Darcy assesses me. Very deliberately, I push my hair out of my face so she can see the scar. The sight of my imperfection elicits a gasp.
I give her a cool smile. “Anything else you’d like to know? My dating history? My blood type, maybe?”
“Actually, yes,” Darcy says, refusing to be cowed. “Faye Belbin.”
Jesus. Did Ava tell them about her too? “She’s an old friend and a business partner.”
“That…isn’t how it looked. We saw photos,” Ray interjects.
“She came with me to a few social functions I couldn’t really attend alone. I didn’t think Ava would want to take time off from school to go to those things, most of which are mindlessly dull. Now I see that I should’ve asked.”
Ava stands up. “Does anybody want more food?”
Darcy and Ray shake their heads.
“Then we should clean up,” Ava suggests—rather more forcefully than necessary—to Darcy. “Ray cooked.”
Darcy shoots a long look my way before nodding. She gets up to join Ava, but says, “Lucas, you’re a guest, so please sit and…perhaps enjoy some coffee if you’d like?”
Ava shakes her head subtly, while glancing meaningfully in Ray’s direction.
I hide a smile. “If you wouldn’t mind.”
Sighing, Ava takes the pitcher and pours me a fresh cup. “Tried to warn you,” she murmurs before turning away.
She and Darcy take stacks of empty plates and head to the kitchen. Ray studies me, his expression bemused although there’s a hint of smile on his lips. But it’s more of an “I’m trying to decide what I think about you” smile rather than genuine friendliness.
“Ray, I know you have something you want to say. Let’s get it out of the way.”
He steeples his hands and leans back in his seat. “I’m trying to decide if I can trust you with Ava a second time. You left her when she was vulnerable and needed you.”
My face heats. He’s not saying anything I wouldn’t if our positions were reversed. But at the same time he only knows things from Ava’s point of view.
Needing to convince him that I didn’t ditch her, I say, “At the time, I was stuck in the hospital after a motorcycle accident. I didn’t know she needed me…much less that she thought I’d abandoned her.”
“If you didn’t want to break up, why didn’t you come see her when you were out of surgery?”
“She left a box with my nurses. It had all my stuff in it.”
Ray’s eyes sharpen. Obviously he didn’t know this part.
“Yeah. A pair of sunglasses I’d left, a book she’d borrowed. And all the things I’d given her during our time together. What would you have thought?” I give him a little time to get the picture. “Then there are my scars. I have them on other parts of my body as well, and they’re not particularly pretty. All from the accident. So I figured that maybe she didn’t want a guy who was all mangled up.”
Ray nods, but his forehead is furrowed. “Okay, I get it. But in that case, why are you back now?”
“In spite of my best efforts to stay away, I happened to discover where she was, and I couldn’t stop myself anymore.” I lean forward, holding his gaze. “When she left, she took something from me.”
Ray goes very still. “What do you mean?”
“Ava took all that was warm and good in my life. After she left, I…well, I couldn’t really feel much of anything.”
Ray picks up his coffee and has a sip, but his hand is shaking a bit. “I see. Well, that clarifies things.” He flashes a quick, empty smile in my direction.
Something’s off here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Ray doesn’t seem like the nervous type. Before I can ponder any further, though, Ava and Darcy return.
“All don
e,” Ava says, squeezing my shoulder.