Avery
Aaaaannnd, my phone's dead. Great. I sigh loudly and drop my arms in defeat.How long are we supposed to wait down here?When I glance across the room, Tyler is watching me, his eyes dark and hooded. Like he’s thinking dirty things.Do I even want to know?I feel my face becoming hot, but before I can turn away from him and find entertainment elsewhere, he shifts until he’s sitting, his elbows on his knees as he gives me his full attention. "What happened to opening a flower shop?" he asks.
I suck in my breath and offer him a half smile. “I don’t know, guess I didn’t feel like chasing my dreams the same way you did.”
He nods before he shifts along the cot, pressing his back against the wall as he draws one knee up to his chest. “What drew you into real estate?”
"Because there was nothing else available at the time. You know how Mark is friends with my dad?" He nods. "Well, he needed help, and I needed a job. Turns out, I’m really good at real estate."
“I imagine you’re good at everything you do,” he says, making me blush.
“Well, I’m as good as Mark lets me be. He tends to give me the bottom of the barrel listings,” I say, gesturing to our surroundings. “But one day I’ll break out on my own. Ali runs the rental department, so she’d come with me. We’d be the feminine touch Oakwood Falls needs. We’ve got it all planned out.”
He smiles. “I bet you do. And how is Ali?”
“Married.” I pick up a small piece of rubble and run my thumb over the smooth side. “Two kids. They’re both in school now.”
“She happy?”
I bounce a shoulder. “When she’s eating cheesecake, she is.” I offer him my first genuine smile since I arrived here this morning. But it’s laced with something else—longing, sadness? I just can’t help feeling like I need to run away from him. But instead, I’m stuck here trying to ignore the twisting feeling in my stomach that’s telling to just forgive him already.
And I guess I could. I could be grateful that he’s finally home, finally back where he belongs, still saying those magical words…I still love you…
If only it were that easy.
Forgiving him now just means that it was OK for him to leave. That it was fine for him to just press pause and go and live his life, have his fun, and I’d just be here, waiting for him to make the decision about when my life was supposed to start.
And what’s to stop him from doing it all again? What’s to stop him from talking me into his bed with his pretty words and his sexy smile, before taking the gift I’ve never given away, then taking off with that too. He’d have my heart and my purity. And if I can’t trust him to be with me forever, I at least want to keep something for myself.
“Let me guess. When you two go for cheesecake you order profiteroles instead?”
“You must think I’m so very lame,” I say, spinning the stone between my fingers. “Still the same girl doing the same things in the same town with the same people. But I’ll have you know, I have left Oakwood Falls. I’ve experiences more of this world than you think I have.”
“Why don’t you tell me about it?” he asks, his eyes soft and interested, which really makes it difficult to keep my heart hardened against him. My lips still burn from his kiss, earlier. And every time that tongue of his sweeps across his lips, all I can think about is how it feels sweeping through my mouth. The texture is like velvet.
“I, ah…went to New York,” I admit finally, lifting my eyes to his.
Surprise fills his green gems. I can only imagine what’s running through his mind right now as his brow knits and relaxes before he finally finds the words he wants to say. “Why didn’t you come and see me?”
I throw the piece of rubble, watching it skitter across the ground and land against some debris with a thud. “I did.”
Now his brow knits and stays that way. "When? Why didn’t I see you?”
“Because you looked so happy," I start with a sad sigh. "It was a few years after you left. I was there for a realtor convention and I looked you up.” He sits forward as I speak, like he’ll understand better if he’s a tad closer. “You were leaving work just as I got there, heading for a pizza place about a block away from Black Heart Tattoos." I smile to myself as I remember seeing his Instagram post about landing his first full-paying gig there. He looked so proud of himself that I was proud right along with him.
“Why didn’t you approach me? Say hi at least?” He frowns in confusion.
“Ididwant to say something, but I could see how…relaxed…and in your element you were. I didn’t want to mess with that, so I just kept watching from across the street. And it was nice. You know, something I needed to see. You were surrounded by so many friends, and there was this girl who looked at you like you hung the moon …" I shut my eyes as the pain I felt in that moment comes back into me. "I realized… I could see you’d moved on, that my feelings were one-sided. So…I left. As much as I wanted you to come home, I wanted you to be happy, more…”
His eyes gloss over as he shakes his head slowly, sliding until he’s sitting on the edge of the cot again, his feet firmly on the floor. "There was never anyone else," he murmurs.
I barely hear him. "What?"
He clears this throat. "I said, there was never anyone else," he says, filling his words with more confidence and power.
“Never?”
His gaze meets mine, unwavering. “Never. I’ve touched one girl in my life, and she’s sitting right in front of me.”
