“My Mom and sisters showed up unexpectedly and Luke arranged for me to go to breakfast with his Mom. They’re all here and I don’t think I can get away.”

Silence.

“Shirleen?”

“Shit, that boy is good,” she told me, sounding impressed.

He was and it pissed me off.

“Yeah, and it bought him forty-eight hours of Ava Barlow Silent Treatment,” I informed her.

“Not sure that’s good retaliation, Luke don’t talk much,” Shirleen noted.

He might not talk much to other people but the shit he said to me rocked my world.

“I have to go,” I said.

“No problem. We’ll move on the leads we got and we’ll keep in touch.”

“I’m missing all the fun,” I complained, sounding like Bad Ava.

“You find a way to ditch ‘em, let me know. I’ll come get you.”

“Thanks, Shirleen.”

“No reason to thank me, haven’t had this much fun in months. Later.”

Disconnect.

I turned toward the living room.

“We’re all going to breakfast,” Marilyn announced, a bitchy smile on her face (Marilyn had two smiles, fake-sugar-sweet and bitchy, she mostly used bitchy with me). It was clear she was looking forward to this and I didn’t take that as a good sign.

“Yeah, that way you can tell all of us what’s going on with you and Luke,” Sofia chimed in.

I looked for an excuse and my eyes caught their suitcases. “Why don’t you check into a hotel first? Then we’ll make it brunch,” I suggested, thinking that would buy me time to come up with an excuse to ditch them.

“We’re staying with you,” Mom said, foiling my plan.

I stared.

“Yeah, we have it all figured out,” Sofia told me. “Mom can sleep on your futon and Marilyn and I’ll sleep in your bed. You can sleep on the couch.”

Of course, I’d get the couch in my own damned house.

I didn’t have the time, or the energy, to fight the fight. I needed reinforcements. Macho man with a great mustache and a tight ass reinforcements.

“I need to take a shower,” I said.

“We’ll wait,” Mom replied.

I looked at Mrs. Stark. She was smiling at me and I could swear she was trying to communicate that it was all going to be okay.

She was so wrong.

I ran upstairs, straight to my bedroom, closed the door, nabbed the phone and called Luke.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Luke –” I began.

“I thought you weren’t speakin’ to me,” he sounded like he was smiling.

“My Mom and sisters are here.”

Silence for a beat then, smile gone from his voice, he asked, “Come again?”

“Your Mom told my Mom that we were together and it looked serious. My Mom gathered the Barlow Bitches from Hell and they all came, in their words, to ‘see for themselves’.”

“Why the f**k would they do that?”

“I don’t know,” I cried, but quietly so my family wouldn’t hear. “They’re the Barlow Bitches from Hell. Why do they do anything?”

“You sound agitated,” Luke pointed out the obvious.

“Did you hear me?” I squealed then sucked in a controlling breath before I went on more quietly. “My Mom and sisters are here to see for themselves that we’re serious.”

“Babe, calm down.”

“Calm is not an option. I need cookies. I need tequila. I need cookies drenched in tequila. I can barely cope with my family when my life isn’t complicated to the point of insanity. But, may I remind you, my life is complicated to the point of insanity!”

My voice was again rising.

He was quiet for a moment then he said using The Voice, “Ava, you can handle it.”

I took a deep breath and replied softly, hating that I had to admit it but, bottom line, I had to admit it, “I want to say I can, Luke, but I can’t. They’re going to chew me up and spit me out. They always do.”

“Is Ma there?”

“Yes.”

“She’ll look after you.”

“Luke, even Super Mom Stark is no match for the Barlow Super Bitches. You know that.”

Another moment of silence then, “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

I went still and stared at the wall. “What did you just say?”

“Hang on, I’ll be there in fifteen.”

I kept staring at the wall, completely unable to comprehend the fact that Luke was going to drop the hunt for Noah and come to my rescue.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“A coupla hours ago I told you no one f**ks with you. I meant no one f**ks with you.”

Oh… my… God.

“Luke –”

“See you in fifteen.”

Disconnect.

I love him, Good Ava told me.

We are SO going to touch ourselves tonight while he’s inside us, Bad Ava promised.

There was no time to contemplate payback for Luke’s latest demonstration of why he was The Best Guy Ever. I ran to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, put in my contacts, took a quick shower, pulled a comb through my wet hair and slathered peony-scented lotion on my body.

I was rushing back to my room when I heard the front door open and Sofia, Marilyn and Mom all cried at the same exact time with the same exact sickly, sweet girlie voices. “Luke!”

Yuck!

I yanked on jeans, a tight, black tee that said “Harley Davidson Motorcycles’ on the front in brown with a sage green horseshoe around the words and sparkly green sequins on the letters. I added a kickass black belt and black flip-flops. Because I was unable to do anything but, I added a massive dose of silver at ears, neck, throat and fingers.

Then I ran downstairs.

The women were sitting drinking coffee and gazing at a still-standing Luke (all but Mrs. Stark) like he was a god fallen to earth. Marilyn and Sofia’s looks had the added dimension of openly showing they wanted to rip his clothes off.

I will repeat, my life sucked!

I walked into the room and Luke’s eyes cut to me. “Hey,” I said.

His eyes dropped to my chest as I approached him. When I was within reaching distance, his arm slid around my waist and he curled me into his side.

“Harleys are sweet, babe, but we’re a Triumph family.”

Ho-ly crap.

Did he just say that?

I looked at him. His eyes were warm and affectionate.

Yep, he just said that.

He kissed my neck, lifted his head, stared in my eyes and murmured, “You smell like flowers.”