Page 26 of Ties That Bind Us

“You two know each other?” Ava frowned in confusion.

“We’ve worked together a little bit in the past,” I said, hoping Vince didn’t want to air all of our dirty laundry right now. Thankfully, he just scoffed and turned his head.

“Nick and I are . . . dating.” Ava had an awkward edge to her voice, and I had to stifle a laugh. Apparently, the rest of the Moretti family hadn’t been enlightened about our arrangement.

“What?!” Bella shrieked, glaring at Ava. “What about the guy from the . . . oh.” The realization hit her all at once. Ava had told her about our evening at the hotel. It seemed she hadn’t forgotten about me as easily as she claimed if she was telling her sister about me. I couldn’t wipe the smirk off of my face no matter how badly I wanted to.

“One of my siblings wasn’t enough for you, huh, Caponelli?” Vince gritted his teeth. His voice was low so only I would hear. “Had to go for another one?” He stepped toward me as if he wanted to fight. I was never one to back down from a challenge like the one Vince was presenting, but that wasn’t the way I wanted to impress my new fiancé—by knocking her brother out cold in her parents’ foyer.

Ava hadn’t heard what he said but she turned just in time to see us squaring off. “Vince, don’t you have a something better to do than harass my boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend? Does Dad know about this?” Vince asked, never taking his eyes off of me.

“Yes, he does. He’s all for it. In fact, he’s the one who arranged it. So if you don’t mind, Nick and I have things to do.” Ava turned flippantly and headed toward the stairs.

“Nice to meet you both,” I said quickly and followed her. Luckily, Vince stayed put and didn’t push the issue any further. I needed to find out what Ava knew about the situation with Andrew, and if she didn’t know the truth, I needed to find a way to tell her before someone else did. If she found out that I shot her twin brother before I could explain what happened, our marriage would be over before it even started.

“So you told your sister about me?” I teased, following her down the winding hall until we finally reached the last possible door we could get to.

Ava rolled her eyes as she opened her bedroom door. “Don’t flatter yourself. She caught me sneaking in the next morning.”

I smirked at the thought of her walk of shame from my hotel room. Makeup smeared and hair a mess, hopefully so damn sore she couldn’t walk straight. “You know, if you had stayed, that wouldn’t have been an issue.”

“Is this the part where I’m supposed to say something nauseatingly romantic like Thank goodness fate brought us together again?” She brushed against me as she walked into her room.

“Fate is a great way to describe it.” I chuckled, knowing it wasn’t the response she was looking for. Ava was unlike any other girl I had met and I was going to have to jump through some serious hoops to make this work. I was determined to, though. I wanted to become Don. I wanted to show my family how dedicated and capable I was. And I wanted to come home to Ava every night for the rest of my life.

“This isn’t fate, Nick. This is some archaic Mafia tradition that should have been abolished years ago.” She gave me a sideways smile, almost like she was teasing me. I welcomed the change—it meant she was loosening up, letting her true self shine through.

“Why must you be so pessimistic?” I followed her into her bedroom and took a seat on her bed.

She shrugged playfully. “I’m not pessimistic, I’m rational. One of us has to be.” She leaned down and kissed my cheek unexpectedly. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready to go.” She disappeared into the bathroom, leaving me sitting on her bed, speechless.

It took all my strength to not break down the damn door and throw her onto the bed. That was the first time she had initiated any kind of physical contact between us since that night, and it was driving me wild. If her brother wasn’t waiting downstairs already likely to rip my throat out, I would claim her right here in her childhood room. What the fuck did this girl do to me?

Twenty minutes went by and Ava still hadn’t emerged. I was getting restless.

“You know, when I said I wanted to take you on a date, I meant today,” I called, glancing at my watch. We were running out of sunlight here.

The door opened and Ava came out absolutely glowing. God, I was a lucky man.

“Sorry, if I had known you were coming over, I could have been ready.” She smiled, then grabbed her purse before slipping on a pair of shoes.

“Give me your number and the next time I come, I’ll call.” I smiled, my palm finding the small of her back and guiding her out of the room.

“You’re kidding, right? You can’t do a little research and find it out for yourself?” She grinned, throwing my words right back at me.

She was spicy this morning, and I was enjoying every second of it. “Well, of course, I can, I’d just prefer you give it to me willingly.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself there, lover boy. Let’s just see how today goes.”

I opened the door for Ava and she got inside the car. I had a surprise for her this afternoon, and I had a sneaking suspicion it might be just the thing to get her to let her walls down completely.

We made small talk as we drove, arguing about my taste in music and who had the best pizza in New York. It only scratched the surface of the things I wanted to know about her. She was still guarded, but hopefully not for long. About an hour and half into our drive toward Montauk, I turned into a long, tree-lined driveway, and watched as she looked out at the sprawling meadows in wonder. I didn’t think I would ever get tired of that light in her eyes.

“Where are we?” she asked, keeping her gaze locked on the scenery.

A small smile crept across my face knowing that she was enjoying this already. “You’ll see.”

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