Page 48 of Ava
“Ah, okay.” He grinned as he grabbed a pad of paper, and wrote something down.
“What did you write?” Alfie asked as he started carrying the platters of food to the table.
“We better start buying potatoes by the fifty-pound sack.” Everyone laughed, and it was Chuck who groaned.
“You’re not going to be feeding us home fries at every meal are you?”
“Not everyone…” he let the sentence hang with a grin. As Ava watched the exchange, she realized this was the first time she’d heard Alex speak more than ten words at a time, and his smile made him very, very handsome, not as handsome as Justin, in her opinion, but still very handsome. As they tucked into the meal, Ava again felt the sense of belonging. She wondered if she would feel the same way when Justin’s parents got there in a few days.
CHAPTER19
Ava was in the office,waiting for the others to arrive for the meeting, and checking her e-mail to see if any information from her inquiries into Tanner from the day before had been returned. Still nothing, and it caused her to lean back in her chair in frustration. She looked up when the door opened, and watched Morgan enter.
“You okay?” Morgan frowned at her.
“No, still nothing back on Tanner.”
“Oh. It’s almost time for our meeting, can I get you to help me?”
“Sure, what do you need?”
“I’d like to take the map we wrote on yesterday, the one where you had your encounter with Tanner, and only the state map of North Dakota. It should give the others a general idea of what we’re looking at.”
“And if they want to see the bigger picture, they can come out here?”
“Exactly.”
“Before we do that, I have a confession to make?” Ava bit her bottom lip, and studied Morgan before she rose from her chair.
“What?”
“I kissed Justin.”
Morgan stopped what she was doing and looked at Ava intently. “Did he force himself on you?”
“NO!It sort of just happened. I had a nightmare and woke covered in sweat, I took a shower, and couldn’t get back to sleep. I went to the basement and started running on a treadmill. When I finished twenty miles, he was there. He never said a word. We went up to the living room, to talk. I told him a little about what had happened to me, and I don’t know, he hugged me, and it led to our kissing.”
“Do you want it to happen again?”
“I do.” Ava hung her head, but when Morgan didn’t say a word she looked up, and saw the other woman looking at her thoughtfully.
“I won’t tell you who you can and can’t kiss, or have sex with, or even hang out with. I just don’t want any relationship you might start to interfere with our mission here. I’m only saying that, because in the past I have seen all my brothers treat women less than respectfully.”
“What do you mean?”
“Two years ago, Justin bossed the woman he was seeing around. Like, get me a beer, do this, do that. I don’t know if he’s changed since coming here, but I don’t want you to get hurt. Nor do I want him to try to assert his dominance, if you have another encounter with Tanner. That wouldn’t be good for anyone.”
“I understand.” Ava nodded, then rose to help her gather what she wanted. Before they left the office, Morgan laid her hand on Ava’s forearm, and said. “If you want to hook up with him, then do it. Just keep this mission in mind.”
“I will.” Morgan’s words gave her a lot to think about before she would have another encounter with Justin. She would see how he reacted during this meeting, to see if he would go all he-man on her, and tell her she couldn’t do it. If he did, then she wouldn’t pursue the matter. If he didn’t, then maybe there was hope for them.
As they left the office, and made their way to the house, they paused long enough to watch as Tom climbed out of his police issue SUV. He had a briefcase with him, but hurried forward to see if the women needed any help carrying anything. When they said they had it, he opened the doors for them.
“Damn, what smells so wonderful?” Tom asked as he stepped in behind them.
“No clue,” Ava frowned and looked over at the kitchen area. She smiled when she saw Alex and Peggy pulling trays of muffins from the oven. Alex looked up at them and grinned.
“I baked muffins.”
