Page 16 of Ties That Bind Us

“What in the world is going on down here?” My mother chastised us, rushing into the kitchen in her robe. “I can hear your childish bickering all the way upstairs.”

“Sorry, Mom. We didn’t mean to wake you,” Bella said. “We’ll keep it down.”

“What are you even doing here, Vincent?” She narrowed her eyes at my brother.

“Decompressing, Ma.” He gave her his most charming smile, immediately loosening up and dropping the protective big brother act in front of her, at least momentarily.

“Go home and decompress with your pregnant wife.” She glared at him.

“But she’s mean, Ma.” Vince chuckled. “Pregnancy hormones are no joke.”

“It’s your own fault she’s in that situation. You get your butt home and take care of her. And you two”—she pointed at Bella and me—“stop all of this commotion. I’ll have you both scrubbing floors tomorrow if you wake your father up.”

We all stood silent, like scolded children. She turned on her heels and was gone as quickly as she had come.

“I’m going to bed,” I announced, completely flustered. I had had enough of these two and this discussion for the night. In fact, I’d had enough of it for a lifetime.

“Don’t think this conversation is over, Ava.” Vince raised his eyebrows. “I want to know why you were in some guy’s hotel room.”

“Go home, Vince.” Bella slapped his shoulder, unexpectedly coming to my defense and standing next to me. “Now isn’t the time to get into all of this.”

Vince shook his head. “Do you know how bad I begged for brothers? So I wouldn’t have to deal with all this shit. And what do Mom and Dad do? Go and give me three little sisters.”

“Vincent!” My mother hissed in a hushed tone from the hallway.

“All right, all right.” He put his hands up in defeat. “Until tomorrow, ladies.” He threw a Cocoa Puff into the air and caught it in his mouth before disappearing out the French doors and jogging down the driveway.

“You’d think the moron could at least pick up his own dishes,” Bella huffed, dumping them in the sink. I gathered up my purse and jacket and headed toward the stairs, but she caught my wrist. “Hey, Avs, I’m sorry. What you do with that guy is your business. I just want to see you happy. What if him showing up there was fate? What if he’s a good guy and you really could have a future together?”

“I am happy. I don’t need to define my happiness by a man.” I sighed. Why was that so hard for everyone to understand? “I don’t want to get into all of this again, okay? It doesn’t matter how I feel about the guy, Mom and Dad would never be okay with it.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe you should give it a chance. What if they surprise you and they love the guy?” She followed me up the stairs and to our rooms.

“And what if it seals the deal and Dad marries me off to some old guy he can make a deal with? Would you please just let it go?”

“I will, but I want to say one thing first. You can’t live your life always jumping to the worst scenario. Not everyone is going to hurt you like Jimmy did. But I’ll let it go, only because I love you and I feel like I owe you one for outing you to Vince. Sorry about that.” She scrunched her nose up at me.

“Thank you,” I said. “Good night.”

“Good night, Avs.”

Bella bringing up Jimmy was like salt in a wound I thought long ago healed. Jimmy Bradford was my last serious boyfriend, and the main reason I was steering clear of getting too attached to anyone. When we first met, I thought he hung the moon and the stars, and by the time I saw him for what he was, he had his claws so far into me there was no way I could get out unscathed. When Andrew killed himself, I clung to Jimmy like he was the one thing keeping me afloat, and instead of helping me work through my grief, he threw cocaine at the problem, catapulting me into addiction. It was like the deeper I got, the more I blamed myself for what happened to Andrew, and Jimmy was always there with another hit to take my mind off of it. He enjoyed the hold he had on me, and we were stuck in a vicious cycle. He had been yet another person I had trusted who ended up letting me down. Once I stopped using, I knew Jimmy was the first thing that had to go, but that was easier said than done. His father had been a friend of my father’s for years, and I had to fight like hell to get myself to a place where I could break up with him for good. It was only after I’d done that that I found out he’d cheated on me during most of our relationship as well. Thankfully, the breakup had lasted, and that was a big reason why I wasn’t too keen on running right into a relationship of any kind right now. I was fragile, and who knew what would happen if someone I got attached to hurt me again?

Bella was the only one who knew what really happened between Jimmy and me, and honestly, she was right. I had it in my head that everyone was going to hurt me the way he had, and even if it wasn’t true, I wasn’t really willing to risk it. It was just easier to keep my distance and not even chance going down that road again. I knew myself, and a tough breakup could be a lethal trigger.

For the most part, the rest of the weekend was uneventful. I successfully avoided Vince’s judging eye for the majority of family dinner on Sunday, and spent the rest of the day working on homework.

I had my ethics and law class bright and early Monday morning. It was an awful way to start the week, especially since there would be no ethics in the law I was going to practice. Like everything with my father, sending me to law school was a personal gain for him. It was always nice to have someone around who knew the law and could help you find all the loopholes to make your business seem legitimate. In a desperate attempt to make him proud, I decided to be that person, and to my surprise, he went for it. Most of the time he kept the women in my family far away from anything business related, so this was a huge step.

The lecture dragged on for about two hours before the professor finally let us out. I needed another cup of coffee like I needed a hole in my brain, but I made my way over to the coffee shop in the student center and scanned the menu. The fresh-baked croissants caught my eye, but I was meeting Bella for lunch in a little while, so I ordered my usual vanilla latte and worked my way over to the pickup counter.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

I froze at the sound of that voice behind me. It couldn’t be. Why the hell did this keep happening?

I turned around and confirmed my fears. Standing in front of me in a tight-fitting blue suit was Nick—complete with his goofy, crooked smile and seductive eyes that held my gaze in a vice. Something about him in that suit stirred unimaginable things inside of me. Was it just me or was he more attractive with his unshaved grin and tousled hair? My heart fluttered instinctively, as if I had no control of myself when I was around him. He caught me off guard again, slowly chipping away at the wall I was desperately trying to build. This had to stop.

“I’m beginning to think you’re stalking me,” I teased, grabbing my latte off the counter.

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