She tongues her lip ring, which makes me crazy, of course.
“I was afraid to hope.”
“Afraid to hope what?”
“That you might…” She blushes further. “That you might feel it too.”
I warm all over, and my cock responds in my jeans. Bad timing, in front of the whole damned town. “I do feel it. I love you, Ava. And I honestly didn’t mean to tell you that in the middle of a Steel party.”
She smiles, fiddling with her lip ring again. “I’m glad you did. I think I needed to hear it right now. I think your timing is perfect, and I love you too, Brendan. I love you too.”
Now my dick is about ready to explode. How I wish I could take her inside the house, find a secluded alcove, and we could celebrate our love physically.
But that isn’t going to happen.
Not until tonight, at least.
“Are you hungry?” she asks me.
“Hungry for you.” I discreetly pat her on the backside.
“Yeah, me too. I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Believe it, baby. I’ve known for a while that you’re the one for me.”
Her eyes widen. “Really?”
“I think I’ve made that pretty obvious, haven’t I?”
“You made your attraction obvious to me. I had no idea your emotions ran deep.”
“They do, sweetheart. They do.”
She blushes adorably. “They do for me too, Brendan.”
With Ava blocking me from the crowd, I adjust the bulge in my jeans. “That said, since we can’t go make love somewhere, yes, I will settle for some food. The magnificent Greek food, and some magnificent bread made by my love.”
She takes my hand and leads me to a seat. It’s the table of honor, where her parents are seated.
Ryan and Ruby are smiling, though it seems kind of forced from both of them.
“Hello, Brendan.” Ryan stands and shakes my hand. “So you’re Ava’s date tonight.”
“I am, sir.”
I’m not sure where the sir came from, but I’m seeing him now as Ava’s father and not the man who’s keeping secrets.
“We’re happy to have you join us at our table.” He gestures. “Have a seat.”
I hold out a chair for Ava.
“You look lovely this evening, sweetie,” Ruby says.
“Thanks, Mom.”
It doesn’t escape my notice that Ava does not meet her mother’s gaze.
Gina arrives then, taking the seat next to her father. She gives him a kiss on the cheek. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Hi, sweet pea.”
“You look gorgeous, Mom.”
Ruby smiles again. “Thank you, G.”
I’ve been to many Steel parties during the past ten years. Sometimes there’s a sit-down dinner like tonight, served in their vast backyard. Other times it’s a buffet setup, like it was for Talon Steel’s welcome home party after he was shot.
Another unsolved Steel mystery. Who shot Talon Steel? So much going on with this family. Is it possible that these messages have anything to do with his shooting?
Servers appear and slide plates of food in front of Ryan and Ruby.
They wait politely until Ava says, “Go ahead and eat, Mom and Dad. You don’t want your food to get cold. No need to wait for the rest of us.”
“Don’t be silly,” Ruby says. “We’ll wait.”
Turns out they don’t have to wait long. Within another minute, the rest of the people at the table have been served, and it looks delectable. I slide my paper napkin onto my lap and inhale the spicy aroma. Then I turn to Ava. “I don’t know anything about Greek food. What do we have here?”
“That is a stuffed grape leaf.” Ava points to the dark-green bundle at the top of my plate. “It’s a Greek dinner, so Aunt Marj and I decided we had to have stuffed grape leaves. But they’re tiny, and you may not like it.”
I pick it up and take a bite. It’s surprisingly good, in an acidic sort of way. “I will eat whatever you put in front of me. This is good. What’s inside?”
“Rice and ground beef, seasoned with parsley, dill, and mint, plus some salt and pepper, of course. I’m surprised you like it.”
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s delicious. What else do we have?”
She smiles. “The thing that looks like lasagna is moussaka. It’s made with eggplant and béchamel sauce. And then of course this is a kebab with basmati rice seasoned with saffron. On the kebab is beef marinated in gyro spices—mostly garlic, cumin, and thyme—along with onion and red pepper. Then we have some tabbouleh—a wheat salad—and some tzatziki sauce made with yogurt and cucumber.”
“It all looks amazing. I’m not sure I’ve ever had any of these things, other than a kebab, of course.”
“I hope you love them all.”
She grabs the breadbasket from the table. “And I know you don’t want to miss my pita and my olive bread. But save room for dessert. I made fresh baklava, and Aunt Marj made one of her famous cakes.”
Ryan and Ruby don’t say much during dinner, but that’s not all that unusual. The Steels always serve a ton of food, and people eat heartily here.
I clean my plate quickly, and the server comes by and asks if I want seconds, but I shake my head. “No, thank you. I need to save room for my lovely lady’s baklava.”
Only then do I notice that neither Ryan nor Ruby ate much. Both their plates are nearly full when the server takes them away. Very unusual for a Steel—or anyone at a Steel party, as the food is always delicious and plentiful.
Ava interrupts my thoughts. “Did you like everything?”
“I cleaned my plate, didn’t I?”
“You did. I’m noticing a lot of plates going back to the kitchen with the stuffed grape leaf intact.”
She’s frowning, but I can’t tell if she noticed her parents’ plates.
“I can’t say it was my favorite thing on the menu,” I reply, “but I enjoyed it. I love trying new foods.”
“I do too. We do have a lot in common, don’t we, Brendan?”
I squeeze her hand. “I always knew we would.”
That’s no lie. For some reason, I felt a connection to Ava Steel when she first opened her bakery in town. It took me a while to act on it, given the age difference, but something about her called to me. Now I know why. Because she’s the love of my life.
Once the plates are cleared, Talon Steel walks up onto the stage where the band will play later. Dale Steel and his wife, Ashley, are busy pouring glasses of bubbly and distributing them.
Right. The time for the infamous Steel toast. They’ll eventually pull Ryan and Ruby onto the stage, where the two of them will act like everything’s fine. A tiny part of me feels kind of sorry for them. But the other part of me—everything but that tiny part—doesn’t feel the least bit bad. Something’s happening. Something that may hurt Ava.
And that does not make me happy.
“Hey, everyone,” Talon says over the microphone. “Thank you all for coming to celebrate my little brother’s twenty-fiftieth anniversary of his marriage to the love of his life. We are so grateful to all of you for being here.”