Tyler
She’s moved on?I stumble backward slightly, recoiling at her comment. "Who is he?” I growl. “Are you living together? Married?" I've been following her closely on social media since the day I left. Her brother, Ollie, as well. I've never seen a photo on either of their accounts of her with another man. That's the whole reason I felt confident coming back for her.She’s moved on?!?The thought of her with someone else sparks a fire in my gut. And not the good kind.
Avery ismine.
“Married?” She laughs to herself, a hollow sound that doesn’t quite fit the narrative as she moves even further away from me. Distance seems to be her favorite thing right now. "No, I'm not--I'm notwithanyone," she says quietly, and relief spreads throughout my body. She crosses her arms protectively across her body and stiffens as she leans against the far wall. "I've just moved on fromyou."
"Oh, I see." My mouth breaks into a big grin as I approach her yet again in our very own game of cat and mouse. "So, you have one of those book boyfriends that all the girls talk about, do you?”
Avery turns her head slightly but not enough to meet my eyes, a deep frown set on her face, "Hilarious." She pushes off the wall and moves around me, heading back the way I came. "At leasttheywouldn't let me down. No man in any book I've ever read would tell the girl he's loved her all his life, then proceed to disappear for eleven whole years." She pauses near the stack of magazines and takes a deep breath as she runs her finger along the spines. "No letter, no phone call, no email or text. Just... nothing." Her voice wavers then cracks, which just makes me want to pull her back into my arms and kiss all of her sadness away, pretend like the years between then and now never happened. But they did. "Well, not nothing. You toldmy brotherwhere you went, and how you were, what you were doing. I guess in the end, your friendship was more important than my heart.” She turns her back to me again, and I’m right behind her in a few measured strides.
"That's not true," I say softly, lifting my hand and ghosting it along the curve of her shoulder without actually connecting."You were important.Areimportant. In fact, there hasn't been a day when I didn't think about you. Not from the moment I left." I suck in a deep breath as I lean in, the tip of my nose brushing lightly against her golden hair. "I wasn't the man for you back then, Avery. I had nothing to offer you, no job, no future in Oakwood Falls. I’d been kicked out of my own home, my own parents wanted nothing to do with me. I had nothing but the clothes on my back and just enough money to get to New York. I had to go. I had to leave Oakwood Falls... I had to try to make something of myself—”
“You didn’t evenconsidertaking me with you!" she yells, whirling around with a fire in her eyes that’s also coated in the tears I’ve caused her. My throat grows thick.
“We were kids, Avery. How was I supposed tosupportyou? I could barely even support myself. Oakwood Falls is yourhome.It’s where you belonged. New York...” I shake my head and silence my words as memories of being so hungry and gaunt I looked like a skeleton flash through my mind. It was hard for me to find a job that paid more than a few bucks to clean ink stations and sweep floors. So to stretch my money I squatted in old, run-down apartment buildings for months before I worked my way up to the point where I could finally afford to rent a room. Even then, I didn't eat anything more than one cup of instant noodles a day. Sometimes I'd treat myself to a sandwich made with day-old bread if I was lucky enough to get some. I couldn't even afford coffee. That was a luxury I saved for the most special of occasions. I mentally shuddered at the memory.I never want to live like that ever again.And it’s a suffering I never want her to have to understand either. “You were better off here,” I say instead.
“We haven’t been kids for a very long time, Tyler. We weren't kids when you left, either. Things change. People change.I'vechanged." She tightens her hands into fists. "So why don’t you just turn around, go back to New York to your precious tattoo studio and leave me be?"
“I’m not leaving. I’ve changed too, Avery. Hell, even Oakland Falls has changed. I can finally make a living here. I’m opening a shop near Derek Star’s custom bikes. Between that and Tristan Alto’s music venue, this place is finally somewhere I can be myself in. Somewhere I can be withyou.”
She juts her chin in the air and glares at me with bright eyes. "Well, that’s too bad, Tyler. I don’t want you anymore.”
For a split second, I gape at her, shell-shocked by her words. “That’s bullshit and you know it,” I growl. “You were born wanting me. That shit doesn’t go away, and it’s not something you can turn off.”
“Well, I turned it off,” she yells, her fists by her side, tears flowing down her cheeks. “You’re eleven years too late! Just...just...Go home!”
A rumble comes out of my chest as my hand flies out and wraps around the back of her neck, tugging her hair until she’s tilted back for me, her eyes defiant before they drop to my lips.That’s what I thought.
“I am home, Avery,” I rasp before I slam my mouth against hers and kiss the crap out of her. She tenses at first then relaxes into it with a moan, her lips parting to allow my demanding tongue entry into her mouth. I slid my free hand around her waist, pulling her against me as I deepen the kiss, stealing her breath as I dominate her and remind her of who I am and what we are.
She clings to me tight, and slowly but surely, the tension between us melts away. It’s like hours have gone by before I reluctantly part my lips from hers to gaze deep into her iridescent brown eyes. “Youare my home.”
