Ethan and Ava (Redwood Falls 4)

The last thing Ethan wanted to do was troll for pussy. For whatever reason, the idea was making him want to puke just as it had for the last year or so. "Where's Kayla?" he asked, both disgusted and a little confused at Ty's purpose.

Ty turned accusing eyes his way, almost as if Ethan's question was over the top. "Why do you ask me that?"

"Aren't y'all together?" It was a fact that he and his buddies didn't talk much about deeper feelings for girls, but then again, none of them had ever been serious about a girl before. But from the way Ty had been hanging around with Kayla for the last month or so, it had seemed to Ethan that something was developing there.

"No," Ty spit out before looking back to the road.

Ethan studied his friend, not appreciating Ty's cold manner toward Kayla. Redwood Falls was a small town—all the kids their age had grown up together, known each other practically their entire lives, been in the same classroom together, year after year, from kindergarten through eighth grade, before high school had finally split them up a bit with the choice of different classes.

Sure, Kayla could be a bit air-headed at times, but she didn't deserve what Ty was dishing out. His buddy could be a douche sometimes, pure and simple. Someday, some chick was going to turn the tables on him and bring Ty to his knees. Ethan hoped like hell he'd be around to witness that event when it happened, or at least hear the story firsthand. But now, concern for Kayla made Ethan question heatedly, "Has anybody told her that?"

Ty's expression smoldered. "I have. Repeatedly. The girl doesn't own me and she never will, and I've made that very fucking clear to her. She's a piece of ass, Ethan." Ty's concentration left the road momentarily as he snapped, "You understand the concept?"

Ethan couldn't stop his voice from hardening as he replied, "I understand the concept. As long as you've made it clear to her, then I got no beef with you."

"I've told her," Ty enunciated crisply. "More than once. Strip?" he asked again.

Ethan took a deep breath to settle his stomach. "Maybe later. You wanna hit the diner? I'm starving. Need a cheeseburger and fries."

****

Five minutes later, right before they hit the city limits, a patrol car pulled up behind them. Ty glanced in his rearview mirror and muttered, "Motherfucker."

The siren wailed out for just a couple of seconds, it was all that was needed to show that the lawman wanted them to pull over.

"Fuck. It's the sheriff. What the hell did we do?" Ethan asked, glancing behind him.

"We didn't do shit. I never do shit. Doesn't stop him from pulling me over," Ty snapped as he maneuvered to the shoulder of the road.

"He's done this before?" Ethan asked, more than a little surprised. There were less than a handful of patrol cars covering the entire county. It made no sense to detain people needlessly.

Ty refrained from answering as he rolled down the window. Sheriff Thompson strolled up to the driver's side as if he had all the time in the world, then leaned his arm on the door and glanced inside the vehicle, looking around. "Mr. Anderson," the lawman greeted acerbically.

"Yes, sir?" Ty snapped in question.

"You were over the speed limit."

Ethan was completely silent, damn near gobsmacked as Ty answered, "No, sir. I wasn't speeding."

The man's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, you were. You were going two miles over."

Two miles? Ethan couldn't believe this was happening. The sheriff had been protecting Redwood Falls their entire lives. Mandy's father had known them since they were little kids and Ethan had never seen him needlessly hassle anyone.

Ty dropped his chin to his chest in pure frustration.

At his buddy's silence, Sheriff Thompson rattled out, "I'm going to let you go with a verbal warning. But young man, I want you to understand me when I tell you I see everything you do. You understand where I'm coming from?"

Ethan held silent as Ty's jaw tightened before he answered succinctly, "Yes, sir," he paused. "I understand completely, sir."

The sheriff slapped his hand on the truck's fender, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Let's keep it that way."

And then he turned around, stalked to his patrol car, and drove away.

Ethan shook his head as if coming out of a stupor. "What the hell was that all about?"

Ty's expression hardened as he put the truck in drive and slowly pulled away from the shoulder. "Fucker hates me."

"Why? What'd you ever do to him?"

Ty was silent for a moment as he worked his jaw. "Nothing. Other than accidently breaking his window with a baseball when I was twelve years old? A window that I paid to fix out of my allowance, by the way. Other than that, can't come up with a damn thing."

Chewing on that answer that explained nothing, two minutes later they pulled into the parking lot and walked into Redwood Falls' only restaurant. Putting the strange scene with the sheriff behind him, Ethan trailed Ty into the building.

When his buddy came to a dead halt just inside the entryway, Ethan almost plowed into his back before he could gain enough traction to stop. When he glanced up, a still-irritated Ty was staring across the almost-full diner as if in a trance.

"What the hell, dude?" Ethan asked under his breath.

"She is so fucking hot," Ty muttered, with a determination that didn't seem to have anything to do with the girl he was referring to.

Ethan studied the room and the direction of Ty's gaze. Ava sat in a booth, and across from her, with her back to them, sat Hannah McIntyre, her bright blonde hair unmistakable.

Although immediate heat hit Ethan's groin at the sight of Ava, unease joined and spread through his gut at Ty's attention to Hannah McIntyre. Clearing his throat, knowing the answer already, Ethan asked, "You talkin' about Hannah?"

"Not talkin' about my stupid sister," Ty drawled sarcastically.

A spasm of tumult lodged in Ethan's chest at the possible consequences of Ty doing something so inconceivably stupid. "Have you lost your fucking mind? Josh will murder you in cold blood," he stated unequivocally.

Ty whipped his head around and stared at him. "She doesn't belong to Turner. They're not even going out."

Ethan crossed his arms over his chest and stared his friend down. "I beg to differ, dude."

"They are not going out," Ty bit out, turning back around to face forward.

"Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better, but that chick belongs to Josh and you goddamn know it. He's practically pissed a circle around her, marking his fucking territory." As Ty seemed to ignore him and only continued to stare in Hannah's direction, Ethan predicted, "You're going to get the shit beat out o' you."

"Turner couldn't beat the shit out of me," Ty drawled in a matter-of-fact, cocksure manner.

"On a normal day? Maybe he could, maybe he couldn't. Who the fuck knows? But if he was pissed? Dude, have you seen the way he looks at that girl? You really want to get in the middle of that shit?" As Ethan asked the question, he looked back to where the two girls were sitting and his eyes locked with Ava's. Heat, pulverizing and intense, spread through his veins and landed in his gut.

Ethan hadn't spoken to her since the night they'd had the showdown in her bedroom after Nate's party, but he had no doubt that she was probably still pissed at him.