Chapter 27
Dean
Ihad been back in Primrose Hill for a couple of days now and decided to run by Addison’s farm to check on Tank.
When I arrived, Levi mentioned that Addison was out running errands before her next lesson, which I thought was suspiciously perfect timing.
She was clearly still avoiding me. Tank looked good, and the abscess looked like it would rupture in a few days.
I made up excuses to stick around the farm a little longer, and I think Levi was on to me, but I didn’t give a shit.
I was desperate like a fucking addict for even just a glimpse, just one hit of Addison.
Unfortunately, she never showed, and as I was heading out of the barn toward my truck, Ava came around the corner.
She looked up, startled at my presence. “Oh, hey, Dean. I didn’t realize that you were here. Everything okay?”
I shoved my hands into my pockets and nodded. “Yeah, was just checking on Tank.” An awkward silence ensued.
Ava tilted her head, her dark-blue eyes studying me. “Were you hoping to run into Addison?” She smirked, which kind of pissed me off.
“Nah, just here checking on the horse,” I said with a little bit of an edge.
She nodded. “All right, then. Well, I’ll see you around.”
As she walked past me, I reached out and quickly grabbed her bicep lightly.
“Ava, wait.” She spun around to look at me. I released her arm and stuffed my hands back into my pockets nervously. “Do you think you and your brothers could meet up tonight for a drink? I could use some help with Addison. I’ll tell you guys everything.”
A slow, satisfied smile spread across her face. “About fucking time you asked. Tonight works for me. Weston is actually in town, so I’m sure he’ll be good to meet us. We’ll have to FaceTime Walker, though, because he’s in Florida for spring training.”
I nodded. “Ah, that’s right. I forgot about spring training. Does seven p.m. work at Hops and Hills?”
She nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. But I should warn you, my brothers are pretty pissed about what you did, so they may take some time warming back up to you. But don’t worry, I’ll help you out.
” She winked, but that didn’t make me feel even the slightest bit better.
I was a big dude, in good shape, but Ava and Addison’s brothers were intimidating as fuck.
A Navy SEAL that was literally trained to kill, and a professional baseball player that could probably just throw his fastball at my junk and cause permanent damage.
I sighed heavily. “Awesome,” I said, sarcasm dripping off the word.
“Well, I’ll see you tonight.” We said goodbye, and I made my way to my truck to head back into the office for a few more appointments.
Hopefully, nothing urgent popped up today, because I could use all the time I could get before tonight to work through what I was going to say to Weston and Walker.
I got to the bar a little earlier than seven just to get my nerves in check.
I had the blue folder sitting to my left and my beer sitting to my right, which was already half gone at this point.
I saw the door swing open, and in walked Ava with Weston following behind her.
Ava saw me immediately and made her way to the table.
She gave me a quick hug before sitting down, while Weston just gave me a tight nod.
Weston sat across from me with what I could only describe as a death stare on his face.
Ava noticed and slapped his arm. “Knock it off, West. We’re here to help the guy, not kill him. ”
Without breaking eye contact with me, Weston grunted before speaking low. “I haven’t made that decision yet.” Jesus Christ, this guy was scary.
“I’m getting a beer. Ava, you want one?” Weston stood from his stool and looked down at his sister. His eyes were not nearly as dark when he looked at her. Ava nodded, and Weston took off toward the bar.
Ava turned her attention back to me. “Sorry about him. He’s slightly protective of his sisters, but he’s mostly all bark, no bite.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, we’ll see about that. Pretty sure if you weren’t here, I would have been murdered by now.”
Ava gave me a reassuring smile. “You’ll be fine.
Just tell us everything, and I mean everything, and we’ll see what we can do to help you out.
Before all this went down, we loved y'all together. You’re great for her, Dean.
My whole family thinks so…or thought so. ” She reached out and squeezed my hand.
I nodded as Weston made his way back to the table with drinks in hand. I saw a small crack in his armor when I noticed he had three beers instead of two. He set one down in front of me. “Thought you could use another one, since that one is halfway gone.”
“Thanks, man.” I slid the beer to the side, and Ava met my gaze with a little smirk on her face that might as well have said told you so.
“Okay, let me call Walker to get him in on this conversation,” Ava said, grabbing her phone and FaceTiming her brother.
“Hey, Walk, I’m here with West and Dean. I’m going to prop the phone up against this napkin-holder thingy so you can see us all.” She positioned the phone so he could see all of our faces. I waved at the phone like a loser, but fuck, I was nervous. “Hey, Walker, thanks for meeting with me.”
He sat back in the chair he was in and crossed his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed, and just nodded. Okay, so clearly both brothers were still pissed, as Ava mentioned.
I cleared my throat to break the tension. “All right, I’m just going to lay it all out for you guys from the beginning.”
I spent the next twenty or so minutes detailing the timeline of events that had occurred from beginning to end.
Walker’s body language changed as the story went on, and he seemed a lot less angry toward me, asking a couple of clarifying questions along the way.
Weston had his poker face on and didn’t so much as flinch or change his expression as I told the story.
Ava was wide-eyed the entire time, hanging on every word as if I was telling the most interesting story she’d ever heard.
Once I finished, I pushed the blue folder toward Weston. He picked it up and began flipping through all of the documents. Walker spoke first. “Fuck. That is nuts. I never liked Noah, but if I ever see that fucker again, I’m going to beat his ass.”
Ava laughed. “It seems like Archer and Dean already took care of the ass beating.”
Walker smiled. “Thanks for standing up for our sister, man. I appreciate you going to this much trouble to prove your innocence. I’m still pissed at you for lying to her to begin with, but I now know that it all came from a good place. You made a mistake.”
“I know I fucked up, and I’ll do everything I can to get her to trust me again. But the things that Noah accused me of are not true. Period. I care about your sister so fucking much, and I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.”
Ava smiled at me, her eyes looking glossy with unshed tears. Weston looked at his sister and rolled his eyes. “You cry at literally everything, Ava.”
She scoffed and pushed him. “Do not. I just love, love.”
Weston turned his attention back to me. “I looked through everything you have, and it’s all pretty fucking crazy.
I’m sorry you’re related to such a dipshit that went to these lengths to fuck you over.
I’ve always been a good judge of character, and I was pretty pissed when I thought I ended up being wrong about you… Nice to see I’m still right.”
Walker barked out a laugh. “Seriously, West? You’re just happy you’re right? Not that he wasn’t lying and using our sister? Such a tool.”
Weston looked at the phone. “Shut the fuck up, little brother. Of course I’m happy he isn’t fucking over our sister.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry for these barbarians, Dean.” She shot them both a stern look. “So what can we do to help you?”
I took a deep breath in. “Well, it seems your sister has been doing everything in her power to avoid me.”
All the siblings laughed simultaneously. “That’s Addison,” they all said almost in unison.
“I have an idea of what I want to do, and it involves all of you.”
I spent the next several minutes running through the plan I had with them.
They all thought the idea was perfect and were going to help me out.
After talking through logistics, Walker had to get off the phone because he had practice early in the morning.
Ava and Weston stayed for another hour or so, just drinking beer and catching up with me.
It felt good to be here again with the James family.
Now, I just needed to get back in the good graces of my favorite James sibling.