“Ava!” My voice riots so loud the universe trembles.
Owen comes up behind me and stops short of the chaotic scene. “Shit!” He grips his hair at the temples.
“Ava!” I lunge past him, but Owen yanks me back, pushes me into the wall so hard my head bounces like a rubber ball.
“You don’t get to fuck with her anymore.” He grits it through his teeth, but it’s the death threat that his eyes send that has me reeling with anger.
“Get the hell away from me, and I won’t tear your head off. I love her. I want to be with her. So help me God, if you don’t get out of my way, you’re going to need a gurney, too.” I offer him a firm shove in an effort to break his stronghold on me.
“You don’t get to pick and choose when you’re going to beniceto my sister.” He growls outniceas if it were an offense. “She was hurting. Where were you then?” His voice rattles over the hall like an echo chamber. “You were the one who caused the pain in the first place!”
Now it’s me shoving him against a wall. “You piece of shit. You—your family—your fucked-up sister, Aubree, was the one who caused the pain in the first place!”
In an instant the rage leaves him. Owen’s face bleaches out as if this were new information I was confronting him with. His body loosens as his hands fly up. “You’re right.”
“Damn straight, I’m right.” I drop him with a shove.
The flurry of doctors and nurses increases with a morbid intensity until one of them cries, “Code Blue!” The gurney, the madness that surrounds it quickly escalates down the hall, and before Owen or I could follow, we stop short at the sight before us.
Sitting in a wheelchair with Harper standing by her side is Ava. She looks whole and healthy, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think that was a sheepish smile forming on her lips.
“God.” Owen dives over her and pulls her into a strong embrace. “What the hell happened? What did you hurt?” He does a frantic search of her body as if expecting to find a missing limb, and I do the same.
“It was totally my fault.” Harper dabs a tissue to her eyes. “I ran a light—I thought I could make it, but the intersection was longer than it looked, and a car hit my passenger side door.”
“I’m fine.” Ava holds up a hand before Owen can say a word. “I don’t even know why they have me in this thing.” She swipes the side of the wheelchair. “Harper insisted we get checked out. I’m just waiting for my paperwork. I’m clear to go.” Her eyes slowly track to mine, and a spark jumps between us as strong as that first day she came crashing into my world.
“Ava.”
She leaps from her seat and into my arms, and I hold her unforgivably tight as we spin.
Ava pulls back and examines me at this close proximity. “I heard what you said. Is it true?”
“Yes.” The word hisses from me painfully slow as I bear into her. “I love you, Ava. I want to be with you.”
Her eyes shine as pale as a morning sky, like river stones gleaming underwater like jewels. “Wh-what about”—she shrugs into a sigh—“m-my sister and all the pain she’s caused your family?”
I press my lips tight as I lose my gaze for a few moments just past her shoulder. “I don’t hate her.” And just like that, the boulder that’s been sitting on my chest for the last few years rolls off and crumbles to dust. I’m lighter than air, lost in the eyes of the girl I love, and nothing else matters. “Hating her can’t bring Steph back. Steph wouldn’t want me to spend the rest of my life in that negative space.” I touch my finger to Ava’s chin until that growing smile of hers is all I see. “She would want me to be with you. I’d swear on my life this is true. I love you, Ava Vincent. First, you stole my PB and J, then you stole a few kisses, and finally, you stole my heart.”
That dark hair of hers swoops over one eye as if it was trained to seduce me. Ava is a natural born seductress with that devilish grin, those diamond eyes.
“I’m going to kiss you now.” She nods into this. “Just be warned that my brother will most likely feed you his fist before we’re through.”
A barely-there grin pumps from me as I lean in and take the initiative. With Ava’s permission, I crash my mouth to hers—making love to her through this kiss, right here in the ER, in front of her loose cannon of a brother.
I don’t really give a shit what he plans on doing.
The only thing that matters is what Ava and I are doing—together.
Love the Hard Way
Ava
The nightmy sister was formally charged with murder, my family, my entire world exploded in a nuclear ball of misery. My heart shattered for the girl who lost her life at the hands of my careless sister. My heart broke just as much for my sister, who inadvertently lost what was left of her own life as well. But this night, in an irony that only life can provide, the one that’s mended my heart fully is Grant Jones, the brother of the girl my own sister murdered.
Once I assured both Harper and Owen that I was fine, Grant and I took off and ended up at the exact place where we started, the Hallowed Grounds Café.
“Just for the record, I vote we finish our drinks and take this someplace with a little more privacy, like your room at Beta house.” I reach over and interlace our fingers. Grant has such thick strong hands, and every part of my body demands that they touch me.
