Level Up

by Hadley Quinn

  Ava laughed too, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe she acted like that.”

  “Well Gavin provoked her pretty well. If she’s gonna lecture people on public displays, she deserved to see him shove his tongue down your throat.”

  “I wouldn’t say it that way, but yeah, she was appalled.”

  “If there was someone she could tattle to, I bet we’d all be tattled on. Especially Chelsea,” she chuckled. “But I guess that might not have been until our sophomore year.”

  Ava smiled. Chelsea had been much like herself in their younger years. Not shy but maybe a little more reserved. The Harpers ran in the same circle as the Carmichaels, and Chelsea had grown up under pretty strict surveillance like Ava had. But then Chelsea had decided to test the limits more and more, and even though it had caused quite a stir over the years, Ava still loved her to pieces. There were some bonds that couldn’t be broken, no matter who tried.

  “Yeah, Chelse came out of her shell a little more than I did,” Ava nodded.

  “Shell,” Monica scoffed. “You make it sound like you were a recluse. You’re a lot of fun, Ava—just not wild and insensible like Chelsea kind of got. Do you guys still keep in touch?”

  She obviously hadn’t seen Ava arrive with her bestie, but Ava nodded. “Yeah, we do. In fact, we came together. We’re still close.”

  “Oh God, I’m sorry,” Monica cringed. “I didn’t mean to make it sound bad.”

  “Oh, I know. And I’ll agree that Chelsea has changed in a lot of ways, but she has a good heart. She’s always been a great friend.”

  “Good, I’m glad. And speaking of Chelsea…” She nodded her head toward the blonde that was practically skipping her way over.

  Ava re-introduced the two and pleasant greetings followed. Chelsea was a beauty queen, but she was in no way snobby, but after a couple of minutes she said, “I’m really sorry Monica, but I need Ava for a minute.”

  She dragged Ava off to the back of the house with a huge smile on her face. It was kind of exciting, the suspense, but at the same time, Ava was nervous.

  They stopped on the back patio, and before Ava was about to refuse to join in on any wet t-shirt contests, Chelsea nodded to the right. “Adam’s out here,” she said quietly.

  A lump instantly stuck in Ava’s throat and she could only stare. He was talking to two other people; a guy and a girl that she knew were dating.

  “Go talk to him,” Chelsea prodded.

  “No way. He’s already talking to people.”

  “Then just go up and say, “Hey Adam. Hi Carrie, hi Roger.”

  “No.”

  “Ava, you’re killing me.”

  “Don’t force this. Just let it happen, okay? It’s not the same if you have to force me into conversation with him.”

  “Okay, okay. Point taken. So walk with me to the other side of the pool. We’ll just walk by him, and if he looks at us, just give him a little smile.”

  She nodded, feeling confident that she could manage that, so they took a few steps in his general direction. That also just happened to be the same moment that two dumb asses came charging through the patio shooting water guns at each other and Ava took a nice blast to the face. It was also easy to tell that it was not water in the toy guns.

  “Whoa, nice, Chelsea,” one of the guys chuckled. In between blinking the water out of her vision, Ava glanced at her friend. She’d taken a blast right to her chest.

  “I told you I’d make you wet,” the other guy laughed.

  “You guys are assholes,” she told them, but it was playful enough that they grinned like idiots. They ran off, leaving both girls drenched in beer.

  “Well, at least they got it where it was meant to go,” Ava told her.

  Chelsea pulled her light pink top away from her chest to lessen the effect but it didn’t help. “Hot pink bra,” she said with a shrug. “What can I say?”

  “Well it does look great on you,” Ava smiled. “Just go with it.”

  “Perfect, there’s a fire,” Chelsea pointed ahead. “Let’s dry off.”

  It did seem to work in their favor when they joined the small group that sat around a large fire pit. Adam was there, but she felt like the loner again since Chelsea was chatting it up with Trent, and Carrie and Roger were cuddled up in a chair together.

  The conversation turned into one about vacationing, particularly what everyone was doing for the summer. Trent rolled his eyes that his sister was going to the coast for a couple of weeks with her boyfriend. Apparently that was less than appealing.

  “What we need is a vacation house,” he grinned. “Maybe we should all rent a house on a lake somewhere and just kick back and enjoy a week.”

  They all kind of smiled in agreement, but Ava held her breath. Damn Chelsea opened her big trap anyway and said, “Ava has a house on Passion Lake.”

  She was super excited to share that, and even though Ava knew it was for Adam’s benefit, she wanted to kill her.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Ava was surprised that Adam did look interested, and just seeing that smile on his face and the light in his eyes from the fire made her stomach flutter.

  Why the hell was she so shy around guys?

  “Do you use it much?” he asked her directly.

  No words came to her, not even a simple “no.” He’d finally spoken to her and she just sat there like an idiot! Real smooth.

  “Not really,” Chelsea answered for her. “But we used to spend weeks there at a time.” She was referring to herself and Ava, and even though it had only been three years since the last time she’d been there, Ava felt like it’d been longer.

  “What’s the house like?” Trent asked. “Is it really right on the water?”

  This time Chelsea gave Ava another chance to respond, so she did. “Uh, yeah, it’s right on the water. There’s a dock for the boat and we’ve got kayaks and other water stuff.”

  Trent’s eyes grew wide but when Ava looked at Adam, he looked excited too.

  “What do you say, Ava?” Trent grinned. “Want to invite us over?”

  No, she wanted to say. Not even she wanted to be in that house. But she made the stupid mistake of looking at Chelsea and her eyes were subtly pleading with her. She wanted to groan out load and tell them to find some other sucker, but then Adam asked, “Ava? Do you think that would be okay with your family?”

  He spoke my name? Just hearing it come out of his mouth made her smile inside.

  “It’s fine,” she finally shrugged, like it was her decision to make and not her parents’. Her responsible side kind of kicked her, though. Yeah, she was already picturing stuff she didn’t want to picture like drunks falling off the deck and strip dancing on the pool table… “But,” she added, before they all got too excited. “Not a lot of people and no rowdy antics. My neighbors there like it peaceful.”

  The last part she just assumed. She didn’t even know any of the neighbors out there anymore.

  “Of course,” Trent said with a smile that wasn’t so convincing.

  “Just this group is fine,” Chelsea said with a nod, looking at the six of them around the fire. Ava didn’t know Carrie and Roger well, but her stomach was already in too many knots to care.

  Great. Did she really just set herself up to be rejected in the most obviously painful way? She pictured the other two couples having fun and spending time together—Carrie with Roger and most likely Chelsea banging Trent—while Adam did his best to befriend the wildlife instead of be stuck with her. What a joke! Did she really want to go through with this? Maybe there was still time to make up a huge excuse. Repairs were being done on the house? Maybe it could mysteriously burn down! What if—

  “Ava?” a voice said, delaying her panic attack.

  She looked up, believing that it was Adam that spoke. “Huh?”

  “I said, when would be a good time and what would you like us to bring?”

  Ooh, he was polite. She liked that. And he really did seem interested in
the idea and not just mindlessly going along with Trent.

  “Um, well… Other than just your clothes and stuff—”

  “We have to bring clothes?” Trent smirked.

  Chelsea thumped him in the chest. “Behave or you’ll be uninvited.”

  He seemed to straighten up a little, even if he knew she was just kidding. Maybe she really could keep the reins on him and Ava wouldn’t have to worry. Well, except she was going to have Adam in her close proximity for how long? A week?

  Oh shit…

  “Ava?” his voice said again. “Are you okay? If this isn’t a good idea then—”

  “No, it’s perfectly fine,” she said quickly. “I was just thinking, is all. If you guys want to chip in the money for the food, we’ll take care of that end of it. But other than that just…bring yourselves.”

  Okay, she was ready to admit that she liked making a group of people so happy. In fact, they were so excited that they all picked a date and then exchanged information to keep in touch until then.

  Now Adam had Ava’s number and she had his, but even though she was excited about that one silly little thought, she still had to talk to her father…

  ***

  It took three days before she finally got a hold of her dad. Actually it was his secretary that called her.

  “Your father wanted me to see that your needs are met,” she actually said.

  Ava rolled her eyes, assuming that the woman was just repeating a line that Brad Carmichael had said while he had her pinned against a desk with her skirt up.

  “How kind of him,” Ava replied dryly, trying to rid the image from her head. “However, he needs to call me himself.”

  Obviously the woman was stunned since a reply didn’t come right away. Finally she said, “Oh, uh, alright. I’ll let him know it’s urgent.”

  Yeah you do that, you bimbo. She could just picture her too, just like all the others.

  Ava hung up and sighed. To add insult to injury, her dad wouldn’t even call her back when she’d left him a message on his cell phone. Instead, he had his damn secretary call her.

  What a dick.

  It didn’t bother her, though. Now she just had to tell Chelsea that her father wouldn’t get back to her and then she wouldn’t have to deal with her brains going dumb whenever Adam spoke to her.

  But she couldn’t believe that bastard called her back just an hour later. After all the times that she’d wanted him to call, he calls when it’s something she utterly did not care about.

  “Ava, what’s the problem?” he asked as soon as she answered.

  “No problem, I just have a favor to ask.” She had to get to the point quickly just so she could get it over with. Asking her dad for anything was pure torture.

  “A favor, huh,” he replied, just as dryly as she’d spoken to his secretary.

  “Yeah. Since I need to go to the lake house to pick up what you sent anyway, I was wondering if it’d be okay to just stay for a few days. Maybe a week or two.”

  He was obviously surprised. After catching him there with a woman that was not her mom, she’d once told him she’d never set foot in that house again. Ava could almost guarantee that he’d had her stuff sent there on purpose just so he’d be the victor of that argument.

  But she didn’t care anymore. He could gloat all he wanted. Ava was done with his crap and it was time to stop depriving herself of so many things because of him. The lake house held so many memories for her—good ones until her father tainted them. But maybe there was a way to restore those happy feelings. Maybe she could reclaim something she felt she’d done without ever since her father’s secret life blew up in her face.

  “Of course,” he finally answered. “Absolutely. You can use the house whenever you want.”

  “Well I didn’t want to intrude on someone else’s reservation.”

  He knew it was meant to cut but disregarded it. “I don’t rent that home, Ava. It’s for you and your brothers to use whenever you want.”

  “Okay, then you don’t mind if Chelsea and a couple of friends come with me?”

  “Of course not. Chelsea is welcome anytime, you know that.”

  She sure did. As long as her dad was under the impression that Chelsea Harper still carried around her halo part time. He knew Chelsea’s parents well and approved of her background, but Ava believed her dad would frown upon how much the girl had changed over the years.

  “Um, okay then. We’ll be there July 7th. I’m not sure for how long though. Will Charlie need a better heads up than that?”

  He paused. “Oh, uh, Charlie isn’t my caretaker anymore.”

  “He’s not?”

  “No. The new guy is, uh… Oh, shit, let me think here… Oh! Gabriel. Yeah, his name is Gabriel. I’ll give him a call for you, Ava.”

  He was being way too nice and she didn’t like it. However, she got what she called for—even though she didn’t want it—and replied, “Thank you.”

  And that was that. They hung up. No “I’ll talk to you soon,” or “I miss you sweetie, come visit me.”

  Nope. Not with Bradley Carmichael.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The time had come. This was going to be the ultimate test for Ava and she was putting way too much pressure on herself. Adam was going to be spending a week in her house and she was either going to make him hate her, or, if she had her way, make him fall in love with her.

  She was all packed for the week and her car was loaded. She wished she could head up to the house by herself first, but it didn’t work out that way. The six of them were going to carpool in two vehicles, but it basically turned into caravanning. Trent wanted to drive himself, and so did Adam. Carrie and Roger decided that they, too, would drive themselves.

  Ava couldn’t blame any of them. That way they could bail if the trip entirely sucked.

  It was a two-hour drive east from Seattle but it went by quickly. Chelsea and Ava talked nonstop, but the closer they got to Passion Lake, the more nervous Ava’s stomach became. She knew it didn’t have anything to do with Adam, either.

  She was returning to the home she said she would never set foot in again.

  Ava took a silent breath as she drove the last mile. Chelsea was chatting about social media and Ava interjected here and there, but mostly she thought about the vacation house she’d grown up in. She hoped that she would be able to put things behind her. She’d already accepted the way that her life had changed, and really, what adults did was their own business, but still… She was anxious.

  She felt a bit of pride creep under her skin when they pulled up to the house and the visitors trickled out of the other cars. They all said things like, “Wow, cool!” and “Oh my God, this place is gorgeous.” It wasn’t that the house was elegant—it was a really nice looking three-story cedar plank—but just the whole feel. The woods, the wraparound deck, the various porch swings and seating. The volleyball net was even set up in the side yard and Ava was impressed with her father’s new caretaker. He’d obviously spent the time getting things guest-ready, including the cushions on all the outdoor furniture and firewood stacked next to both fire pits.

  “This is incredible,” Carrie almost whispered. They’d all walked around to the back deck and were looking at the lake in front of them.

  “Just how I remember,” Chelsea murmured. Ava smiled at the thought that she probably felt it’d been a lot longer than three years as well.

  “Okay, I’m ready to move in,” Trent joked.

  “Well, let me show you to your rooms, I guess,” Ava said.

  They gathered their things from the cars, and the thought that “couples” were going to be staying in her house kind of hit Ava again. She supposed that Carrie and Roger were staying in the same room—they were actually engaged—but as for Chelsea and Trent? She hadn’t even thought to ask her!

  She gave the almost-newlyweds the master bedroom. They were absolutely stoked by her generosity but for the wrong reasons. Ava wasn’t being accommodatin
g at all, and only Chelsea knew why.

  She decided to play it safe when everyone else was gathered in the living room and Ava said, “I’m taking my own room upstairs, but you guys can choose where you want. There are three bedrooms upstairs and three down.”

  “I say the girls go upstairs and the guys go downstairs,” Chelsea said. Ava wasn’t surprised. Chelsea always stayed upstairs with her, ever since they were eight years old.

  The guys didn’t seem to care.

  “The downstairs is basically a giant rec room,” Ava told them. “Billiards, darts, foosball, big screen t—”

  They both took off for the stairs, fighting for lead position.

  Chelsea and Ava both laughed as they lugged their stuff upstairs—Chelsea to the left and Ava to the right—and after dumping her things on the queen bed, Ava went straight to her private deck.

  My balcony, my retreat, my sanctuary, she sighed.

  “It’s been too long,” she seemed to convince herself out loud. And it had. She’d let too much anger and resentment keep her away from this place.

  She leaned against the deck to look at the water. There were a couple of kayakers out there and a sport boat in the distance. She couldn’t wait to get into the water.

  Ava draped her hair over her left shoulder and whipped it into a loose braid. A movement below caught her eye. She thought the guys had gone outside from the daylight basement exit but it was someone else entirely. She didn’t see him but for half a second before he went into the one-bedroom cabin to her right a hundred feet from the house.

  That must be Gabriel.

  She figured she should probably go introduce herself, but Chelsea came bounding into her room, raving about going swimming with the guys. Ava didn’t think twice and immediately put on a bathing suit.

  ***

  “We need this every summer again, Aves,” Chelsea exhaled.

  Ava agreed with a nod from her lounge chair. It felt so good to sunbathe on the lower deck near the water, and while they’d all been in and out of the lake, now it was just two best friends soaking up the rays.