by Maya Rossi
Ava shifted from one foot to the other. She was exhausted, Max even more so. Plus, he needed to be washed and fed. “If I thought going on my knees would get me through that door, I would have done it. But it won’t. Stop me, Jack.”
Without a word, she made for the front door. Jack raced after her. He got a closer look at Max and stopped. “Oh, hell.”
∞∞∞
An hour later, Max lay on his stomach sleeping fitfully. With his legs spread wide apart, Jack stared down at Max with raw emotion on his face. When Ava cleared her throat loudly, his expression went blank.
“When is he returning?” she asked.
Jack turned away. “Soon,” he muttered. “Why?”
“Because I hoped to be on my way home already,” she said.
He barked a laugh, turning a chair backwards to sit by Max side. “Is that all? You’ll get your wish, don’t worry.”
Ava got out her phone and called Robin. Her number didn’t go through because she was probably at Adam’s swim meet. Next she called Steve, letting him know they landed safely.
“I think that’s the only good news in this clusterfuck. That and Max,” Jack observed.
“What?”
“That you’re in a new relationship now--” the front door opened before he would say more.
“Jack! Thought you would be at Gladys’ by now to avoid my beans tonight,” Brayden said as he entered. He stopped in the doorway when he saw Ava. Slowly, his expression closed off like the curtains drawn closed after a great performance.
“Ava.”
Gaze fixed on the scar marks on his chin where she clawed his flesh with her fingers during Ryan’s funeral, Ava’s heart jumped at the sight of him. With his strapping physique and penetrating dark eyes, he didn’t seem to have changed a bit. “Hello, Brayden.”
A flash of emotions flooded his face. A muscle jumped along his jaw. At his side, his hands trembled before he shoved it into his pocket. “How are you?” he asked formally.
Ava discretely wiped her wet palms across her skirt. “Good, good.”
Without missing a beat, he nodded. “You’re the last person I expected to see.”
Hope unfurled like a dangerous beast beneath her breasts. And surprise as well. Ava expected Brayden to throw her out the moment he set eyes on her. But here they were conversing like adults. She stared at his handsome face, marveling at Max’s resemblance to his father.
“Do you need money?”
Ava flinched. He would think that. “I came to apologize,” she whispered.
Brayden’s brows drew over his forehead in consternation. “To me? Why?”
Ava floundered, unsure where to begin. She glanced at Jack to find him watching with clear amusement. Her gaze landed on Max, reminding her why she traveled through seven waters and seven seas literally to see Brayden. “I hurt you and--”
“You didn’t. It was nothing I didn’t deserve,” he returned curtly.
Jack straightened. “Brayden--”
“A minute, Jack.” Brayden looked her over with those seemingly dead eyes. “Anything else?”
She ran her tongue over dry mouth, unsure where exactly she lost track of the thread of the conversation. “Y-yes, I--”
“You didn’t have to come all this way just to apologize. Not that you had anything to apologize for, a phone call would have been enough.” He looked past her to Jack. “Still going to Gladys?”
At Jack’s nod he said, “Get pies for me, grab the vegetables outside for her as payment.” He turned away. “You can drop Ava off on your way, we don’t want her crossing the bridge late at night.”
“Just like that? I’m dismissed?” Ava asked.
Brayden frowned. “Did you come here to resume where we left off? I’m not interested Ava.”
The words were delivered honestly and completely without malice. Maybe it was for that reason they hurt even more. Ava forced a smile. “I-I brought your son with me.”
“You’re a beautiful woman--- what did you say?”
“I said I brought your son with me.” Ava took a deep breath. “You see, I was pregnant and didn’t--”
“Stop.”
He transformed before her eyes. From calm to enraged in seconds. He clenched and unclenched his fists, visibly struggling to control his temper. Finally, he dug his fingers into his hair, pacing the length of the foyer forward and back. When Ava saw the pain in his eyes, she almost flinched. When she got a closer look, Ava gasped. Brayden was in tears.
“Tell me this is a joke,” he whispered.
Ava shook her head slowly. “No, I was — he’s beautiful and--”
“Why didn’t you get rid of him?”
“What?”
“You had your career and stuff, you should have gotten rid of him!”
Ava stiffened, drawing herself to her full height. “That’s my son you’re talking about.”
“I don’t care.” He paused, genuinely puzzled. “You came all this way to tell me I have a son?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want him.”
“Okay,” Ava whispered. “We can--”
“I’ll draw you a check--”
“You don’t want to see him?”
He blinked, eyes turning arctic. “What?”
“I asked if you wanted to see Max.”
“He’s here?”
“Yes.”
His skin lost all color. “Get that thing out of my house.”
Shocked, Ava remained rooted to the spot. She knew he didn’t want a family, but this was taking it too far. “Brayden--”
He charged around her. “You want me to do it?”
“No!”
“Then get him out of my house!”
Exactly one minute later, Ava stood outside with a bewildered Max staring at the front door. After a moment, the door opened and Jack stepped out with her things.
“I knew he never wanted a family, but this?” Ava shook out her baby carrier with sharp, brisk motions and expertly clasped Max to her front.
“I will drive you,” Jack said, walking past her to what looked like a garage.
“That’s all you will say?” Ava cried, rushing to keep up with his longer strides.
“He’s my friend, he has his reasons and unlike you, I understand what loyalty means.” He speared her with a telling glance.
“I thought you were just his bodyguard,” Ava said later when they were on the road to where her car was parked.
Jack didn’t reply, turning off the road into an off beaten track that looked like it led to nowhere. Ava inhaled the powdery smell of her son’s skin so unlike Brayden’s custom made cologne for reassurance. “I called my best friend to let her know where we are, just saying.”
Jack threw his head back and burst into laughter. He pulled before a ranch style home. “Don’t worry, I don’t kidnap babies.” He nodded at the house. “Gladys is waiting.”
“Who’s Gladys, and unless my car’s here we don’t have any business meeting.”
“Shut the hell up,” Jack returned softly. His lips barely moved. The blue of his eyes glittered like jewels against his charcoal dark skin. In that second, he looked every inch the bodyguard. “Drop your self-righteous bullshit. You think having a child absolves you of guilt? You’re nothing but a career grubbing bitch. I called it the first time, and I’m calling it again.”
Ava’s breath stalled in her lungs along with whatever come back she might have replied with. Brayden might easily forgive her with the irrational explanation that he deserved the shit she piled on him after Ryan’s death, but not his friends.
“I--”
“Go on,” Jack taunted. “Prove me wrong, but start with the articles. Is it the first one? Outright murder or sport brutality? Tell me you were drunk when you wrote that. A year later, you sashay into his life with the cutest mini me expecting forgiveness.”
“He said--”
“Shut the hell up.”
Ava closed her eyes and pra
yed for patience. She was wrong, she was guilty but she didn’t have to take crap from Jack. “I swear to God if you ask me to shut up--”
“What? You’ll write an article saying I killed your mother?”
“You--”
Loud raps came from the window. Jack rolled the glass down, giving the older pretty woman a wide grin. “A woman after my own heart.”
“Come on in and get that child out of the car.”
“He looks just like his father at the same age,” Gladys said placing a steaming cup of coffee before Ava.
Jack had since left to return to Brayden after carting off a sizable portion of the woman’s food and a stern warning that Ava better behave.
“You knew Brayden as a kid?”
“We all grew up here. Small town and all, everyone knew everyone. I was his seventh and eight grade teacher. The smartest kid in the whole state and recognized for it too.” Gladys tucked Max into the crook of her arm and pressed the bottle filled with breast milk to his mouth. As he latched on to the nipple, she murmured, “Bright boy, just like his father. Brayden was an unusual child, too calm, too neat, too orderly, too perfect. Even his grades were perfect. Had his head buried in a book all the time, no friends to speak of. He was so busy.
Ava found it difficult to reconcile nerdish Brayden with boxing champion Brayden. “Busy?”
“With perfection.” Gladys transferred Max to his shoulders and burped him gently, sighing an ‘ah,’ to the loud belch. “Picture a youngster Brayden, neat, not a hair or pencil out of place. He would have been the teacher’s favorite if he spoke.”
“He didn’t?”
“Never, not if he could help it and it was all because of Sarah. When he did wrong, wrong could be as little as getting stains on his shorts while playing with other kids. Brayden stopped doing that at age six.”
“Fuck — sorry.”
“Or a wrong could be as bad as having a math score short of a hundred percent. She would make him kneel by her bedside all night begging for forgiveness. Then when he absolves his guilt by giving or doing something, she grudgingly forgives until the next wrong. Between the canes and the time spent on his knees, Brayden grew perfect.”
Ava wiped stray tears from her cheeks. “I don’t — I can’t--”
“Believe a woman would do that?” Gladys sighed. “She did, very well, while projecting the image of an overworked housewife too.”
“Why didn’t he do something academic, why boxing?”
“He wanted fame, the reason is a story for another day.” She took a sip of her coffee. “You see why I can’t just let you live?”
Ava folded her hands, chest burning with the force of her emotions. “I have a life, I can’t just--”
Gladys’ eyes narrowed. “You can because you owe him. Brayden must know his son.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Weighed down with shopping bags and toiletries, Ava almost ran into a shopping cart piled high with food produce. She jumped back just in time and slammed into the tall man last on the checkout queue. She caught a whiff of that deadly cologne before he set her down and moved forward to his spot in the queue.
Ava leaned forward. “Treating me like a stranger, really?”
Brayden flicked her a disinterested look. “What are you still doing here?”
“I’m occupying the good Sheriff’s spare bedroom — I heard you spent a lot of time there — until a certain stubborn man forgives me for my unforgivable sins.”
The shell that was his face cracked a smidgen when his lips twitched at her over the top summary of their history. “If you did something unforgivable, I will advise you to move on, the person won’t forgive.”
Her mouth dropped open in genuine horror. “You won’t forgive me?”
Brayden laughed out loud. Both the woman at the checkout and some in the queue, leaned over to glare their displeasure. Their hatred was palpable, crawling over them like a swarm of bees. Why did they hate Brayden so much?
“I never said I won’t forgive.” Brayden continued like nothing untoward had happened. He acted like their mean glares were a normal occurrence. “I forgive you, but you called it unforgivable meaning to whoever that person is, the sin won’t ever be forgiven.”
After their check out, Ava grabbed Brayden and led him to the side of the store. Staring into his hooded eyes, Ava dropped to her knees.
“I’m sorry Brayden for hurting you, for tarnishing your reputation in the eyes of many, for calling you a murderer, for blaming you for Ryan’s death. It was unforgivable. You were the most loved athlete, and I used every weapon at my disposable to change the narrative, turning millions of fans against you. Forgive me.”
During her narration, Ava dropped her eyes, tears prickling her eyelids as she recalled the darkness of those days. Placing an entreating hand on his rock hard thigh, Ava glanced up. And found him staring at her with dark hunger in his eyes. Instinctively, she dug her nails into his thighs. He exhaled a harsh breath.
Ava bit her lip, unable to stop her body’s response as her nipples hardened, their sensitivity almost painful with her breast filled with milk. What would it feel like to make love with this man again? Would it be the rushed, frantic coupling they had in his office or the drawn out erotic moments they enjoyed in the bedroom? Would he come inside her this time?
“Jack says you’re seeing someone,” he said tightly.
Ava’s eyes widened in surprise. That reply wasn’t what she expected at all. “Unless he — is he running a check on me?”
“No, he just--”
“Good, because he couldn’t have done a great job because I’m not seeing anyone, Brayden.”
Brayden stepped back, breath coming in harsh pants. “You’re forgiven, Ava. Just go home.”
She might have followed his command but the rains came and never stopped. For three good days, it poured. During this time, the Sheriff and Gladys stood by the windows looking out with pinched expressions.
Ava spent the time indoors, reading through her posts and checking in with Robin. By the seventh day, she huddled under the blankets reading a story to Max when Gladys walked in.
“I’m sorry, Ava but we need to leave while the roads are still passable.”
“What’s going on?”
“Flood,” she returned grimly.
Ava prepared Max in record time. In less than fifteen minutes, they had packed and were ready to move. Outside the house, they discovered the water had crossed the front porch.
“Just like two years ago,” Gladys said. “How do we wade through the water to the car?”
Just then, a huge truck pushed through the water in a wave, the noise cutting off a chance at further conversation. When the vehicle came closer, Ava could make out Brayden and Jack with Brayden in the driver’s seat. He pulled the car right over the porch steps and parked.
“Get in!” Jack yelled, jumping into the water to help them into the back of the truck.
As they drove slowly through the flooded streets, Ava stared open-mouthed at the devastation. Water overran farms, houses and the local store. They passed a family struggling to get their children to a high elevation by placing them on top their car.
The man fought to raise his wife up, but they both fell. Gladys moaned. “That’s Eric and Missy, they must have been at the farm when — Brayden stop!”
Brayden drove over to where Eric fought to save his family. But the man refused to get in when he saw Brayden. Aghast, Ava turned to Gladys. “Why do they hate him so much?”
Two hours later, after she fed, bathed and put Max to bed, Ava went in search of Brayden. She found him in his bedroom. Ava knocked once. Framed in his window, looking out at the darkening sky, he cut a lonely figure.
“We have to go back.”
Brayden didn’t turn away. “They won’t come with me even if they were dying. I could go, leave the truck there for them. It’s better than that car.”
“Good idea, except how do you come back?”
<
br /> He shrugged. “I can wade or swim back--”
“It’s too far and the cold will kill you.” Ava crossed her arms. “We’ll go together and convince them to come with us.”