“Is that a thing that still happens?” I asked.
“Apparently so,” she said. “My parents expect me to marry young and have children and make a home for a man to come back to. I stopped going on their blind dates they were setting me up on, so they gave my hand away to the next man they thought would be good for me.”
“A man twice your age,” I said.
“Yeah. Comes from a well-off family. My mother said he would make a wonderful provider for the children I would raise, and it made me sick. When I argued with them, things got rough, and I was told I could either follow along with their plans or continue to go on the blind dates.”
“So naturally, you ran,” I said.
“Look, you might live up here in your cabin away from the world, but down there money doesn’t make everything better. We live in the twenty-first century, yet I’m expected to operate as if we still live in the stone ages. Where women are property and marriage are a business transaction. And you know what? Dating in high school wasn’t really an option. I’ve got three overprotective older brothers that were ready to beat the shit out of any boy who looked at me funny.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“You should be. Judging me the way you are.”
“I wasn’t judging you,” I said.
“Well, it felt like you were. You wanna know what I think it is?” she asked.
“What?”
“I think my parents are tired of supporting me. I can’t work a job, but they’re tired of paying my bills. They don’t think it’s appropriate for a woman to be working, so they’re marrying me off so I’m someone else’s problem. Even though I’m a problem they willingly created. And against my will, at that!”
“Have you ever thought about college?” I asked.
“What?”
“It seems like you don’t have a plan for when you get to California. Have you thought about college?” I asked.
“Of course I have a plan for when I get to California. I’m going to start my own business helping women like myself get away from families like the one I grew up in.”
“Is that a sustainable business?”
Ava’s eyes shot up to mine as I leaned against her car.
“What?” she asked.
“Is that a sustainable business? Would you have enough clientele to keep yourself afloat?” I asked.
“What do you know about business?” she asked.
“More than you think. I know the first rule of thumb is to provide something to the public that they need.”
“Women like me need resources to escape the lives they were bred in,” she said.
“Then the next question you need to ask yourself is this: is there a big enough market for what you’re selling?”
The blank stare on her face told me she hadn’t thought any of this through. And I felt bad for her. I really did. She was a product of a family that had failed her, and the more she talked about them, the more I knew it was that same Lucas family. They were born out of Seattle but owned half of Kettle as well as other smaller areas of the Washington State area. Our families weren’t really rivals, but they were a family that had been putting bids in to buy the rest of the Kettle area. They got ruthless there for a while, trying to dig up dirt on my family and blast us in the media. They tried to rally the town around them in order to force us to sell.
But the strongarmed tactics didn’t work with my father and they finally backed down.
Her family had been one of the several we had battled against for this land over the years. And with the way it sounded like the Lucas family operated, Ava probably had no idea who I was. She probably had no idea that she was looking at the son of the man her father tried to bury with lies, deceit, and dirt. Her helpless stance on life was born from her family’s own helpless disposition and anger, and she was scrambling. I could tell Ava didn’t want the life her family had set out for her to have, but she hadn’t been raised with the tools to create a life of her own.
She packed up her shit, left, and hoped she could learn things along the way.
It took a great deal of confidence and courage to pull some shit like that. And part of me admired her for it.
“No,” she said. “I haven’t thought about college yet.”
I suppressed the grin trying to grow across my cheeks as she backtracked into the cabin. I felt sorry for her and the position she had found herself in because of her family, but she had a fire in her that drew me in. She came from a wealthy family, but wanted nothing to do with it. She knew what it was like to have money and she was willing to leave all of it to start a life of her own. A life she could be proud of and smile at whenever she got up in the morning.
In some ways, Ava Lucas was stronger than I had ever been.
Funny how tables easily turned like that.
Five
Ava
I walked back into the cabin and sat down on the couch. College? Was that something I could do with my life? I hadn’t had the option growing up. I graduated high school and immediately delved into the role my family expected me to have. Society-wide parties and formal functions. Winter and spring balls with gowns that sparkled and flowed. Sliding into the life my parents wanted for me was easier than trying to get them to understand that I had other plans for my life.
At least, it was easier for a while.
Once they started setting me up on blind dates, however, my tune changed. I found out they expected me to marry. I figured out I wasn’t going to be able to wait out their insane familial views or outgrow their needs for my life. They were determined to push me into their lifestyle one way or another. So, I started to rebel. Telling them things I wanted and didn’t want, even though it incurred the wrath and anger of my father. That was when the name-calling started. Things like “embarrassment” and “selfish.” “Bratty” and “vulgar.” Like I had cursed the entire family and had resolved myself to a life of dancing in a cage in some club.
But all I wanted was to make my own decisions for my own life. And that didn’t fit in with my father’s plan.
But college? Who the hell did this Travis person think he was? Did he think he was going to fix my car and just start throwing around his own expectations for my life? The last thing I needed was someone else telling me what they thought I should do with my life. This was my life. It was my heart that beat in my chest and my thoughts that ran through my head. Even if I had wanted to attend college at one point, now I had other plans.
Plans that required me to be in California.
My phone rang in my pocket and it caught me off guard. With the amount of rainwater that drenched my body last night, I expected my phone to be dead. But there it was, vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw it my father’s name on the screen, so I ignored it. Then my mother called, and I ignored it again.
My brothers called, my aunts called, and even a few of my cousins called. Everyone tried to get in touch with me. Travis was outside doing hell-knew-what with my car. I sat in a cabin that was just as foreign as the mountains around me, and the one thing I tried to escape was ringing through on my phone that, somehow, still worked.
Fucking great.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Ava Laura Lucas. Where the hell are you?”
“Nice to hear from you, too, Father,” I said.
“Where in the world did you get off to? Your mother and I have been worried sick.”
“Just stayed at a friend’s house last night,” I said. “Nothing major.”
“Cassie? Did you stay with her? I hope she was able to talk some sense into you. Storming out of here the way you did was in complete disregard for your mother and I. Get your ass in the car and get home.”
I heard the cabin door open and I looked over to see what was going on. Travis walked through the house with the grease of my car on his fingers. I studied his frame, taking in his broad shoulders and his strong arms. His amber eyes were downcast, trying to scrape the gunk from underneath h
is spindly fingernails. My eyes roamed his back, my body turning on the couch to follow him toward the kitchen sink.
He had the most beautiful ass in the jeans he wore.
“Ava? Are you even listening me to?” my father asked.
“Yes, sir. Sorry. What was that?” I asked.
“See? This is why your mother and I can’t find you a proper suitor. A man isn’t going to want you trailing off into your own hapless mind while he’s addressing his wife.”
“Then he should probably talk about something important or intriguing,” I said.
I watched as Travis turned around. He locked his eyes with me as he ran a rag over his hands. I quickly turned around and sat back down into his couch, but I could feel his eyes on me. Judging me. Wondering what move I would make next. I listened to my father drone on and on about my duties and responsibilities and how I needed to grow up, screw my head on straight, and get my ass home.
“You have your date with Timothy Wells tomorrow. Get home so your mother can pick out a dress for you,” my father said.
“Ah, the banker. He hasn’t backed out of the deal yet?” I asked.
“Get home, Ava. These childish antics have gone on long enough. You are twenty-two years old. It’s time you started acting like it.”
“Most twenty-two-year olds are still drinking in bars with their friends while getting their college degrees,” I said.
“Enough! Get home or I will come find you.”
My skin tingled at his threat. The last time my father had to retrieve me from somewhere, he made it a public spectacle. Chastised me in public and dragged me out of Cassie’s by my arm. I had fled to her house the first time my parents tried to marry me off. I ran to her house and stayed for the weekend, and when I refused to come home my father drove over, yanked me out of the house by my arm, and forbid me to leave the house for the rest of the month. If I wanted visitors, they came over, and the only place we were allowed was the sitting room.
But if he went to Cassie’s this time and found I wasn’t there, I knew I would suffer worse.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be home shortly.”
“It’s about time you started obeying. No husband of yours is going to want to chase behind you whenever you run because things get tough,” my father said.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “Understood.”
I hung up the phone and sighed. I had all my stuff in my car. What was keeping me from just going on to California? It was obvious my parents hadn’t looked for me enough to see that most of my stuff was missing from my closet, so what the hell did they care? My father was a control freak, and I knew he would stop at nothing to shove me into the mold he’d created for my life. And if I ran to California while he was in tracking mode, he would stop at nothing until I was back within his grasp.
What the hell was I thinking? That I could just run away and my family would forget about me? I was the only daughter. My father’s prized possession. It was my legacy to be the most graceful, most beautiful, and most appetizing woman on the planet. That was what people expected of Harold Lucas’ only daughter, and that was what my father was determined to give them.
I closed my eyes as Travis’s voice hit my ears.
“You know you don’t have to go back.”
I snickered and shook my head.
“And what would you know about that?” I asked.
“Do you love him?” he asked.
“Do I love some banker who’s twice my age and allergic to dust mites? Hardly,” I said.
“Then you shouldn’t go back.”
“It’s not that easy,” I said.
“Running away was that easy.”
“Until my father begins to track me down. He won’t stop until I’m home,” I said.
“It’s not your responsibility to marry that guy. Or to date, for that matter.”
“Tell that to my father,” I said, snickering.
“Okay. Hand me your phone.”
I turned around and looked at Travis leaning against the kitchen counter. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes were stern against mine. He frowned underneath the thick beard that covered his face and his flannel shirt was riddled with oil. But he stood tall and strong. Proud and confident.
My ears warmed as my eyes raked up and down his body.
“It took a lot of guts to do what you did,” Travis said. “Packing all your stuff and running away. You don’t have the tools necessary to figure out what you’re doing, but you’re determined to do it anyway.”
“I most certainly am capable of creating a life for myself,” I said.
“That’s not what I said. You don’t have the tools to create your own business. I never said anything about a life of your own. That you can do. But you have to face your family head-on to do it.”
“Wonderful observation, Sherlock. Got anything else for me?” I asked.
“If you don’t want their life, don’t go back,” he said.
“Easier said than done.”
“And you’ve already done the hardest part. Just get in your car and keep going toward California. That was your goal, right?”
“You don’t understand my father. The last time he came and got me, he dragged me out of my friend’s house by my arm, publicly chastised me for her entire neighborhood to hear, then relegated me to the sitting room for the rest of the month. It’s an adult version of being grounded, for fuck’s sake,” I said.
“He only has the power over you that you give him,” he said.
“Thank you, Ghandi.”
I watched Travis shake his head as he turned back toward the sink. I sank down into the couch, closing my eyes so I could calm my heart. I had no other choice. Whatever choice I thought I had was ripped from me the moment my father called on the phone. In my mind, my plan worked if they didn’t exist.
But in my reality, my plan would never work. Because no matter where I ran, my father would always find me.
Six
Travis
I wasn’t going to stand there and act like I knew what she was going through, but it was bullshit. Her family sounded like something out of some old English textbook. Marrying her off for practical purposes? Not allowing her to live her life? Keeping her uneducated? It was practically primal, in this day and age, to treat someone like that. And she had spunk. A spark that would take her far if her family simply allowed her to unleash it. Ava could turn that fucking spark into a forest fire, scorching everything in her path in order to create room for new life. All she needed was someone to give her the tools to work with. Someone to believe in her and root her on in her dreams.
But instead, her family was hellbent on holding her back.
I didn’t know why it made me sick to watch her get off the couch, but it did. She grabbed a plastic bag that had her clothes from yesterday in it and made her way for the door. I threw my rag in the kitchen sink as I watched her open the door, then she turned toward me with her hazel eyes and nodded her head.
“Thanks for saving me,” she said. “I would’ve died in that car had it not been for you.”
“Stay out of thunderstorms,” I said. “And try to keep your head above water.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she said with a snicker.
I knew my advice was pathetic and filled with nothing but hot air. Try to keep her head above water? Was that really the best I could do? My family had leaned on me for every major business decision over the last five fucking years, and all I could give this young woman was, “keep floating along?”
“If you want, you could stay here.”
Ava stopped in her tracks and whipped her head over toward me.
“What?” she asked.
“If you don’t want to go back, you could stay here,” I said.
“And… do what?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Hadn’t gotten that far, I guess.”
Ava crinkled her nose in confusion, and I couldn’t blame her. I was confused as to why I brought it u
p in the first damn place. Stay here? What, just… in the fucking guest bedroom? What the hell was she going to do here? Twiddle her thumbs and take online courses or some shit? I barely knew this girl. For all I knew, she was a lying sack of shit like the rest of the women that had come in and out of my life. For all I knew, this was a ploy to get underneath my skin.
I had to remind myself of who she was. Who her father was and what he had tried to do to our family.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Ava said.
“Suit yourself,” I said.
She left the cabin and I watched as she got into her car. I could tell she was scared. Worried, even. Her confidence drained from her the moment she shut her car door. Like she didn’t think anyone could see her. It was amazing people thought they were hidden once they got behind the metal encasing of their cars. People picked their noses and yelled at their children. Sang terribly along with music and unleashed their road rage. It was like they suddenly lost the ability to comprehend exactly what a window did.
And Ava was no different.
I watched the fire in her beautiful hazel eyes slowly drain down her body. Her confident form collapsed as her forehead rested against her steering wheel. It was like just hearing her father’s voice had collapsed her somehow. Pulled some imaginary rug out from underneath her and brought her crashing back into a reality she hated. I watched her take a few deep breaths as her dark brown hair fell around her face.
She really was a beautiful woman, if someone could get past the helplessness she tried to ignore in herself.
I still wasn’t sure why she was heading home instead of California. If that was really her goal, then she would continue on with her journey. Many people had come before her and struggled through harsher times to get what they wanted. It was hard to imagine that her father had that much control over her life. Maybe he governed her by fear or maybe she was just some spoiled rich kid who blew everything out of proportion. I hardly knew the girl, so who the hell was I to judge her family dynamics just from what she’d told me?
I already had an opinion of her father as a businessman, but I’d never seen him in action as a parental figure. Maybe she made a habit of this kind of thing. She admitted that this wasn’t the first time she had run from her parents, so maybe this anger her father displayed was just him fed up with her antics. Maybe they had tried to make her go to college and she didn’t want to, so marrying her off was their last effort to try and give her some semblance of a life outside of the home.
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