“Why?”
“Quit saying that. She…uh…says she quit drinking.”
“Get the hell out.”
“I will not. She said she stopped the day she found out that we’d been kidnapped.”
Ava counted the number of days on her fingers. “It hasn’t been that long.”
Tabon put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. “Let’s say we give her a chance.”
She folded her arms, trying to decide how she felt about him and her sister seemingly ganging up on her about her mother. “I don’t think I could take it if it didn’t go well,” she admitted. “I mean, I want her to be at the wedding, but why is she coming now?”
“Let’s see how it goes. You can always change your mind.”
Ava looked into Tabon’s eyes. “What do you mean?”
“She’s here for a long weekend, that’s it. If you’re uncomfortable, we’ll elope.”
“Elope?”
“Yep. Come here.”
She let him lead her over to the window, where he pointed down to the beach below his house. “We’ll sneak off in the middle of the day with my best friends and yours, and have a secret wedding by the sea.”
She turned in his arms and kissed him. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I’m sorry my family—”
“If you want, Saylor and I can tell stories about my dad all night long, and then you’ll never feel the need to apologize again.”
“He really was a dick,” Saylor shouted from the other room.
“What’s a dick, Mama?” they heard Savannah ask.
Both she and Tabon were laughing too hard to hear how Saylor recovered that one.
22
“I don’t think we should meet here,” Razor told Gunner the next morning.
“I don’t either. Got any ideas?”
“Actually, I do. My dad’s fishing cabin.”
“Onyx and Alegria will stay here with the girls, and Dutch and Monk can stay with Ava at your place.”
Razor hung up and went to look for Ava, who was sitting by the window, looking out at the ocean.
“Catch any blows?”
“What?” she asked, looking up from a book.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were reading.”
“I wasn’t really, or at least I haven’t been able to concentrate on what I’m reading.”
“What’s got you so distracted?”
“What do you think?” she said, rolling her eyes.