Her eyes fell to her feet, and I shook my head.
“You know, communication is paramount,” I said.
“What?” Ava asked.
“Communication. For any relationship—whether it be a friendship or something else—communication is the number two pillar in that dynamic.”
“What’s number one?”
I looked at her and found nothing but guilt in her soft blue eyes. “Trust,” I said.
She dropped her eyes again, but not before I saw tears welling behind them.
“I hope one day you can learn to simply tell me the truth, Ava, and know you can come to me with how you’re feeling, or whenever something has happened. Hell, even if you just want to leave and be alone, just tell me that.”
“Logan, I just needed—”
“It doesn’t matter now,” I said curtly.
Her head shot up, pain running behind her eyes.
“You need to figure out what you want. I know what I want, and one of the things I want is to not be yanked around by those who don’t deem me worthy of the truth.”
“I swear, Logan, that isn’t what happened last night.”
“I’m past last night, Ava. But you did set a precedent, a dangerous one.”
“Logan, please,” she whispered.
“I hope you feel better. If you need anything, let me know.”
“Logan, wait!”
I turned and walked away from her, knowing that if I stayed any longer, she might attempt to spin her web further. And I wasn’t sure it was something I could handle. Not from her. Not after what I went through with Camilla.
I wanted to be right in this situation. I didn’t want to be single. I wanted to be with her. But if Hunter was right about dropping them both because they were best friends for a reason—if there was any part of Ava that reflected the traits of Camilla—I didn’t know if I’d be able to recuperate from that. Not after becoming so attached to her. Not after enjoying every facet of her the way I had.
I heard her calling out for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to go back. She had the soup. I had told her what was on my mind. Now it was time for me to go before I fell ack into another trap. I slipped into my car and drove off, trying desperately not to look back. I knew if I saw Ava standing there, I’d turn right back around and go back to her, fall into her arms, take her against my body and fuck her until she turned into the woman I wanted.
The woman I needed.
And I had to stop doing that with women. I had to stop seeing them as who I thought they could be and start accepting them for who they truly were. I had made that mistake with Camilla, thinking she could eventually become the person I knew she had deep down within her. What I failed to see was that if she didn’t want to be that person, it didn’t matter if she had the potential. That person would never become anything if she didn’t want that facet of her life to take hold.
I couldn’t make the same mistake with Ava. I refused to.
Ava
“So, where are we now with the investigation? What happens from here?” my boss asked.
“Well, we reached out to them with the evidence we compiled, and it made them nervous,” Ralph said.
“I’ve spoken with them once since then, and they expressed to me an interest in meeting and settling out of court,” Logan said.
“When will that take place?” I asked.
Our eyes locked, and I could’ve sworn I saw a silent plea cross Logan’s face.
“It’s a good question. But if they want to settle out of court, doesn’t that mean they’re still sticking by the charges?” my boss asked.
“Getting them to sit down gives us a chance to present everything we have. They don’t know we have the smoking gun, but they do know we have a working theory behind why they decided to sue you for fraud,” Ralph said.
“Smoking gun? You found proof of your theory?” I asked.
“We did,” Logan said.
He started sliding paperwork over, and even across the table, his body heat reached out to me. I reached for the paperwork and our fingertips brushed, causing electricity to spark throughout my body. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My heart seized in my chest. I cleared my throat as I pulled the papers toward my boss and myself, and he immediately picked them up and began frantically rifling through them.
“Mr. Craven,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Let me see those papers. You’re shaking a little bit. Just take some deep breaths while I take a look, and I’ll tell you what I find.”
My boss was so used to being in control that this entire case had him freaking out. He wasn’t sleeping. He was hardly eating. I felt like a parent trying to reign in a stressed-out college kid. I took the stack of papers from him as he sat back. Then he heaved a heavy sigh as he put his head in his hands.