by Emma Hart
“Maybe you should find somewhere else to live.” Ava tucked her hair behind her ear. “Stay at Noah’s, like he said. This isn’t going to work anymore.”
Her words twisted my gut. She was right. There was too much push and pull—too much endless back and forth.
“I mean it,” she said, backing up to the door. She reached for the handle behind her back. “It’s not me being a dick. I can’t live with you if it’s like this.”
“Ava—”
“You’re right. I don’t want to be with Butler. I asked him to get dinner because I thought it would make me feel better.” She looked away for a second before she brought her eyes back to mine. “But all it did was make me realize that he’s not you, and as long as you sleep in the room next to mine, I’ll never be able to get over you.”
I took a step toward her.
“No.” She shook her head. “No. Don’t. Don’t kiss me when you don’t mean it.”
I covered my eyes with my hand and dragged it down my face. When I looked back up again, she was gone, and I was alone in the staff room.
I bent down and retrieved the key from the floor, staring at it.
This stupid fucking key. My own was in my pocket, but this shiny, gold one in my hand symbolized so much.
If I gave Ava mine, that was it.
There would be no going back. Any chance of anything with her… It was gone.
Was I a fool for not telling Leo how I felt? Ava terrified me. The way I felt about her was fucking scary, because I knew it would be too easy to fall completely in love with her.
Leo was the safety blanket. He was an excuse. It was easy to use him as the reason why I was holding back from her.
He was my best friend. Her brother. Betrayal, right?
In theory.
In reality… in reality, I was a fucking wimp. I was hiding behind a friendship.
I tucked the key in my pocket and walked back into the bar. Ava was back in place behind it, and she looked up as I passed. Something crossed her face, and she turned away from me, showing me the back of her head instead.
“Are you all right?” Reagan asked when I got back to the table.
“What? Yeah. I’m fine.” I sat down and grabbed my beer. “What’s the score?”
Preston shot me a questioning look. “Twenty-one, three to the Pats.”
I nodded and settled back.
“Did you ask her about Butler?” Leo asked.
“Huh?”
“Ava. Did you ask her about Butler? Are they dating again?”
“No. They’re not.” I tapped my fingers against the table, frowning.
“Are you all right?” Leo leaned forward. “You’re acting weird.”
“Really weird.” Halley tilted her head to the side, and her eyes widened like she could read my mind.
Fuck it.
I was going to tell him.
Right now.
“I need to tell you something.” I looked at Leo.
“Oh no,” Reagan muttered.
Leo sent a weird look her way before turning back to me. “What’s up?”
“I kissed your sister.”
Everyone at the table froze.
“A few days ago,” I continued. “I stole one of every sock she owns like you suggested. We had a fight. We kissed. That’s it.” I shrugged, holding out my hands.
Leo stared at me for a long moment. I had no idea what he was thinking, and I was ready for the fist to my nose.
It didn’t come.
Instead, he snorted. “Well, it’s about fucking time, ain’t it?”
It was my turn to still, where the girls both jerked in shock. “What?”
“It’s about fucking time,” Leo repeated. “God knows she’s mooned over you for years for some godforsaken reason. It’s about time you realized you felt the same.”
“I didn’t say anything about feelings.”
“You don’t have to. It’s written all over your face.” He smirked, glancing toward the bar. “Is that why she keeps looking over here like she’s plotting your murder?”
“As a rule, that’s how she looks at him anyway,” Reagan piped up. “But she still doesn’t have her socks back.”
“Jesus, she wears odd socks anyway. She hasn’t looked that hard for them, because they’re in her fucking closet.” I finished my beer. “Unlike the insoles of my shoes, which appear to have grown legs.”
“They’re in the trunk of her car,” Preston answered. “I ran into her in the grocery store’s parking lot and saw them.”
“Son of a bitch.” I sighed.
Leo laughed, sitting right back. “What are you gonna do now?”
“Grovel,” Halley suggested brightly. “Because he’s on her shit list.”
“Thank you for that,” I muttered.
“You’re welcome.”
“What did you do?” Leo asked, still smiling.
“Told her we couldn’t be together because of you,” I answered. “Nothing major.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “You both thought I’d be pissed off?”
“I was expecting you to punch me.” I scratched the side of my neck. “Still waiting.”
“I’ll punch you if you want me to.”
“Don’t get carried away.”
Noah chuckled. “Let me guess, we’re now on a group mission to get Ethan back in Ava’s good books.”
“No.” Leo shook his head. “But Reagan and Halley are gonna tell her I know without me even asking them, so that helps.”
“Hey!” Reagan knocked her fist against the table. “We can keep a secret. We didn’t tell you they made out like a couple of horny teens.”
“Thanks, Reagan,” I said dryly.
“You’re welcome.” She gave me the same bright smile Halley had. “What are friends for?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN – AVA
Cat Amongst The Hedgehogs
“Leo knows you kissed Ethan.”
The glass in my hand slipped from my grip and shattered on the floor. “What?”
Reagan nodded, backing up Halley’s words. “Ethan just told him.”
“What? Why would he do that? What—” I paused and took a deep breath. This was not how I’d expected the end of my shift to go.
I grabbed a dustpan and brush and swept up the mess I’d made.
“Start from the beginning,” I demanded. “Did you force him into it?”
“I take offense at that.” Reagan swept her hair around one side of her neck. “We are totally innocent. For once.”
Yeah, right.
“It’s true,” Halley said. “He came back from getting his key—did he even need it?”
“Probably not,” I answered.
“Right. Well, he came back and he was in a weird mood. Spaced out.”
Reagan nodded. “Leo asked if he’d asked you about Butler.”
“Ugh.”
“Indeed,” she mused. “And when he said that you weren’t seeing him again, he suddenly told Leo he had something to tell him.”
“Okay… And he just said it?”
“Pretty much.” Halley leaned over the bar.
“Oh, God.” I buried my face in my hands. “Why did he do that? He’s spent the last few days telling me that nothing can happen because he can never tell Leo. Why would he do that, if only to tell him?”
“I think you seeing Butler made him shit his pants.” Reagan grinned. “Nice move.”
“I didn’t—whatever.” I shook my head. “What did Leo say?”
“Ooh, this is the good bit!” She clapped her hands together. “He said it was about fucking time.”
Come again?
“What? Say that again.”
“He said it was about fucking time,” Halley repeated. “Looks like he knew you had feelings for Ethan and that Ethan was slow on the uptake.”
“But how?”
Reagan shrugged. “You just know this time. It was me who figured out both Halley and Preston had feelings
for each other before they told me. I’m close to them both, so it’s not that crazy that I’d notice it. That’s probably what happened with Leo. You said Angelica knew that Leo had feelings for you. Siblings know stuff.”
Halley grimaced. “Yeah, that was fun when you told me.”
I remembered that conversation. It was fun. “So what now? Leo’s okay with it? Ethan’s suddenly going to change his mind?” I shook my head. “It’s not going to happen. He only told him because I was with Butler. I was right. He doesn’t want me, but nobody else can have me, either.”
They shared a look.
“Actually,” Halley said slowly, “I think he does want to be with you. His loyalty to Leo meant he thought he was doing what was right. It was weird for me at first, too, and Reagan knew how I felt about Preston. Like, what if we break up? How that would affect our friendship was a huge thing for me. I didn’t want to put her in a position that meant she’d have to choose.”
“Right,” Reagan agreed. “But it doesn’t matter, because if they break up, it’s going to be Preston’s fault anyway.”
That was probably true.
“How does that relate to me and Ethan?” I looked between them. “It’s more than just that. I don’t even know if he’s going to stay in town. He never stays anywhere for long.”
“He did what he thought was right by his best friend. Ultimately, his first loyalty lay with Leo. They’ve lived and traveled together for years,” Halley said. “Whatever you said to him earlier obviously made him realize that he can either keep that loyalty to Leo and be miserable, or he can take the risk of breaking it to potentially be happy with you.”
My lips were dry, and I ran my tongue over them a few times. “It didn’t need to take this long.”
“Devil’s advocate,” Reagan started. “You didn’t tell Leo either. It’s not all on him, no matter how much easier it is for you to believe.”
I went to respond but couldn’t. She was right. As easy as it was to blame Ethan for it, I hadn’t told Leo how I felt. Maybe if I’d outright admitted it, none of this would have happened.
I sighed, sagging against the bar. “You’re right.”
“Wow. I didn’t think you’d admit it.”
Halley elbowed her. “Neither of you have handled it well. He’s played it safe, and you’ve let your temper get the best of you. Leo wants to talk to you after work, but Ethan just went home.”
I rubbed my hands down my face. “Okay. I guess we have to figure it out at some point.”
“Yep. Oh, and your socks are in your closet.”
“Son of a bitch.”
***
“Want a ride home?” I jingled my keys.
Leo grinned. “I was hoping you’d ask. Come on.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me. “We need to talk, huh?”
“So I’ve been told.”
We stepped out into the darkness. I scanned the parking lot for signs of anyone slumped over, but thankfully, that woman appeared to have been an isolated incident.
Thank God.
“I don’t care, you know,” Leo said, stopping under one of the streetlights. “I’ve known for ages that you had feelings for him. It was the only explanation for why you hated him so much.”
I swallowed, looking down at my feet. “It was easier to fight him than anything else.”
“I know. I just wish you would have been honest with me, Aves. All this shit could have been prevented if you’d just told me.”
“I didn’t know what to say,” I said softly. “He was adamant that you couldn’t know we’d kissed and that it couldn’t happen again, but…”
“But you kept on coming back to it.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“And tonight it broke down because you went out with Butler.”
“We had a huge fight last night.” I tucked hair behind my ear and shrugged. “He stayed at Noah’s two nights ago, and we kind of made up yesterday over food.”
Leo’s lips twitched.
“Then he texted me, and we had a huge argument, and I just gave up,” I admitted sadly. “I knew it would never happen because of you.”
Leo laughed, shaking his head. “Jesus, you two are fucking idiots. More than I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ava, I lied. I don’t have a one-bedroom apartment.” His eyes twinkled. “I have a two-bed place. I knew Ethan had feelings for you. I knew you needed a roommate. I deliberately said I only had one bedroom to see if you’d finally get over yourselves.”
My jaw dropped. “What the hell?” I shoved at him. “This is all your fault!”
“Yeah.” He grinned.
“Don’t look so happy about it, asshole!”
He put his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. “I didn’t think I’d be such a big issue. I figured you at least would tell me what had happened. Obviously, I underestimated Ethan.”
“All of this could have been avoided. Oh, my God.” I ran my hand through my hair and unlocked the car. “I can’t believe this.”
Leo shrugged as he got in. “I didn’t expect you both to be so stubborn about it. I definitely didn’t expect you to start a war where you steal each other’s shit.”
That made two of us.
I put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking bay, then turned in the direction of his apartment. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Go home, Ava. Go back to the apartment and talk to him. It’s not too late for you two to fix this. If I wasn’t involved, you’d already be dating.”
“Does he know you basically orchestrated this?”
“No. Tell him I’m going to the gym in the morning if he wants to spar with me there, but I’ve got a date tomorrow night, so no black eyes.” Leo grinned across the car.
I sighed. “That poor woman.”
He laughed. A few minutes later, I pulled up alongside the front of his building and put the car into park.
“Know what you’re gonna say to him?” Leo asked.
I shook my head. “I have no idea. I’ll figure it out. I think.”
He leaned over and kissed the side of my head. “For what it’s worth, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see you be with.”
I smiled. “Night, Leo.”
“See you later, Aves.” He got out of the car and waved, then disappeared inside the building.
I pulled away from the side of the road and did an illegal U-turn to go back toward the bar. Nobody was around since it was late, and even if they were…
Well, we’d all done it.
My mind whirred as I drove. This whole situation was all kinds of fucked up. I was still struggling to see how my relationship with Ethan had changed so drastically, and now knowing that my brother was a part of it…
I was angry.
That was it. I was angry. I was angry that Leo had tricked us into living together. I was angry that he knew we had feelings for each other. I was angry that both of us had made the decision not to tell Leo. I was angry that it’d caused all this upheaval.
One little misunderstanding. Miscommunications. My brother thinking he’s a smartass.
If everyone involved had just been a little more honest, me included, this would have been a much smoother ride.
Now, I didn’t know what would happen. The only good thing to really come out of this was that I knew where my socks were.
It really was the little things.
I pulled into my parking space and shut off the engine. It was completely silent now, and I closed my eyes for a second to savor it.
I had no idea what I would be walking into when I went upstairs.
I couldn’t get upstairs.
It was now past eleven, which meant the door was locked, and Ethan had taken my key.
God freaking damn it.
I pulled my phone out of my purse and texted him.
ME: Are you awake?
Thankfully, he replied quickly.
ETHAN: Yes.
<
br /> ME: The door is locked. I need you to buzz me in.
ETHAN: Now?
ME: Like 1 minute.
ETHAN: Ok. I’ll unlock the apartment door.
ME: Thanks.
I got out of the car, dragging my purse after me. I locked it and headed for the door which, thankfully, he had unlocked.
It didn’t take me long to walk up the stairs to the apartment. He’d kept his word there, too. The door was unlocked, and I let myself in. My key was in the door, so after locking it behind me, I took a moment to reattach it to my keychain.
That was better.
The apartment was empty. A gentle humming noise, like a muffled TV show, was coming from Ethan’s room.
He was awake.
In his room.
I hesitated.
We had to talk. There were no two ways about it, and honestly, I wanted to talk to him. I was tired of the misunderstandings. I was tired of the miscommunication.
We owed it to each other and to ourselves to get this situation all cleared up.
I kicked off my shoes before I padded across the apartment to his room. Squeezing my eyes shut, I knocked lightly three times and waited.
“It’s open,” Ethan said after a second.
I pushed it open and poked my head in. He was lying on his bed, shirtless, wearing nothing but his boxers, and his laptop was resting on his nightstand.
“Can we talk?” My voice was soft.
He shut the laptop and nodded. “Want me to put some clothes on?”
No.
Not really.
“It’s fine. If I feel too dressed up, I’ll just take my pants off, too.”
“I’d be okay with that.”
I dragged my lower lip between my teeth, fighting a smile.
He didn’t bother fighting his. He sat up and patted the bed for me to take a seat. “We have to talk, so let’s get it over with.”
I perched on the edge of his bed. “You told Leo.”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Good question.” He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. “The idea of you getting back together with Butler—even that you considered it—made me realize I had to take that chance. The worst thing that could have happened was that he’d be fucking furious, and I’d promise not to date you, and it’s not like you and I are in a good place right now anyway, so it couldn’t get much worse.”