Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“Hmm . . .” Ava nods.
The corners of my lips pull up. “Why, are you jealous, beautiful?”
She blushes. “I don’t know. Am I allowed to be jealous?”
“What do you mean ‘allowed’? By who?”
“It’s just that . . . Well, I’m with five of you . . . And, you’re only with one of me, plus you’re sharing me with four other guys . . .”
“Your point being?” I can’t help but smile as I watch her. Of course I know what she means, but I like seeing her squirm and get embarrassed. It’s adorable.
“Do I really have the right to say you can’t see anyone else?”
“You mean am I going to also date four other women to make this fair?”
“Something like that.”
“Of course I won't,” I say resolutely.
“Really?” she asks, beaming.
“Yeah. We haven’t really discussed that, huh?”
“Not really.”
“Well, I can’t speak on behalf of my brothers, but for me, I’m seeing you exclusively, and you’re seeing the five of us exclusively. We’re not going to recruit more members. We’re not trying to form a commune. We all just happened to fall in love with you.”
Ava’s grinning now, her eyes shining bright. “I don’t know why we didn’t talk about this sooner. It’s good to know exactly where I stand.”
Her words sting my guilty conscience. Should I tell her we don’t have the situation under control like she thinks we do?
“What’s wrong?” Ava asks, her perceptive green eyes studying me.
“Nothing,” I say, forcing a smile.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to fire Sally or anything just because I’m a little jealous she gets to spend so much time with you. I’m not that bratty.”
I smile. I like how she’s able to acknowledge her jealousy and own it as her issue, rather than forcing me to make a rash business decision just to appease her.
Fuck it, she’s amazing, and she deserves to know whatever she wants to know.
“No, it’s not that,” I say. Before I change my mind, I blurt out, “Ava, there’s something about the case you need to know . . .”
Ava
“What do you mean?” I ask the five determined, gorgeous faces staring back at me.
“We all think it would be best,” Ollie says.
“But . . . I can’t even go to my own hearing?” This is outrageous.
“No, no, that came out wrong,” Liam says. “We don’t literally mean you ‘can’t’ go. If you want to, you can. But we don’t think you should.”
“Why not?”
“Because . . .” Liam looks around at his brothers before he finally says, “I hate to say this, but I’m not as confident about winning this case as I was.”
“So?”
“So, we may lose. And if we lose . . . Remember, Joseph will be there.”
I bite my tongue. Liam’s right. That doesn’t seem like it would be a pleasant experience.
“He’d think I’m scared of him,” I say.
“Who cares what he thinks?” Mason asks. “He’s a nobody.”
I fall silent.
I don’t know why I feel like I need to prove something to Joseph. Something niggles at me, telling me I can’t just walk away like this, telling me I’d be admitting defeat.
But at the same time, I know that’s the kind of thinking that’s gotten me into Joseph’s trap in the first place.
“Take these,” Noah says, giving me a few pieces of paper.
“What are these?”
“Your reservation at the spa. We also asked your friends from brunch to go with you,” Nathan says.
“Tony, Jessica, and Sarah?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you . . . When did you . . .?” I look through the pieces of paper. It says there’s a paid reservation for four adults tomorrow, not long after school lets out—about the time the hearing starts.
“We have our ways,” Ollie says.
“Don't worry. We’ll take care of everything. You should just relax,” Nathan says.
“What if I still want to go?” I ask softly.
“Just trust us to handle this for you, please,” Mason says.
“I do trust you. I just feel like . . . like I should be doing something. You’ve been working so hard on this, and I haven’t done anything.”
“That’s not true,” Liam says. “You helped me with the research, remember?”
“And you helped us deal with some customer emails,” Noah says.
“Yeah, Ava, don’t think of it as us doing something for you,” Ollie says. “We’re a team. We stick together. We band together and share our strengths and weaknesses with one another.”
I pause to consider what they’re saying.
Is it really okay for me not to go? Is it really a good idea to just walk away from this?
If we’re going to lose, how am I going to pay Joseph? It’s going to take me a while to come up with that much money, and I don’t know if the legal system will allow me to pay in instalments.
Maybe I should ask Liam, but I don’t want him, or any of his brothers, to know I don’t have the money and offer to pay it for me.