26
Ava was doingher best to keep busy but found herself checking her Apple watch every five minutes. She’d reorganized her clothes in the closet. Gone for a jog. Taken a bath. And tried to read, but it wasn’t keeping her mind occupied.
Asher was supposed to talk to Jenna when he got home from work today and he’d promised that he’d text or call Ava after to let her know how it went.
That was two hours ago and she still hadn’t heard anything.
Her mind was racing with all the possible scenarios. The worst one being that Jenna declared her undying love for Asher and wanted to be with him and he decided that it would be a good idea to give her another chance.
It probably wouldn’t happen. But then again, this was Hope Falls.
If Jenna was going to go anywhere and win her ex back it would be here.
No. Ava was being ridiculous. It would seem a lot less ridiculous if Jenna wasn’t a blonde goddess, but still. Asher had told her, several times, that he would always care about his ex-wife but there was no chance of the two of them getting back together and Ava trusted him. She had to, otherwise, this relationship was doomed before it even started.
Since she was tired of her head spinning and nothing was keeping her distracted, she decided to indulge in her guiltiest pleasure. She plopped down on the couch, curled up in the quilted throw, and turned on Season 20 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Her brain had just switched to auto-pilot when she heard a knock on her door. She jumped up off the couch and tripped over the blanket she’d been snuggled up in as she rushed to answer the door. She had no idea if Asher coming to tell her what happened face to face instead of over the phone meant there was good news or bad news, but either way, she was happy that she’d get to see him.
They hadn’t seen each other since he’d come over after the Pine Cone Festival and she missed him. A lot.
“How did it go?” she asked as she opened the door expecting to see Asher.
Except it wasn’t Asher standing on her porch. It was Ian.
It took her brain a minute to catch up to the information her eyes were giving her. She couldn’t quite process that he was there, in Hope Falls.
“How did what go?” Ian asked.
Hearing him speak in his trademark condescending tone snapped her right out of her momentary shock. “What are you doing here, Ian?”
“You weren’t answering my calls or texts,” he said as he brushed past her and walked into the cabin, uninvited.
“Come on in,” she said sarcastically as she shut the door.
When she turned around, she saw that he’d made himself right at home and was sitting on her couch. “Do you have a decent, aged Cab? I don’t want any of that Pinot shit you drink.” He glanced at the television and when he saw what was on the screen, he grabbed the remote and turned it off. “Your taste in television is almost as bad as your rudimentary wine palette.”
Ava stared at the man that she’d spent two decades with and he looked like a stranger to her. She felt no connection to him whatsoever. It was seriously like she’d never really known him at all or what she’d ever seen in him.
Sure, he was physically attractive enough in a sort of frat-boy preppy way. But everything else about him was not attractive at all. From the way he spoke to and treated her and everyone else he felt was inferior to him—which was about ninety-eight percent of the population—to his uptight fashion sense, there was nothing remotely appealing about him. He was smart, she’d give him that, but he had no sense of humor. He was a pretentious, arrogant, cocky, jerk who bordered on being a full-blown bully.
Thinking that she had actually agreed to marry this man made her sick to her stomach. During the years she was with him, she had completely lost herself. By the time she was supposed to walk down the aisle with him, she was a shell of a human being.
As much as she loved Asher, and she did love Asher, there was no way she was going to make the same mistake twice. She would never sacrifice herself in the name of a relationship again. Not even for ‘the one’ which she knew Asher was.
It scared her to think that that might happen. Not at first, of course. But from experience, she knew that’s not how it happened. It happened in tiny increments, that were barely noticeable. Between her overactive empathy and people pleasing tendencies, she knew that even in the best, healthiest relationship she was in danger of it happening again if she didn’t proactively guard against it.
“Ava, do you have a Cab?” Ian repeated slowly as if she hadn’t understood the basic request.
“I heard you the first time, Ian. I was just trying to wrap my head around the fact that you came all the way to California, without asking or even telling me, showed up on my doorstep, barged in without an invitation, and then proceeded to ask me to make you a drink while insulting my taste in wine and entertainment in the same breath.”
Ian just stared at her as if she was the one whose behavior was insulting. “You weren’t answering my calls or texts.”
“Right. Okay, Ian you need to go. Now.” Ava started to reach for the door handle.
“No, wait! I’m sorry. I really need to talk to you. Please.”
Ava shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn’t owe Ian this, especially after the behavior he’d just displayed. But she knew that if she didn’t hear him out, he’d most likely just show up again. Plus, she figured he would be an even better distraction than Kim, Kourtney, and Khloé had been.
