“It wasn’t bad, I swear. I just skidded off the road and ended up in a ditch,” I said.
“How the hell did you get out of it?” Lorenzo asked.
“I just waited it out. The water got high enough and it carried my car back to level ground, then from there I could get home,” I said.
“But you obviously stayed the night somewhere,” Hunter said. “What happened?”
“A hotel, you nimrod. Where else would I have stayed?” I asked.
My eyes darted between my brothers, hoping they would buy what I was selling. The last thing I needed to tell my overprotective brothers was that I had stayed in a cabin on the mountain with some burly man with sparkling brown eyes. They all looked at one another before they drew in a deep breath, and I just knew I had been caught.
Until Finn started talking.
“The banker prompted this, didn’t he?”
Tears crested my eyes as Hunter began to rub my back.
“I can’t marry that man, you guys. He’s forty-four years old. Ready to have kids. Allergic to everything under the sun. I don’t know anything about him,” I said.
“Who said anything about marriage?” Lorenzo asked.
“Dad. The last argument we had before I packed up my things was that I was going on a date with my future husband. They wanted us to meet, get to know one another, then our family and theirs were going to start arranging wedding plans,” I said.
“What the fuck is that bullshit?” Hunter asked. “We didn’t know about this.”
“Yeah. Mom hasn’t said anything about it,” Lorenzo said.
“I figured she wouldn’t. Mom will speak up if she doesn’t like someone, but she likes this guy. And I have no idea why,” I said.
“Does this guy’s name happen to be Timothy Wells?” Hunter asked.
“The third? Yeah, that’s him. Wait, do you know him?” I asked.
“The entire family does. His father is the man who monitors all of the family company’s investment accounts,” Hunter said.
“Are you serious?” I asked.
“Yeah. That’s probably why this is important to Mom and Dad. They probably feel if they marry you to him, then once he hands the investment company to his son, he’ll cut them some kind of deal or work extra hard on their accounts or something,” Hunter said.
“I’m nothing but a business transaction to them,” I said.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got your back,” Finn said.
“We’ll talk to Mom and Dad,” Lorenzo said. “We’re not going to let them marry you off to someone you don’t want to be married to.”
“They won’t listen to you guys,” I said.
“Ava, you’re our baby sister,” Hunter said. “And it’s our job to protect you. Even if that protection means bucking up against Mom and Dad. What they’re doing is wrong, and you know we’ve always been behind you on this.”
“Yeah. When we went to bed last night and you didn’t come home, we know what you had done,” Finn said.
“And quite frankly, I was hoping you would make it this time,” Lorenzo said.
“I can’t marry that man, you guys. I can’t stay here,” I said.
“Just stay put for now. If you try to leave again, it’s going to throw up flags. Let us talk to Mom and Dad. I’m sure with enough digging and enough prodding, we can get them to drop this idiotic decision,” Finn said.
“Yeah. Just give us some time and you just lay low,” Hunter said.