Page 53 of Yes, Love

Sienna gave me a sad smile. “Let’s just say that I’m very familiar with the heartache you’re describing. But I thought we were putting the Evan shit behind us.” She raised her eyebrows at me.

Sienna’s phone dinged again, and then two more times. She didn’t even pull it out of her pocket.

I sighed. “Please answer your baby daddy so that he doesn’t worry about you.”

Sienna bit her lip and tugged her phone from her back pocket. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open when she looked at her screen. “Aves, get your cute little ass in the shower!” She grinned at me and horribly botched a British accent. “Your one true love just boarded his flight.”

Every muscle in my body froze as Sienna laughed and stood. “Come on! You don’t need the makeup, but you need the shower! Like, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your scalp can’t quite manage three days without washing. You can do two with a good dry shampoo, but three is pushing it.” She tugged on my arm and led me to my bathroom.

“WHAT?” I finally regained the ability to speak when we were halfway to my shower.

Sienna raised a brow. “Come on, Aves. You know you can’t make it three days.”

“Who just boarded a flight?” My voice was high and squeaky. I knew who, but I wanted to hear her say it.

Sienna threw her head back and laughed. “Dominic fucking Ellis.”

My heart rammed against my ribcage, and all of my extremities tingled. “Why?”

“Because he loves you!” Sienna used a teasing, sing-song voice. She leaned over to turn on my shower.

“But did he say that? Let me see the texts!”

Sienna laughed and handed me her phone.

I read the first message with shaking hands. Sienna, is she all right? I’m losing it over here.

I can’t stand it. I’ve booked a flight. I’ll be in Seattle by noon tomorrow.

Please fucking tell me if she’s okay!

I’m sorry for swearing at you—boarding in ten minutes.

Sienna tugged her phone from my hands. “Water’s warm. I better answer your lover boy before he shits himself.” She gave me a gentle shove toward the shower and started to walk away.

“Si!” I called after her. “Will you stay? I don’t want to be alone.”

“Yeah, babe.”

Twenty Seven

Dominic

I loved her. I was madly, wildly in love with Ava Mills. After the chat with my mum, I nearly hopped on a plane and showed up at Ava’s door. Then I let fear take over. What if she didn’t want me the way I wanted her? What if she denied that we’d had anything real at all?

I couldn’t handle Ava’s rejection, but even more than that, I couldn’t handle being without her.

And then her latest video dropped. I’d never been more proud of my sexy little fairy. She was fierce, brave, and so beautifully vulnerable. Ava showed her true, vibrant colors, and it physically hurt not to have her in my arms.

But still, I cowered. I couldn’t be that guy again, the one that loved like a fool with no hope of it ever being returned.

In the end, it was my mum who set me straight. “Dominic, you go on now and get that beautiful girl. If you could face down monsters as a child, love, you can face this fear. You’re the bravest, strongest boy I know.”

I was halfway through booking my flight even before I called Sienna. Then I was overcome by this feeling of dread. Ava was silent on all social media platforms. She refused to answer my calls and texts, and I knew how dark it could get in her head sometimes. I knew she hated to worry her mother, so I tried Sienna first.

Then Sienna put me through the most wicked sort of torture by not answering my texts until my flight had already taken off. That set me up for ten hours of being strapped into a claustrophobic tin can in the sky, worrying like hell about the woman I loved.

But now, I was here, outside Ava’s front door, running on less than an hour of sleep, absolutely desperate to see her.

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