Christian looked at her with genuine sadness in his eyes and Avery realized she may have been too flippant. Oops.

She was quick to blow it off. “It’s fine, really! I had a great childhood. My dad was the best so I hardly noticed she was gone. I didn’t need someone like her in my life anyway.”

“It’s good you feel that way,” he said in an unfathomable tone before tightening his hold on her. He kissed the side of her face before dropping the subject and turning the movie back on, clearly still bothered by what she said.

Avery really didn’t care about her mother though. Why would she after more than twenty years? That woman could do whatever she wanted as long as she didn’t cause her any trouble, which was unlikely considering a scandal could ruin a politician.

Nobody knew she had abandoned a young daughter to start over somewhere else. She took great pains to hide it.

If people knew the child she left behind had become a villain of all things her career would be completely ruined. But Avery wasn’t petty enough to ruin her own life to take her mother down with her. Let her have what she wanted far, far away from her.

Unfortunately, the things Avery wanted weren’t so easily attainable. She and her band of renegades were trying to topple this entire country’s infrastructure to give the power back to the people instead of to a single corporation and the evil man at the top who only cared about money.

As much as she didn’t want to think it would take that long this might be her life’s work. She could very easily spend the rest of her days avoiding any real connection with others in order to keep her secret.

That wasn’t what she wanted but she wouldn’t let her father and the suffering people of this country down. Even if she had to die miserably at least she would die a martyr.

Avery didn’t want to die though. She wanted to live long enough to see the fruits of her labors.

And if she was being perfectly honest with herself…when this was all over—if it ever truly was over—she wanted to have a normal life and family. Given the chance, she would be a much better mother than her own had been. The kind Angelo had before she died.

She bit back a sigh. Thinking about all of this was pointless, especially while cuddling with her boyfriend. All it would do was make her wish for the impossible more than she already did.

This was temporary. She had known that from the start.

Avery had to force herself to live in the moment because nothing about the future was promised. She learned that the hard way after losing her dad. So she quit thinking about useless things and snuggled closer to the man she loved.

===

Since Christian was out of commission for the next 6-8 weeks until his cast was off his weekends were suddenly free. So were Avery’s since Angelo and the scientists/businessmen working with them were coming up with their next plan of attack. She didn’t have anything to do until her next insulin run.

So they spend every second of their free time together. She felt like she got to know him pretty well despite the fact that he didn’t reveal his secret.

The more she got to know about him, the harder she fell. He truly was a wonderful person. More than ever she didn’t want her time with him to end. She wanted to keep him in her life on a permanent basis.

Avery couldn’t help but wonder if he wanted the same thing, especially when they got more involved in each other’s lives than simply spending all their time together. He joined her on a double date with Vanessa (who thought he was perfect for her best friend) and she ended up meeting Liam.

It was a bit of an accident. They were caught in a terrible surprise rainstorm without an umbrella and were completely soaked while closer to his part of town than hers. They went to his apartment to dry off and wait it out.

Liam was on the couch and didn’t even look up from his phone when they came in. “What are you doing back this early? It’s like you don’t even live here anymore now that you got yourself a girlfriend. Not that I’m complaining.”

Christian sighed. “Whose apartment is this exactly?”

“Yours. I’m just saying.”

“Well, be polite. You’re ‘just saying’ things in front of Avery.”

Liam’s phone fell out of his hands in shock as he gaped up at them. “Why are you both soaked?!”

“I didn’t know it was going to rain today. Can she borrow some of your clothes while hers dry? She’s closer to your height than mine,” Christian said tiredly, clearly not expecting his brother’s cooperation.

“Yes, on one condition.”

“…which is?”

“I want a cake. Both of the ones I’ve had that she made were out of this world delicious,” Liam replied as he practically salivated at the thought.

Avery couldn’t help but laugh. That was the highest compliment she could receive as a baker. “Sure thing. Do you mind if I practice some new decorating techniques on it?”

“Not at all. What matters to me is the taste.”

As she suspected. This would give her an opportunity to do something she wasn’t allowed to do at work yet to get more practice before presenting her ideas to Marianne. In a way he was doing her a favor.

“You can discuss cake later,” Christian said crossly. “Get the clothes before she catches a cold.”

Liam heaved himself off the couch reluctantly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m going.”

He came back with a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt advertising a video game that ended up fitting Avery perfectly fine. Their two-inch height difference didn’t affect anything. When Christian came out of his room wearing something similar (though his t-shirt was plain white) he handed her a towel for her hair.

She appreciated that because there was no point having a dry shirt if her hair dripped all over it. She put it up in a towel turban and sat down on the couch.

Liam hadn’t picked his phone back up because he was eyeing her with interest. “So how did you end up interested in this stick in the mud of all people? You’re way too pretty for him.”

Avery laughed as Christian smacked him upside the back of the head before sitting down next to her and putting his non-cast arm around her shoulders. He was very lucky his cast was the waterproof kind because otherwise he might be in trouble.

“He’s nice and has a great sense of humor. Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked.

“…he has a sense of humor?”

“Liam, don’t make me smack you again,” Christian said warningly, making Avery try very hard to muffle her laughter.

He immediately backtracked and changed his line of questioning. “So do you have any cute friends you could set me up with? I’ll go out with anybody once.”

“Potentially but only if she’s interested.”

Vanessa would also go out with anybody once and she wasn’t seeing anyone in an official capacity. She would probably be up for it. Avery would have to ask her when she saw her at work next.

“Are you talking about Vanessa?” Christian asked.

She nodded with a wry smile. “Who else am I close enough with to set up on a date?”

Liam looked back and forth between the two of them curiously. “Who’s Vanessa?”

“My best friend.”

“I thought she and Angelo regularly duked it out for that title,” Christian said with a light laugh.

“They do. I suppose I should have said ‘one of my best friends.'”

“…I am such a third wheel right now,” Liam muttered under his breath. “Never thought I’d live to see the day.”

Despite his best efforts to hide it Avery heard him and barely managed to hold back a snort. This guy was everything she expected him to be based on the stories she had heard. Now that she had met him she realized her boyfriend hadn’t exaggerated at all.

Christian was visibly annoyed and she realized he must have heard it too so she wisely changed the subject. “So what cake flavor do you want?”

That immediately dissipated the tension in the room as they amiably began chatting about different options. Once that was decided on Liam let the two of them play video games with him until their clothes were out of the dryer and they could head back to Avery’s place.

She felt like they reached a milestone of sorts even if she had met her boyfriend’s brother unintentionally. Maybe this relationship was destined for longer than she thought it was. Her hopes and dreams might not be completely pointless after all…or this was simply going to make things worse when the inevitable breakup came. Honestly, she couldn’t tell.