22. Ava

TWENTY-TWO

AVA

Once the meeting was over, I hurried out. I was sure the guys would get to work on planning how to approach Antonio. The last thing I wanted was to get in their way. They were clearly under a ton of intense stress. That was why when Blayne came looking for me in the living room, I was surprised.

"Hey, let's get out of here," he said.

"What? Aren't you guys busy getting, like, battle plans ready or something?"

He shook his head and grinned. "You and I are gonna spend the day together. There's a storm coming, and I think it would be nice to spend some time together before it gets out of hand."

"Really?" I was deeply touched that he wanted spend time with me, even with things coming to a head. "You don't have to. I totally understand what's happening. It can wait. We can wait."

"No way. We have a lot to talk about. I don't want this to get swept aside. There's no telling what's gonna happen. So not talking now is not up for discussion."

My dad and Uncle Mike walked into the living room with Tate and Miles as soon as Blayne was done speaking. Daddy grinned mischievously. "How's it going, you two?"

"I'm trying to talk Ava into coming out with me."

With everyone there staring at me, I didn't want to argue. All I could do was shrug.

"Going out, huh?" Dad said. He gave Blayne a knowing look. "Make sure she's home at a decent hour, young man."

My face flamed, especially with the way Blayne's friends grinned. Ugh, it was like I was a fifteen-year-old girl going on her first date.

Blayne's fingers interlaced with mine as he led me out the front door. Once we were outside, I felt a little better about the whole thing. It would be nice to spend the day together. We really did have a lot to discuss.

He helped me into the passenger seat of his truck, and then we were pulling down the driveway. I glanced in the side mirror and saw one of Dad's guys tailing us in a dark sedan. I'd known he'd assign someone to follow me and keep a lookout. After the previous day's ordeal, I was honestly a little surprised he was even letting me out of his sight.

Nodding my head at the car, I asked, "Is that okay with you? Having a chaperone, I mean?"

"It would bother me more if Gio hadn't sent someone. It would mean your father wasn't being as cautious as he needs to be." He chuckled and glanced over at me as the gate at the end of the driveway opened. "I still can't get over how soft he is with you. The great Gio Francis, the godfather of the Rocky Mountains, and his little girl has him wrapped around her little finger."

I coughed out a surprised laugh. "I wouldn't say that. He's always been protective and loving. It only increased when my mom died. We've always had a good relationship—losing her brought us even closer, I guess."

"Can I ask how you lost your mom?" Blayne asked. He spoke in a quiet way, like he wanted to know but was afraid I'd be hurt.

"Yeah. It was a long time ago. I've gotten over it. Well…I've gotten over it as much as anyone can. I guess you know what I mean by that." Blayne had lost his entire family. I still had my dad, my extended family, but Blayne had lost both his parents at the same time. I couldn't imagine how awful that must have been.

"I do," he said. "I'd like to hear about your mother, though."

"She got sick one winter. I was almost twelve. I remember her shuffling around the house, drinking tea, taking cold medicine, the usual stuff people do when they feel sick. We didn't think anything of it. Um…one morning, Mom couldn't get out of bed. Couldn't get to the bathroom without coughing her lungs out, and she had a fever of around a hundred and four. She didn't want to go to the hospital, but Dad insisted." I bit my lip as I looked out the window. "I think that's what Dad feels the guiltiest about. My mother was stubborn. She hated going to the doctor, and even though she'd been sick for over two weeks, she kept telling everyone she'd be better soon. If Dad had forced her to go to the doctor sooner, she might have been okay. We'll never know."

"She died from a cold?" Blayne sounded horrified. "Can that happen?"

"Apparently it started as a cold, but then turned into pneumonia. That progressed unknown in her chest for days with no treatment. By the time the ambulance got to our house, she was delirious with fever and barely able to keep her eyes open. She'd gone into sepsis. The doctors pumped her full of antibiotics and intubated her because she couldn't breathe." The memories flooded back, and I blinked away my tears. "I…I never really got to say goodbye. I went to see her once. She was asleep, and all these wires and tubes covered her. It was awful. The infection was too far along by the time she got to the hospital. She died three days later."

Blayne put his free hand out and grabbed my thigh reassuringly. "I'm sorry. We do not have to talk about this anymore."

I waved him off and wiped my eyes. "It's okay. I'll always get a little choked up about it. After she died, the relationship between my father and I changed. It was us against the world. I look a lot like my mom, and I think Dad really started to notice that once she was gone. I'm pretty sure he always thought he could have done more to save Mom, so he did everything he could to take care of me, almost like he wanted to make up for it. It really showed me how much he loved her. I've always wanted to marry a man who loved me as much as my dad loved my mom."

"I'm glad you have that kind of relationship with him," Blayne said. "People deserve to have that type of closeness with their parents."

"Liam told me about you guys losing your parents. How were things before you lost them?"

"They were great," Blayne said wistfully. "The four of us were really close. We never had a lot, but they always made sure we had what we needed. Money was always tight, so we never got to go to the big beach or Disney vacations like other kids did, but we still took family vacations—usually to national parks or things like that. Cheap but fun stuff, you know?" He chuckled. "God, my parents were so into each other. Every time Liam or I turned around, they'd be making out or rubbing each other's butts or something. Even in the grocery store."

Blayne smiled, and while I could see he was reliving good memories, his eyes were tinged with sadness, with a longing for something he could never again experience. I rubbed a hand over his back and shoulder, trying to comfort him the way he'd comforted me. He reached up and took my hand.

"They died protecting us," Blayne continued. "I think they knew the hunters were coming. They never let us know how close they were to finding out where we were hiding. Liam and I went to a sleepover with the other panther family at their house across town. I have no idea how my parents knew the hunters were coming that night, or why they didn't take the whole family and run. Instead, they handed Liam a backpack and said not to open it until the next day.

"The next morning, the other family woke us up in a panic, saying that hunters had come the night before and our parents had been killed. Liam and I didn't believe them. They tried to hustle us into the car. They were going to run, but we refused to go with them. We ran off to our house. Liam had the backpack flung over his shoulder." His voice hitched. "When we reached our house, the front door was busted in. Mom was lying on the floor inside, dead. Dad's body was deeper in the house. He'd had time to shift and put up a fight, but the hunters had still managed to kill them."

He let out a shaky breath. "Liam and I were distraught. We were only fourteen. Way too young to have to see your parents dead in pools of their own blood. Once we pulled ourselves together, we managed to get their bodies up into the woods and bury them. We didn't want the police or EMTs to take them away from our home. We wanted them to rest together. I still remember the place we buried them.

"After that, Liam finally opened the backpack. We found a bunch of money. It must have been everything they had. It was seven or eight thousand dollars, and there was a note. It said that hunters were coming for them and that they wanted us to run. To make a life for ourselves, and try to stay hidden from them. They…uh…they wrote a bunch of stuff about how much they loved us."

Blayne's eyes were red. My own story of loss was bad, but I couldn't fathom what he'd gone through. Seeing my mom sick in the hospital had been one of the most traumatizing things I'd ever experienced. This? It was so much worse. Finding his parents dead like that, and then having to drag their bodies into the woods and bury them? As children.

Liam had never gone into this type of detail. He'd told me his parents had been killed by hunters when he and Blayne were young, but I never would have imagined this. It made me hate Antonio even more. His people had probably been behind the attack.

"Anyway…" Blayne said after regaining control. "We did run. We were able to get into contact with the other family from our pack, but they'd already made it halfway across the state. They'd found another panther pack and were offered the chance to join them. They wanted us to join them, but we didn't have the heart. I think part of it was that we didn't want to go too far away from our parents. Even though they were dead, it felt like they were still around. We found a place in Lilly Valley that would rent to us without an ID—a little old lady who had a small studio apartment over her garage. We lived there and paid her rent for a few years, keeping our heads down. Then Liam met your family. You know the rest. Once he'd made enough money, we were able to buy a little house."

"I'm sorry," I said, and I truly meant it. "I shouldn't have asked. I didn't mean to make you relive that."

He wiped a tear from his cheek and shook his head. "It's fine, Ava. Seriously. I asked about your past. This is part of it. If we're going to do this, we need to know about each other." He nodded toward the windshield. "Looks like we're here."

My own tears were still sliding down my face when I looked at the massive field of flowers. It stretched on almost as far as I could see until the glade bent around to hide behind a copse of trees that attached to the surrounding forest. Blayne pulled the truck into a parking lot near the field.

"What is this place?" I asked.

He chuckled. "You've never been here?"

"No."

"You've lived in Lilly Valley almost your whole life and you've never been here?" He sounded amused.

"Nope. Can't say that I have."

"Where do you think Lilly Valley got its name?"

I looked out the window and took a closer look at the white flowers that spread like a blanket across the green field. "Oh…" I whispered. "An actual lily valley?"

"Yeah. This is where the town got its name. Apparently someone brought a bunch of bulbs out when they came homesteading back in the eighteen-hundreds. They planted them before moving on toward California. I guess the soil in this valley was perfect, and by the time a group of settlers came this way to actually found the town, it was like this—lilies as far as the eye can see. Come on."

I got out of the car, following Blayne around the front of the truck. It looked like it was a touristy area. Lots of cars were parked in the lot with us, and there were a couple of carts near the field.

Blayne led me toward a cart where they handed out baskets. He handed over a few single bills, and we went into the field to pick flowers.

This must have been a popular date spot. I could see a dozen couples winding their way through the flowers. Behind us, I could see the guys my dad had sent to follow us. Thankfully, they were staying in the car and not getting out to look out of place.

I wanted to ask more questions, but after the car ride, I was worried it might get too deep. There were a thousand things I wanted to ask, but I did my best to keep quiet. My face must have betrayed my curiosity, though.

"Go ahead and ask," Blayne said with a smile.

"Ask what?"

"Whatever you're dying to ask me. Go ahead." He knelt and plucked a massive white flower, then dropped it into the basket.

A sigh escaped my lips. "That obvious?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"All right, fine. When did things change for you? What caused you to…accept me?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Getting deep first thing?"

"Hey, you asked. I wasn't going to say anything."

"Fair enough." We strolled along, picking flowers for a few moments before he finally answered. "I've been thinking a lot lately. I had to look deep into my heart. I was so fucking angry for so long, it became hard to focus on anything but that anger. I needed an outlet for all my pent-up rage and bitterness, and I directed it toward you and your family. Once I realized my anger was misplaced, it was like it all sort of tumbled away, like dominoes.

"Liam was all I'd had, and I had to push that blame somewhere. I couldn't believe that my brother would choose something that would take him away from me. After hearing your father say he tried to pay Liam more money to stop doing the dangerous jobs, I realized that Liam did leave me. He chose the danger, chose to put his life on the line. I am making peace with all that."

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I've got a long way to go before I'm totally good. At least I understand now that you and your family didn't kill my brother. No different than if he'd been a firefighter. If he'd died in a fire, I wouldn't have blamed the fire department. Not sure if what you and I are doing is right or wrong, though. All I know is that I care for you. Maybe Liam would approve, and maybe not. What I do know is that my brother would haunt the crap out of me if I didn't protect you when I had the chance. Falling for you? Well, that's an unexpected bonus."

Blayne's words slammed into me. I'd never been struck completely silent before, but all my comprehension of words disappeared. He'd been much more forward and honest than I'd thought he'd be. All I could do was continue walking beside him, picking flowers.

"Are you okay with that?" Blayne asked. "I know that was a lot."

I got my words back and smiled. "I am."

Blayne grinned, and I felt a storm of butterflies shudder through my stomach.