“Colton and Molly have old business they need to sort out.” She pulls her phone from the pocket of her jeans and taps the screen a few times. When she turns the phone to face me, a little boy with wild, dark hair smiles back at me with dimples that look just like Colton’s.
“Hell.” I exhale heavily and drag a hand through my hair. Now I see what Ava’s saying. Just because Molly and Colton were together last night doesn’t mean they were together. They might just have some important personal issues to sort out. But at two a.m.? “You don’t think he knew before?”
She shakes her head. “The kid was as much a surprise to him as he was to the rest of us. And now that she’s planning to move back here to run the tasting room, I can only imagine they have to hash out the details of how this is all going to work.”
“And you’re sure the kid’s his?” I ask.
Ava frowns at the screen, then turns it back to me again. “Look at that face. Who else’s would he be?”
A dark corner of my brain provides an answer to that question. But I know Ava wouldn’t like it, so I just shrug, as if I can’t come up with another possibility.
“I know you have feelings for Ellie,” Ava says.
“She’s my friend. I care about her.”
Ava gives me a hard look. “I know you have feelings for Ellie,” she repeats. “I just wanted to warn you that what she saw last night couldn’t have been what it seemed.”
“Can you be so sure of that? Hell, if anything, doesn’t the kid make what Ellie saw even more damning? Now we know they have a history.”
Ava shrugs. “Even if I believed Colton would fuck around on Ellie, I don’t believe Molly would do that to Ellie.”
Clearly Ava isn’t aware of the rumors that circulated about Blow Job Molly in high school, but I’m not going to be the guy who brings up her old reputation. “Fine. Maybe it was innocent.” And I’m an asshole, because part of me hopes it wasn’t. When Colton was making Ellie happy, she was off-limits. But now? He’s been crushing her spirit all summer, and as far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t deserve her anymore. I want my chance.
“I want you to be prepared for the possibility of Ellie and Colton staying together. That’s all.”
Ava can totally read me, and I hate it. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about Ellie.” I give her a hard look. “I won’t assume they’re over if you’ll do me a favor and take all your assumptions about your brother with a grain of salt. He’s my best friend and I love him, but Ellie’s put up with more from him than she should have to.”
“Okay,” she says softly. “It’s a deal.”
“Thanks.”
She studies me for a beat too long, and I look away. “Did Ellie tell you anything else last night? Anything about her?”
“What do you mean?”
She shrugs. “Nothing. I’m just worried. Things haven’t been right between them for a while, but they’re going to have to figure it out. If they can just get through this rough patch, they’ll be okay.”
“But what’s next? Another year of Ellie waiting for a proposal that’s not coming?” Another two months of Colton making her feel undesirable because he’s not touching her? Not that I’d say that to Ava. Ellie’s probably told her best friend, but if she hasn’t, it’s not mine to share.
“I don’t know, Levi. But that’s between them. Please just step back and let them figure it out.”
I pick up Lilly’s pink-and-purple toy watering can, revealing a brown patch of grass. “She deserves better than what he’s giving her.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing sleeping with my girl?”
Ava and I both swing around to the back of the house. Colton slams the door shut and stomps toward us. His eyes are blazing. He’s pissed, and experience tells me that the glaze in his eyes means he’s high. Fuck.
“Are you drunk?” Ava asks, quickly transitioning into big-sister mode.
I look at Ava, then back to Colton. We’ve managed to keep Colt’s drug issues from his sister—no reason to worry her—but someday, she’s going to figure it out.
“I’m fine. Or at least I will be once I show this piece of shit what happens to assholes who make a move on my girl.”
I fold my arms, glaring at him. “You know, they say the guilty are the most suspicious.”
“You fucked her, didn’t you? You’ve wanted her since the day you met her. I see it in your eyes. I know you.”
“You don’t know shit.”
“You guys,” Ava says. “Both of you, calm down.”
“I’m calm.” Colton’s voice is deadly soft, and I know it’s taking everything in him not to come at me. “What was she doing with you all night?”
“Nothing I want to explain to you while you’re blitzed out of your mind.”
“She stayed with you. She fucking admitted it.” He stumbles toward me and slams his palms into my chest, but his coordination is off, and I don’t even sway from the contact. “She didn’t come home because she was with you.”
“And what about you? Why didn’t you come home? Oh, right. I forgot. You were too busy fucking your stepsister to come home to your girlfriend.”
“Levi!” Ava’s put on her teacher voice, but when I look at her, there’s panic in her eyes.
Colton pulls back, ready to take a swing, but Carter appears behind him and grabs his arm before he can let loose. “None of that shit here,” Carter says.
“Come on, Levi,” Ava says. “Give him a break. I told you.”
“Told him what?” Colton demands.
“About Molly,” Ava says softly. “I know about Noah. Please, Colton. Calm down. Let’s talk about this.”
He shakes his head. Carter’s grip on him loosens, but Colton doesn’t move toward me. The fight’s already draining out of him. “None of you know shit. You think you do, but you’re so fucking sheltered. You have no idea the real problems people are dealing with. No fucking clue.”
“Okay,” I say, turning up my palms. “So we don’t understand poor Colton’s real problems. But maybe you should tell them to your girlfriend instead of ignoring her and making her feel like an unwanted piece of garbage. If you really love her, fix it. Don’t just feel sorry for yourself.”
He snarls. “Maybe I don’t want her if she slept with you. Maybe I can’t just get over something like that.”
My fists clench and my arm muscles contract. I could knock out my best friend. I want to. He deserves it. “She didn’t sleep with me. We were in the same apartment but not even in the same room. She didn’t want to go home and be alone while thinking about you and Molly. That’s on you. Don’t try to put this on me.” I walk around to the gate and push out of the backyard. Aside from weekends when I’m out of town for work, I haven’t missed a family brunch in two years. Today’s going to have to be an exception.
I’m climbing in my car when Jake comes jogging out the front door.
“Levi, wait up!”
“I’m not in the mood, Jake.”
“Ellie’s pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” The word is a wrecking ball to my solar plexus.
She’s pregnant. She’s having Colton’s baby.
Levi
Friday, October 26th
I slide the last ladder into Jake’s truck and close the tailgate. “You need anything else today?”
He shakes his head. “I think we’re all set. Mom’s friends are going to decorate the bar, and they’ll be there for the caterer and florist deliveries coming in this afternoon.”
“And the rental company will come set up the chairs and arbor in the morning,” Molly says. She tilts her face to the bright blue October sky. “Perfect weather for an outdoor wedding. I hope it holds.”
“Are you nervous?” I ask Jake.
“That she’ll come to her senses and realize she’s way too good for me?” Smirking, he shrugs. “Not really. I’m really fucking amazing in bed.”
“So we’ve been told,” Molly mutters. “Repeatedly.”
Jake winks at her, then turns back to me. “So you and Ellie . . .”
“Are friends.”
“Right,” Jake says.
“Your friend looked pretty hot hanging out in your kitchen in her PJs,” Molly says.
Tell me about it. “I’m just giving a friend a safe place to stay.”
“Have you two talked about where you stand?” Jake asks.
I frown. “You mean as friends?”
Jake arches a brow, apparently unconvinced.