Page 80 of My Boss's Sons

Ava snatched the bag up. “Are you crazy? Do you know what this is? You can’t just throw this on the ground.”

“Get rid of it, Ava.”

She threw up her hands, which still clutched the plastic wrapped AmEx black card. “You’re impossible! You were justcomplaining that they didn’t listen and how you can’t afford puppies, but they took care of it. And you’re still not happy!”

“I won’t be bought!” I pushed her out of my room and slammed the door. Turning to go back to sending an angry message, I growled when Ava swung my door open again and came right back in.

“First of all, don’t slam your door at me. Second of all, you need to do some soul searching about why you think you hate these men.”

“I don’t hate them!”

“Because you love them?” Ava laughed at my shocked expression. “People make mistakes, Soph. They seem genuinely sorry. When I punched Alex, he practically leaned into it.”

“What did you just say?”

She grinned. “Yeah, Jack and I paid them a visit. I got rough with them. Punched Alex right in his eye and he brought me an ice pack for my hand. That’s a pretty gentlemanly thing to do. I tried to punch Noah, too, but he moved too fast. Noah was being a giant asshole, but he was hurting, Soph. The three of them looked like shit and Ethan was practically in tears when I told him about the sex tape.”

“You didn’t tell me any of that. Why did you go there, Ava? You know their dad was already threatening me. You took a huge chance.”

“No one hurts my sister without hearing about it. I was brutal to them. I pulled no punches. I even told Noah that he was just like his father.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I sat down on my bed. “Ava…”

“Yeah, yeah. If you ever forgive them like you should, I’ll apologize for that one.” She sat down next to me and held my hands. “I love you so much, Soph. You’ve carried me since our parents died and you’ve always been so strong. When Davis cheated, I thought you’d crack then, but you never did. This,though? You broke. And you can say it’s all over the job, but it isn’t. I saw you with them. They made you happy. Sure, they have a lot more groveling to do, but you don’t have to lose them if you don’t want to. It seems like the ball is in your court and I think you’d be a fool to pretend like you’re not dying to be back in their arms.”

I bit my lip hard to keep from crying and leaned into her. Resting my head on her shoulder, I admitted to one of my biggest fears. “I’m scared, Ava. They tossed me aside like I was nothing. I’m supposed to be older and wiser, but I feel like a dumb kid when I’m with them. I don’t protect myself the way I should. I don’t protect my heart. I didn’t protect my family. I let them close to Lily and didn’t think twice about how it would hurt her if she got close to them and then they vanished. I’m scared of how deep they would get inside me. They’re young with the world at their fingertips, Ava. I’m a single mom who lives in the suburbs and fights with her neighbors. What happens if I let them in and they decide to go off and live their lives? I don’t think I could do this all over again, but withmorefeelings involved. I just want to let this be the end. The pain has to get better soon and then I’ll be able to move on.”

“They don’t seem to want anything other than you, Soph. Stop and let that sink in.” She hugged me and then stood up. “Now I’m going to go play with those adorable puppies and see if there’s a gold bar on the other one’s collar.”

I waited until she left to grab my phone and stare at an open text to Ethan. I typed out a message telling him off about the puppies and then deleted it. Putting the phone down, I stood up and paced my room, unsure of what to do. A message notificationpinged my phone and when I grabbed it, I had to use every ounce of my self-control to not cry.

Ethan: I saw you start to type a message and I can only imagine how angry that message would be if you’d sent it. Youdidn’t, though. I hope that means you’re softening to us. I’m not sorry for dropping the puppies off. You only have to take care of them alone until you forgive us.

64

***Sophia***

Ajob offer came in the next day from Mary Anderson. She wanted me back at Anderson Inc. and she wanted me to have the promotion I’d earned long ago. I ignored the voicemail and spent the day with the puppies.

Baked goods came the day after. Milo had thrown his version of a tantrum when I refused to accept them. Even after giving in and letting him have the sweets, I refused to eat any of it.

It was a complete set of pirate costumes for all of us the next day. Lily already had hers on before I could say no. She’d spent the rest of the day circling the pool, playing pirates, and making Milo walk the plank.

It went on and on like that every day. I would try to get up before everyone else so I could send whatever the gift was back, but Lily and Ava beat me every time. More flowers came. Then gifts for Lily. A box of puppy toys that I could hide inside of came and then dinners started showing up. Meals that were too good to be true just appeared, still hot and fresh. There weretexts, too. Every day, I received one text from each of them. Sometimes it was an apology, sometimes it was just them telling me something that happened that day. I stayed quiet.

Ava even had Jack fighting for the guys. After he saw the puppies, he told me that I needed to scoop the guys up before he did. There was hardly ever a quiet moment of my day when I wasn’t reminded of the guys.

I was weakening, though. It became harder and harder to not message them back each day. I berated myself each day for being so stubborn that I wouldn’t even take my well-deserved job back. I stared at the piles of things they’d sent and ate the dinners they had delivered and I had to fight to remember why I was so adamantly against forgiving them.

Two things happened a week after the puppies arrived that reignited my fears and sent me running to confront them.

A quiet knock on the front door came when Ava and Lily were in the pool so I almost cheered when I realized I’d intercept the delivery for the day. When I pulled the door open, though, it was Gerald Anderson waiting for me.

With my heart in my throat I shifted back and tried to slam the door shut. His foot was in the way and he was lifting his hands towards me so I did the next best thing. I balled up my fist and I hit him as hard as I could. He stumbled back, grabbing his nose.

“I just got that fixed! Dammit!” He glared at me through tear-filled eyes. “I was just trying to apologize!”

“Get away from my house! You shouldn’t have come here!” I raised my fists to hit him again but he backed away.

---