Puck’s Property by Monique Moreau
ChapterTwenty-Four
Ava’s eyes flew up as Abby swung the door of her office open so quickly it slapped and bounced off the wall. Flinging herself over the desk, she brought Ava in for a fierce embrace. “Ohmigod, what an asshole!” she cried out.
Ava’s stoic veneer toppled, and she deflated in her friend’s arms.
“What is it with these bikers? Seriously, they have nothing between their ears. They see a good woman. They say they want to be with that woman, and then they turn around and mess it up the first chance they get. It’s unbelievable,” Abby rattled on.
Drawing her strength around her like an old coat, Ava squeezed Abby one last time before releasing her. “I’m at a loss for words, Abby. Didn’t I do everything in my power to make it work between us?” Her eyes went to the far wall, her vision getting blurry with unshed tears. Pressing her lips together, she furrowed her brow in confusion. “How do you know that we broke up? It just happened last night.”
“Hold that thought,” she said as she pulled out her phone, dialed it, and put in on speaker.
The phone rang and Sammi got on. “What the fuck! My brother’s an idiot, Ava, and I’m tracking him down as we speak to do what, Abby? What am I going to do to him when I get hold of that moron?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Kick his ass.”
“That’s right!” Sammi screeched. “He loves you, Ava. I’m telling you he loves you. He doesn’t deserve you, but I know he loves you.”
Ava pressed her lips together to stop a hysterical giggle from escaping. This was so insane. Sammi was adorable and loving. Ava wished she was in her office as well, so that she could reach out and hug the girl.
“Don’t mean to interrupt, Sammi, but I was catching Ava up on how I found out about what he did,” said Abby.
“Go right ahead. Tell her what happened,” Sammi replied, with a dramatic huff.
“Well,” began Abby, “Puck came over to our house. Got drunk and stayed up half the night with Loki. Ended up crashing on our air mattress. You know, the one Loki fought me to buy because he said he didn’t want any of the brothers sleeping over. He ate those words up real fast. I mean, Puck would’ve ended up on the sofa, but Loki says it’s not comfortable,” she concluded with a shrug.
“Wait, Loki sleeps on the sofa? Like when you get mad at him?” asked Ava. This was a shocker. Their relationship seemed so solid.
“Oh, no,” Sammi piped up. “When they broke up, he bullied his way back into Abby’s life under the guise of protecting her after the attack. She told you about the attack, right?”
“Of course. I hadn’t heard that part of the story, though.”
“Oh, yes, he had to crawl his way back into her favor because he’d acted like a real ass right before her attack,” finished Sammi.
“Afterward, I wanted nothing to do with him. I was very strict on that point,” Abby tacked on with a somber nod.
Ava gave her a disbelieving look. “You’re the most forgiving person I know. I can’t imagine you being tough on him.”
She gave a tiny self-deprecating shrug. “I’d miscarried, and I don’t know, I was torn up inside. Struggling with a range of emotions and fluctuating hormones. I was a hot mess. Anyway,” she waved her hand, “we’re getting off topic. Luckily, they were talking loud enough that I didn’t have to eavesdrop. Loki gave Puck a dressing down. Called him an idiot for the way he treated you. Told him he was wrong on every front. On not talking to you before Church, on not figuring out a solution that protected you and your family, on not letting you know he was on the cusp of having a panic attack.”
Ava’s mouth parted. She opened and closed it several times. He was what? “Whoa there, what did you say?”
“You mean the panic attack he pretended he wasn’t having? The one he needed to rush out of your house for, so you wouldn’t notice? Yeah, that one.” She looked at Ava with a mixture of commiseration and pity. For a social worker, it felt like a travesty when a loved one refused to communicate or confide in them. Ava swallowed down the pain of such a failure as tears pricked behind her eyeballs and her nostrils burned.
Her spine smacked the back of her chair. Memories of yesterday flittered to the forefront of her mind; Puck insisting he had to leave and clutching the sides of his head. Evident signs of distress—of a possible attack coming on—that she’d completely missed. This only proved their relationship was a farce. She wouldn’t have looked down on him. He knew that. She would’ve stopped everything, even in the middle of an argument, to support him in any way she could have. He knew that, too. And yet he’d continued to hold back, just as he had when he stepped into the Squad Bar and found it was wrecked. Instead of reaching for her in his time of need, he’d distanced himself. Like when his mother had died. Ava had no idea if it was something about her, if it was their dynamic, or what. Regardless, it was a moot point.
“Yet another reason I need to kick his ass,” Sammi persisted. “I can’t believe he kept this from me. I mean, I can believe it, but I’m mighty pissed about it. He can’t keep treating me like I’m thirteen years old. He’s such a macho dumbass. In the middle of a fight, he didn’t want to look weak, so he ran away. I’m sure he came back and waited outside your house, mentally shouting out, ‘Open the door, Ava! Ava!’ as if you could hear in all that silence. Like I said, i-d-iot.”
Ava barked out a laugh of disbelief. “I-I don’t even know what to say. Hearing that just makes it worse,” she confessed.
Abby inclined her head to one side. “How so? Loki talked to him. He’s twisted Puck’s head back on straight. Got his priorities in line.”
“His priorities should’ve been in line all along. I should’ve been at the top of those priorities. Is he going to run away from me and knock on Loki’s door for advice every time something comes up? He’s uberprotective of everyone in his orbit.” Her shoulders sloped inward. “Except me.”
She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Face it, actions speak louder than words, and his actions are screaming that he doesn’t care. At least not enough to put me first…when it counts.”
“But, he’s going back to the Squad for another emergency Church meeting to propose a solution,” Abby insisted.
“Whatever. If this were the first time, I could justify it. The first time around, I was a liability. I’ve changed, but he still chose another obligation over me. I’m not asking to be number one in every decision, but to not even include me in the equation? For someone who’s so concerned about the people who matter to him, he has a blind spot when it comes to me. It didn’t even occur to him to fight for me. No, I’m simply supposed to step aside and let him walk over me and my family,” she finished in a tight voice. Again, she forced herself to look away and concentrate on the far wall to get her emotions under control.
“Don’t say that, Ava. It’s not true.” Sammi’s tinny voice came through the phone. “This is breaking my heart.”
Ava’s eyes fell on the phone. She leaned in closer and rasped out, “How do you know it’s not true, Sammi? He would’ve never put your business in jeopardy. It’s your heart and soul, just like the bike shop is Kat’s. Let’s assume that Loki helped him come to his senses. It will happen again because it’s clearly a pattern.”
“Oh, sweetheart…” Abby crooned, coming around Ava’s desk and wrapping her arm around Ava’s shoulders.
“I already had my heart crushed once. I have to protect myself because he clearly doesn’t have the sense to take care of me,” she concluded. Sniffling, she twisted her face in Abby’s shoulder and burst into tears. Dammit! She’d battled not to cry over him, but this talk on top of her sleepless night, she could no longer hold back. Abby tightened her arms around her, making cooing and shushing sounds through her sobfest.
Blindly, she patted her desk until she felt the corner of the cardboard box of tissues and shook a tissue loose. Shoulders slumped, Ava blew her nose and released a defeated breath.
“My father was right, damn him. He had several concerns. First, he told me the Squad was smuggling illegal goods across state lines—”
“Not anymore,” Sammi interjected.
“Yes, I know. I brought it up with Puck, and he explained the changes that were made to the Squad and why. But my father also brought up his fear that Puck wasn’t capable of being serious. He was thinking in terms of cheating, because that’s where his mind goes first when it comes to betrayal. He may not have been right on that front, but he was right in essence, because Puck hasn’t proven he sees me as a partner. That he sees us a couple, sharing our lives together. You can’t pick and choose. Either you’re all in, or you’re not.”
Abby looked down on her with concern, but she said nothing. Nor did she bring up another argument. That, in and of itself, spoke louder than words.
“I agree, Ava,” Sammi said, firmly. “All I ask is that, after I leave a mark from my stiletto heel on his face, you’ll give him another chance.”
Ava’s spine bent forward. Flattening her lips, she replied, “I don’t think I can do that. It’s time for you to accept the same thing I have to accept. It’s over, Sammi.”
