Ethan and Ava (Redwood Falls 4)

"Why not?"

He turned to her and their gazes clashed. "Ty and I are friends and I value that friendship. Gotta respect it, you know? This is hard enough on him already. We don't want to send him over the deep end, do we?"

Ava couldn't help it, she rolled her eyes. She loved her brother, she really did. But most of the time, he was a huge pain in the ass. "I don't really care if he goes over the deep end or not." That wasn't really true, but still.

"Yeah?" Ethan's eyes narrowed as he stared at her. "Well, I do," he stated harshly. "I keep thinking how I would feel if I had a sister that Ty or Josh couldn't stay away from. Truthfully, it makes me damn glad I'm an only child."

With his words intimating that he couldn't stay away from her, Ava's pulse rate increased. In an effort to hide what she was feeling, she dropped her eyes from his and moved toward the bed.

As she sat down, cross-legged at the foot of her bed, he continued, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care for it a damn bit, so we're going to make this as easy on Ty as we can."

She shrugged a shoulder. "Okay."

"That means we're going to start slow around him. No PDA in front of your brother, at least for a while."

"Okay," she said again, the thought of PDA sending a flush of heat to the apex of her thighs.

At her agreement, he pulled the chair away from her desk and sat down in a reversed position, his denim encased thighs straddling the seat as his arms came to rest on top of the laddered back. His eyes pierced hers as he stared at her for a few seconds longer, taking his time about it. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and heated. "After the football game Friday night, there's gonna be a party. Ty'll go for sure, but I'm gonna give it a miss. You think your parents will be cool with me coming by around ten to get you?"

Her heart went bang, bang, bang. "Yeah, probably, if I don't stay out too late."

He nodded his head in deep thought and then he abruptly stood from the chair again, making her think they were finished. But then, thrilling her to no end, warm fingers wrapped around her wrist as he pulled her from the bed. With a pivot, she found her back against the wall, next to her chest of drawers, the only place in the room that allowed a modicum of privacy with the door open.

His hands fisted in her hair as his lips fell to hers with a force that left her breathless. He kissed her, deeply, hotly, before lifting his head and staring down into her eyes. "Jesus, you're sweet, so damn hot. We're going to need to be careful, you know?"

The intensity in his gaze sent her mind into a tailspin, making concentration impossible. "About what?"

Ethan's lips firmed into a hard line. "What do you think? Careful about not getting pregnant."

Ava felt herself go taut. They hadn't even been on a single date yet, and in his mind, they'd already been together? Totally? Truly, she didn't know how that made her feel. "You're sort of assuming a lot." Honestly, she'd thought about doing it too, of course she had. But for the most part, she'd only imagined kissing and making out. Shit, first things first, you know?

His eyes became penetrating, his stance grew rigid at her words. "I'm assuming that once I get you alone and to myself you're gonna feel like sweet fucking heaven in my arms and it's going to be sheer hell trying to control it. And I'm assuming by the way you kiss me back that you're going to have the same damn problem."

She sucked in a breath as his fingers wrapped around her upper arms but she was too off balance to respond verbally.

"Never mind," he said. "Forget I said anything. Seriously, don't worry about it. As long as I can touch you and nobody else can, I'll be okay. That's all I need. I can handle it—I'll keep everything under control."

Ava nodded her head, delirium at the thought of being alone with him making waves of heat crash through her system.

"Look, I gotta go. I'll see you Friday after the game. I'm gonna be busy this week, football scouts from three different colleges are coming."

Football scouts? Damn, he was that good? "Are they coming just to see you?" she asked, feeling pleased for him but at the same time, a heaviness invaded her heart.

"That's what Coach says."

She licked her lips, wanting college in his future, but feeling an acute sense of loss at the thought of Ethan not being in Redwood Falls the next school year. "Well, good luck."

"Yeah, thanks." He leaned down and kissed her lips, just once, before releasing her to go. He stopped and turned at her door instead of leaving. "I'll see you Friday, but just to keep me sane until then—check your Facebook now, okay?"

Without any more fanfare, he turned and left, and with his words ringing in her ears, she ran over to her laptop and brought up her Facebook account, while her blood pumped furiously with anticipation.

And there it was: 'Ethan Jackson is in a relationship with Ava Anderson'.

Joy-filled glee exploded within her as she reciprocated on her own profile. Ava posted the update and grinned. There. It was the next best thing to shouting it from the rooftops, and a whole lot more effective.

Then she fell back on her bed with a smile that wouldn't go away as she hugged her pillow to her chest.

Everything was truly wonderful! Her life had just taken a new course.

Her status had just changed.

****

At ten o'clock on Friday night, Ava climbed into Ethan's pickup truck while he stood behind her, holding the door open. As he shut it firmly and walked around to the driver's side, she let out a pent-up breath and thanked God that her parents were being so accepting of the situation. Of course, she knew the reason why. They already liked Ethan. The fact that they'd known him forever and trusted him was the only reason she was getting to leave with him at ten o'clock at night, even though she had to be home by midnight. But still, very cool of her parents when it had been the last thing she'd expected of them.

As Ethan started the engine and pulled away from the curb, she swallowed, tried to breathe evenly and asked, "So, the game was good, huh? I heard you made some good blocks."

He glanced in the rearview mirror. "It was all right. We won and that's what matters, but I couldn't stay focused."

"Why not?" she couldn't stop from asking, even though she felt as if she were baiting him, just a little.

As he pulled up to a stop sign, he glanced at her. "Because of you."

Just like that, her heartbeat escalated once again. "Me?" Damn it, her voice just had to squeak.

"Yeah, you, Ava." He was silent a moment as he studied her. "Where do you want to go?"

"There's nowhere to go," she answered softly.

He nodded his head and pressed the accelerator, their choices in this small town severely limited.

They drove in silence, away from the town proper. A few miles down the road, the lights from the municipal golf course came into view. It was a small place, only a nine-hole course. Ava had certainly heard rumors that the clubhouse, if you could call the small building a clubhouse, was almost always left unlocked at night. She'd heard that some of the kids went there late at night to hang out, so she

assumed that's where Ethan was heading now.

But apparently, she was wrong. They sailed down the farm-to-market road, leaving the golf course behind. She took a deep breath as they traveled farther away into the dark of night, leaving all town lights behind. Ethan's radio was playing low, and as Seether's cover of "Careless Whisper" ended and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" began and then ended as well, Ava estimated they'd traveled probably ten miles from town.

She took a deep breath as he turned right at a fork in the road that she knew was going to lead to his parents' place. She'd been there once before with Ty a few years back and she'd also Googled his address, seen the satellite pictures. Yeah, she had it that bad.

Sure enough, after he'd taken the fork to the right and they'd gone another mile or so, he turned down a dark, gravel road. It was totally pitch black.

The silence between them began grating on her nerves. "This is where you live, right?"

"Yeah," he answered succinctly, without looking in her direction. He slowed down at a dip and tipped his head to the right. "That's our property line."

She looked out across a dark field. "Oh. And your house is there?" she asked, pointing to a couple of lights way off in the distance, probably at least a quarter mile away.

"Yeah," he answered. But at the same moment, he slowed and made a turn into a bank of mesquite trees where the field ended and a pasture began.

Her nerves took a jump. "Is this a short-cut?"

"Nah—we're not going to the house."

As the darkness of the night all but swallowed them up, she cleared her throat. "Where are we going?"