Page 43 of Unstoppable Love

“Back then, all I was thinking about was what Isaiah would do if he found out. How pissed he’d be at me. And I was leaving anyway. I was thinking I’d already hurt her, and Grams asked if being honest would make it worse.”

“I’m not sure honesty ever makes anything worse.”

“Yeah.” No shit. I knew that. Now. “Except back then, I was barely eighteen and leaving in a few weeks for school. What in the hell was I supposed to do? Tell her I was sorry, that I’d liked being with her, but there was no chance of anything else ever happening so she should forget about me? Either way, I was a dick.”

“So Grams said to leave it alone? To not make it worse?”

“She didn’t want Ava to spend time waiting for me, hoping we’d get together when I came back home on breaks.”

“Well, sure seems like she’s moved on,” Caleb huffed.

“Fuck you,” I told my brother. “Grams wanted us both to grow up. Then, by the time I was ready and she told me to get my head out of my ass, I hesitated. She was with Kip. I figured she’d done it and moved on.”

“So why be a dick to her for all that time?”

“I wasn’t trying to be a dick.” I wanted to see the fire in her eyes. I wanted her to show me she cared. I hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but if all I could have from Ava was her anger, then I would do whatever I needed to keep it.

“I fucked up. Huge. I know that, but now she’s here, living here permanently. She’s not in Denver where I can even try to make something work. I don’t need the lecture on how I screwed up, I need advice on how to fix it. On how to get Ava to forgive me and let me make it up to her.”

I knew I should have stayed away. Knew the second I saw her curled up on my couch and sleeping, I should have let her leave. It was selfish of me to tell her to stay. Selfish of me to take her suitcase and tell her she wasn’t going anywhere. Everything I’d done had been selfish, except giving her the chance to grow and find her own path.

And now that path she’d found was going to keep me away from her nine months out of the year.

I turned my pleading eyes to Emily and then to Caleb. “I’ll do anything to fix this. Anything to be able to love her the way she deserves. But I don’t know how.”

“I’m not sure that can be done in a day, Cam. She’s hurt, and based on how you said you left her, I think she needs some time.”

“I don’t have time.” I had my first preseason game on Saturday. I’d hauled my ass out to New Haven as soon as our practice was done that morning, and I had tomorrow off, but I had to be back in Denver by nine in the morning on Wednesday for practice.

I only had tomorrow.

“Sleep on it,” Emily said. “It’s already late anyway. Give her the night to take it all in, and maybe in the morning, things will be clearer.”

“What she said. Sounds good to me.” Caleb pointed at his wife with a stupid, dopey grin on his face.

I scowled at him. “Thanks. You were a lot of help.”

I barely slept. Tossed and turned all night, and in the morning, nothing was clearer, except for the fact there was only one person who could help me now.

And I was truly starting to believe she was the one who’d screwed this all up in the first place. At least, after I caused the initial stab wound.

By the time I showered, poured coffee into a travel mug, and headed into town, the sun was barely rising. I resisted the urge to head my truck straight to Ava’s and instead drove through town, taking a left at the combined middle school and high school building, and into New Haven’s retirement community.

Grams was going to help me fix this. Out of anyone, she was probably the only person Ava would listen to anyway. If even that were possible anymore. I could be wrong about that, too, after what I told her yesterday.

I handed my driver’s license to the receptionist’s desk even though Darlene Shudabaker had known me my entire life.

“Busy day today,” she muttered. “Lotsa company coming.”

My brows tugged in as she said it, and then I let it go. It was a Tuesday. It couldn’t be that busy.

She handed me back my license, and I tucked it into my wallet. “Thanks, Mrs. Shudabaker.”

“Have a good time. Behave yourself.”

I shook my head. She was a trip. She was also a resident there, but she’d only recently moved in after falling and needing a new hip. Her home was too much for her to take care of, so she moved into the retirement home and started volunteering in the front office.

I rounded the corner and headed down the hallway to Grams’s room and stopped when I got close to it.

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