Page 85 of Reckless Love

“Teeth. Jammies,” Ava says, ushering him toward the hallway. She watches him go and then turns to me, head cocked, “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I say before I start packing up the game.

“No,” she says, “there’s something. But if you don’t want to tell me, I guess I haven’t earned that one yet.” She gives me a strained smile. “You know what I have earned, though? The story of these”—she runs her finger along my scarred cheek—“and that tiny hitch in your stride.”

“I don’t have a hitch in my stride,” I say, glancing up at her.

“You do.” She searches my face. “Probably only someone who’s watched you walk in and out of rooms a thousand times would notice.”

“My parents never said anything.”

“Would they?”

Maybe not. I’m realizing we might have spent too much time protecting each other in the wrong ways. “Maybe I stopped physio too early.”

“So you could come back to Bellerive?”

I slot the last piece into the box, shut it, and stand up, towering over Ava. When I’m at my full height, she’s such a tiny little thing, even though she’s probably a little above the average height for a woman. With a sigh, I smooth down her hair and kiss the top of it.

“Story time can wait until you’re feeling better.”

“I’m not that fragile, Stephen.”

“You are to me,” I say, planting another kiss on her temple. “I’m not compromising your recovery for a story that’s not all that important or questions that can wait for another time.”

She sighs and then wraps her arms around my waist and up my back, drawing me into a hug. Her ear is pressed to my chest, and I let myself bask in the closeness. I run a hand down her hair to cup her head, marveling that I can do this, again, finally. The idea that I’d get to touch her in any capacity seemed so farfetched when I found out she married Raul Santos, had his child. I close my eyes and take some deep breaths.

As much as I wish this moment could last forever, I’m afraid of the intensity of my desire, how quickly this all-encompassing want for her has come roaring back since I gave these feelings permission to rear their head again at the hospital.

Because the truth is, if Landon isn’t mine, if Raul wakes up—Ava’s going to have a hell of a decision to make. There’s no way he’ll let her go without a fight. If he and Celia are cut from the same cloth, he won’t play fair; he is likely to do whatever it takes to either make her pay for leaving or to ensure she can’t leave.

“I’m ready,” Landon calls when he comes out of the bathroom.

But I’m not. When Ava starts to pull away, I hold her close for another beat, and she puts her chin on my chest, staring up at me. As I stare down at her, I'm at war with myself. Half of me wants to freeze time, never leave this moment where everything I've ever wanted is possible, and another part of me wants to demand answers and escape this uncertainty, consequences be damned.

“Once you’re cleared by a doctor,” I say, “I’ll tell you whatever you want to hear.”

A slow smile spreads across her face. “You promise?”

“I promise.” And I think it might be the most foolish promise I’ve ever made.

Chapter Thirty

Ava

We’ve been in recovery for a week and a half, not doing much more than eating and playing various board games, when I call Jenny and Nancy to come to Stephen’s house for meetings. While I could do the meetings online, it’s hard to know who’s listening on their end. With a new cologne line in the works and with the recent decisions I’ve decided to enact for the company, I need to see both Jenny and Nancy in person. When I broached going into the office for an hour or two to Stephen, he went into full caveman protective mode and suggested I wait a few more days before testing my limits.

The old Ava’s come out of hibernation, though, and I’m nothing if not a limit tester.

Jenny is the first to arrive, right on schedule. She has a small purse-like container, and she sets it on the kitchen table. Our nurse for today is doing laundry in the room that adjoins Vanessa’s apartment, so I don’t have to worry about her overhearing top-secret company information.

Jenny unsnaps the case, and inside are two samples. She plucks out the first and holds it out to me. I uncap it and take a whiff. Landon wanders over just as I close my eyes and release a deep sigh. I seriously want to bathe in this scent.

“Can I smell?” Landon asks.

I hold it down to him, and he sniffs. Then he sniffs again, peering up at me with curiosity. “Stephen?” he asks.

“It does smell a bit like him, doesn’t it?” And by a bit, I mean it completely does. Jenny could not have nailed it harder.