Page 15 of Ties That Bind Us

“Sorry. I just needed to get away from there,” I said, desperately trying to catch my breath as well.

“What happened?”

“I ran into someone at the bar.”

“And you couldn’t just talk to him like a normal human?”

“It wasn’t just a normal human, Bells. It was him. The guy I told you about from the hotel.”

Bella looked at me wide eyed as she processed all of this. “Are you serious?”

I nodded quickly, pulling out my phone to call an Uber as fast as I could.

“You mean to tell me you just ripped me away from that party because the guy you haven’t stopped thinking about the last month was there?” Now she was angry.

“It’s not that . . .”

“Ava! We just ran away from the one guy who has held your interest for more than a week in years and you want to tell me it’s not a big deal?” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Unbelievable.”

She wouldn’t understand. I knew she wouldn’t. She wasn’t in the position I was in; she never had been. I was the one who was always messing up, especially after Andrew died. I couldn’t keep letting my parents down, and I had to get myself together this time.

That meant staying far away from Nick whatever his last name was.

Chapter 5

Ava

“You two are home early.” Vince chuckled from the bar stool as Bella and I entered the kitchen. He was eating a bowl of cereal even thought it was nearly eleven o’clock. I’d never understand why he still insisted on coming over after a shift at the warehouse instead of going to his own house. He had his own home and family, yet he was still always here.

“Not by choice,” Bella grumbled, plopping onto the stool next to him and slipping her high heels off, letting them clamor to the floor. She was still mad at me, but had started to come around on our ride home. If she had had her way, we would have marched right back into that party, I would have found Nick, and all would have been right in the world. That was her world, though. She believed in destiny and soul mates and all of those romantic ideals they tell you about as a little girl. Those things didn’t exist in my world, just like the possibility of anything more happening with Nick didn’t exist. It was nice to finally put a name to his face, though.

“Anything interesting happen at the party? It was at Kyle’s, right?” Vince asked, his voice barely audible over his incessant crunching.

“It was on the boat, and only if you call Ava running away from an old date and making us leave early interesting,” Bella retorted, grabbing the spoon from his hand and taking a bite for herself.

“Sounds like a typical Saturday night for you.” He smirked.

“Don’t you have your own family to go bother?” I snapped, throwing the fridge open. I wasn’t hungry but I needed to hide the blush on my cheeks behind something. My mood was worsening by the minute.

“Easy, Avs. I’m just teasing.” Vince came up behind me and kissed the top of my head.

“Someone is a little bit sour that she actually has feelings for this guy, despite all of her best efforts not to.” Bella smirked, happy to throw me under the bus for ruining her night.

“Whoa, really?” Vince stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me.

“No.” I slammed the fridge closed. “I do not have feelings for him. I don’t even know him.” I tried to sound convincing but by the looks on their faces, neither were convinced.

“I’m confused, if you actually like this dude, why did you run?” Vince paused. “Not that I’m opposed to my baby sister running from boys. In fact, I’d much prefer that. Forget I said anything.”

“She ran because that’s what she does. She runs from anything that even remotely resembles getting attached to anyone,” Bella sniped. She was being uncharacteristically hostile tonight.

“Would you shut up?” I glared at her, wishing that we could just be done with this conversation. I wasn’t sure why my love life had suddenly become a group discussion.

“It’s true, isn’t it? You think you might actually like this guy, and that scares the shit out of you. That’s why you snuck out of his hotel room, why you ran from him tonight. You’re scared of what that might mean.” She had no idea how right she was.

“Back up,” Vince barked, his face twisting in confusion. “Hotel? Why the fuck were you in his hotel room when you just said you didn’t even know him?”

“Bella!” I hissed, covering my face with my hands. This was a nightmare.

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