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With that, I rise from my stool and leave the bar.
These two people are keeping something from Ava.
I don’t know what it is, and it’s not my business.
But I will protect Ava. From anyone.
Even from her own family.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
AVA
I spend the next free day I have with Aunt Marjorie, putting the finishing touches on the anniversary party for my parents the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
It’s now only a week away, and invitations have gone out. I’ll be closing the bakery for Thanksgiving on Thursday and then also Saturday and Sunday, with only limited hours on Friday.
Which means I’m going to be busy, busy, busy tomorrow through Wednesday. People will be coming in to buy their baked goods for Thanksgiving, and on top of all those orders, I have to make pita, olive bread, and baklava for my parents’ party.
I normally keep my business just to bread and rolls and some pastries, but for Thanksgiving, I also make pumpkin pies. I have to hire extra help to get everything done. Even in a small town, many people like to purchase professionally made pies rather than make them from scratch. Every year, I sell more pumpkin pies than I did the last.
I have orders for over five hundred this year, including those for the big Steel Thanksgiving spectacular. This time it’s going to be held at Uncle Joe and Aunt Melanie’s house because we’re busy planning for the big party for my parents at Uncle Talon and Aunt Jade’s house two days later.
“Are you going to answer?” Aunt Marjorie’s voice invades my thoughts.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“I was asking about you and Brendan,” she says.
“Really? I’m sorry. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“Clearly,” Aunt Marj says. “Everything all right, honey?”
Where to start? I’m not sure how much Aunt Marj knows. I haven’t told her about the cryptic messages I’ve been getting. But Dave knows, and he’s Aunt Marj’s son.
“Brendan and I are good,” I say. “I mean, we’ve only been out a few times.”
“He’s a nice young man. Plus, very good-looking.”
“He is,” I say. “Actually, I should probably talk to you about this, Aunt Marj. I was a little freaked out at first by our age difference, but you and Uncle Bryce have a larger age difference than Brendan and I do.”
“That’s true. But the age difference never bothered me. I had been crushing on Uncle Bryce since I was a little girl. It bothered him more because he kept thinking of me as that little girl.”
“I don’t think Brendan sees me that way,” I say. “The age difference doesn’t seem to bother him.”
“That’s because he didn’t really know you when you were a child. Uncle Bryce and Uncle Joe were best friends from the time they were in kindergarten, so Uncle Bryce remembers when I was born. He was thirteen at the time. Though Brendan and Dale are the same age, they were never close like Uncle Bryce and Uncle Joe are, so Brendan was never around, and he didn’t watch you grow up.”
“Yeah. True,” I say. “He says he started to notice me when I opened the bakery in town.”
“See? And that’s been what, two years now?” She smiles. “You’ve had one of the town’s most eligible bachelors checking you out. That’s something, Ava.”
“Then why did he wait so long to do anything about it?”
“He probably was thinking about the age difference as well. And he finally got to the point where it didn’t bother him.”
“You think?”
“It’s just a theory. But he’s also very busy, and he knew how busy you were, opening a new business. It probably just wasn’t the right time for him.”
“Yeah, and honestly? The beginning of my business wasn’t the right time for me either.”
“So you see? These things work themselves out in time.”
“How long did it take for Uncle Bryce to stop thinking of you as a little girl?” I ask.
“Well”—she smiles again as she ties ribbons around one of our wine-themed centerpieces for the party—“I kind of forced him to stop thinking of me in that way. I was determined to have him. I remember when we were first going out, every time he walked into my bedroom, he said all he could remember were the pink and yellow unicorns I used to have all over the walls. Of course, I had redecorated my room since then, but that’s what he always saw.”
I can’t help laughing at the image. “That’s so funny. You totally don’t seem the unicorn type.”
“I know. Growing up with three brothers, I was a regular little tomboy. But my room was the one place where I allowed myself to be a girl.”
“So you always knew that Uncle Bryce was the one for you?”
“I did. It just took him a long time to figure it out.”
“How long exactly?”
“A while. He already had Henry at that point, and he didn’t think I was old enough to be a mother. I was only twenty-five, mind you. But I had to remind him that Jade, my best friend, was also only twenty-five, and at that point, she and Uncle Talon had just adopted Dale and Donny. Plus, she was pregnant with Diana.”
