Deep within her eyes.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I uh… came to find you,” she said.
“Well, you found me,” I said. “What do you want?”
I saw shock roll over her features as I stayed in my place.
“Well I… I told you I would come back,” she said.
“Uh huh,” I said gruffly. “You need something?”
“Are you okay, Travis?”
“Fine. You need anything?”
All of the anger I thought I had swallowed came bubbling back to the surface. What the fuck was she doing here after three fucking months? She had some nerve, showing up here thinking I would just let her back in. I wasn’t playing her game this time. I wasn’t eating out of her little hands. For all I knew, this was her father trying to pull some bullshit again. And I wasn’t going to have it.
Not after my family had finally gotten what they wanted.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said.
“Please. Just give me a chance to explain.”
I walked up onto the porch and side-stepped her as I opened my front door.
“No thanks.”
I went to shut the door, but Ava put her foot in the way. The door halted in its tracks, leaving only a crack separating Ava and myself. I didn’t want to see her. I didn’t want to talk with her. All I wanted was for her to leave me alone so I could live the life I needed to for my father’s company.
It was all I had, and it was all I deserved.
“My father sent me to live with my aunt,” Ava said.
I sighed as I closed my eyes.
“I got to my house that day and my uncle was pulling up into the driveway to follow me there. He sent me to Spokane to try and… straighten me out.”
It was the way she said it that caused me to open the door. Ava sl
owly came into view, her trembling body shaking with tremendous force. Her eyes were glistening with tears as she focused on my chest, refusing to meet my stare as I stood in front of her.
“Things didn’t work out?” I asked.
“I guess you could say that,” she said.
I gave her body a once over one last time before I threw the door open.
“Go sit on the couch. I’ll make us some coffee,” I said.
I heard her sigh as she scurried into my home. She sat on the couch, her back straight and her legs crossed at her ankles. She fluffed her hair back over her shoulders, giving me just a glance at her hands.
At the bruises and scratches that donned her knuckles.
It took every ounce of energy I had not to erupt. I slammed cupboard doors and tossed around mugs, brewing us a pot of very strong coffee. What the fuck had that woman done to Ava? What the hell was was wrong with her family? When the fuck were they going to understand just how screwed up they were inside?
I poured us each a cup of coffee, fixing it the way I knew she liked before I went to sit down next to her.