Broken Love (Broken #4)(23)

I quickly made my way over to Ava. “I’m so sorry I pushed you. I thought it was your dad.”

Ava pushed my hand away and stood as she glared at me before glancing over to Nate. “You better have a damn good excuse for interrupting what you just interrupted.”

Nate pulled his head back in a disgusted manner before shaking it off and pointing to me. “Reed is looking for both of you, but especially you, bro. When I realized where you both probably were, I came to warn you.”

I swallowed hard as Ava laughed as she slipped on her shoes and pushed passed Nate while heading out the door. “Puh-lease. I’m not afraid of my dad.”

My eyes widened as I looked at Nate. He smiled slowly and said, “Dude … you are so dead. I get your truck and the condo in Austin when Reed kills you.”

I pulled my boots on and walked up to Nate. With a quick push, Nate stumbled backwards. “Fuck you, Nate.”

“This is how you’re going to treat me after I came looking for the two of you? I see how you are, bro. I’ll remember this.”

I rolled my eyes and jogged to catch up to Ava. My fingers laced with hers as she peeked up and smiled her beautiful smile. Her blue eyes sparkled as her hair practically glowed from the sun hitting it.

God how I loved this girl.

Wait. What?

Instantly I stopped walking. “What’s wrong?” Ava asked as she gave me a concerned look.

Nate chuckled as he walked by. “He probably just realized this is his walk of death.”

Ava slapped Nate on the arm and focused back on me. My heart was pounding and I was positive my face had drained of all color.

“Ryder? Is everything okay? You don’t look so good. Do you feel all right?”

I searched her face before looking into her eyes. She looked so content even though there was a hint of worry in there. Her face had a glow to it and I knew it was because of the night we shared together. I felt the same way, and I’d give anything to go back to the little stone house and make love to her all day.

Suddenly becoming acutely aware of my heart pounding in my chest and every breath I took, I let what I thought sink in.

I love her.

Those three words had never made an appearance in my head before like this.

My stomach fluttered like the pansy ass I was, but I didn’t care. Everything about this felt right. I’d never experienced this feeling before and it had to be love.

Shouldn’t I be scared shitless? Running away would seem like the normal reaction I would think, but all I wanted to do was pull Ava into my arms and tell her how I felt.

Unfortunately, my mouth agreed to do just that before my brain caught up to what my heart was telling my body to do.

“I love you.”

Her eyes widened in shock before pooling with tears. She looked confused, yet she smiled the most breathtaking smile ever.

“What did you say?” she whispered.

Nate came rushing up to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, bumping Ava out of the way. “What in the hell did you just say?” He shook his head as he looked at me with dazed look. “You uttered the three words. You. Uttered. The. Three. Words! Take it back! Take it back before it’s too late!”

Spinning to Ava, Nate pointed to her. “What did you do to my brother?”

“Me?” she said as she looked between us.

Much to my regret, I stood there still in a state of shock that I had blurted out how I felt about Ava. That wasn’t going to give me any swooning points, that’s for sure.

“What makes you think I did something?” Ava asked.

Nate turned back to me and slapped me across the face, breaking me out of the trance I was in.

Ava gasped as I yelled, “What in the f*ck, dude? You hit me!”

“Snap out of it, Ryder! You can’t be in love for f*cks sake. You just slept with her. You hardly know each other.”

Ava pushed Nate out of the way and stood in front of me. “Ryder,” she choked out. “Did you … um … did you mean what you said?”

My mouth opened to speak, but nothing would come out. “I … um … I … ahh …”

“It’s the magical * effect. That’s what this is. I’ve seen plenty of good men go down because of it.”

Snapping my head over to Nate, I narrowed my eyes at him as Ava continued to wait for my answer. Pinning him with a glare, I said, “You’re such an *, Nate.”

“Tell me I’m lying. You can’t even answer her right now. It’s the classic symptom.”

Closing my eyes, I tried to get my thoughts together as Nate continued to run his mouth. When I opened my eyes, I looked back to Ava only to see her eyes filling with doubt.

Oh shit.

“Ava, I—”

“There y’all are!” Liza called out as she walked hand in hand with Walker up to us. Lifting my head, my eyes caught Walker’s and I could see the big brother protectiveness coming out loud and clear.

“Ava, dad is looking everywhere for you. When you and Ryder didn’t show up for breakfast, the steam was practically coming from his head,” Walker said as he shot daggers at me.

“Thanks,” Ava said as she turned and started walking away from me.

“Wait, Ava!” I called out as she grabbed Liza and began walking quickly back toward the house.