I stared.

“Yeah, we have it all figured out,” Sofia told me. “Mom can sleep on your futon and Marilyn and I’ll sleep in your bed. You can sleep on the couch.”

Of course, I’d get the couch in my own damned house.

I didn’t have the time, or the energy, to fight the fight. I needed reinforcements. Macho man with a great mustache and a tight ass reinforcements.

“I need to take a shower,” I said.

“We’ll wait,” Mom replied.

I looked at Mrs. Stark. She was smiling at me and I could swear she was trying to communicate that it was all going to be okay.

She was so wrong.

I ran upstairs, straight to my bedroom, closed the door, nabbed the phone and called Luke.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Luke –” I began.

“I thought you weren’t speakin’ to me,” he sounded like he was smiling.

“My Mom and sisters are here.”

Silence for a beat then, smile gone from his voice, he asked, “Come again?”

“Your Mom told my Mom that we were together and it looked serious. My Mom gathered the Barlow Bitches from Hell and they all came, in their words, to ‘see for themselves’.”

“Why the f**k would they do that?”

“I don’t know,” I cried, but quietly so my family wouldn’t hear. “They’re the Barlow Bitches from Hell. Why do they do anything?”

“You sound agitated,” Luke pointed out the obvious.

“Did you hear me?” I squealed then sucked in a controlling breath before I went on more quietly. “My Mom and sisters are here to see for themselves that we’re serious.”

“Babe, calm down.”

“Calm is not an option. I need cookies. I need tequila. I need cookies drenched in tequila. I can barely cope with my family when my life isn’t complicated to the point of insanity. But, may I remind you, my life is complicated to the point of insanity!”

My voice was again rising.

He was quiet for a moment then he said using The Voice, “Ava, you can handle it.”

I took a deep breath and replied softly, hating that I had to admit it but, bottom line, I had to admit it, “I want to say I can, Luke, but I can’t. They’re going to chew me up and spit me out. They always do.”

“Is Ma there?”

“Yes.”

“She’ll look after you.”

“Luke, even Super Mom Stark is no match for the Barlow Super Bitches. You know that.”

Another moment of silence then, “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

I went still and stared at the wall. “What did you just say?”

“Hang on, I’ll be there in fifteen.”

I kept staring at the wall, completely unable to comprehend the fact that Luke was going to drop the hunt for Noah and come to my rescue.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“A coupla hours ago I told you no one f**ks with you. I meant no one f**ks with you.”

Oh… my… God.

“Luke –”

“See you in fifteen.”

Disconnect.

I love him, Good Ava told me.

We are SO going to touch ourselves tonight while he’s inside us, Bad Ava promised.

There was no time to contemplate payback for Luke’s latest demonstration of why he was The Best Guy Ever. I ran to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, put in my contacts, took a quick shower, pulled a comb through my wet hair and slathered peony-scented lotion on my body.

I was rushing back to my room when I heard the front door open and Sofia, Marilyn and Mom all cried at the same exact time with the same exact sickly, sweet girlie voices. “Luke!”

Yuck!

I yanked on jeans, a tight, black tee that said “Harley Davidson Motorcycles’ on the front in brown with a sage green horseshoe around the words and sparkly green sequins on the letters. I added a kickass black belt and black flip-flops. Because I was unable to do anything but, I added a massive dose of silver at ears, neck, throat and fingers.

Then I ran downstairs.

The women were sitting drinking coffee and gazing at a still-standing Luke (all but Mrs. Stark) like he was a god fallen to earth. Marilyn and Sofia’s looks had the added dimension of openly showing they wanted to rip his clothes off.

I will repeat, my life sucked!

I walked into the room and Luke’s eyes cut to me. “Hey,” I said.

His eyes dropped to my chest as I approached him. When I was within reaching distance, his arm slid around my waist and he curled me into his side.

“Harleys are sweet, babe, but we’re a Triumph family.”

Ho-ly crap.

Did he just say that?

I looked at him. His eyes were warm and affectionate.

Yep, he just said that.

He kissed my neck, lifted his head, stared in my eyes and murmured, “You smell like flowers.”

“Peonies,” I told him.

He gave me a half-grin. “Nice,” he murmured, using The Voice with the Velvet Edge.

My knees wobbled.

“Oh my God,” Marilyn breathed, which was quite a task considering her mouth was hanging open.

“This is lovely,” Mrs. Stark cut in, jumping from the couch, looking nearly giddy with happiness. “Now we can all go to breakfast.”

“Why does Luke have a gash on his face?” Sofia asked. “Is it the same reason Ava has a black eye?”

“We’ll talk about it at breakfast,” Mrs. Stark said firmly, happy giddiness fading fast.

“Ma, I can’t go to breakfast,” Luke told her and my heart clenched.

Shit.

So much for Luke coming to my rescue.

“Oh no! Why not?” Mom asked.

“I thought, you coming by –” Sofia started but Luke interrupted her. He did this by pinning her with a look that would make Satan himself shiver in the fiery depths of hell.

“I came by for Ava because she’s too sweet to tell you what I’m gonna tell you.”

Uh-oh.

I had the feeling Luke was in the mood to be brutally honest.

“Luke –” I started but he kept talking.

“You’ll have breakfast and then Ava’s got some shit she’s gotta do. So I’ll answer your questions right now. Yeah, Ava and I are together, it’s serious, it’s headin’ somewhere important and anything else is none of your business. You don’t like that, too bad. You get breakfast with her then she’s gotta take off. During breakfast, you’ll be nice to her. I hear anything different, then you answer to me. Is that clear?”