Broken Love (Broken #4)(25)

Dani gasped as I rolled my eyes and pushed them both into the room and shut the door. Both of them looked at me with excited expressions.

“So? How was last night?” Dani asked as she covered her mouth like we were in middle school and talking about my first kiss.

“He said he loved me,” I blurted out as both of their smiles faded before being replaced with squeals of delight.

Liza and Dani turned to each other and grabbed hands and jumped like twelve-year- olds.

My hands went to my hips as I shot them both a dirty look. “Are we done acting like little girls?”

Liza widened her eyes and took my hands in hers. “Why aren’t you happy? Ava … this is amazing. I mean, it’s kind of fast, but oh my gawd!”

Dani shook her head as she looked at me. “What did he do?”

“Nothing. Everything.” I buried my face in my hands and screamed into them before dropping them back to my sides.

“Last night was amazing. I felt things I have never in my life felt before, not only physically, but emotionally as well.”

“Ew,” Liza and Dani said together.

Liza motioned for me to sit down on the bed. “Okay, so you had a wonderful time last night. When did he tell you he loved you?”

I took in a deep breath and tried not to overreact. “Well, when we woke up, Ryder somewhat freaked that we missed breakfast and he was sure my father was going to kill him.”

Dani and Liza exchanged glances quickly. “Then I thought I had him talked into a little bit of … fun … before we headed back to the house.”

Liza wiggled her eyebrows as Dani made a gagging motion. “Ugh … I’m pregnant and it doesn’t take much to make me puke. Move on.”

Pressing my lips together to hide my smile, I cleared my dirty thoughts and kept talking. “Well, Nate busted in and said everyone was looking for us so we headed back to the house. Everything else happened so fast … and I’m so confused. This is all just going so fast.”

“Tell us!” Liza exclaimed as I pulled back and snarled my lip at her.

“Okay! Okay! He pulled me to a stop and just said he loved me. Then Nate started on about magical pussies and he wouldn’t shut up and Ryder looked stunned and when I asked him if he meant it, he couldn’t even form a sentence to talk. Then y’all walked up and I panicked. What if he didn’t mean to say it? What if he was caught up in the magic of last night as well and was thinking maybe someday he could love me and he just spit it out?”

Dani sat next to me as she placed her hand on my leg. I could practically feel the warmth coming from her. “If there is one thing I know about my brother, he doesn’t ever say anything unless it is coming straight from his heart. You said he just blurted it out?”

With a nod of my head, I felt water pool in my eyes.

“My guess would be he surprised himself by saying it out loud. You said you experienced feelings you’d never felt before, right?”

My teeth sunk into my lip as I fought to stay in control of my emotions while I nodded my head.

“I’m sure my brother felt the same way. It also didn’t help that Nate was standing there talking out of his ass, I’m sure.”

A snicker slipped from my mouth as replied, “No, it didn’t.”

Liza put her arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to her. “I’m sure when you questioned him he was stunned, like Dani said. Give him a chance to talk to you before you go jumping to conclusions.”

A single tear slipped down my cheek as I wiped it away quickly. “I know. I think the thing that scares me the most is I’ve fallen in love with him after just one night together.”

Dani began sobbing as Liza and looked at her. “Are you okay?” I exclaimed as I jumped up and bent over her.

Dani held her hand up and smiled as she continued to cry. “I’m just so … happy!”

Peeking over to Liza, I gave her a what-the-hell look as she mouthed pregnancy hormones.

Ohh … totally made sense now. I remembered Liza going through that with Nickolas.

Taking her sleeve, Dani wiped all the wetness from her face and stood up. “We better get downstairs if we want to head out for a morning hike. By mid-morning I’m exhausted and ready for a nap!”

With a quick grin, I said, “Let me change really quick and I’ll meet y’all downstairs.”

Liza stood up and stretched. “Man oh man. Nothing like family-weekend drama to wear you out!”

Dani laughed as they made their way over to the bedroom door.

After throwing on some sweatpants, a long sleeve T-shirt and a light jacket, I found my hiking boots and laced them up. Something outside the bedroom window caught my eye as I moved the curtain and sucked in a breath of air.

“Oh … holy … shit.”

My father and Ryder were walking back from the barn. Leaning in closer to get a better look at Ryder, my head hit the glass.

“Shit!” I yelled out as I strained to see if Ryder was limping or showing any signs of trauma.

Tripping over my untied shoelace, I rushed to get my boots on and ran to the door and threw it open as I waited for Ryder to come up and change.

“Hurry up, son! We’ve been waiting on you two for the last forty minutes!” Nate Sr. yelled out.

My thumb went to my mouth were I promptly started chewing on my nail. Ryder ran up the steps two at a time and flashed me a smile that took my breath away.