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

in. Seth was sitting in a chair watching and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

All things considered, she couldn’t have asked for a better meet and greet and then reminded herself that her mother was the only one that hadn’t met Seth. Now she was starting to wonder if her mother just really wanted to meet Adele.

“She is. So accepting too. I know Seth was nervous about it. Even me. I was shocked he’d told her so soon about us, but she was thrilled.”

“She should be thrilled,” her father said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “You’re a pretty great person and a good catch for a young man.”

“Are you trying to sell me to the highest bidder?” she asked, bumping shoulders with him. She was lucky in life and knew it and had to remind herself daily that though someone stole her identity, maybe they just wanted what she had.

For years she didn’t want everyone to know her relation to other Bonds, rather wanting to pave her own path.

That person wanted money, but they weren’t getting what was worth a heck of a lot more. What was deep in her heart and had been for generations.

“There is no amount of money out there that I’d do that for.”

“So you don’t like Seth?” she asked, frowning.

“I do like him. I liked him before you met him, but a man will always have this bond with his daughter. They will never think someone is good enough or can watch out and be there for them as much as their father.”

“Is that a warning?” she asked. “That I should be aware that Seth feels this way about Adele? I can assure you I figured that out a long time ago.”

“Just a reminder is more like it. My advice to you is to never put him in a position to choose because there are no winners in that situation for anyone.”

She knew that. She’d done it in past relationships when she put her job first. It didn’t work for anyone. “I know,” she said. “I’m not doing it now. We talk things through and I’ve told him I’d follow his lead with Adele.”

“And you may not always agree with his lead so you should be able to talk about that too,” her father said.

“Now you are being contradictory.”

“No. I’m giving you fatherly advice. You’ve always spoken your mind before and I expect you should this time too. Be cautious but don’t get pushed around.”

“I get it. I won’t be. I’m happy. I looked around today at the family and thought to myself, this is probably why someone stole my identity. They wanted what I’ve got even if I didn’t always appreciate it myself.”

“Whoever it is wants money, Ava. They don’t know what you’ve got or how you’re feeling. They want what they don’t have and they got forty thousand dollars’ worth of possessions. They are probably moving on to the next person now.”

“Which is a grim thought,” she said. “I’ve never known you to be this cold.”

“I’m being realistic. There is a good chance you’ll never know who did it and I’m not sure it matters. Everything that can be done to clear your name is happening, right?”

“Yes. Hailey told me one of the cards not only wiped it clean but they removed me from their listings of bad credit or whatever they do. I’m clear there. Four more to go.”

“And it’s going to take time, but it should happen.”

“Because I’ve got money and a lawyer doing what they are for me,” she said.

“Yes. You’re lucky that way. Not everyone is. You can’t save the world so don’t even get that in your head,” her father said to her.

“I stopped wanting to save the world when I was five and that bird died in the backyard.”

Funny how she remembered things like that at the oddest of times. “Remember that,” her father said. “Be the best person you can be. Enjoy what you can and who you are with.”

“Did you come up here to give me a little lecture?” she asked. She’d come up to go to the bathroom and grab some more snacks out of the fridge.

“Let’s say I know when to make my move, but your mother sent me up to help you carry down stuff.”

“It’s one plate of food,” she argued.

“There is more in there and if I don’t come down with something, then I’ll be the one getting the lecture.”

“And you love every minute of it,” she said, then waited on the deck while her father went to get more food. When he came out they walked down together.

“Ava,” Adele yelled. “Look. Lacy and I put a mote around the castle and we are making Carson and Hudson do it too.”

“I see that,” she said. “They all look great.”

Adele had on a bright yellow and orange one-piece swimsuit and was running back to the water’s edge to fill her bucket and bring back some more water to dump in.

“Everything okay?” Seth asked her when she went to sit back down next to him.

“Perfect,” she said. “This couldn’t be a more perfect day.”

23

You Need Security

It was anything but perfect in her eyes when she got home several hours later.

The sun was dropping and there was a stunning orange hue in the sky at dusk. Life on Amore Island sure was pretty.

She’d parked in the garage and got out, then went to the back door to let herself in.

The first thing she noticed was that her bedroom door was opened a quarter of the way. It never was. Ever since she was a child she always closed doors so that they were resting shut but not clicked closed. In her house that gave privacy but made it easy for someone to go in without turning the handle or waking another up with the clicking sounds. It was something that carried over to adulthood with her.

That meant whenever she walked out of a room, she shut it exactly like