Baby For The Mountain Man

Which meant I was taking a grave chance reading this book in the middle of the day.

“Ava! Sweetheart! Could you come downstairs!?”

I heard my mother’s voice waft up the stairs as I dropped my book in my lap. I opened up the secret compartment in my bedside table and shoved my book in there. I smoothed my dress out with my hands and tried to look appropriate before I started for the stairs, but my heart was pounding in my chest. My brothers told me they would talk to my father eventually, but had they already done it? Was this why I had been beckoned?

Had they convinced my father that I didn’t have to marry?

I saw my brothers sitting around, but their faces were blank. I couldn’t get a read on them and tha

t worried me. Finn shot me a comforting grin while Lorenzo nodded his head, but Hunter was still fuming. I could see it behind his eyes.

“Sit,” my father said.

I went over to my chair in the room and sat down with my back straight. I crossed my legs at my ankles and folded my hands together. I looked up at him as he raked his eyes over me, taking in my obedient form before he nodded in approval. Like he was prepared for me to do something wrong before he could grace me with his voice.

“Your brothers and I have been… talking,” my father said.

“Oh?” I asked.

“Just listen,” he said.

I nodded and bowed my eyes to my lap as I squeezed my hands for comfort.

“It has come to my attention that this Timothy Wells might not be all he claims to be,” my father said.

I slowly raised my head, my brow furrowed in confusion.

“No need to worry yourself over it. These are things dealt with between men. But, he is no longer suitable to marry my daughter.”

I felt my heart leap for joy in my chest. My eyes settled onto my brothers, but they didn’t look as pleased as I was. I knew there was a ‘but’ coming, so I tried to brace myself through my happiness.

But it was hard, because I was elated that I wouldn’t have to marry that man.

“In the meantime, you have a date this evening,” my father said.

“What?” I asked.

He shot me a look that should have prompted me to swallow my tongue. But all it did was fuel my anger.

They were setting me up on another fucking date!?

“There is a lovely gentleman that works in Mr. Wells’ company. He’s a bit younger. Up and coming. Graduated from Yale and was also educated at Cambridge. Comes from a good family and would make a suitable husband,” my father said.

“But that’s what you also thought about Mr. Wells,” I said.

My father shot me another look, but I wasn’t having it.

“Why in the world do I have to marry?” I asked.

“Ava, settle down,” my mother said.

“I’m not yelling and I’m not upset. I just want to know why I am expected to marry,” I said.

“Because that is your place, Ava. You are my beautiful daughter, and you will get nothing but the best. Mr. Wells was not the best, and it was to the courtesy of your brothers that you owe the dissolution of that proposal. I suggest you thank them,” my father said.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Because me telling you I’m not ready to marry should’ve been enough.”

“That will be all, Ava,” my father said.