Family Bonds- Ava and Seth (Amore Island Book 5), Natalie Ann [world of reading TXT] 📗

went back outside, Hudson asking, “What do you want us to do?”

“They will put the bed together. There are already mounts on the walls for a TV in the bedroom and living room if you want to set my TVs up. Internet is turned on, but all that needs to get working.”

“I’ll do that,” Carson said. “Leave the electronics to us. We’ll need passwords for your internet unless you don’t want to tell us.”

“They have to be set up. You can do it and give it to me. Maybe it’s better to have someone else set them up than me doing it. It won’t be anything I’d think of,” she said, laughing and knowing her brothers could be creative.

“Leave it to us,” Hudson said and then moved out of the way waiting for those things to be brought in while she would get to work unpacking boxes and staying out of everyone’s way.

Several hours later, the movers left and she was there still going through boxes with her brothers.

“Thanks, guys, but you don’t have to stay here and waste your time unpacking with me.”

“We’ve got nothing else better to do. Unless you’d rather put everything away on your own?” Carson said.

“No. I’m not that fussy.” She’d been telling them where to put dishes or glasses and pans, but she didn’t care if they were arranged a certain way. “My clothes are all hung up and bathroom items taken care of. I didn’t have a lot of stuff.”

“Which is good. By the time you put your head on the pillow tonight it will be on clean sheets and in an organized home,” Hudson said.

“Can’t get any better than that,” she said. “Other than letting me at least order us pizza for dinner.”

“See, you are the best sister there is,” Carson said.

“Only because I’m feeding you. But when it comes to brothers, no one could ask for better.”

“We’ve got your back,” Hudson said. “And since it’s just the three of us, you know what I’m going to ask next.”

She sighed, completely expecting this conversation. “Of course. And I don’t have a lot of answers for you on what is going on with Seth.”

“Mom and Dad said you went on a date with him a month ago,” Carson said.

She always found it funny that her brothers alternated with their questions and comments. “I did. Life has been busy for both of us. We haven’t seen each other since, but we do talk at night several times a week. We are getting to know each other well.”

“And now that you are on the island, when will you see him again?” Hudson asked.

“He and Adele are bringing me a housewarming gift tomorrow and I’m cooking dinner for them,” she said.

Her brothers looked at each other the way they always did with a silent language that drove her insane. “So bringing his daughter into the relationship right away?” Carson asked.

“I’m not sure what we have, but Seth has told Adele we were friends. She’d already met me and knew about the date, though she didn’t know it was a date. No reason to hide anything. If it doesn’t work out, then we can still see each other on the island and say hi without Adele knowing any differently.”

“And what do you want?” Hudson asked

“Right now, I just want possibilities and that is exactly what I’ve got.”

14

On The Lookout

Seth found Ava’s house easily enough on Sunday afternoon. The hardest part was calming down Adele who was gabbing faster than a woodpecker attacks a tree.

“I’m so excited,” Adele said, bouncing in her booster seat in the back of his SUV. “Do you think Ava remembered that she said she’d show me how to braid my doll’s hair?”

“She remembered,” he said. “I told you that.”

“I know. I forgot. You don’t think I brought too many, do you?”

He wanted to roll his eyes. They’d had a little debate this morning on how many to bring. If he didn’t stop her at three she would have emptied her room of them all. “It’s a good number.”

He shut the vehicle off, Adele knowing she could get out now. “Can I ring the bell?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said. She had her bookbag over her shoulder and he had a plant in his hand sitting on top of a bakery box. He wasn’t good when it came to housewarming gifts and figured this would be work.

Ava opened the door before Adele could lift her finger from the button and he liked to think that maybe she was on the lookout and excited for them to be here.

He wasn’t sure the last time he’d spent so much time getting to know a woman without seeing them. Not even in high school.

But the past month, they’d spent more time on the phone talking and texting back and forth than they had in each other’s presence. He was hoping now that she lived on the island they could change that.

“Hello there,” Ava said, a big smile on her face. A definite welcoming one. “I’m so glad you two could come to dinner.”

“We brought you a plant and a chocolate cake.”

“A chocolate cake,” she said, her hands clasping together. “That’s the best type of cake to have.”

“I told you, Daddy,” Adele said, looking at him. “He wanted to get one with strawberries and I told him everyone loved chocolate.”

“I like strawberries too,” she said, but then tried to playfully shield her mouth with her hand and whisper to his daughter, “but chocolate anything happens to be my all-time favorite.”

He laughed and would have to remember that.

“This is a nice area,” he said.

“It is. Bond Realty has a wide range of places they own and rent out. Some are vacation rentals, others are permanent residences.”

“Just like my house,” he said.

“You rent your house from Bond Realty?” she asked, holding the door open and then letting them walk in.

“No. The bank owns it. It’s a perk to get someone here,” he said, laughing.

“It’s a nice perk to