The Avoidance of Love (The Daniels' Sisters Book 2) (29 page)

Dana had a double whammy of news. She was pregnant again. I wasn’t sure who downed their glass of wine first, Lana or me. Dana had been the sister to do all the dumbass things that Lana wanted to do when they had been younger. They were more alike that Tara, who was her twin. She was going to miss her even more than I would.

My grandmother had been in floods of tears once Dana had actually left. The whole time she was telling her it would be wonderful for her and her new family while secretly her heart was breaking over the fact that her granddaughter and great-grandchildren were going to be so far away from her.

This Saturday I had decided to spend the evening with my grandparents instead of going out with Lana on another mission to pound my liver into submission. What actually happened was Lana followed me to my grandparents and Coops asked if he could invade as well. The end result was the three of us nursing a bottle of wine each while my grandmother fussed over us.

“You three give depression a bad name.” She brought out some homemade apple pie and custard for us to have after dinner. I hadn’t really been interested in food lately and although I absolutely loved this dessert, it was holding no appeal for me today.

“We’re keeping you company. Dana usually comes over on the weekend and now she’s not here we didn’t want you to be alone.” Lana’s semi-truth rolled off her inebriated tongue easily.

“Pshhh. That’s a lie. All three of you are lonely. You need to go and find something else to do. You’re all young, free, and single. You should be out enjoying yourselves. And don’t think I didn’t know that Dana came round on the weekend mainly because she had nothing better to do.” The old woman was on a roll. “ The reason why you three stick together is that misery likes company. Maybe you should focus on changing that.” She bustled out of the living room probably to go nag my grandfather about something he was doing wrong as well.

Coops groaned. “How pathetic is it to get called out by a senior citizen?”

“Pretty damn pathetic.” I answered.

“It’s not a problem if you’re aware of it and choose not to do anything about it. Then it’s classified as someone else’s issue.” Lana’s words were lazy. She wasn’t drunk; she just wasn’t putting any effort into talking.

“You can’t really believe that?” I asked. A non-committed shrug was all I got. I looked at my sister and noticed that every time I saw her she shined a little dimmer. Something was eating away at her.

Coops’ phone ringing caused me to stop staring at Lana. He answered the phone and then promptly moved it away from his ear. Whoever was on the other end was shouting.

“It’s my dad,” he whispered. Five minutes of “uh huh” and “not my fault,” “what do you expect me to do?” and more “uh huh” and I was still none the wiser when Coops face immediately froze and he turned to stare at me. “Dad, I’ve got to go. I’ll update you later. Yeah. Bye.”

Lana and I stared at him expectantly. “Oh my god. Where’s the remote?” Coops was flapping. Which wasn’t unusual, but this was more animated than his regular antics. He finally got up and changed the channel. Onto racing.

“Coops!” I didn’t want to see anything related to racing. It would only remind me of Jace and make me hurt.

“You’re going to want to see this. My dad is blowing his head off about this.” My curiosity was only mildly piqued, but I had no interest in wrestling Coops to change the channel, so I sat back and sipped on my glass of red.

It wasn’t long before Jace appeared on screen and for what looked like a press conference. What in the world was going on?

“So Jace, you’re at the pinnacle of your career. What’s made you come to this abrupt decision to retire?”

“I’ve got to be entirely honest. I love racing and never thought anything would come before that. However, I’ve met someone who means more to me than racing ever could.” My wine shot from my mouth across the living room. “I’ve been blessed enough to have a lady in my life who is willing to give an asshole like me a chance at happiness. I want to focus on making her see that I’m worth it.”

“Oh. My. God.” Coops screamed.

“Shush.” I clambered off the sofa and knelt in front of the screen.

The questions continued. “So you’re saying you ending your career for a woman.”

Jace laughed off the question. “That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that I found someone who makes my previous life insignificant. Someone who makes me want to be the best I can be for them. Someone who gives my life purpose. Nothing else matters above that.” He stood up abruptly. “In fact, I’m not sure why I’m telling you all this when she’s the one I should be talking to.” He moved around the table with the camera following him. “ Laters.”

“Oh. My. God!” Coops was hysterical. “Mara, he just earned major comeback points. You’re going to take him back right?” He grabbed me by the shoulders. “You have to take him back.”

I looked over at Lana. She had tears streaming.

“In it’s own jacked up way; that was so beautiful.”

My heart was thundering in my chest. My mind was a jumbled mess of incoherent thought.

My beating heart came to a complete halt with the aggressive banging on the door.

“MARA!”

“How did he get here so fast?” I was panicking.

“It was probably pre-recorded earlier today.” When did he get so calm.

“MARA!”

My grandmother came into the living room. “Mara, do I need to call the police?”

I got to my feet, stumbling a little. “No, Grandma, I’ll go answer it.”

My throat was dry. I had no idea what I would say even if I could manage to speak. I gingerly opened the door.

“Hey.” God, he looked so good.

“Hi.” Well, that was progress. I could speak at the very least.

“I want you to come home.” I was about to speak when he raised his hand to silence me. “Let me finish what I have to say.” I gave a short nod to let him know to continue.

“I’ve missed you so badly it burns, Mara, and I know that’s my own fault. You did the right thing by walking away. I’ve quit racing because I just want to be with you and I don’t want anyone or anything to get in the way of that. You deserve everything and I want to give it to you. I’m going to love you so hard you won’t be able to get rid of me. And when you try to run . . . which I know you will . . . I’m gonna tie you to our bed and love you just that little bit more.”

“You quit racing.” My voice was stuttering.

“Is that all you heard? That I quit racing.”

“Yeah. And some stuff about loving me.” I was smirking and he was frowning.

“You keep laughing. Just remember that you wear the trousers in our relationship now. I’ll be your house husband.”

“And what does that mean, Jace?” I knew he had more than enough money put away that he didn’t need to race anymore.

“That means after we’re married and forever more, whenever you come home from work, it’ll be my job to make you forget your day.” His arms snaked around me, both hands grabbing my bum cheeks to pull me closer into his body and his semi hard cock.

“You haven’t asked me to marry you.”

“What part of forever don’t you understand? Come home and let me give you a demonstration.” In a smooth and quick motion, he had me in a fireman’s lift over his shoulder. Coops and Lana stood behind me hooting. Both my grandparents had been standing there watching and listening as well. They all waved as Jace carted me off to his car. “Say goodbye to your family, Mara. We’ll see them only after I’ve shown you how much I’ve missed you and put a rock on that finger of yours.”

I looked up at my family’s smiling faces and waved.

“I love you, Jace.”

“I love you more, BonBon.”

“JACE, HURRY UP. We’re going to be late.” Dana and Deacon were flying over from America to visit before she gave birth to her new baby. They already had a baby girl called Helen. Dana had named her after our mother to help keep her memory alive. I don’t think she had counted on being pregnant again so soon. When I last spoke to her, she was convinced this would be the last one. Deacon on the other hand seemed positive there would be at least two more.

“I’m coming,” he was grumbling. “ Pardon me for not being in a rush. Whenever your sister visits you practically move back home with your grandparents and spend every night drunk with them. I get no fucking action for the whole time.”

He was such a baby. “My sister hardly visits so I want to make sure I spend the most amount of time with her and my niece and nephew.” I wouldn’t be drinking this time and there was a big reason why. I had found out a week ago that I was two months pregnant myself. I couldn’t be happier. I had more or less accepted that, at my age, I probably would never be a mother.

“I suppose I should be grateful your sister keeps popping those little parasites out. It means we don’t have to have any and as soon as she fucks off, I get you back to myself again. No. Sharing.” What? Jace and I had never spoken about kids but I had assumed he wanted them or we would at least have a conversation about them.

He’d insisted we get married within a week of me agreeing to go back home with him after the whole Brielle fiasco. At the time, it had suited me fine because I had thought that a small wedding with two witnesses matched my persona.

Over time, I realized it only fit with the old me that kept everyone away. I would have liked a huge wedding with family and friends. That ship had now sailed, but usually the next thing you do after getting married is have children. I had four sisters. I’ve always had siblings around me; surely, Jace would understand my need to have children.

My nose was starting to tingle which let me know I was about to cry. I was so mad at him. Mad at him for what he had said and mad for him not knowing what I wanted without me having to tell him.

“What if it wasn’t just us, Jace?” I stared at him now.

“What do you mean? I like it when it’s just . . .” He looked at me now and really saw me. His eyes settled on my waist. You couldn’t really tell I was pregnant; the only difference was my boobs, and those had definitely increased. The high sensitivity had tipped me off in the first place. My chest was where he looked next.

“Oh fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.” He was panicking. His first instinct was to panic.

The tears were free falling now. “You don’t want a baby with me. You don’t want one ever.” I was in a full meltdown. I wanted my sisters and my grandmother. I went to grab my bag and keys.

“BonBon, wait. Let’s talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about Jace. I’m going to see my sister. You can stay and do whatever the hell you want to do.”

My sisters almost made me forget about Jace. They were all so happy for me. Well . . . Lana started sing the chorus for
Another One Bites The Dust,
but she gave my non-existent bump and me a kiss after.

I was in the middle of the dinner when someone knocked on the door. If that was Jace, he was going to be sorry. I didn’t want to talk to him and I’m sure my sisters wanted to strangle him after his response. My grandfather had said he was probably surprised and just needed time to digest the information since the baby wasn’t planned, but he piped down when we all glared him into leaving the room.

Lana got up to answer the door.

“Did anyone order thirteen dozen roses, thirteen extremely large psychotic looking teddy bears, and thirteen boxes of chocolates from Hotel Chocolat?” ” she shouted.

I couldn’t fight the smirk crawling across my face as I remembered the last time I had received those gifts. That was Jace’s signature way of apologizing and the final treat was definitely worth forgiving him.

“Damn sneaky asshole.” He knew I had no resilience against this apology. “Can’t stay mad at that kind of shit.”

Lana came back to take her seat next to me. “I’m guessing from the look on your face that all will be well when you get home.”