Page 17 of The Billionaire's Bride

He glowers back. The tension in the room escalates. Shit, this isn't how I'd wanted it to be. I'd known Edward would return, eventually... I'd hoped I'd have more time. I didn’t expect for him to come back so quickly. Not before I'd consolidated my position with Ava. Before I'd won her over completely. If it means I am being greedy and duplicitous, then the fuck I care? I am not letting go of the one thing that brings me joy. I am not letting him take Ava from me, and if that means I need to play along with him for a while, even win his confidence, then so be it.

I hold his gaze, then blow out a breath, "Can we call a truce temporarily?"

His forehead furrows. "Why is that?"

"I don’t know about you, but I can't fight on an empty stomach, man." I lean back in the couch, "Can we order some pizza first?"

7

"If we haven’t been visited by people from the future yet, does that mean time travel will never be invented? However, these people that may have come back may have kept themselves hidden so we don’t know they’ve come back, so the future is unchanged.... Um, does that make sense? Guess the past should stay in the past—we shouldn’t change it but only learn from it. Besides there is no future yet, so how can someone come back from something that hasn’t yet existed?"

-From Ava's Diary

Ava

I walk inside the house and the smell of cigarettes laced with coffee and a deeper, edgier smell I can only identify as testosterone hits me. What the—? I glance at the two men sprawled across from each other. Between them are used coffee cups. There’s also an ashtray—a previously unused one which I’d shoved to the back of one of my shelves… Who’d found it? I narrow my gaze on the cigarette butts that have been stubbed out.

"Have you been smoking?" I scowl at Baron.

"Don’t look at me." He jerks his chin in Edward’s direction.

"You?" I turn on him, "You, Father? I mean, Edward. Really?" I scowl. "Since when did you start smoking?"

"Since I left you and realized how much I miss you?"

My cheeks heat.

Baron makes a sound deep in his throat. I ignore it. I drop my bag on the edge of the couch farthest away from Edward, then stoop to grab the ashtray. "Well, next time, take your butts outside."

"As long as you park your butt next to mine."

Before I can turn he’s patted me on my arse.

"Hey," I straighten, "that was uncalled for."

"Sorry," he raises his hands, "I couldn’t resist."

I glance over to find Baron curling his fingers into fists. "Keep your hands off her, you prick."

"I apologized, didn’t I?" Edward drags his fingers through his hair. "It was a moment of weakness, okay."

"As long as it doesn’t happen again," Baron snaps.

Edward jerks his chin. Baron, glowers, but doesn’t say anything else.

"Hmm." I stare between them, "I assume you’ve come to some kind of understanding."

Neither speaks.

"Well, have you?" I frown. "Go on, you can tell me."

"We…may have." Baron concedes, “but first,” he holds up his finger, tilts his head as if listening. "Wait for it, wait for it." The doorbell rings. "Pizza." He springs up, heads for the door.

"Pizza?" I blink

"Yeah, we have to eat sometime, don’t we?"

I take in Ed's pale features, his rumpled clothes. He seems tired but not in pain. "How’s the wound?" I ask.