“Itisgreat!” Emmitt piped, though Richard was probably too far from the phone to hear. He glanced around the table, catching worried expressions from both Ty and Andie. Trenton, Memphis and Maverick didn’t look nearly so perturbed.
“Why don’tIjust spend the day with Sloane while you guys have Christmas together,” Emmitt suggested. “That’s the only thing that will make everyone happy.”
“Iwon’t be happy,” Andie said. “I want our whole family together for Christmas. Plus, Sloane would be wondering why we weren’t all celebrating together. Now, let’s think about this rationally. How long did it take for me to decide I could trust Trenton? And Memphis, how long was it before you knew you could trust Ty?”
“I knew I could trust her long before I told her,” Memphis said. “I just didn’t want to scare her away. And Richard, he had it easy because Ava already knew.”
“Did someone actually say I had iteasy?”Richard growled, proving he’d moved back to the phone. “My wife is in jeopardy andI’mthe one who’s got it easy.”
“At least Ava already knew about all ofourcrap,” Maverick said. “You can’t admit that that’s lucky?”
“No,” Richard spat. “I can’t admit that that’s lucky when right now, her freaking psychopath of an ex is more of a threat to her than the entire mafia is to us. Do you guys get that?”
Andie released an exhausted sigh. “We get it, Richard. But you can’t treat us likewe’reWren. The truth is, we’reallworried about this, and we’re all doing our best under the circumstances.”
She met eyes with Emmitt across the table. “Even Emmitt is. He didn’t ask for this. In fact, he tried to get out of the training, but he went along with things so he wouldn’t make waves. How was he supposed to know he was going to fall in love with the instructor?”
Richard groaned.
“It’s going to be fine,” Ava said through the line. Emmitt could just picture Ava comforting Richard with that thing she did—running a hand along the back of his neck.
“Christmas is still four days away,” Ava came again. “I say we all just take a day or two to think about what’s best. If we can’t get together, we can’t get together. If we can make it work—and it matters enough to everyone—I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
“That’s fine by me,” Emmitt said.
“Sounds good to me too,” Trenton agreed.
“Fine,” Andie said, sounding unsettled. “Are we done then?”
“I guess,” Memphis and Maverick were saying at once, but Richard spoke up over them.
“Wait. Has Emmitt told this woman aboutourpast?”
All eyes shot to Emmitt.
“No,” he assured. “I haven’t had to.”
“Well, I think we should all agree before you go off and spill our whole story. It involves more than just you. As for Ava’s story, we’ve got to keep that one off the table no matter what.”
Emmitt didn’t agree with him, but there was no sense in arguing. “Whatever, Richard. I’ll keep it quiet until you’re ready for her to know. But trust me when I say that no normal person is going to feel anything but sympathy and concern for what Ava’s been through. You should just trust that this woman is as great as we’re telling you she is.”
His drawn-out comment was met with silence, both in the room and from the phone resting on the table.
“I’m sure she is,” Ava finally said through the line. “Thank you for that, Emmitt. Richard and I will talk, and we’ll revisit this in a couple of days.”
“That sounds good, Ava,” Andie was first to say. “You guys go ahead and get some sleep now. I’m sure we’re all ready to hit the sack.”
How true that was. With as private as their roundtable meetings had to be, they’d shifted their meeting time to ten o’clock at night.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Maverick said sarcastically. “I can’t wait to fall in love and get interrogated by everyone for it.”
“No crap,” Emmitt said as he shot up from his chair.
“They just need time,” Trenton assured. “We’ve been here all along, so we’ve been able to see this progress along the way. For Richard, this is the first he’s hearing about it.”
“That’s a good point,” Andie said, turning an appreciative look his way.
“Well, I really hope we can come to a unanimous decision,” Ty said as she stood up from her chair as well. “I should get back and spell off Betty now. I hope Lucas didn’t sneak out of bed while I was gone.”
