Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
“Why?” Her lip curls. “Worried I might injure your babies?”
Yes, actually. And herself. “Don’t talk fucking shit,” I fume, snatching her hands and pinning them down before she clouts me one.
“You think it. Your constant monitoring and overprotectiveness tells me all I need to know.”
Wait. I thought we were talking about Sarah? And I’m not monitoring; I’m being attentive. Sensible. Doing things right. It’s a second chance. “I’ve always been overprotective,” I hiss. “So don’t brandish that card, lady.”
“She goes, or I do.”
For fuck’s sake. Freeing her from beneath me before she does any of us damage, I watch her stomp away, an angry mist rising from her skin. Jesus, I totally underestimated the level on pissed off I’d get back. “I was in a mess, Ava,” I explain, getting to the context side of this conversation. A bit late by the looks of things. “You refuse to work for me, and I need someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“So she’s working for you again?” she screeches, spinning to face me.
That’s what I said, didn’t I? I growl and go to her, stopping, surprised, when she holds a hand up.
“Stop where you are, Ward,” she seethes. “Don’t try to placate me or convince me that this is all fine, because it fucking isn’t.”
Convince her? The chance would be a fine fucking thing. I can’t get a word in edgeways. But she’ll hear this . . . “Watch your fucking mouth.”
“No,” she snaps. I recoil, stunned. “She’s in love with you. Do you know that? Everything she has done really is because she wants to take you away from me, so don’t even think about trying to convince me that this is a good idea.”
“I know,” I say, quickly and easily. Of course I fucking know.
Ava could be looking at a monster right now. “What do you mean, you know?”
“I know she’s in love with me.”
Her forehead crinkles. “You do?”
“Of course I do, Ava.” I have to force myself not to laugh. Did she think Sarah acted out of hate? “I’m not fucking stupid.”
“You obviously are.” She snorts. “You’ll trample anyone who tries to take me away from you, yet right under your nose, she’s doing the best job, and you’re choosing to ignore it.”
Ignoring it? Jesus. Context is wasted, because she will never get it. Maybe because the context stands for shit. It’s the wrong context.
Ava disappears out of the room, and my heavy, pounding head drops back, my eyes on the ceiling. “Advice, anyone?” I ask seriously, waiting, listening. But no. I’m on my own. “Thanks a bunch, bro." I sigh. “I didn’t just let it go unsaid, Ava,” I say, following her to the kitchen. “I had it out with her and she admitted and regretted it all.”
Her eyes widen as she downs some water. “Of course she regrets it.” She swipes the back of her hand across her mouth, and a drop of water falls to her breast as a result. My eyes fall there. “She failed! She’s probably regretting not doing a better job!” I jump when a loud bang sounds. Her glass hitting the counter. How the fuck did that not smash? “And you may as well have let it go unsaid,” she rants on. “Did you offer burial or cremation?”
And now we’re talking about funerals? “What?”
Her hand flaps between our naked bodies. “The usual option you give people who hurt me. Did you offer it to Sarah?”
This is too much. What a fucking shitter of an end to our wonderful break in Paradise. “No,” I breathe, exhausted. “I offered her a job in return for her word that she’ll never interfere again.” How can I pull this back? Make Ava see I’m thinking of her too. It’s mainly her. She’s going to need me, and I can’t very well be there twenty-four seven if I have to run The Manor. Not that I could run The Manor if I had all the time in the fucking world. I’m hopeless. “I told her that if you say so, she’s out.”
“I say so,” she yells, going so red in the face, I’m sure she might pop. “I say she’s out!”
“But she hasn’t done anything.”
“She’s not done anything?” Disbelief. Yikes.
“I mean, she’s not done anything since I reinstated her,” I say calmly, trying to dial down the high energy before it ends in tears. “And you rewarded her with a tidy crack to the jaw for the stuff that came before.”
“Why are you doing this?” she asks, now calm too. “You know how I feel, Jesse.”
Fuck, yes, I do. And I understand. But this isn’t only about us. There’s more to be considered. Like a life. And I know Ava could never be so cruel to disregard a life, no matter whose life it is. “Because she’s desperate, Ava. She has no life past The Manor.”