“What if we went somewhere far away? Where no onecould find us. We could just start over in New York, or San Francisco. I-I have some money saved up…”
“Is that what you want, Avery? To disappear?"
His lips turned into a small line as he considered everything. “Honest, I just want to be with you. I don’t have anything holding me here, but I know you have Jack, Jenna and Lindsey. Your mom, too.”
I shook my head. “Nah. My mom doesn’t want anything to do with me. It was always my dad I was closer to growing up, and, once I went to prison, they both pretty much completely cut me off.”
Avery sucked a deep breath. “She knows, James.”
I chuckled and took a swig of Coke. “She knows what?”
He set his fork down. “She knows it was Jack that knocked off that gas station, and that you took the fall to protect Jenna and Lindsey.”
I looked down, and then out at the rest of the restaurant, trying to process what he’d just said. “Avery, I…” I cleared my throat. “Avery, what are you talking about?”
“Jenna told her… toldus.”
“You were with my mother?”
He nodded. “Jenna and I took Lindsey over there this morning after you’d left. She introduced us and then told your mom that she wasn’t going to raise herchildren around a homophobe so she better get her shit together, because I wasn’t going anywhere. Then she told her that it was Jack she should be mad at and that you sacrificed yourself for your family.”
I groaned and found myself unconsciously rubbing my temples. “I wish she hadn't done that.”
“You never… why didn't you ever tell me?”
“I didn’t tell you for the same reason I didn’t say how I wanted to see how far my tongue could go into your ass. Those letters are monitored, and I couldn’t risk anyone finding out the truth, or it would all have been for nothing. They could have released me and gone after Jack. I couldn’t risk that happening. I didn’t mean to lie to you, Avery. But I figured that, what's done is done. And it didn’t matter because, for some bonkers-ass reason, you were still writing to me. You were still filling me with hope. You never needed redemption for me; you loved me in spite of everything. I—”
Avery interrupted by reaching across the table and putting his hand on mine. “I love you, James. I think you are probably the best man I’ve ever met. And you’re right; it didn't matter. I think I was supposed to fall in love with you, no matter what you’d done.”
“And I would have robbed a thousand gas stations to meet you,” I agreed. I cut off another hunk of steak to shove into my mouth.So fucking good!
“So what now?” he asked.
“We see what happens tomorrow. There’s nothing in the shop for David to find. He can turn the place upside down if he wants to, I guess. I had an idea, but I don’t think it worked. So, we just have to take it as it comes, and know that we’ll get through it together. New York is very tempting, though. Surprising, but tempting. I used to picture you as a small-town woodsy kinda guy with a little cottage.”
“Mmm, that sounds nice too,” he agreed. “I go back and forth. Sometimes I want a new city adventure, and, other times, I imagine myself living entirely away from civilization. Like a forest hermit or something.”
“How do you feel about small, western towns?” I asked.
Avery raised an eyebrow. “Never been to one.”
“My cousin owns a weed farm in Caloosa Springs, Colorado. Could always check out small-town living. I’ve always heard the people there are very friendly and welcoming.”
I ordered a slice of cheesecake for us to share as the waitress cleared our plates.
“You don’t even smoke weed,” Avery countered.
“Neither do you.”
Avery smiled coyly and looked away.
I gasped in faux horror. “My sweet little angel is astoner?"
“Stonermight not be the right term, but sometimes it’s nice to have a head-change.”
I paid the bill, which ended up being way more expensive than I had anticipated, but worth every penny. Just as we were getting up to leave, I heard a female voice exclaim: “Avery!”
We turned around to see a thin woman, dressed in cowboy boots and some kind of slutty cowgirl costume I’d have expected to see in an adult store's windows. Behind her was a round man, maybe a decade or so older than the woman. He was a bit shorter and wearing jeans, work boots, and a large white cowboy hat. Both of them looked ridiculous.
