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She heard Dominic yell at her over his shoulder, "Not bad, is it, Blondie?" She laughed in reply, feeling her body relax further She felt like Kate Winslet in Titanic when she stood on the bow of the ship with her arured that Do her h; she wanted to revel in the mo space next to the boardwalk Doine She held on to his shoulder as he helped her clirab a sandwich and eat outside since it’s such a nice evening" Normally, she would have listed all the reasons that she would rather eat indoors in the cool air-conditioning, but what the hell? She was turning over a new leaf, and after riding aoutside would be tareed, and followed him to the small café on the corner They walked in the door and she fought the urge to suggest an indoor table Do for the ride, literally As her eyes scrolled over the menu on the wall behind the counter, she suddenly clapped her hands in excite Dominic’s arm "Funnel cake! Oh, please, can I have that instead of real food?" Do and Ava’s cheeks colored when she realized that the few people in the café were sary treat

"Blondie, you get whatever you want You’re a bike-riding badass now Break a few more rules and have dessert first" Dos for himself and the funnel cake for her He also ordered thehtly She usually stuck to diet drinks, but that see a fried treat with no doubt thousands of calories in it She wondered idly howa motorcycle burned off Surely anxiety raises your heart rate

Dominic balanced their food on a tray while she ran ahead and opened the door for them Soon, they were settled at a table on the boardwalk She had to adainst the shore beside the to the chatter indoors Maybe Do her first bite of the fluffy, fried cake loaded with powdered sugar, she wiped her lips and looked at thea meal with him, since they had never really done it before She had eaten with hie, but that was hardly the one-on-one they were having now "So, you like Gwen, huh?" she blurted out before thinking better of it

He lifted an eyebrow, looking surprised at the personal question for ato let the subject drop, but after a long sip of his drink, he finally answered, "Gwen and I are neighbors I saw her first, I guess you could say I didn’t even know she worked for Danvers until Mac started dating her"

She gave hi a kindred soul "So you waited around too long and soirl? Yeah, I can relate to that I irl part, since obviously no one irl, but"

Do explanation "I get it, Blondie Yeah, we do have soh you kind of dropped the ball in a er way than I did Hell, I had just seen Gwen around our apart her out Honey, Mac has worshipped the ground you walk on for years He was so hanistan, I’entler voice, he continued "I get that you had so over it, but time waits for noto see that Hell, I am as well"

He saw her look of surprise when he mentioned her past, and he covered her hand briefly with his "Declan, Mac, Gage, and I are brothers in every way that counts There are few secrets between us We lived in too-close quarters for et you killed over there I don’t know all the details, but I know someone hurt you, and I’m sorry as hell about that I really ae that normal people never experience even in their worst drea you are Believe me, I know that We all do It ly easy and normal like ask a woman out who I’m really attracted to It makes you afraid to show the man who loves you that you feel the sa up alone We all have the pieces we need toup with putting the puzzle together correctly"

Ava sat staring at Dominic, shocked by the al to the saying "still waters run deep" She found herself responding to his speech by wanting to do one of two things: cry her eyes out until she was a blubbering mess or blurt out some deep, dark secret just to see what his take on it was "All your reports rong; I haven’t dated anyone or been with a ht"

She studied Do froze on the way to his ain" He blinked as if he had misunderstood her stateood idea

"I picked men up in bars periodically and paid them to come home with me for a while I knew that Mac kept a tail on me towatch over me, and I didn’t want hi back doithout taking a bite and leaned forward on the table, looking stunned "What did these men do who caht"

Ava looked down, rubbing her finger in circles on the tabletop God, this had gotten e how messed up she was to a macho man like Dominic was alo now He looked deteret so to make my boyfriend jealous and offered them a couple hundred bucks to coames, Monopoly, or sometimes they fell asleep and I just let the I also locked h," she rushed to assure him