Page 29 of Too Little Too Soon
“Well, if you want to hang out this week, I’m free,” Travis said.
“That’d be cool,” Cash replied.
There. Now Travis had something to do.
Other than think about Ava.
ChapterTen
Demetri had obviously plannedAva’s firing. Come Monday morning, she had a buy-out offer sitting in her inbox.
A pitiful buy-out offer. The man clearly thought much less of her than she had believed.
In a moment of snarkiness that made her feel better than it probably should, she emailed back, “Try again.”
She didn’t hear from him next until Thursday. He’d increased the number by ten thousand dollars, but it was still a joke. She’d given pretty much every waking hour of her life to that company for thirteen freaking years. He was not getting off easy.
She suggested he go back to the drawing board, and mentioned that she was thinking about contacting her lawyer.
Then she resumed packing.
Packing! For a four-month North American tour.
She didn’t actually have to pack for four straight months. Maria said they’d be on the road until the end of January, then take a two-week break. Another month and another break, which coincided with Oz’s nieces and nephew’s spring break. They planned to take the kids to Disney World. Ava was welcome to join them if she wanted.
She’d tentatively accepted. She’d never been to Disney World. While they could afford it ten times over, her parents had never been the type to take vacations. Her father refused to take time off work, and her mother—well, Ava wasn’t sure, but she’d guess the woman was afraid to leave her little kingdom up there in that small town east of Seattle. Outside of Roma, Washington, no one would treat her like royalty.
After the Disney vacation, the bands would tour until early May. They’d have another couple of weeks off, then they were, as Maria phrased it, “hitting the festival circuit,” which would last until September, at which point both bands planned to head to the studio to record their next albums.
Even knowing the itinerary, Ava had no clue what to pack. Although truthfully, she didn’t have much choice. Her wardrobe consisted of business attire and a handful of items that could be considered business casual.
Despite the lack of variety in her closet, she packed, unpacked, and packed again three different times, all the way up to the moment the car she’d hired to take her to the airport pulled up in front of her building.
In four hours she’d be in Boston, reuniting with her sisters.
And Travis.
What did that make her that she was excited to see him too? They’d spent only a handful of hours together and had shared a kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Except he’d shared a kiss with the entire band, so did it even count?
Even if her kiss had been on the lips?
She spent the ride to the airport analyzing that kiss. Not the few hours they’d spent in bed, because that would have been uncomfortable sitting in the backseat with the driver darting glances at her in the rearview mirror.
Okay, maybe she thought about those moments too.
Which was crazy.
She had no idea how he would act when he found out she was joining the tour. It probably wouldn’t faze him. He’d obviously not said anything about their dalliance, and neither had she. If he wasn’t part of the band they were traveling with, she might have told her sisters if only to shock the hell out of them at her uncharacteristic behavior.
As soon as she deboarded the plane in Boston, she headed toward the gate where Maria had said her own plane would be landing, thirty minutes after Ava’s.
Standing next to a pillar, she watched as the passengers filed out of the little tunnel and poured into the airport.
There were Maria and Oz; Oz in disguise, carrying little Riley on his hip. God, Ava had only seen her niece a handful of times in the girl’s short life. She looked shockingly different each time. Ava supposed that was yet another bonus to making this decision: she’d hopefully develop a relationship with Riley.
Maria squealed like they hadn’t seen each other in months and rushed over. It felt good to wrap her arms around her sister and hug her back. There was not enough hugging in Ava’s life.
There was not enough physical contact with anyone, really. She hadn’t realized how much she craved it until that afternoon with Travis, when they’d tangled together in her bed.
