Page 17 of Aussie
She was almost at her car when, suddenly, she felt a hand clamp down on her arm, roughly spinning her around. A gasp escaped her lips as her body jerked back toward him.
“Jarod—”
The sharpness in her voice must have struck him because his eyes widened in realization. He immediately let go, throwing his hands up in surrender, his face pale with regret.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” His voice cracked with urgency. “I just wanted to talk to you, Ava. I didn’t mean to grab you like that. Please, just listen to me for a minute.”
Her pulse raced, rattled not just by the suddenness of his action but by the intensity in his eyes. She took a step back, her heart still pounding in her chest. There was something about the way he had grabbed her. Whether it was intentional or not, it felt like a line had been crossed.
This isn’t good.
“Jarod, I don’t think now is the best time to have this conversation,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “I’ll repeat myself again. We should keep things between us professional from now on. It’s better that way.”
He shook his head, stepping toward her again, his tone desperate. “You don’t mean that. Ava, we’ve been good together. You know that. I’ll admit that I screwed up. Are you really willing to throw away everything we had over one mistake?”
Everything they had? She wasn’t even sure what they even had. Sure, they dated, but that was really the extent of it. She never even slept with him.
But Ava wasn’t easily convinced that he was being genuinely remorseful. His insistence only made her more uncomfortable, the tension between them thickening with each passing second. She didn’t want any part of this.
“I really have to go, Jarod,” she said, her voice firm this time as she turned and pulled her car keys from her purse. “Christian’s waiting for me, and I need to pick him up.”
He hesitated, his mouth opening as if to say something else, but she didn’t give him a chance as she quickly unlocked her car and slid into the driver’s seat, her fingers trembling as she gripped the steering wheel. She glanced in the rearview mirror as she pulled out of the parking lot, seeing Jarod still standing there, watching her drive away.
As she left the courthouse behind, Ava’s thoughts swirled. There was something about the way Jarod had acted tonight. The way he’d been so insistent and so unwilling to take no for an answer. It made her uneasy. Her gut twisted with a warning she couldn’t quite ignore.
Jarod’s going to be a problem,she thought, her mind flashing back to his pleading voice and his desperate eyes. He didn’t want to let go. And that scared her.
But she shook the thought away, her focus shifting to Christian. That’s where her attention needed to be right now. Not on Jarod and whatever was going on with him, but on Christian and making sure she didn’t let him down.
Focus, Ava,she told herself, pushing away the lingering anxiety from the encounter. Christian needed her to be present, not rattled. She pressed her foot on the gas and headed toward the community center, determined to shake off the unsettling feeling that had followed her since Jarod had grabbed her arm.
And as her thoughts settled back on Christian and the evening ahead, one comforting thought rose to the surface.
At least I get to see Aussie.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Twenty minutes after Ava’s unsettling run-in with Jarod, she pulled into the parking lot of the local community center where Christian’s Sea Cadet meeting was being held. The first thing that caught her eye was the familiar red truck parked near the front with a Navy sticker plastered on the back window.
Her heart skipped a beat. She knew Aussie was inside, and the idea of seeing him again made her both excited and nervous.
Ava had replayed her conversation with Sarah from earlier in her head at least ten times by now.Was she really crushing on Aussie?She had tried to convince herself it was just a passing attraction, but the butterflies in her stomach every time she thought about him said otherwise.
She took a deep breath as she locked her car up and made her way into the building. As soon as she stepped inside, her eyes found him near the back of the room, standing casually by the rear door, leaning against the wall. Aussie was hard to miss. His broad shoulders, confident stance, and the way he seemed so at ease in any environment made him stand out.
When he saw her, his face lit up, and he waved her over with that easy smile she was starting to think about more often than she should.
She walked toward him, her heart doing that little flutter thing it always seemed to do around him. “Hey,” she greeted, her voice steady despite the nerves tightening in her chest. “Thanks again for bailing me out and picking up Christian.”
Aussie waved her off, his smile never wavering. “No problem at all. I wasn’t doing much at home anyway. I’m always happy to help.”
She nodded, grateful. His casual demeanor made it seem like it really wasn’t a big deal to him, but to her, it meant a lot, more than he probably realized.
“So, how was your day?” he asked, his tone light but his eyes sharp with interest.
Ava’s muscles tensed at the question. She should have known better than to think Aussie wouldn’t notice something was off. He was trained to read people, after all. “It was fine,” she replied, but her voice faltered slightly. His gaze didn’t waver, and she knew she couldn’t brush it off. She sighed. “Jarod. Well, he followed me to my car after court.”
The mention of Jarod’s name made Aussie’s expression harden, his playful demeanor shifting in an instant. “He followed you?”
