Page 3 of Wild Heart

“This is her solo performance,” Ivy whispered back. “She has a group performance almost immediately afterward.”

My mind was blown.

How could she even dream of performing in front of all these people on her own? Doing it with a group would have been enough of an embarrassment for me. I couldn’t imagine standing on stage in front of this crowd and dancing in front of them.

But once the music started and Ava began to dance, I knew why she didn’t have a problem doing it.

It took me no more than a minute to realize just how talented she was. And while it was clear her technical ability was stellar, the performance aspect was the best part. I knew nothing,absolutely nothing, about dance, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen something so captivating in my whole life.

And for a girl who’d just had her whole world ripped apart that morning, it didn’t show. She was a dancer, a performer. She was born to do this.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

The more I watched her, the more I felt something twist in my stomach.

I shook my head, attempting to rid myself of the feeling. This was Ava. She was my little sister’s best friend. I was going to be eighteen in a matter of months. She was fifteen. I couldn’t dream of going there.

Swallowing hard, I buried the feelings that moved through me somewhere deep inside.

The next thing I knew, the music ended, and Ava’s performance was over. She stood at the center of the stage, took a bow, and scanned the crowd. She found Ivy a half a second before she saw me.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

All I could bring myself to do was offer a friendly smile in return.

And as she walked off, I reminded myself that it had to remain that way. Friendly.

Because no matter how I felt, Ava Carson was off limits.

1

TATE

FOUR AND A HALF YEARS LATER

I was flirtingwith dangerous territory.

Literally.

It had been difficult not to, especially after ignoring her and the way I felt for three years.

I had no other choice then. She was underage, the same age as my sister. And if some guy two years older than her thought he was going to date my sister when she was sixteen and he was eighteen, he was wrong. I’d have been nothing but a hypocrite if I’d done that very thing with Ava.

But then she turned eighteen. And whether it was the realization of her officially being an adult now or something else, I didn’t know. But Ava had gained some confidence around me. She flirted. All the time.

She was always around, always looking at me, and always dropping hints that she had a crush. And now, she was nineteen—a week away from turning twenty—and I no longer had the excuse of her age to steer clear.

But something inside me refused to allow me to give in to the overwhelming attraction I felt for her. Something that, if Iallowed myself to think for too long about, would only frustrate me more.

So, I decided if there was no way I could avoid Ava’s advances, the least I could do was flirt back. Maybe, with enough time, she might realize that was all it would ever be—all it could be.

We were having a family game night tonight, and as had been the case from the time things had taken that awful turn with her parents, Ava had become part of our family. Nothing had been made official, but whatever was going on in the Westwood family, Ava was always a part of it.

Charades was the game of choice tonight. I found myself sitting beside Ava, something she seemed to orchestrate effortlessly in any scenario when we were seated around a table or on the couches. And while she wasn’t obnoxious about any of it, she found ways to touch me frequently. Whether it was simply handing me game pieces or the dice. In a situation like tonight, it involved her excitement mixing with the rest of our team’s as we all attempted to guess the answer. Her hands would land on my arm or leg and squeeze, and I often struggled to come up with any guesses, because I was so distracted by her.

It was Ava, Ivy, Marco, and me against Wyatt, Cooper, Liam, and Jules.

We’d just finished a round and our opponents were preparing for their turn when Ava received a phone call. “Oh, hang on. I have to take this call. I’ll be quick.”

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