by Nikki Chase
I hold up one finger to Ava. “Give me a second. With the five of us around here, there’s a lot of things you don’t have to do yourself.”
I shoot her a smile, then I pop my head into the living room, where Nathan and Mason are still sleeping on the two couches, while Noah’s playing with his phone on an air mattress.
“What time is it?” I ask Noah.
“Seven,” he says.
“Seven,” I repeat to Ava.
“What? I’m late!” Ava rushes down the hallway, handing me the envelope as she passes by.
With her footsteps thudding against the dark wood flooring, she disappears into her bedroom. It’s not long until I hear the sounds of her wardrobe doors and drawers being hastily opened and closed.
I breathe a sigh of relief. At least she won’t be hovering over my shoulder as I look through the document. She won’t see how worried I really am.
I mean, Ava’s just a high school teacher—and a new one at that. Who the fuck is suing her?
Sitting on the air mattress beside Noah, I draw a deep breath, sigh, shake my head, then chuckle—with my fists clenched in fury.
“What does it say?” Noah asks curiously, scooting closer to me.
The air mattress dips to the side—fuck!—and I almost lose my balance. Before I fall on my side, Noah props me up.
“Sorry,” he says, sounding distracted. “What does it say, though?”
I let out another long sigh.
I don’t know whether to laugh at the ridiculous demands Ava’s ex is making, or to get outraged. Both, I suppose.
“Liam, have you finished reading the thing in the envelope?” Ava yells out from inside her bedroom.
In my mind’s eye, I see her wet, fragrant body wrapped in a towel. I want to find out what her soap smells like and discover whether she smells like that everywhere.
Faintly, I hear conversation from Ava’s bedroom. Ollie—lucky bastard—is still in bed. I almost forgot about him.
So he sleeps in and gets to see Ava emerge from the shower. Whoever came up with the saying “the early bird gets the worm” has clearly never been in this situation.
But then again, who has been in this exact situation before? My four brothers and I are seeing the same amazing woman, and she’s being sued by her lawyer ex-boyfriend for everything he’s ever spent on her. Find a precedent for that.
“Liam!” Ava calls out again from her bedroom.
“I’m still reviewing it, Ava,” I reply as I stare at the two short-tempered idiots asleep on the sofas right now. I wonder how Nathan and Mason are going to react when they hear the news.
Noah stares at me. “So? Aren’t you going to continue reading? Don’t you want to know what’s going on?” he asks urgently.
“I already know.”
“You do?” he asks.
I put my finger to my lips when I hear Ava stepping out into the hallway, Ollie’s heavier footsteps following not far behind her.
She’s coming.
Half an hour ago, I was hoping I’d make her come in a whole different way. But that’s almost unthinkable now.
“Help me stall her,” I whisper to Noah as the footsteps get closer.
Ava bursts into the living room anxiously, her breathing erratic from having rushed through her morning routine and her eyes wide as saucers. “What do you know so far?”
“I know it’s not a big deal,” I answer as casually as I can, even as anger courses just underneath my skin. “Don’t worry about it. You’re late for school. I’ll fill you in on it when you get home.”
“Yeah, Ava. Don’t worry about it. Liam’s still working on it. He doesn’t know what it’s about yet exactly.” Noah gives Ava a big, unnatural smile as he parrots me. “But, uh, I’m sure he’ll figure it out . . . soon. Just, um, not now.”
Did I tell him to help me stall her? I mean he should help by saying something in a believable manner, or at least shutting up—not by acting suspicious. My bad. I should’ve made that clear.
Ava flicks her gaze between Noah and me. Ollie looks confused, too, when he peeks at us from behind Ava’s shoulder.
“Okay. Let me know what’s inside later, okay?” Ava says as she turns around and rushes toward the front door.
“Sure thing,” I say.
The door shuts with a hurried slam. But three seconds later, it re-opens, and Ava shouts, “Or call me whenever you’re done reading through it.”
“Okay.”
Ava closes the door again. I wait until I hear her turning on her ignition to stare at Noah.
“What’s wrong with you today?” I ask.
One of the best salesmen I’ve ever encountered in my life, Noah could make a stranger believe the sky’s neon green. And he couldn’t have come up with something better than what he said?
“I don’t know, man,” Noah says. “It’s just . . . She makes me all nervous and stuff.”
I almost roll my eyes . . . but then I realize I’m (1.) working before 9 a.m., and (2.) doing it pro bono. I’ve never done either before.
It’s not like Ava’s officially my client because we haven’t signed anything. But from the moment the guy at the door told Ava she’d been served, I knew I was going to help her fight whatever legal battle’s coming her way.
This Joseph guy’s going to pay.
Ollie
I wake up to the sound of the bathroom door being unlocked. When I open my eyes, I see steam rolling out into the bedroom and Ava emerging from the mists.
I suck in a deep breath. She’s beautiful. A dark towel’s wrapped around her body while her skin glistens with moisture.
It’s only the two of us in her bedroom right now, I realize with delight.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind sharing with my brothers, but I also wouldn’t say no to some alone time with this goddess. I can still remember how good her ass cheeks felt against my cock this morning . . .
“Hey, sexy.” I greet her with a smile and wonder if I should pull the covers off to show her how hard I still am, how much she’s turning me on.
“Hey, Ollie.” Ava doesn’t even turn in my direction. She pulls out some things from her wardrobe and rushes back into the bathroom.
“Ava, you can change here. I don’t mind.”
She doesn’t respond. But she flies out of the bathroom in record speed, wearing a pink shirt, a black cardigan, and a demure striped pencil skirt that nevertheless skims the curve of her ass in the most delicious way.
She really does look like a high school teacher this morning. I wouldn’t mind getting detention from Miss Green . . .
“Late for school?” I ask.
“Yeah. And apparently, I’m being sued.” Ava grabs her bag and, before I fully digest what she’s saying, dashes outside into the hallway.
“What?”
I follow Ava into the living room where everybody’s staring weirdly at everybody else—except for Mason and Nathan, who are still asleep. Glad I’m not the last one to wake up on a morning like this, when something bad and important seems to have happened.
I walk Ava to the front door as she hurries down the hallway, stopping by the coat hanger to grab a scarf.
“See you later,” I say.
“Yeah,” Ava says without even looking up as she rummages through her bag.
“You got everything?”
“Yeah.”
Just before Ava leaves, I see some movement across the street. I think I catch a dark figure just behind a tree, but I can’t be sure.
I squint at the dark figure, but Ava pulls the door shut before I can get a closer look.
I grab the door handle and turn. As the door swings open, Ava pops her head inside and shouts, “Call me whenever you’re done reading through it.” She turns to me. “Hey, Ollie. You’re still here.”
“Yeah.” I narrow my eyes and scan the sidewalk across the road.
“See you later,” Ava says as she runs to her car. The engine whirrs on and soon she’s on her w
ay to school.
I stay outside for some time, but nothing else happens that’s out of the ordinary. I must’ve imagined seeing someone.
“What kind of an asshole sues an ex-girlfriend?” I ask later, after Liam explains what’s going on. Like all my brothers, I’m shocked and furious.
Liam shrugs. “You’d be surprised. I know some lawyers who are also very sore losers.”
“We can fight this, right?”
“Of course we can,” Mason snaps, diverting his attention from his phone call. He’s been put on hold for more than fifteen minutes, and he’s not happy.
Usually, our assistant, Sally, handles the annoying phone calls for us, but we’re trying to avoid her this morning because we want to get to the bottom of Ava’s case.
I don’t know if anybody’s admitted it yet, but I get the feeling everybody likes Ava as much as I do. I’ve never seen my brothers work quite so hard at anything before.
Liam’s already drafting a response to the lawsuit. Mason’s calling his powerful friends, trying to find somebody with valuable connections we can use in town.
Nathan and Noah are trying to keep Ava calm over the phone while also fielding calls from Sally, who’s ready to dump a ton of work on us.
We’ve shared a woman before, but this is different. In the past, it was all just about the sex. There were never any emotions involved, and no commitments were ever made.
But with Ava . . . Hell, none of us has even gone past second base with her, yet we’re taking on all this work to help her out. And I thought the whole reason we were here in Ashbourne is so we could take things easy for a while.
I don’t know where everything’s going with Ava, but this is going to be interesting.
Ava
Finally, after a lot of pushing and prodding, I manage to get Noah to tell me the truth.
Of course, I didn’t believe it when he told me everything was a-okay this morning. He sounded too weird.
Whatever products the Hunter brothers are selling, if Noah’s making good sales, they must be good products. He doesn’t seem to be able to tell convincing lie.
Liam grabs the phone when he realizes Noah’s blabbed. Liam tells me he has everything under control and “any sane judge” would throw the case out of his courtroom.
That’s reassuring.
But still . . . I’m being sued. For the first time in my life.
After I hang up, I enter the staff room with my head buried in my phone. Liam’s just sent me screenshots of the important bits from the document, and I’m zooming in with my thumbs so I can read the small text.
I take a seat on one of the chairs haphazardly arranged around a square dining table. Tony and Jessica are already at the table while a handful other teachers are lounging on the couches a few feet away.
“What did you eat over the weekend, Jessie?” Tony asks.
“What did I eat . . .? Can’t you come up with a more normal question? Which meal? And why do you want to know?”
“Oh, no reason. I just . . .”
From the corner of my eye, I catch Tony staring at me, but I ignore him. He can wait; I have a lawsuit to deal with.
Tony lets out a loud, obvious sigh, drawing the attention of some of the other teachers in the room. “I’m just having cravings for Five Guys.”
Jessica giggles. “Um . . . Yeah, Jacob and I had some burgers yesterday,” she says in a more somber voice when she realizes people are staring at them.
“Yeah, I’m just . . . specifically craving Five Guys,” Tony says. When he catches me giving him a dirty look, he quickly adds, “I mean, it can’t be any other kind of burgers. I know what I like, you know?”
“Yeah,” Jessica says, shooting me an apologetic look. “Jacob’s pretty particular about his burgers, too, but he prefers In-N-Out. The other day—”
“Well, I mean, maybe Jacob’s not a Five Guys kind of guy, but come on. What’s better than Five Guys? Right, Ava?”
“Yeah. Great burgers,” I say quickly before Tony attracts even more attention. I scan the room. There are too many ears in here. “Do you guys want to go outside . . . Uh, get some fresh air?”
Jessica and Tony exchange a look. The staff room has the best snacks and the cushiest couches. There’s no reason why I’d want to go outside where chaos reigns and our students can find us.
“What happened?” Jessica asks in a low voice. Her green eyes dull with worry.
“Let’s get out of here,” Tony says as he gets up.
Two minutes later, the three of us are in the room where my next class will take place.
“My ex is suing me,” I say from my desk as Jessica and Tony drag chairs up to the desk.
“What?” Jessica asks. “What a jerk!”
“Have you talked to him?” Tony asks.
“No. Liam says I shouldn’t make any contact with him.”
“Liam . . .?” Tony’s eyebrow shoots up. “Is that one of the sexy brothers from our brunch the other day? By the way, that’s what we’re calling them. The Sexy Brothers. Like they’re some kind of a band.”
I nod. Averting my gaze from Tony, I try to keep the discussion on topic. “So apparently, he wants me to pay him back for everything.”
“What does that mean?” Jessica asks. A ray of sunlight from outside hits her red hair, making it light up like a flame.
“That means everything he’s ever spent on me during the three years we were dating.”
“Including gifts?” Jessica’s eyes widen.
“Yeah. Dinners, too. He has this ridiculously detailed list of items he wants me to pay him for.”
“What kind of items?” Jessica asks.
“All kinds. From expensive designer stuff I never even asked him to buy for me, to things like a twenty-dollar Spanish textbook and a $27 meal. He’s even put a cardboard cat fort on the list.”
“You have a cat?” Jessica asks, her eyes lighting up.
“No, it’s my parents’. They went out of town, so Joseph and I stayed in their house with their cat for a few days.”
“Oh, like pet-sitting?”
“Yeah. That’s when he got the stupid cat fort from the pet shop. My mom loved it, of course.” I roll my eyes.
“So . . . this lawsuit, it didn’t happen during the weekend, right?” Tony asks as he leans back in his chair and adjusts the suspenders he’s wearing over his crisp white shirt.
“No. I got the thing this morning. A guy just came, stuck an envelope in my hand, and said, ‘You got served.’”
“Wow. I’ve never met your ex, but sounds like you dodged a bullet when you guys broke up,” Jessica says.
“So let me get this straight. You just got the document this morning, right?” Tony asks.
“Yes,” I say impatiently. Why does he keep asking the same question, over and over again?
“You also said that . . . Liam’s working on it.” An impish smile spreads across Tony’s cheeks. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
I sigh. I didn’t think they were going to find out this soon. “Yeah,” I admit. “They stayed over last night.”
Jessica gasps and lifts her hands up to cover her mouth, but she sounds more impressed than outraged. “‘They’? It wasn’t just Liam? Damn, girl.”
Tony stares at Jessica. “You’ve never called anyone ‘girl’ before, have you?”
“Not even once.” Jessica shakes her head. “Wait, so is Liam a lawyer, then?”
“Yeah.”
“What does he think about the case?”
“He told me I had nothing to worry about.”
Both Tony and Jessica seem to exhale and relax at the same time.
“That’s great news,” Tony says.
“Yeah. You’ll be fine. You have a lawyer on your side.”
I nod.
“This reminds me of Bethenny Frankel,” Tony says.
“Who?”
“Oh, she’s from The Real Housewives of New York City. Her new boyfriend sued her ex
-boyfriend for harassment.”
“No, no,” Jessica pipes up. “This is more like when Adele’s ex demanded a share of her royalties because he was the inspiration for some of her songs.”
“Except he didn’t end up suing her.”
“Well, Bethenny Frankel’s ex didn’t sue her either.”
“Oh, I know what’s more similar to this case,” Tony says. “There’s this girl who sued her ex-boyfriend, but that was because he gave her an STD. She won, by the way.”
“Oh, good for her.”
“Guys, can we stop discussing similar celebrity cases?” I ask. “I have a real situation here.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Jessica says with a sympathetic smile. “Liam told you so, right? And he’s a good lawyer, right?”
“I don’t know, actually,” I admit. “But I think he would be. He sounded like he knew his stuff.”
“You’ll be okay, Ava. It’s just a lawsuit. So what? This is America. Everybody’s gotten sued,” Tony says, his hands flailing around dismissively. “You’ll get through this, and then you’ll be fine again. Like Bethenny Frankel.”
Jessica rolls her eyes at Tony. “Since this lawsuit isn’t a big deal, tell me about your night with The Sexy Brothers.”
My face burns as I realize what they think I must’ve done. “I didn’t . . . They just slept. Nothing happened.”
That’s a lie.
This morning, something definitely happened with Liam (I can still feel his mouth wrapped around my nipple) and Ollie (I can still feel his hot, hard bulge pressing urgently against me).
And also, last night, something definitely happened, too, with the twins—and Mason, although he didn’t get too far before I freaked out.
But I can’t admit that to Jessica and Tony . . . can I?
“Somehow, that doesn’t strike me as the face of someone who’s had a whole night of ‘nothing,’” Tony says as he studies my face. “What do you think, Jessie?”
“Yeah, I agree with you, Tone. There seems to be some guilt there, too.”
“I have to say . . . I’m kind of proud of her. I didn’t think she was actually going to do it.”