I heard the knock on the door as Ash told me Coach was here. With a sad smile, I left her in my bathroom. I didn’t know how I could ever look at her again, as the guilt was already weighing me down.
* * *
Derrick was taken by Coach and campus police to the real police. I had no idea how the school’s PR team would handle this, but my dad phoned and insisted all three of us come home, which meant the board already knew.
The drive home was silent, and I had to fight the urge to turn around and see if Ava was okay. I shouldn’t have left her, but I didn’t want to be there when she realized that I was no better than Derrick. Coach told me that the school would reach out to her and see what she needed, but he agreed that I needed to give her space.
Space I could give her.
In the kitchen at home, my parents, my aunt, and my uncle demanded all the details. I hadn’t really wanted to talk about it, so Gray and Ash filled them in as I sat and stared at the wall. Every touch with her, every smile, every captured gasp replayed in my head as I analyzed every moment with her.
Now that Derrick had been revealed as the missing piece, I remembered mostly everything, and I was sure that Ava would, too.
“Jett,” my mom spoke softly to me. “Jett, honey, can we talk?”
I looked around the kitchen. Everyone was gone except Mom. “Where are they?”
She sighed as she reached out to stroke my arm. “I think Gray is punching the shit out of something in the gym, and your dad is waiting to pick him up, and then I guess the two of them will run on the treadmill until they collapse.” She tried to smile. “You know, Santo men shit.”
I snorted out a laugh. “And Ash?”
“Kage will be punching the shit out of something, and Ash will be waiting to pick him up, then they’ll swim laps until Aunt Charlotte needs to rescue them,” Mom said dryly. “Same Santo, same man shit.” She lost her smile as she looked back at me. “I hate that this happened to you.”
“Ava. It happened toAva, Mom.”
“I know, I know that, sweetie . . . but it happened to you, too.”
“I still don’t remember it like I should, I didn’t think I drank that much of the second bottle,” I told her quietly.
“But you must have.” She answered me gently. “You don’t remember the night at all?” she asked me curiously.
“Now I do.” I stood from the table. “Now I have it in full IMAX surround sound in my head.”
“And what does it tell you?” she asked me as she gave me her full attention.
“That she was as willing as I was.”
Mom nodded and plucked at her sleeve. “So, what we need to know is if you both would have been that way if you weren’t drugged.”
I shrugged. I didn’t know.
“And your brother and cousin tell me that you and Ava are a veryhands-oncouple.”
Couple?
“They do?” I asked cautiously.
“Yes, Gray says you’re drawn to her like a moth to the flame, and Ash says he’s never seen you happier than you were thismorning with her.” Her smile was full of love. “Drugged water or not, Jett, you and Ava would have ended up together.”
“She’s an Alabama Lions fan,” I blurted out.
My mom laughed. “And now we know how you were attracted to each other: she poked your QB ego.”
I grinned despite myself. She probably did. Ava was definitely ballsy enough to spike my interest.
“She sounds nice,” Mom said.
“She is,” I agreed.
