The Avoidance of Love (The Daniels' Sisters Book 2) (22 page)

“Yes. I’ll call Saz. And Tara. Oh God, I haven’t called Tara.”

“I’ll call Tara, as well. All you need to do is call Saz, okay?”

“Yeah. Oh God, Mara, what if she doesn’t pull through? What about Jakey?”

“Who’s got Jacob?”

“Ma and Pops.”

“FUCK!”

“Okay, Lana. Let me deal with this. I’ll talk to you later.”

“I love you, Mara.”

“Love you, too.”

Lana ended the call first, and I broke down sobbing. My baby sister was lying in a hospital bed at the hands of that monster and her best friend was gone. When she wakes up, she’s going to be destroyed. Mills and Joe were not my family by blood, but they had become part of the family regardless. In all honesty, it would feel unnatural not to have Mills at another family meal.

“Mara, what on earth is going on? What’s wrong?” Coops rushed to my side and held me close. It took me a few minutes to control my tears and explain to him what had happened.

“Fucking hell. Get your stuff together and I’ll take you to your grandparents. You’re in no fit state to drive.”

I was going through the motions; listing all the things I needed to do, the order in which I needed to inform people. Dana was going to need a bag for the hospital when she woke up . . . because she was going to wake up. I couldn’t take losing one of my sisters. There was no way I could survive that.

Arriving at my grandparents’ house, I felt nauseous. They had already lost my parents; I didn’t want to be the one to tell them that they might lose a granddaughter as well.

My grandmother answered the door and could tell by my face that something was wrong. There was just no way for me to hide it. I was beyond the ability to school my features to try to hide how bad things were. I thought she was going to collapse on the doorstep, so I urged her back inside.

Granddad came into the living to find out what was going on. We quickly brought him up to speed and told him to stay with Jakey while we went to the hospital to find out what was happening. Granddad was furious. I had never seen him so angry. Grandma thought it was best if he stayed at home for that reason alone. He would only get angrier at the hospital and it was better for his health not to be so agitated. It was better for the medical staff at the hospital as well.

Tara didn’t take the news well either, but that was to be expected. She told me that she was leaving work right away and would meet us at the hospital

The waiting at the hospital was terrible. All we could do was pace up and down the corridors and drink shit coffee to pass the time. After what seemed like hours, a doctor finally came in to see us. Fortunately, Dana only had a few broken ribs and some serious bruising to her face and body. When Mills had come to see her, she’d inadvertently distracted Mitchell from the attack he was about to launch on Dana. She would be able to go home in a few days.

At some point, Deacon showed up, and he went in with Grandma to see Dana first, even though she was still asleep. I guess my little sister had worked things out with her guy as well. I could only hope that she got well enough to put this all behind her and make a go of things together.

When Grandma came out, my sisters and I took our turns just so we could see for ourselves that she really was still alive. I finally remembered to check my phone when I came out of her room. There were several text messages and voice mails from Jace. Each one more panicked than the previous one. I decided to call him back rather than text him but as soon as he answered, I broke down.

“BonBon, talk to me. What’s wrong, baby? Where are you?”

“It’s my sister, Jace; I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t do anything.” I told him where I was in the hospital and he said he’d be there before I knew it. True to his word, he was there in less than half an hour. When I saw him at the corridor, I couldn’t help but run to him. I crashed into his arms and he held me tightly, uttering soothing words while stroking my hair and softly kissing the top of my head.

When I had finished sobbing, we took a seat in the waiting area. Jace made his way over to my grandmother and introduced himself. On a normal day, I would probably have felt uncomfortable and embarrassed. I’ve never brought a guy home, but today, there were more important things to be concerned about.

Since no one was talking, Jace took a seat and pulled me down onto his lap.

“She’s going to be all right. You said a few broken ribs and bruises. She’s not going to die from that. If she’s anything like you and Lana, then she’s stubborn as hell. She won’t let that keep her down for long.”

I talked into his chest. “I know. I don’t even think that’s what’s worrying me. It’s when she finds out what has happened to Mills. It’s going to crush her, Jace. I know my sister; she’s going to blame herself.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

He continued to rock me in his lap and soothe me as best as he could while humming a little tune that vibrated in his chest against my ear. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before a doctor came out to talk to us again. Just as Jace had told me, there was nothing really to worry about.

Dana was sedated and she would wake up in the morning. Her blood work and x-rays had all come back clear, so we were free to go home and come back in the morning. Deacon insisted on staying. He looked so distressed that the doctor caved and allowed him to stay in the room with her. We let him know we would all be back first thing the next morning and that if anything happened during the night, he should keep us updated.

Jace took me home. He held my hand the whole way, and I was at a loss for words. When we got inside, he headed to the bathroom and he turned the shower on, which was just what I needed. Once I’d washed as much of the day away as I could, I came out to find sweat pants and a cami vest laid out on my bed. I smiled at the thought that had gone into the gesture as I slipped the clothes on. They were perfect. I really just needed to feel comfortable tonight.

Entering the living room, I saw that Jace had lit several of the scented candles I had around the room and dimmed the lights. As sensual as it was, my stomach had other ideas about relaxing and chose that moment to growl.

Jace smiled. “I didn’t know what you wanted to eat, but I’ve ordered a pizza since it was probably the quickest thing that would come and I figured you probably hadn’t eaten all day.”

I wanted to cry again. I felt so vulnerable and open and Jace was doing all the right things.

“Come here, you.” He pulled me down onto the sofa with him and turned the TV on. After searching for a while, he stopped when he found
Dirty Dancing.
“Every girl I’ve ever met in my whole life loves this film. Not exactly sure why, but you want to watch this?” I nodded my head, so we settled to watch Patrick Swayze gyrate his hips beyond redemption. The pizza arrived promptly, and we adjusted ourselves on the sofa so I was lying down between his legs with my back against his chest.

“Thank you, Jace, for being here for me. No one has ever done this for me before.”

“No, BonBon, thank you.” I knew what he was thanking me for. I’d allowed him to take care of me and, in doing so, I’d given him the control he wanted from me.

DANA WOKE THE next day and the days that followed went by in a blur. She was grieving for Mills so badly she had turned Deacon away in the process. I knew that was something she would regret, but she needed to work that out for herself.

Mills’ funeral was beautiful and awful at the same time. Entirely bitter sweet, the service was perfect. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day to say goodbye. The day managed to stay dry; all the readings and hymns suited Mills as much as I knew of her.

Joe was silent for most of the service and once it was over, he disappeared. I noticed Joe and Lana having a final goodbye. I never understood what was between those two. Sometimes they seemed like best friends and other days it was as if they could barely tolerate each other.

Jace stayed with me the whole time. He had been my rock through it all even while going to visit his dad. The family had stepped in to help with Jacob while Dana was recovering from her physical injuries. None of us seemed to be able to help her with her emotional turmoil. Nothing brought her much comfort.

She had stopped crying every minute, which was progress, but she truly looked miserable most days. I knew she was missing Deacon, but she refused to admit it aloud. They had been having problems before the incident with Mitchell and when she woke and learned of Mills’ death, she had blamed him somehow.

A few days after the funeral, we were all trying to get back to our normal routines. Dana had finally come to her senses and gone after Deacon; the rest of us went back to work.

I had been working late every day to catch up on a few projects that had come in. I had Jace’s house to work on since contractors were coming back to me with quotes and Coops had taken on a couple of lucrative projects that I couldn’t afford to reject. Since I couldn’t spend time with Jace during the day while I was at work, we agreed to take it in turns staying over at each other’s homes. This week it was my turn to spend the weekend.

“BonBon, you ready to go?” Jace had also taken to being my personal chauffeur as much as possible which was nice, but I knew he was still worried that I might take off like before if I felt things were getting a little too heavy and serious. I wasn’t sure how much more serious they could get. We practically lived together.

Sometimes I felt a little scared about how deep I was falling for him. My natural inclination was to end things before a man found a way to hurt me . . . even if it was unintentional.

“Yeah, I’m just shutting down my computer. What do you want to do tonight?” We were actively trying to go on dates as often as we could. Jace wanted us to do the normal relationship things.

“I was thinking dinner and then a trip to the movies?”

“Sounds good to me.”

We went to a nice little bistro not far from my office that did amazing steaks. Jace ordered the biggest one just to see if he could finish it . . . which he did. I settled for something smaller but just as tasty.

You wouldn’t have thought that Jace had just eaten when we got to the theater. He ordered large nachos, a large hot dog, large popcorn, and a mammoth sized slushie to wash it all down.

“Where do you even put all of that?”

“What? This? BonBon, you’ve been working me out so much lately, I need to keep my strength up.” I rolled my eyes at him even though I did find it a little funny. I walked past him trying to hide how much I wanted him after making that comment.

Lord knows why, but Jace had decided we were going to watch a Cameron Diaz chick flick. I wanted to watch action or even horror, but not a chance. Part of me thought he chose this type of film so we could get a little frisky at the back of the cinema. It was something I’d heard my sisters giggle about, but never actually experienced myself. Nope. Nada. Nothing. The only time he glanced my direction was to offer me popcorn.

We stopped off at a bar on the way home and Jace scored extra brownie points by plying me with every cocktail on the menu while he stuck with club soda. My favorite one by far was the passion fruit champagne mojito. I literally guzzled three of them forgetting that champagne went straight to my head. Staggering out of the bar a couple hours later, I found everything entertaining and hysterical.

“To think I thought you could handle your drink.” Jace shook his head at me while laughing.

“I can. You put something in my drink. I’m not normally like this.” It was so hard to walk. I never knew coordinating your feet just to put one foot in front of the other took so much concentration.

“BonBon, I don’t need to roofie you to have my wicked way.”

“Maybe I need to roofie you to get my wicked way.” This time he laughed aloud.

“When am I never willing?”

“When stupid Cameron Diaz is on a large screen?” He paused and then swept me up into his arms. “Put me down.”

“No. One, you’re taking forever to walk to the car and I want to get you home. Two, are you telling me you wanted to have sex in the theater?”

Suddenly, my alcohol-induced haze was clearing, and I felt embarrassed. “No.” I hope that sounded more convincing to him than it did to me.

“So my BonBon is not just sweet, she has a kinky side as well. Noted. I hope you realize what you’ve just unleashed.” I shivered with anticipation. I wanted him to give me all that he had and I’d meet him every step of the way.