed by his presence. “What are you doing here? How did you get into the building? Why didn’t you call me?”
“I called and texted, and you didn’t respond,” he says casually. “A woman who lives on the third floor was on her way in. She let me follow her.”
Likely because she thought he’d follow her right into her apartment.
He looks like every type of Saturday night sin wrapped in a gorgeous package with just the right amount of stubble on his jaw.
I drop my gaze to my bare feet and circle back to the one question he didn’t answer as I chide myself for leaving my phone in my purse when I got home. “What are you doing here, Harry?”
