Page 12 of Best Laid Plans

Nova

"No fucking way," Trevor raged as he flipped the steak he was grilling.

He was in shorts and a T-shirt, and looked nothing like any high school teacher I'd had. I was sure that all the teenage girls were half in love with their math teacher with his blonde hair, six-pack body, and the kindest blue eyes I'd ever seen.

"Mind your own business, T," his fiancée admonished while she tossed a salad.

Katya matched Trevor in looks. She was blonde and gorgeous, and she was an ER doctor, so she had brains and beauty. She also had kind blue eyes.

I was drinking a glass of Chardonnay, watching them cook in their backyard.

"She's my sister, so, she is my business." Trevor turned to look at me. "You tell Nina you won't work with that asshole."

"Then said asshole will know that he affects her, and he'll think he has won." Katya picked up a cherry tomato, and popped it into her mouth.

"Who cares what he thinks? I'm worried about Nova. She doesn't need to spend time with him and his skanky fiancée. She works for him? What the fuck?" Trevor basted the steak with some truffle butter.

"Lots of couples work together." Katya refilled my glass of wine.

"Tell Larue to go fuck himself, Nova, and you stay away from Sentinel." Trev dropped the finished steaks into a tray, and wrapped them in foil to rest.

"She doesn't have to stay away from anyone or anywhere," Katya snapped.

Trevor looked at me. "You have anything to add."

I raised my glass and shook my head. "You guys are doing such a good job having this conversation without me. Please continue."

Katya chuckled. "He gets protective, and I get pissed."

Trevor set the tray of steaks on the table, and brushed his lips against Katya's cheek. "Darlin', I can't help who I am."

"And I can't help how pissed I get." Katya hugged him.

I loved watching them together. They'd known each other for years, and they still seemed as much in love today as they had when I first met them.

Katya came from the same old-money Savannah society set as Trevor, which meant that their families had been happy when they started dating. I knew that Katya's parents would've preferred it if Trevor, like his brother, was running a business or managing the family estate—it bothered them that he was a high school teacher. But Trevor's mother and brother, Beau, had been supportive of his ambitions.

Beau said, "If having a shit ton of money doesn't give you the freedom to do whatever the fuck you want, what the fuck is the point of having the money, yeah?"

I liked Beau. He was easygoing, laid back, and didn't care what anyone thought of him. He was known to sleep around—there had been a recent rumor/scandal about a threesome.

When Katya had asked him about it, he'd frowned, "Which one? I've had a few, darlin'."

When I first met Beau, I worried he'd be like Anson, and in some ways, he was. But Beau wasn't carrying baggage. Trevor was the same. Until Trevor found out about me, he'd never dreamed that his father would cheat on his mother. But he'd come to terms with it.

Trevor thought that Beau would be fine with finding out about me, but I didn't want to take a chance. What if Beau hated me for being the child of a woman his father had a dalliance with? And I really didn't want Donna Bodine, their mother, to find out. I'd gotten to know her as well, and she was a sweetheart who didn't deserve the heartache.

"I'm going to work on the Sentinel Heights project," I told Trevor. "I have to. I can't, or rather, I won't let him hurt my career."

Only my defense attorney, Emmett, and the then Sentinel County ADA knew what happened to me in the Sheriff's jail cell.

I never told Trevor or Katya. None of my other friends knew. I'd slipped up with Luna once, when she'd seen me respond with fear to a man making a pass at me at a bar. She'd guessed, and I had confirmed that I had been sexually assaulted, but she didn't know the details. She assumed that was the reason I was cagey when it came to men.

I might not have a legion of boyfriends or a ménage à trois or two on my sexual resume, but I was happy. I'd never been this content before in my life. I felt safe, both physically and emotionally. I wasn't worried about my mother or grandmother dying. I wasn't concerned about money and how I'd pay rent. I wasn't worried about not having enough to eat. I wasn't concerned about putting gas in my car to get to work.

Katya put a hand on mine. "Whatever you do, understand there is no judgment from our end."

"Absolutely, Nova. You want to do it, then you do it. I just need a promise from you," Trevor said.

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