Ignite: Book 2 (The Heat Series 1)

by MJ Masucci

  “He told me that he needed to do what he did. He said he saved my life in the field where the accident was, did CPR until the ambulance arrived. I overheard Brooke telling dad, but no one ever told me directly. Did you know that?”

  Rachel put her hand over her mouth, “I had no idea. No one said anything to me. I would have thought my father heard that piece of the story from Peter.”

  “He and I are supposed to talk more tomorrow. He said he had to go to Syracuse today to run an errand for his boss. I want to know about him now, though. I’m not sure if I can wait until tomorrow.” Inside emotions were roiling around in her. She wanted to hear things from him today, but he had an obligation. Ava had no idea what she should do with herself for the next twenty-four hours.

  “So you aren’t going to go with me to Montreal?” Rachel asked.

  “I’m sorry, do you mind?”

  Rachel knew how important this was, so she chose not to make a big deal out of it. The Volvo would be fixed tomorrow, and she could make the drive the three hours by herself.

  “It’s fine. Hell, we have all been telling you he is never coming back, and here he is. You might as well hear what he has to say,” she gently said to her cousin as she reached out to grasp Ava’s hand.

  “I’m starving have you eaten?”

  Rachel looked at her sheepishly. “I did. I’m eating for two and had no idea where you went. I’m ready for a nap now.”

  Ava glanced at her watch. “It’s only nine o’clock!”

  “Well, that’s another thing pregnancy does, it makes you tired,” she said yawning.

  “I’m going to go across the street and see if I can get an egg white omelet.”

  “Good luck with that. That diner seems to only serve good stick-to-your-ribs food, and I doubt that you are going to find healthy there. Have some pancakes; they won’t kill you once in awhile.”

  Ava sneered at her and headed for the door. “Have a good nap.”

  She walked across the street to the diner. They did have an egg white omelet, and she ordered it. While she drank her coffee, she noticed the same woman that Xander had kissed the day before. She was sitting two tables over with her two children. She was curious about Xander’s life but didn’t want to intrude on their breakfast.

  When the waitress brought her eggs, she pushed them around the plate. Her mind kept racing, and she was trying to gather up the courage to talk to the woman. Her little boy was playing with a racer car. He would wind it up and let it go on the table. His little sister kept trying to grab at the toy and successfully pushed it off the table in mid-race. It hit the floor and bounced off Ava’s sneaker. She bent down to get it and rose to give it to the boy. The woman looked up and thanked her.

  “You’re Ava, aren’t you?”

  Ava looked at the woman in astonishment. “Have we met?”

  “No, not officially. But Alex keeps several pictures of you besides drawings.”

  “Drawings? I don’t understand.”

  “Alex is probably going to kill me if he finds out, but do you have some time?”

  “I have nothing going on today. I was supposed to speak with Xander, but he said he had an errand to run for his boss.”

  “Ah, yes that would be my father-in-law. He sent Alex to Syracuse for a pickup. You called him Xander?”

  “Yes, I always did and so does my family. When did he change it to Alex?”

  “When he arrived here four years ago. I told him it was ridiculous, but he insisted. We are just finishing up here; I’m his cousin, and he stays with us. Would you like to come home with me and we can talk some more?”

  “Oh, yes. I have so many questions and won’t be talking to Xander until tomorrow. I’m bursting.”

  Janelle cleaned the two children’s mouths and hands. Then she went to the cashier and paid the bill. Sophia looked up at Ava and grabbed her two fingers with her tiny hand. Ava smiled down at her. She reminded her of her niece. Not much was said on the ride to Janelle’s home because the children insisted they sing their favorite song.

  When they arrived, Janelle took the children in the house and left them with their father. Then she took Ava to the apartment over the garage.

  “Alex stays here. It was a mess when he got here, but he, my husband, Billy, and my father-in-law fixed it up. It’s better that he has his own place rather than be around all the time. Not that he would care. He loves playing with the kids, and they love him.”

  She unlocked the door and opened it to a tidy one bedroom apartment. Ava remembered that Xander was always neat and he continued that trend here. Everything was in its place. The living room consisted of a couch and a recliner. No television was in sight, and the only electronics were an old laptop and iPod.

  Janelle must have been reading Ava’s mind because she answered the question she had on the tip of her tongue.

  “Alex doesn’t have much call for television. He prefers being creative.”

  Ava had no idea what that meant. He never did anything creative other than in the courtroom (and bed) while they were together. Janelle pointed to a stack of notebooks on the side table next to the couch. A sketch pad sat on the coffee table along with several charcoal pencils. She picked one up and ran her finger over the point.

  “I have to go inside. This will be our little secret. I thought you should know how Alex spends his time. I’ll let you explore for awhile. Just make sure you put everything back where you found it. He is very particular about that.”

  Janelle left the apartment, and Ava saw her walking to her house through the window. She picked up the sketch pad and flipped over the cover. The first page had a sketch of just her face as she slept. The next page had her wearing sunglasses like when they had been in Lake George on Memorial Day weekend. The next was a sketch of her reclining on the bed in her sheer lingerie. He captured her soft curves perfectly.

  She paged through several more sketches of herself. On the last page was a drawing of her in her graduation gown. It was a great likeness, and he had captured the features of her face perfectly.

  She was so astonished that she spoke aloud in the empty room. “He did this all from memory?”

  Each sketch had a date, and it seemed to Ava that he started drawing at least one a month since they had been apart. She put the sketch pad down exactly where she had found it and explored his apartment further. His refrigerator was clean but had mostly bottles of water and Gatorade. His freezer had a multitude of frozen foods, Hot Pockets, and frozen pizzas. She found not one vegetable or fruit in the kitchen.

  Next, she went into his bathroom. It was small, much smaller than the apartment in the city that he had occupied. The shower was a molded standing-only stall. But it was clean. She noticed that he still wore the same cologne from four years ago. She unstopped the top and inhaled deeply. She loved that smell on him.

  In the hall to his bedroom, he had a few framed pictures, one of his family and two of her. The first was the picture he had taken from her laptop years four years ago that had been taken at Sam’s brother’s loft one New Years Eve. The second was the picture that was in the enclosed bulletin board at Camp Kids Afloat. She was in her white bikini. She knew that he had taken it.

  She entered his bedroom and found a neatly made queen sized bed. It was sparsely furnished; besides the bed, there was a dresser and a nightstand. She opened his closet to find barely anything hanging. He had one suit, a pair of khakis and two dress shirts with ties around the hanger. This was vastly different from what his closet in Manhattan had been. Back then he had many suits, more than he could wear in a week. He also had a whole drawer of ties and many dress shirts. She opened his dresser and saw mostly t-shirts, well-worn but clean jeans, and tank tops. The top drawer held his underwear and socks. He kept his boxers rolled, and she unrolled a pair and looked at them.

  She closed her eyes and remembered back when they were together. She loved his body especially when he wore nothing but his boxers. They outlined his muscular leg
s and backside. She stuck them back into the drawer, and her hand rubbed against something hard. She moved her hand around until it grasped onto a box which she pulled out. It looked like it had been caked with something, but it was obvious to her it held a piece of jewelry. She opened it to find a dazzling diamond engagement ring.

  She sat on the edge of his bed and removed the ring from the box. She held it up to the sunlight that came through one of the windows. It was beautiful with a large emerald cut center diamond, maybe two carats. The ring had a platinum setting and was surrounded by smaller accent diamonds around the main stone and band. She wondered if he planned on asking her to marry him. She could never say yes until they discussed things from the past. Plus she no longer knew him, and that would take time. She slipped the ring back into the box and put it back in the drawer as she had found it.

  Ava went to the living room and sat on his couch. His iPod was on the table next to the sketch pad, and she picked it up. She turned it on and found it was on U2’s All I Want Is You. The repeat was set which meant that he sat and listened to the song over and over. She released the song and scrolled through others on the iPod. They were all related to love — lost or otherwise. He had several U2 songs: With or Without You, Stay, Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. She found Peter Gabriel’s Your Eyes. It made her realize that he was just as miserable these last four years as she was.

  She was careful to put the iPod back on the U2 song and set the repeat. She didn’t want him to know anyone had gone through his things. The next thing she did was look at the entries in the stack of notebooks. She took the top one off of the stack and opened it to the page he had bookmarked. The date he had written at the top of the page was today’s. She read the entry.

  I saw her, held her hand, kissed her. It made me realize what a mistake I had made being away from her all these years. She is still the beautiful, intelligent woman that I left but there is something more. There is a hurt below the surface. A hurt that I created and will work, for the rest of my life, to wipe away. She is the woman I want to marry, and that is my future goal. I will work towards making her happy for the rest of our lives.

  Ava pulled the notebook against her chest. Her eyes burned with tears. She paged through the notebook and found entries for each day. She replaced the notebook and pulled out the one from the very bottom of the pile.

  This is one of the worst days of my life. I’m in my apartment surrounded by reminders of Ava everywhere. Her perfume is here, her clothing. I found a strand of her hair on the pillow she used. I’m leaving in less than an hour to fulfill the promise I made. I don’t know how I will live without her, but I have to try. What a Happy Birthday this is.

  She paged through the entire notebook and each entry tore at her heart. On each page, he wrote the goings on of the day without her, a poem or a sonnet by a famous author. She replaced the notebook not wanting to read anymore because she was sickened by his feelings of guilt and remorse. Janelle entered the apartment with some iced tea just as she shoved the book on the bottom of the stack.

  “Pretty sad stuff isn’t it?”

  Ava blushed because she had invaded his privacy.

  “It is, and it’s worse because I was going through the same thing.”

  “Those first two months were the worst for Alex. He spent a lot of time up here drinking his days away. I finally got sick of it and threw him a lifeline. I told him that if he didn’t get his act together, stop drinking and get a job he would have to leave. He promised he would, and he did. Billy’s father hired him at the lumberyard, and he has been there ever since.”

  “Has he dated anyone since he has been here?” She asked hoping for the right answer.

  “No. We tried to set him up that first year, and Billy sometimes tries, but he always says no. He told us that he met his soul mate, so there is no use looking any longer. I told him he needed to go home to you, but he said he wasn’t ready. The times he did go back to see his parents, he would always come back depressed. I think he misses the city more than he shares.”

  “Did he tell you what happened to us?”

  “Not entirely. He just said there was a horrible accident and you almost died.”

  “He saved my life. I did die, and he saved me. Without him, I wouldn’t be alive. Did he mention anything else?”

  “No. But I suspected that there were other things. When I was pregnant with Jimmy and Sophia, he was very protective, even more than Billy. He always wanted me to be careful driving and if I just needed to go out for some milk or run an errand he would do it.”

  Ava chewed on the inside of her cheek and decided to share with this woman that was so close to Xander, her side of the pain. “When we had the accident, I was a few weeks pregnant. He didn’t handle the news very well at first, but that day he confessed he wanted to be a father. I lost the babies, twins. I can never have children now.”

  Janelle put her hand on Ava’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. He never told me, but now I understand. Did you know he was here or was this a lucky coincidence?”

  “It really was just a coincidence. My cousin and I were on our way up to Montreal for her business. Her car broke down just down the highway. So we are waiting for a part for the car. It should be fixed by tomorrow at about noon time. I told Xander I would stay instead of going with my cousin so we could talk tomorrow.”

  “I have wanted this for him for a long time. I have no idea why he did what he did, but I think he realizes he made a mistake. Just let him talk. He needs to get it out,” Janelle offered.

  “I just hope that we can be together again. It’s what I’ve hoped for a long time.”

  Ava hugged Janelle and thanked her for letting her come into Xander’s apartment. Morally it was wrong, but her curiosity got the best of her. She needed to know how his life was without her and now she knew part of it. Janelle drove her back to the inn.

  She told Rachel about Xander’s place while pacing the room. It made Rachel so crazy that she finally had to demand that she sit down. She needed something to take her mind off him and took out her laptop to study for the bar exam while her cousin napped again.

  Chapter 10

  Xander got into his truck after changing his wet clothes from the morning run and talking with Ava. He had to pick up supplies for the lumberyard. Bill’s eyesight wasn’t the greatest, and with the rain, it was better that Xander make the drive. It was a perfect scenario for him because the long drive would give him time to think about what he would say to Ava.

  Beautiful Ava; he couldn’t get her out of his mind. Her wet clothing had clung to her from the rain. Her body and face had matured since they had dated. He was actually relieved to hear that she had not been with another man sexually. She was his and her body fit him like a glove.

  He didn’t want another man putting his hands on her. It always seemed that he met her when her relationships were new. Though he doubted this one would end like the last one, hoping that he wouldn’t have to fight for her. But he would. He knew that.

  He thought about her during the entire drive to Syracuse, almost missing the exit because his mind was so immersed in her. He couldn’t wait to see her tomorrow. The anticipation of being next to her and inhaling her scent made him crazy. He wished he could have done it today, but he had obligations.

  When Xander was finished packing up the supplies in his truck, it was nearing two o’clock. It was over a two and a half hour drive without traffic. If he hit any weekender traffic, then it would take him much more time to get home. He wanted to see Ava and waiting for tomorrow wasn’t going to work for him. He took the ramp onto I-81 North hoping he wouldn’t hit traffic, but he did.

  By the time he pulled off of onto the Saratoga Springs exit, it was well after six o’clock. He still needed to stop by the lumber yard and unload. That would take him close to an hour or so. He texted Ava. At first, he put “Sweetheart” at the beginning of the text but decided against it. She wasn’t his yet, and she might not like his
previous reference to her.

  Ava, I’m back in Saratoga. Would you like to get together tonight? I know it’s a bit late. I wasn’t sure what you were doing with Rachel. You can say no, but I hope you don’t. Wish you wouldn’t.

  Ava was sitting on her bed in her pajamas studying for the bar exam when her phone alerted her to a text. She read it and looked over at Rachel who was going through some of her notes on the client for tomorrow.

  “What?” Rachel asked when she noticed Ava staring at her.

  Ava handed her the cell phone. Rachel smiled at her.

  “Get dressed. You have been driving me crazy with your nervous energy. You know you want to see him. If you don’t come back tonight, I know it went well.”

  Rachel must have been reading Ava’s mind. But she didn’t think it was a good idea to get involved physically with Xander before they discussed everything. Underneath all the hair and moral façade, she hoped he was still the same man who she was parted from four years ago.

  Come get me. Any idea where you would like to go?

  Ava hurriedly pulled on her clothing, hoping he would take her to his little apartment. She wore a pair of her favorite worn jeans with holes in the knees, pulled on an NYU t-shirt and put her hair up in a ponytail. She had a reason for this. Xander could never resist her neck. He had always nibbled on it and deep down she was hoping that would be the result. She put on mascara, lip gloss and a few dabs of perfume. A quick look in the mirror and a twirl for Rachel told her that this outfit was better than any sexy dress. Xander lived the simple life now, and he wouldn’t want her to come in her fanciest clothes.