Page 43 of Too Little Too Soon
Well, at least Ava hadn’t spilled the beans. It wasn’t her fault Maria had guessed correctly.
“Is that bad?” Ava asked, moving past her sister so she could change clothes. Didn’t need anyone else to see her in last night’s outfit and come to the same conclusion.
“I’m not sure,” Maria said while Ava stripped and dressed again in a wide neck sweater and a pair of rayon cargo pants that she’d picked up recently when she and Maria and Holly had slipped away for a shopping spree on the bands’ day off.
“What does that mean?” Ava asked, returning to the bathroom to slick her hair into a ponytail.
“Just hurry up,” Maria said. “Riley and Carina are already downstairs.”
They left the hotel room, headed down to breakfast, and Maria finally answered her question. “I guess it depends on what you’re looking for out of it.”
As they entered the elevator, she added, “He’s a great guy, but he says all the time that he’s not a relationship guy.”
“I know,” Ava admitted. After what he told her about his ex-wife, she couldn’t blame him. She put on her perky face; hopefully, she and Maria hadn’t grown close enough for her sister to see through it.
As they stepped into the restaurant and she spotted her niece and the nanny seated at a table across the room, Ava added, “We talked. And we’ve agreed to just be friends.”
Of course, that was before they tumbled into bed again last night.
So where did they stand now?
ChapterFifteen
He and Avaneeded to talk. Travis knew it, and he assumed she did too. They needed to figure out where they stood. With each other. But they needed to do it in private.
They also needed to decide what—if anything—to tell the rest of the band. And her sisters.
See? This was why Travis hated nepotism within bands. It got so fucking messy, and he hated messy.
Okay, there were certain instances when he fucking loved messy. Any time he was naked with Ava, he definitely liked getting messy.
But outside the bedroom? Yeah, he preferred things nice and tidy. No doubt this was a reaction to his life with Dog Daze, because he hadn’t been quite the neat freak back then.
Hell, he’d deliberately let himself get messy after he left home, because his dad had been militant with his need for control and dominance, and Travis had hated every fucking minute of living with the man.
Travis was a hell of a mix of contradictions, wasn’t he?
Case in point: his feelings for Ava. He wanted her tucked right into his side, both as protection against the outside world—specifically, his stalker—and because he just liked having her near. Touching her.
She made him feel whole, damn it.
And yet, he struggled with a very real urge to push her away, to place her squarely back in the friend zone. Everything had been perfect when they were just friends.
Now it was messy, even if she didn’t realize it.
And circle back to needing to talk.
Except they didn’t see each other again until they boarded the bus and said goodbye—and good riddance—to Cleveland.
To be fair, spending last night with Ava had definitely softened his view toward that city. From this point forward, Suzie wouldn’t be the first thought that popped into his mind whenever somebody mentioned Cleveland.
And no, his stalker couldn’t claim that right either.
That honor now officially went to Ava. And probably always would, from this day forward.
Sometimes, Ava rode on Panic Station’s bus, and sometimes she rode on Demigoddess Revival’s. Probably rotating time with each of her sisters, since that was the reason she’d come on this tour. Her purpose here was not for Travis to dominate her time, which was exactly what had started to happen since they’d had their heart-to-heart in that exercise room in that hotel in whatever the hell city they’d been in.
Okay, so he needed to talk to her about that, too. Tell her they should attempt to spend more time with other people. Except that sounded too much like a breakup. And hell, they weren’t even together, other than as friends.
