AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He just wants to make amends is all,” Jonathan says, steepling his hands. “Maybe it’s time to move forward.”
I harrumph at that. Some things you just can’t get over, no matter how much time passes.
“The only thing he’s ever truly given me was my inheritance ten years ago, before everything went to shit, and I was able to start my security firm. I’ve given most of it back to the families he’s stolen from. I don’t owe him a damn thing.”
Uncle Jonathan’s lips compress into a thin line at my words. “Okay, I get it. Right now, I can’t hope for any reconciliation between my brother and you.”
“Not just right now. Not ever,” I say, pulling out my wallet, but Uncle waves me off.
“I’m charging this to my room. I hope to see you again before I return to Oxford.”
I think about Ava and figure she would like to see Uncle Jonathan again. He’d come to visit me and Asher during my years at boarding school and grew fond of the Wells family.
“Yes, I’d like that,” I say.
After hugging my uncle goodbye and making my way back towards the parking garage, I couldn’t shake off the sense that something seemed off about him. I hadn’t seen him in years, but he appeared so much older. There were health scares in the past, but he generally appeared even younger than his age most times when we caught up.
He appeared as if the world was on his shoulders and stress ate at him.
Also, when the hell did he start defending my no-good father? There wasn’t even a relationship to repair with James Eastwood because that implied we’d ever had one.
Though the likelihood of ever having children was slim to not a shot in hell, I knew I’d do everything I could to not become anything like my father. I’d give them the antithesis of my own childhood.
When I finally make it back to the parking garage, the innate human sense of being watched takes over, and I glance back over my shoulder. No one is there, and I feel paranoid, but the feeling doesn’t disappear.
Someone was watching me enter this garage. Maybe even followed me in here.
I check around the SUV, and upon opening the driver’s side door, the lights in the vehicle come on. No one’s hiding or crouched down waiting to surprise me.
The thoughts of my father are too much of a distraction, and he is the last person on my list of priorities. Right now, Ava was the only person that mattered to me, and her safety was my number one priority.
CHAPTER 13
Ava
When Brandon comes to retrieve me after my meeting with my editor and cover designer, he’s quieter than usual. He only mentioned his uncle was in town, and they met up for lunch. I don’t have a lot of memories with Jonathan, but when he did visit, he was always friendly and taught me magic tricks as a child. The complete opposite of Brandon’s father, whose downfall surprised absolutely no one.
I want to enquire what caused his mood, but I figure he’s not going to open up. No, that privilege belonged to a girlfriend or wife. Painfully, I’m realizing that I’d never be either of those things to Brandon.
“Where to now?”
I’m back in the passenger seat next to Brandon, watching Maxwell drive off back to the TSS offices.
“I want to go shopping,” I say, rattling off the Zora store address to Brandon.
He enters Zora’s address in the GPS, pulls off from the curb, and begins to head back downtown.
“You’re not planning to spend hours in this store are you?”
I like messing with him and can’t resist messing with him. “Maybe I will. Besides, I’ll be promoting this book release. I have to look my best.”
“Right…any excuse to go shopping is better than none,” he says, his sexy smile teasing me.
Ridingpassenger princesswith Brandon feels right. Almost like we’re a real couple.
I cannot start thinking like that, but I want to think of Brandon as more than a lover. Someone I can depend on, even if he wasn’t protecting me from the stalker. Brandon is way too mature for the humble moniker of boyfriend, but I’d been fantasizing about calling him that. Fantasizing about introducing him to my friends, or even my followers, as Brandon Eastwood, my man.
Of course, this line of thinking is foolish and a waste of time. Brandon and I are not a couple. This is just…temporary.
