Even in the face of this impending wedding.
Brennan shook off the thought, tacking a smile to his face despite the mountain of effort required for the task. “Glad you enjoyed your dinner. I’ll pass on your compliments to the chef, even though it’ll go right to his overinflated head.”
He reached out to grab Ava’s pint glass so he could freshen up her drink before she returned to her seat, but she caught his hand before he could make contact with the bar. Pressing her frame over the rounded curve of mahogany, Ava leaned in as she tugged him close to plant a kiss right on his mouth.
“What was that for?” he asked, even though his dick sent up a big, fat who cares?!
“That was a preview,” she said, her eyes unwavering as she leaned in to kiss him again. “Of my compliments to the bar manager.”
Something Brennan couldn’t tag with a name rushed up from his chest, and he loosened the words before his nerve could take a hike. “Come with me to Ellie’s wedding.”
“What?” Her green eyes widened under the soft glow of the candy-colored Christmas lights overhead, and she pulled back to reseat herself on the customer side of the bar.
“I get that it’s Christmas, and you normally spend the holidays with your brother. Of course I’ll understand if you can’t go. But . . .” Well, shit. No sense in scaling back now that the jam was out of the jar. “I’m sure Ellie would love to see you, and I’d like to take you as my date. It’s short notice, I know, but—”
“Yes.”
“Huh?” Christ, could he be any more ineloquent?
But if Ava noticed his bumbling, she didn’t let on. “I said yes. Of course I’ll go with you to Ellie’s wedding.”
“Even though it’s Christmas?”
Her smile moved all the way through him, taking ownership of even the smallest places as she said, “Absolutely. I wouldn’t miss it.”
As he watched her move back toward the spot she’d so thoroughly claimed at the end of the bar, laughing with Teagan and Annabelle and looking downright irresistible in her wide-open honesty, Brennan knew that if he wasn’t careful, he was going to lose his heart.
And as reckless as it was to fall for Ava again, Brennan wanted her too much to care.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ava sat in the passenger seat of Brennan’s Trailblazer, death-gripping her sides with both hands and gasping for a desperate breath.
“Oh my God, stop!” A fresh round of laughter welled up behind her breastbone, spilling past her lips in an unrepentant peal at the mischievous grin bracketing the corners of his goatee. “You put Kool-Aid powder in the poor guy’s gloves the same day he had a date with a model?”
Brennan’s chuckle wound through the SUV, a deeper, sexier version of the smile that always leveled her, and Ava scooted a little closer to the console between them as he answered.
“Yup. Worked like a charm too. Our next call was a kitchen fire. As soon as my buddy put on his gloves and started to sweat, bam! Instant rainbow.”
“You used more than one color?” Ava asked, oscillating between being totally incredulous and highly impressed.
“I’m equal opportunity. One red glove, one purple. The dye lasted all the way till the next shift. But that’s what he got for waking me up at six A.M. to the soundtrack of a chain saw.”
Finally, Ava managed a full round of inhale-exhale. God, she couldn’t make this stuff up if she tried. Brennan had just spun an hour’s worth of anecdotes to prove it. “Did you guys pull pranks like that often at the firehouse?”
“Are you kidding? We had the combined maturity of a twelve-year-old boy. Those two practical jokes don’t even make the greatest hits list.” Brennan sat back to adjust his sunglasses, his easy expression tightening a shade as he turned off the main road and onto a smaller side street.
“Brennan?” A hard streak of worry claimed Ava’s smile in one quick gulp, and she pinned him with an assessing head-to-toe. They’d been road-tripping to Fairview for nearly five hours now on no more than a ten-minute bathroom break. Even though they were obviously close to their destination, the trip couldn’t be a joyride for his back. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said, lifting a hand to counter the protest that must’ve been visible on her face. “It’s just . . . before we get to my parents’ place and things get crazy, you should probably know that a couple of the guys from Station Eight are going to be at the wedding tomorrow.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Judging from the way his shoulders were suddenly strung like a circus tightrope beneath his black canvas jacket, her intuition was spot-on. But God, according to the stories he’d just told, Brennan and his former squad mates all seemed tight. Like brothers, even.
He looked out the window at the passing residential scenery before answering. “I didn’t leave under the best of circumstances. Things might be a little tense.”
A frown pinched at the edges of her mouth, tasting even more bitter than it felt. As she’d pieced together the story, now sitting safe and snug on her laptop in Pine Mountain, she’d read more than one research article exploring the psychology of how the grave injuries of one firefighter affected everyone in the house. Most guys were sympathetic and supportive.
But firefighters compartmentalized in order to survive. And sometimes that meant shutting people out.
Even the people closest to them.
“You think things will be tense because you were hurt?” Ava did her damnedest to stamp the irritation from her voice, but God, the thought of the literal insult and injury really burned her toast. Hadn’t he been through enough?
Brennan reached for her hand, his shoulders descending slightly against the driver’s seat as he laced his fingers through hers to hold on tight. “I think I’ll do my best to have a good time with you and hang out with Ellie before we go back to Pine Mountain on Sunday. I doubt we’ll even talk to anyone from Eight.”
Although a tiny part of her burned to push past his bid to kill the subject, Ava snuffed out the urge. It couldn’t be easy for Brennan to return to the city where he’d lost so much, even if it was just for two days. As badly as she wanted to be a sounding board for him if he needed one, she’d come to respect the fact that he wasn’t always a tell-all kind of guy. If he needed her, he’d say so, the same way he had last week in his kitchen.
And if he needed her, Ava would be there.
“Right.” Brennan cleared his throat as he guided the Trailblazer to a stop in front of a cozy-looking brick colonial. “Speaking of Ellie, I guess I should warn you. It’s been kind of a while since I’ve been back home to see my family.”
Ava blinked, trying to process his words. “But you’re all really close.”
He and his sister had seemed as tight-knit as Ava and Pete the weekend Ellie had visited Sapphire Island, and that was truly saying something in Ava’s book. Plus, Brennan had always talked about his parents and sisters so easily. Anyone with two eyes and half a brain could see they were a Hallmark card waiting to happen.
“Yeeeeeah. That’s where the warning comes in.” Brennan slid from the driver’s seat, making his way to her side of the SUV to meet her on the pavement. “Your brother’s your only family, right?”
“Yes,” Ava said, although the thought of her parents didn’t kick as hard as she’d expected. Brennan knew the score with her past, and he wouldn’t treat her any differently for it.
“My family is pretty big, and when we’re together, not one of us specializes in subtlety. Weddings and holidays are usually a gigantic production. Roll them both together and add in every last branch of the Brennan family tree, and it’s like a genealogical version of the perfect storm.”
“Seriously?” Ava eyeballed the house in front of them, complete with pretty pine wreaths on each window and two—make that three minivans parked at the top of the gently winding driveway. How bad could a gathering of people who loved each other really be? “You make it sound like a natural disaster.”
Brennan�
�s expression was a fifty-fifty split between humor and apology as he guided her up the cobblestone walkway to stop at the front door. “You said it, sweetheart,” he said, pulling her tight against his chest just long enough to place a kiss on the crown of her head.
And then everything around them detonated into complete and total chaos.
“Nick! Oh my God, I knew I heard you. Jill, Carrie, Marissa! Nick’s home!” A petite brunette with familiar features let out a twenty-decibel squeal as she whipped the front door wide on its hinges. But rather than waste another second on pleasantries, the woman dragged Brennan into the foyer, launching herself at him in a full-body hug.
“Oof ! Hey, Ells.” Brennan grunted in surprise before returning the embrace. “It’s nice to see you.”
The woman—whom Ava belatedly recognized as Brennan’s sister—stood back to pin him with a stern expression, although her dark eyes twinkled too happily for it to stick. “Are you kidding me right now? You haven’t been home in two years, it’s Christmas Eve, and I’m your sister. You’d better come up with something more than a cookie-cutter nice to see you.”
“Would you rather I say it’s not nice to see you?” Brennan asked, all smart-ass and no heat. But clearly there was safety in numbers, and another voice chimed in from over Ellie’s shoulder.
“Nice to see you? You need to work on your intro, little brother. That charm of yours is seriously rusty.” A second pretty brunette jumped in to give Brennan a long hug while Ava’s maybe-I-underestimated-this meter took a sky-high spike from her spot on the threshold.
The damn thing nearly exploded when a third voice entered the fray.
“You actually said that, Nick? You need some new material before Mom gets down the hall. After all, it’s only the biggest holiday of the entire year and the night before your baby sister’s wedding. We’re not a bunch of strangers, no matter how long you stay away.”
By the time Brennan’s fourth sister appeared to give him grief in the hallway, Ava realized she was about a thousand nautical miles out of both her league and her comfort zone.
“Okay, okay! You missed me, I get it.” Brennan laughed, and at least he seemed at ease with all the sisterly ribbing. “But in my defense, it is really good to see you guys. Even if you gang up on me when I compliment you.”
“Nice to see you isn’t a compliment among family, it’s . . .” Ellie trailed off, her gaze locking on Ava’s in the doorway. “Ho-ly shit, you brought a date,” she whispered, taking a step backward in the crowded foyer. “Wait . . . Ava? Is that you?”
Every eye in the entire room zeroed in on her, and for a split second, Ava’s defenses hollered that she was too far out of her element to survive. That this big-family dynamic was about two tons more than she’d bargained for. That her horrible, abusive past made her too jaded and closed off to know how to cope with a functional, loving family.
But then Brennan grabbed her hand, and suddenly, none of Ava’s past mattered.
“I’d say it’s nice to see you all, but I hear that line’s been taken.”
Brennan sat back in an armchair by the fireplace, surveying his parents’ family room as if it were ground zero at a nuclear testing facility.
Considering the complete insanity of the last three hours and what the room looked like as a result, the analogy wasn’t entirely a stretch. But as crazy as it had been to sit through the riotous rush of opening presents and having a preholiday lunch with his huge, boisterous family, Brennan couldn’t deny that returning to Fairview had felt far less stressful than he’d expected.
Starting the second he’d grabbed Ava’s hand on the threshold.
“Hey!” Speak of the sweet and sinful devil. The way she made him so hot and so happy with one easy smile was just not right. “There you are.”
Ava waded through the ankle-deep piles of discarded wrapping paper covering the floor, passing over the Coke she held in one hand before shaking out the trash bag in the other. “Your mom said you might want this. She’s setting all the kids up with a movie in the rec room while your sisters start getting ready for the rehearsal.”
“You don’t have to clean up. Here, let me do that.” Brennan stood, leaning in to take the trash bag from her. Aside from the fact that it was impolite as hell to let her tidy up solo, his mother would evil-eye him right into next week for letting a guest do cleanup duty.
But Ava just plopped jeans-first to the middle of the carpet and started hauling in the crumpled paper with a shrug. “Everyone’s busy with last-minute wedding stuff, and I really don’t mind. Although I’ve got to admit, I’m not sure one trash bag is going to cut it.”
“There are no half measures around here, especially on Christmas,” Brennan agreed, sliding in next to her to double-team the mess. “Normally, we’d wait until tomorrow to exchange gifts, but with the wedding, I guess my mom thought this would be easier. Sorry if it was a little intense.”
“Well, I did lose track of the presents somewhere around the nine-dozen mark, but it was pretty fun to watch everyone open their gifts, especially when it came to your nieces and nephew.” Ava uncurled from her cross-legged position to cover more ground, and the move revealed a bright red and green pedicure in place of the socks she’d been wearing only an hour before.
“Whoa. That’s, um, festive,” he said, and holy hell. Were those neon-colored Christmas trees on her big toes?
She laughed, the throaty sound vibrating all the way through Brennan’s chest. “You like that? Josh’s niece needed a guinea pig for the new mani-pedi kit Ellie gave her, so I volunteered my feet for the cause.”
“You let my not-quite brother-in-law’s thirteen-year-old niece paint your toenails for practice?”
“Sure, why not?”
Brennan slung a covert gaze around the room to make sure it was empty before wrapping his fingers around the curve of her ankle to draw her close. “Because,” he murmured, leaning in to press a kiss to her neck, “I can’t say this with one hundred percent accuracy, but I’m fairly certain you now glow in the dark.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not . . . so . . . bad.” The last word spilled from Ava’s lips on a sigh, and she loosened her grip on the trash bag in favor of threading her hands through his hair.
“You may be right. But still,” Brennan hedged, running his tongue around the shell of her ear in a feather-light flick before adding, “I think we should test the theory in our hotel room later. For purely scientific purposes, of course.”
“You’re pushing it, Brennan.” Still, she didn’t let go.
And Brennan didn’t want her to. “Well, I am trying my best.” Jesus, she was killing him, all brown sugar skin and sweet, sassy attitude. Finally, though, he couldn’t avoid the reality that any one of about fifteen various and sundry family members could walk right in and stone cold bust them making out beside the Christmas tree. As hot as Ava was, Brennan would never live that down.
He dropped a kiss to her temple, reluctantly pulling back to stuff more wrapping paper into the bag. “Anyway, I really am sorry about the chaos.”
Ava’s mouth ruffled in amusement, which did nothing to block his illicit thoughts of her. “It’s wrapping paper, not ruination. I think I’ll survive.”
“I didn’t mean just this.” He gestured to the dwindling piles of gift wrap, along with the snowflake-printed tissue paper and the handfuls of gold and silver confetti ribbon strewn beneath the tree. Although the warning he’d given Ava earlier was partly in jest, his supersized family was overwhelming on a good day. She was tough, sure, but . . . “I know you’re probably not used to such a big production.”
For a second, the only thing between them was the quiet rustle of paper. “I’m not. But everyone’s been so nice. Ellie jumped right in and told me all about her new job downtown, and Jill and your mom showed me how to make the Brennan family recipe for the glaze on the honey-baked ham. Even though my kitchen skills are still on the wrong side of embarrassing.”
“Hey, you made kick
-ass tuna melts the other day,” Brennan reminded her. “Don’t forget.”
Ava tossed a ball of wrapping paper at him, although her laugh threw her aim way off base. “No, you made kick-ass tuna melts. I just flipped them when you told me to.”
“It’s the hardest part.” Brennan scooped up the last of the mess around him before propping his back against the side of the sofa for a good, relaxing stretch. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re okay, being here instead of with Pete and Lily.”
Ava didn’t hesitate with either her smile or her words. “I told you, I wouldn’t miss this. And not just because your sisters gave me the lowdown on your teenage years while we were organizing the place cards for the wedding either.”
His head jacked up, pulse thrumming to the tune of shit shit shit. “Just remember, all stories have two sides.”
Damn it, Carrie loved to tell anyone who’d listen how he’d accidentally backed their father’s Chrysler over the mailbox twice in the same day. It was bad enough that Jill and his mom had cornered Ava in the kitchen when she clearly didn’t like to cook. Poor woman was probably drowning in familial overkill right now.
“Mmm.” She cocked her head at him, dark hair tumbling over her shoulders in soft waves. “It’s just like you not to want to take credit for saving your neighbor’s prized candlestick collection.”
“Ugh, they told you that story?”
Damn, he’d all but forgotten about the night he’d gotten up for a midnight snack and caught sight of a robbery in progress next door. Probably because it hadn’t been one-tenth as big a deal as it sounded.
But Ava wasn’t about to let him off the hook. “Of course they told me! Not that I’d have ever heard about it otherwise. Did you seriously tie up the thief with bungee cord and sit on him until the cops got there?”
“Only after it was clear the intruder was an amateur.” And unarmed. And about thirty pounds lighter than Brennan had weighed at the time. Brennan might’ve been a little impulsive to interfere, but he also wasn’t an idiot. “It was just a small-time B and E, and the guy was more nervous than nasty. He didn’t even put up a fight after I caught him trying to run.”
All Wrapped Up (A Pine Mountain Novel) Page 23