Way to give her a way out, dummy. Sure, Richard didn’t want Ava doing anything she was uncomfortable with, but it seemed Maverick was the one trying to keep the details under wraps. Richard shot him a look.
“Of course,” Andie said. “You don’t have to tell us if you’d rather not.”
Richard huffed out an irritated breath, leaned his back against the wall, and tucked his hands into his pockets. They’d be stuck listening to M&M’s getaway story until kingdom come.
“I don’t mind,” Ava said.
Richard pulled himself away from the wall, a fresh wave of interest flaring hotter than a bonfire.
“I was at work. I’m an accountant.”
Whoa. Richard felt that one low in his belly. Sexyandsmart.
“I’ve worked with this travel agency for years, right?” she continued. “Butthisday was different, because for the first time since I started doing their numbers, the totals lined up on the first time through.”
Emmitt leaned forward on the couch. “Do most companies take a while to get to that point?”
Since when was Emmitt interested in numbers?
“Oh, yeah,” she said through a laugh. “And then, of course, there’s the opposite end where the owners are so meticulous that they’re rarely a cent off.”
“That would be me for sure,” Emmitt interjected.
“Psh, hardly,” Richard couldn’t help but say.
The entire room seemed to notice his presence for the first time since they’d been there. Every eye in the room zoomed in on him like there were worms crawling out of his ears. Richard rolled his shoulders back and shrugged dismissively.
“It’s just that, everyone knows that Emmitt’s a slob. So to hear him say he’s meticulous is just…laughable. Sorry, go on.”
“I wouldn’t call it laughable when we’re talking about math,” Emmitt said.
“I got straight As too, buddy,” Richard reminded.
“Yeah, but only one of us got an A minus and it wasn’t me.”
“That teacher hated me,” Richard said. “It was personal.”
A bright little giggle trickled from the corner. “Sorry,” Ava said, covering her mouth with her hand. “I’ve just never had siblings. This is kind of fun for me.”
“Yeah,” Memphis said with a head shake. “I get a kick out of them too.”
Oh, so suddenly he was so mature?
Richard bit his lip, determined to not speak another word.
“Sorry,” he urged to get her to continue.Nowhe wouldn’t speak another word.
“So I was sitting there,” Ava said, “just soaking up the euphoria of that numerical bliss, right? When all of the sudden some guy starts waving at me from across the room.”
A round of chuckles lifted over the space. “Weall know who that was,” Andie said with a laugh, “but let’s see how good Trenton’s gotten to know the twins through me. Which one do you think was waving an arm at her, babe?”
Trenton squinted for a blink, feigning concentration. “Let me think…Maverick?”
Ava pointed at Trenton and grinned. “You got it.”
Was that a dimple in her cheek? Huh, she was really coming alive in the group setting like this, wasn’t she?
“So I ignored him at first,” Ava continued.
