Family Bonds- Ava and Seth (Amore Island Book 5)

by Natalie Ann

  Ava stuck her hand out and touched Adele. “But you’re sticky. Feel my arm. I’m the same way. I need to shower too. If we don’t then things will stick to us and people will look at us funny.”

  “What will stick to us?” Adele asked.

  “If a feather is falling off a bird when we are outside and it lands on us, that will stick to our skin.” She walked over and got a tissue. “A napkin might like this.”

  Adele laughed when the tissue was almost glued to her arm. “That’s funny.”

  Seth pulled it off her arm and showed it to her. “And it’s gross. See that?”

  Adele made a funny face. “What is it?”

  “Oil and dirt and grease. Do you want that all over your clothes when we get changed to go out?”

  “No,” Adele said running upstairs. “I’ll get my clothes now and then go shower.”

  “Sorry if I was out of line or overstepped myself there. I thought it might help.”

  “It did,” he said. “No apology needed. I guess that is another difference we’ve got other than shopping or fashion styles. I would have just told her she had no choice and to do it. She would have stomped her foot and crossed her arms, maybe gotten a nice little lecture or the loss of something if she continued.”

  “So I stopped a fight,” she said.

  “We don’t fight. She knows I’m the boss in the house. She gets away with a lot, but there are some things that aren’t negotiable. Not everyone can win every single time.”

  “No,” she said. “They can’t. You’re doing a good job with her.”

  “And you did well just now too. I wouldn’t have thought to try to reason with her.”

  “Because as you said, you’re her father and you’re the boss. But even the boss doesn’t always handle things the best way.”

  He frowned at her. “Are you questioning my parenting?”

  “Oh boy. No.” Wasn’t this what her father lectured her on weeks ago? That she had to walk a fine line with the father daughter relationship. “You’re a great father. Better than most I’ve seen, trust me. I meant that there were plenty of times my father thought he knew the best way to handle something and my mother had to step in and deal with it. Or vice versa.”

  “I haven’t had that luxury for years,” he said.

  “Daddy, I’m getting in the shower,” Adele yelled from the top of the stairs, then ran away.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it,” Ava said. “Why don’t you go take a shower and then I’ll clean up after you.”

  “Come on up with me. Are you washing your hair?”

  “No. It will take too long. It got blown around, but I can brush it and put it back.”

  “Adele will be in there twenty minutes easily. What do you say we hop into my shower together fast?”

  “That might be risky, but I’m all for it.”

  “Consider it a tease for when we’ve got time later.”

  They ran up the stairs as fast as Adele had moved, both of them stripping on the way from his bedroom to the bathroom after they’d shut and locked the door. Ava’s bag with clothes was already in Seth’s room so she wouldn’t have to go far to get clean clothes.

  They both hopped in once the water was on. Seth under the spray, her in the back of the shower. It was hitting Seth’s shoulders and butt, the two of them facing each other. He reached and pulled her in, rubbing their naked bodies together for a minute.

  “You better watch it or we won’t want to get out of here. This might have been a mistake.”

  “I’m thinking the same thing.” He moved to the back. “You wash up fast, then get out and get dressed, then I’ll finish up.”

  She wondered if he was getting cold feet over this but then he lowered his mouth to hers, his tongue sliding in and playing. His hand trailed over her perky nipple then down between her legs, slipping in and stroking the length of her, then stepping back further.

  “I’ll watch. That will hold me over.”

  “Gee, thanks,” she said. “Now that you worked me up.”

  “Look down and tell me who is worked up.”

  She didn’t need to because she’d felt it against her. “True. I can hide it better.”

  She reached for the soap and lathered up and then rinsed off. He was already turning the water down before she could get out. “I might be in here a bit longer until I can calm down. Hoping the cool water helps.”

  “It was your idea,” she said when she was drying off with a towel, the two of them talking through the glass door. She could have stood there and watched him too, but knew they might be playing with fire.

  She went back to Seth’s room, pulled her clothes out and then got dressed. She heard the water still running in the shower, so she grabbed her brush and took care of her hair and then pulled it in a ponytail. It was good enough and went well with her shorts and T-shirt and sandals. They weren’t going anywhere fancy anyway.

  When she got in the hall she didn’t hear the water running in Adele’s bathroom and knew the little girl was out and should be opening the door soon, so she dashed down the stairs and went to the kitchen to get a drink.

  She heard feet pounding down the stairs a minute later and Adele come into the kitchen. “There you are. Where is Daddy?”

  “He’s in the shower.”

  “Do you need to use my bathroom?” Adele asked. She had a brush in her hand and her hair was wet and hanging down. It was at least towel dried which was pretty good for six years old.

  “No. I took a shower in your father’s while you were in yours so we could get ready faster,” she said. It’s not like it was a lie.

  “Oh,” Adele said. “Okay. Can you put two braids in my hair for me?”

  “I sure can,” she said, knowing that Seth might still be in the bathroom for a while. She needed the distraction herself from the short time they were teasing each other under the water. She sure hoped that Adele went to bed early tonight and slept through the night.

  “Sorry I was in there so long,” Seth said almost ten minutes later.

  “It’s fine, Daddy,” Adele said. “Ava is doing my hair.”

  “Almost done,” she said, then looked over to see him grinning at her. She winked back and finished up with Adele’s second braid. “Are we ready to get some dinner?”

  “I’m starving,” Adele said. “I want spaghetti and meatballs.”

  “Guess we are going somewhere Italian then,” Seth said.

  “I’m not fussy, but I am hungry.”

  They went outside and Ava walked to her car, Adele stopping them and saying, “Why do you have to drive by yourself?”

  “Because I might get a call to go deliver a baby and if I do, I don’t want you and your father to have to leave too. This way we both have our cars.”

  “Do you deliver a lot of babies?” Adele asked.

  “Not that many on the island, but I did a lot before I moved here. But it’s not all that I do,” she said. No reason to go into the fact that she did hysterectomies and removed cysts too along with other things. The little girl would have no clue what any of that meant, nor did she need to.

  “Hopefully you don’t have to deliver any tonight,” Adele said.

  “Babies take time to come, so I normally have some leeway.”

  She wanted to change the topic but wasn’t sure how. “Get in the car, Adele,” Seth said shaking his head. “Stop gabbing since you said you were hungry.”

  Guess that was one good way to do it.

  The three of them were seated twenty minutes later with their dinners ordered and talking when Seth’s name was called.

  Ava looked over and saw the woman coming toward them, but she didn’t recognize her. Not that she thought she’d recognize everyone on this island.

  Seth looked a bit uncomfortable but said, “Hi, Michaela.”

  Oh, the ex-girlfriend. She glanced up again at the woman to check her out. The one that wanted Seth but not Adele by the sounds of things. She was t
aller than Ava, dirty blonde hair. She might be younger, but it was hard to tell.

  “I haven’t seen you around in a while. So is this your daughter? Adele, right?”

  “Yes,” Seth said. “Adele, this is Michaela. And this is Ava Mills.”

  He didn’t use her title and she was very happy with that. She didn’t like to be introduced like that when she was dating someone. Almost like they were showing off.

  “Hi,” Adele said. “Ava and my daddy are boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  “Are they now?” Michaela asked. She could see the woman had a smirk on her face, like she wanted to add the relationship that Seth and she might have had.

  Seth cut her off. “Michaela is a friend, Adele. Are you here by yourself?”

  “No. I’m with my sister. She came to the island for the weekend and we were getting a bite to eat. Funny running into you here though.”

  “Yeah,” Seth said. “It was good seeing you. Oh, here’s our dinner.”

  Michaela looked as if she was going to say something else, but the server had to move in closer to set everything down, forcing Michaela to step away.

  Seth was fast to put his head down and start eating, but Ava knew this would come up later with him.

  28

  The Right Decision

  Of all the rotten luck.

  He hadn’t run into Michaela once since they’d split over a year ago and she had to be in the same restaurant as him not only with Adele but Ava too.

  He could see the moment of recognition on Ava’s face at who Michaela was and when his current girlfriend looked his old one over.

  That didn’t bother him that much. What upset him more was that if the food didn’t come out when it did, he was positive Michaela was going to tell Adele that she’d been her father’s girlfriend too.

  When the two of them split, Michaela had been pissed. Not hurt. Not upset. Not even teary eyed.

  Livid. She acted like she didn’t understand why Seth was ending things even though he’d been very clear and upfront that it wasn’t working out for him, but she didn’t care.

  When he found out later through his mother that she’d been telling friends and making plans for the future, he realized he’d made the right decision.

  And the fact that he hadn’t seen her again even though her mother was an acquaintance of his mother had been a boon.

  When they got back to his place he was starting to get one hell of a headache. Not just from Michaela’s visit but Adele’s nonstop chatter. Of course his daughter would have to announce his and Ava’s relationship to Michaela when she hadn’t done it to anyone else they’d run into.

  “Everything okay?” Ava asked when Adele ran to her room to get a board game for the three of them to play.

  “Yeah. Just getting some aspirin.”

  She reached over and patted his arm. “Don’t worry about your ex.”

  “I figured you knew who it was.”

  “Even if I didn’t recognize the name, I’m smart enough to figure it out by the venom in her eyes.”

  “Yeah. The food coming out stopped her from saying she was my ex to Adele. I don’t know what I saw in someone who would do that to a kid.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ve all had people like that in our past that we wondered what we saw in them. Move on from it. I’m not bothered. You should feel lucky that we haven’t run into too many of my relatives when we’ve been out. Normally I can’t go anywhere without seeing one of them or a patient.”

  He thought for a minute and realized that they hadn’t been out often, but the few times they were, no one had ever bothered them before. “I normally get stopped or recognized too and haven’t. Must be our luck finally ran out.”

  “Don’t worry either way,” she said again.

  “I’m back,” Adele said. “I got Sorry to play.”

  “Seems appropriate for today.”

  Ava bumped her shoulder into his and then let out a little laugh and turned to follow his daughter into the living room.

  “Stop,” she said, laughing. He was glad Ava was taking this so well at least.

  Two hours later, a bowl of popcorn, and two more board games, Adele was finally ready to concede it was time for bed.

  “I guess I’m tired,” his daughter said rubbing her eyes.

  “It’s been a long day. You never sat still at the beach and the sun will tire you out too,” he said. “Do you need a story?”

  “Can Ava read it to me?” Adele asked.

  “I’d love too,” Ava said. “Why don’t you go get ready and I’ll clean up down here and then come up when you’re in bed.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” he said.

  “Please. It’s the least I can do. Go.”

  He followed Adele up the stairs and then went into her room to turn the bed down and get her pajamas while she brushed her teeth and went to the bathroom. Once she was all set and tucked in he gave his daughter a kiss on the head. “I’ll go get Ava for your story.”

  “I had a lot of fun today, Daddy.”

  “Me too,” he said, running his hand over her hair. It was still tight in the braids and Adele wanted to keep them in.

  “I wish we could do this every weekend.”

  He smiled and found himself almost slipping that he wished they could too.

  When he went back downstairs, he found Ava in the kitchen. All the dishes in the dishwasher and her looking at the buttons. “I’m trying to figure out how to turn it on.”

  He smiled softly. It should trigger a bad memory, but it didn’t. Not at all. It just went to show him that he could find someone else out there that fit in his and his daughter’s world.

  Once he pressed the buttons, he pulled her in for a quick hug. “Thanks. She’s waiting for you.”

  “And are you waiting for me too?”

  “I will be. Not patiently either.”

  “Same here. I’ve been watching the clock and counting it down. It’s hard to believe we’ve only had one night together so far.”

  “Is it not enough time for you?”

  “I’m not sure I can get enough of you,” she said playfully. “But I know we do what we can and fit it in. It’s all good. Don’t worry.”

  He was trying not to. So far Ava had given no indication that they weren’t spending enough time together and he had to stop worrying about everything.

  When she came down thirty minutes later, he was flipping through the channels on the TV trying to find anything to watch but nothing was keeping his attention.

  “Is she settled?” he asked.

  “She was sleeping before I finished the book. I’m not sure of your routine with the door.”

  He smiled while she sat down next to him and snuggled under his arm. “I leave it open. There is a light in the hallway in case she gets up to use the bathroom, but she hardly ever does. She sleeps solid right through.”

  “I did leave it open, not fully, just halfway.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll go check in on her in a few minutes. Maybe we can sit here and makeout like teens first. Get ourselves nice and warmed up.”

  Her hand went to his thigh and she ran her fingers up and down, sliding under the hem of his shorts. “I don’t think I need much to get warmed up. How about you?”

  “If you move your hand up any further you’ll find out how little I need,” he said.

  His head lowered and captured her lips, his hands going into her hair and loosening the ponytail until it was falling down around her shoulders and he had a firm grip on her head.

  He was leaning over her until she went backwards on the couch, him on top of her. They were grinding their hips against each other and he felt like a teen that was trying to rush so he didn’t get caught.

  When her leg went up and her bare foot started to rub up and down the back of his leg, he knew they were going to have to go upstairs soon.

  “Let me make sure Adele is settled for the night,” he said. “Why don’t you go to my
room?”

  They got up together. He’d already locked the door and the rest of the house and set the alarm when Ava was reading to Adele. He’d leave the light on in the living room for now though.

  Adele was out so deeply she was actually drooling on her pillow. He left her door half opened like Ava had done. He’d done that before, so it wouldn’t seem odd, then he made his way down the hall to his room. Thankfully Adele had picked her room first when they came here and it was the furthest from his. He’d wanted to talk her out of it but was glad he didn’t in the long run.

  He shut his bedroom door quietly and locked it. “Come here,” he said. She stood up from where she was sitting on his bed and went into his arms to be held. “I’m not sure how long I can hold off. The shower earlier was fun but probably not smart.”

  “Not being smart is the fun of everything when it comes to being flirty though,” she said.

  He supposed she was right.

  He reached his hands down and pulled her shirt up and over her head. “You really looked hot in your bikini earlier. I was afraid I was going to have to roll my tongue back in my mouth and my daughter would want to know why I was panting like a dog.”

  “I’m glad you liked it. I’ve only got two and the other one I don’t like that much so I didn’t have a lot to choose from. I don’t get a lot of time in life to put a suit on.”

  “I don’t want to talk about bathing suits or anything else unless it’s what we are going to do to each other.”

  “Sounds like my type of conversation,” she said. She took his shirt off too and then reached for his shorts, undid them and dropped it all down. “Get on the bed on your back. You’ve had a hard tiring day and I think it’s time you sit back and relax. Let me do all the work.”

  “If you insist,” he said, getting on the bed.

  “Oh, I do. I really, really do.” She finished taking off the rest of her clothes. “Condom in here?” she asked, opening the drawer.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  She opened it up and found the box, then took one out and laid it next to him on the pillow. She climbed on top of him, her knees on each side of his hips. “On second thought,” she said grabbing for the condom and opening it up, then sliding it on him. “I was going to play, but decided to get right to work.”