Page 14 of Wild Heart

I’d never gone this long without having any communication with Ava, and it was killing me.

This wedding had the potential to be disastrous for the both of us if I didn’t figure out how I was going to fix this.

“It’s Ava,” Liam declared.

Everyone snapped their heads in his direction as Cooper replied, “What?”

“It’s Ava,” Liam repeated. “She’s the reason Tate’s working so much.”

“Ava’s out on tour,” Wyatt noted.

Liam sent him a look that indicated that should have been enough of an explanation, and when he didn’t expand on it, Wyatt and Cooper shot me expectant looks.

I remained silent.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Tate,” Liam goaded me. “Tell me there’s not something going on between you and Ava.”

Well, at least I could answer that. “There’s nothing going on between Ava and me.”

“I’m not buying it.”

“I’m serious.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed as though he was trying to decide if he believed me. “Fine. But that doesn’t mean you both aren’t dancing around the fact that you want there to be something happening between the two of you.”

“Is that… Really?” Wyatt asked. “Ava?”

“She’s like our sister,” Cooper announced, an edge of revulsion and disbelief in his tone.

Maybe that’s how it was for the rest of them, but I never saw Ava that way. I didn’t know what to say to my brothers. I felt like I’d wanted Ava forever.

“Relax, guys. I said there’s nothing happening. With the exception of Christmas, she hasn’t been here for more than a year,” I said, hoping they’d just drop it.

Wyatt didn’t feel the same. “I’m with Liam on this one. I’m not buying it. You’ve always worked a lot, but this has been excessive for the last year or so. What I don’t understand is why you’re not doing anything about it?”

“Maybe he’s already attempted to do that,” Cooper reasoned. “Maybe she turned him down.”

“That’s not it,” Liam muttered. When the silence fell over us and all eyes went back in Liam’s direction, he put his focus solely on me. “She’s into you. She’s been into you for a long time.”

I looked away from him and back out at the lake, ignoring the inquisitive stares from Wyatt and Cooper. How long had Liam known the way things were between Ava and me? For three years now, it had seemed like Liam was too devastated byhis own personal circumstances to really have the capacity to be this observant. Maybe we’d all been assuming the worst for no reason.

When I said nothing, Liam added, “I know what you do for a living, Tate. There’s nobody in this family who has the ability to read people the way you can. That’s why you’re so good at your job. You know what people want. And you can’t possibly tell me that you’re oblivious to how badly Ava wants you.”

My throat tightened painfully. If there was one thing I was acutely aware of, it was how badly Ava wanted something more between us, how badly I wanted the same. Although, at this point, maybe I should have faced reality. Ava used to want something between us. I wasn’t so sure about that being the case any longer.

“Tate?” Wyatt called.

I drew in a long breath and focused my attention on him again. “Yeah?”

“What’s going on?”

To believe my brothers were going to let this go was foolish. If the roles were reversed with any of them, I’d be doing the same thing they were right now. “I want her to be happy.”

“Okay. But from what Liam says, it seems as though she’d be that way with you,” Cooper noted.

“Maybe. Until she isn’t.”

“What does that mean?”