“The dinner,” she said. “You and Ava in the kitchen.” Her eyebrows went up in silent question.
He said nothing.
“Merc, I’ve always known that she carries a huge, flaming torch for you. But I never thought you’d take her up on the offer. You’re more careful than that.”
He glanced away from her; he’d expected a very different kind of accusation. He had no idea what to do with this.
“I like you,” Maggie went on. “Hell, I love you. You know that. You’re family. You’re the only reason Ava and I are alive right now, and believe me, I know that. I don’t take that lightly.”
He waited for it.
“But…”
He snapped back to her, levering hostility into his voice. “But this is the part where you give me the stay away from your daughter speech?”
“No.” Her face softened further. Her throat worked as she swallowed. “I understand. I might be the only person in the world who does, but trust me, I get it. Even if that makes me a bad mother.
“What I’m saying, is that I hope you’ve calculated the risks. All of them, real life, and club-related.”
Are you using protection?
Are you prepared for Ghost’s reaction?
“My hubby,” Maggie said, “God, I love him, but he’s oblivious when it comes to Ava. She’s not an adult in his eyes. She’s still just a baby. And you’re…you.”
He wanted to hit something. “So?” He made a show of shrugging. “So what am I supposed to do?”
Maggie shrugged back. “I don’t know.” Her glasses came down over her eyes with a little flick from one finger. “I honestly don’t.”
And she slipped back into the office before he could respond.
I regret to inform anyone angered by accidental pregnancy storylines in books that accidental pregnancies do occur quite often in real life. 😂 Given the tumultuous, uncareful nature of Ava and Mercy's early relationship, it's little wonder Ava finds herself in that school bathroom, learning that her life's just changed irrevocably.
My favorite scene in Chapter Twenty is Maggie and Mercy's exchange in front of the Dartmoor office. It was never my intention to portray Maggie as a Cool Mom™, but as a realistic one. She's been a part of this MC life for more than twenty years, and so, while she shared Ghost's goal of putting Ava through college, she didn't share his expectation that she would be "normal" by societal standards. She's torn, because she knows exactly where Ava's coming from, based on her own personal experience, but can also foresee the impending disaster. But, like I said in a previous post, she's not going to intervene directly, because she's (perhaps selfishly) grooming Ava to be her right-hand woman in Lean Dog Land.
This chapter shows Mercy being a jerk yet again. The problem with Mercy is that, despite his ability to dole out warm and helpful advice to his brothers (like with Shep in Beware of Dog, and with Aidan and Tango in every Dartmoor book ever), he is a purely emotional creature himself. He can't be rational, and kindly distant with Ava. He's either going to be all over her, or hateful in his attempts to keep her at arm's length. Is he trying to protect her from the fallout? Yes. But he can't do it in a grown-up way.
The rest of the chapter is set up for what goes down at Hamilton House. We've got Mason's chilling little teaser:
“She’s just the kind of whore cops find dead on the floors of abandoned houses. Setting yourself up for disappointment.”
And Ava's phone. Yikes.
On a personal note: oftentimes, reading my older work makes me cringe. But sometimes a line or two jump out and I give myself a little mental pat on the back for a turn of phrase. I loved this bit:
Five a.m. was a blank-faced, indigo wall, trying to press her back into the house, into bed. Five a.m. didn’t want to be messed with or questioned. It wasn’t the insidious shifting shadow miasma of midnight. It was an angry schoolmarm that didn’t expect to be challenged.
