He shook his head. “Payton will be there, and Mum. He’ll have enough support. I’ll go later.”
Ava nodded and we all turned to the paramedics now entering the house straight towards Grant and Marie, who was smiling too much at her husband.
“You don’t mind taking me to the hospital?” Ava said as we moved out of the room. “This was meant to be Sunday lunch…”
Her small hands were on my waist, her touch light.
“I want to make sure he’s alright too,” I said. “It’s fine.”
She looked up at me and nodded, a silent thank you.
“I’d get a lift with my sister but I think we’d be bad for each other right now.”
We both glanced over at Payton who was wrapped around Owen Anders.
“This is where Claire would pull us both by the hair and tell us to sort ourselves the fuck out, but she’s busy with Eliza.”
“I got you instead,” I said, starting to get some idea as to what those words actually meant.
Chapter Seven
Elijah
June
“It feelslike it’s been ages since I saw you.” Ava sat down in front of me, her hair tied in a messy plait. “I can’t believe how busy this week has been.”
I’d had a trial for three days and then had to go to Edinburgh overnight to take statements on a new case I had. The week had been gruelling and I’d had no time to see anyone, including Ava, until now. “But it’s Friday and neither of us have to get up tomorrow.” We were having dinner at the Wickentree, a restaurant where we’d met several times in the last few weeks.
Her expression changed. “I’ve promised to meet Jon. You remember, the architect guy. But not till midday. Then I need to head to Oxford.”
My jaw clenched. I did not like Jon. He called and messaged her at weird times, demanding she met him before work or later in the evening. I suspected he was trying to work his way into a date with her and although Ava and I weren’t technically exclusive and we were yet to have a conversation about our relationship status, I did not want her being taken out by another man. “Still time for a lazy Saturday morning in bed.”
Her pupils dilated. “You don’t have a morning run scheduled?”
“I can get my exercise some other way. How’s your dad doing?” I knew well enough that he was doing well, in health if not in temperament, but I wanted to hear it from her.
“Good. He’s lost half a stone. Unfortunately, he’s driving Mum mad with complaining about food and lack of alcohol. She’s hoping that having us around this weekend will take the edge off him.”
“She’s asked you to gang up on him, hasn’t she?” I said with a smirk. I knew Marie well. No tactic was beneath her.
“Yep. And I’ve just had a load of abuse off the siblings for not being there tonight to start the process,” she said. “Apparently I have a friend with an emergency tonight.”
“It kind of is an emergency,” I said. “I haven’t seen you since last Sunday.”
Her eyes met mine and I felt the snap of electricity between us. Then her foot pressed against my leg and upwards.
“I thought of you though,” she said. “A lot.”
My cock hardened, something she’d find out as soon as her foot went any higher. “When did you think of me?”
The waiter appeared at our table before she could answer and took our drinks order, leaving her smiling and her foot now pressing against my cock. I hadn’t seen her since Sunday lunch when we’d joined up with some of her siblings and friends, sitting together as usual but keeping our hands to ourselves.
In some ways, the imposed restriction on touch made the times when we were alone more desperate but in other ways they were frustrating. We both agreed that no one was likely to bother about us – the age gap or the fact I was friends with her brothers, but it was easier to keep it under the radar for the inevitable moving on with someone else. That seemed to be where we were: a stop gap until I’d gotten over Andrea and Ava found someone else to have fun with. Only I’d never been quite sure that there had been anything to get over with Andrea, and Ava seemed to be having enough fun at the moment, anyhow.
“I thought of you most nights,” Ava said, giving me the evil grin that I now associated with the torture she liked to inflict with the flashes of cleavage and short skirts. “It’s that time of the month when I’m especially needy. I may have a few ideas I want to try out.”
I trapped her foot between my thighs and leaned forward, pressing my dick so she could feel the reaction I was having. “Have you been reading those books again?”
