“So, Ava, have you decided to find out what you are having?” Deb asks me like she does every time she sees me.
“Nope,” I answer, giggling, knowing she is going to huff and puff.
“Kennedy, I don’t suppose you and Sterling...” she doesn’t get to finish before Kennedy starts laughing, shaking her no as well. Deb huffs once more and smiles. In my left ear, where Rose is sitting, I hear a subtle, quiet comment.
“At least you’re pregnant,” she grumbles. Putting my hand on hers, I squeeze it letting her know I am here for her. I almost miss the ringing of my cell phone over the noise. However, I recognize Migan’s ringtone.
“Hey Migan, what’s…” I don't get the rest of the phrase out when she begins to shout into the phone.
“Ava, someone stole the merchandise,” she yells, her voice shaky and panicked.
“What?!?” I get up from my chair and walk out of the dining room. I hear the girls come up behind me. I press the speaker button, so we can all hear.
“Our designs have been stolen from the sewing suite.”
“How the hell did that happen?” Penny asks.
“I don’t know. It looks like the window has been tampered with.” I hear the tears in her eyes, and I understand. She spent months working on that spring line, and it is set to go to production next week. This is more than a blow. This feels personal.
“Stay there and call the cops, Migan. We are on our way.” Rose informs her trying to calm her down. Shit. Now I have to convince my husband to let me go.Chapter 4Hamm“This is fucking bullshit,” I say for the third time in the last ten minutes. I am nursing a beer at the center island in the kitchen, watching over the kids in the living room. My brothers are standing beside me as well. Sterling and Max are drinking too, but Jace is on a healthy living kick this week and is drinking a nasty ass protein shake instead of eating food. The kids are playing and watching kids shows on Amazon Prime, none the wiser that their mothers have left, but it was decided, by the women, I might add, that we’d stay here with them. The kids are having so much fun they haven’t even noticed the change in the room from a jovial pre-Christmas vibe to tension.
“Agreed. Who the hell knows what they are blindly walking themselves into?” Max says, pounding his closed fist on the counter.
“One of us should have gone with them,” Sterling says, his arms crossed.
“For sure,” Jace says. Finally, our sainted mother sighs from her barstool on the opposite side of the counter.
“Just go. Your father and I will watch the kids. I honestly can’t listen to this anymore. Just go.”
“You sure, ma?”
“I’m sure. Get out. Jace drives. He didn’t drink a drop tonight.”
“Thanks, Ma,” we say collectively, and one by one, we kiss her on the cheek before piling into Jace and Penny’s Suburban. In minutes we pull up in front of the girls’ store and climb out of the car. They have at least been vandalized. The outside windows are busted out, and there is graffiti all over the building—nonsense graffiti, not even the artful kind. Inside the shop, it is even worse. The girls are standing in the middle of the chaos, trying to console a tearful Migan. So many ruined articles of clothing are on the floor, ruined by grease and who knows what else. Broken glass and overturned display tables are as far as the eye can see.
“Have you called the sheriff?” I ask, startling them. Rose is visibly startled by my calling out to them. She lets out a little scream but calms down when she sees that it’s us.
“No, babe. We haven’t called them yet,” Ava says.
“Kennedy, call them. We’ll go down to the hardware store and see if Olaf is home. We’ll get everything we need to board this up and clean up the glass.”
“On it,” Kennedy replies, her cellphone already up to your ear.
“Migan,” I say, walking over to her. “Has anyone called Torran?” I ask because I am shocked as shit that he didn’t beat us here.
“I did. But he is in Chicago, at an estate sale.” she sobs a bit more. “Hank and Loki are on their way.”
“Good. I just want to make sure you have someone come for you.”
“Thank you, Hamm,” she says, hiccupping.
“Hamm?” Ava asks, walking over to me. “The kids?”
“My parents are watching them.”
“All of them?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Well, hell must have frozen over,” she whispers.”
“Yeah, maybe. What do we think happened here?”
“Migan came in to grab a late shipment and found it like this,” she says, gesturing around the room.
“We’ll head to the hardware store, Hamm. Stay with the girls?” Max asks.
“Yeah, of course,” I say, pulling Ava closer to me.