As I walked out onto the porch, I saw him standing by his truck with his hands in his pockets and worry in his eyes. It didn’t look like he’d come here for an argument, but I hoped he was ready for one anyway.
“Avery,” I said flatly, not moving off the porch. “What are you doing here?”
He jerked his chin at the house. “We need to talk about the shop.”
I leaned back against the wall and crossed my arms, holding his gaze head on. “Unless you’re here to apologize, we don’t have anything to talk about.”
His jaw tightened like I’d struck a nerve, but I didn’t care. Avery had overstepped massively and it’d cost me the man I loved, so yeah. He owed me an apology at the very least. Groveling and begging for forgiveness would be better, but I wasn’t expecting any of that.
“I’m not apologizing, Raquel. I did what I had to do.”
“Really?” I let out an abrupt, humorless laugh that only lasted a second. “That’s what you’re going with? You did what you had to do?”
“I stopped you from letting some rich guy take advantage of you,” he snapped. “I won’t apologize for that.”
“Oh, really?” I pushed off the wall. “That’s funny, because from where I was standing, Theo offered to help both of us and you ran him off like he was a con artist trying to swindle the whole damn town.”
Avery exhaled harshly through his nose. “You don’t know what you were getting into.”
“I know exactly what I was getting into,” I countered. “It was a chance to keep the shop afloat and our lives from collapsing. A chance for you and me to fix a mess Dad made whenhewastaken advantage of, and not by the rich guy you seem to blame for us being in this mess in the first place.”
“We can do it ourselves.”
“Yeah, because that seems to be going well,” I seethed quietly. “Face it, Avery. You pretended that we were partners in the shop, but we’re not. If we were, you wouldn’t have made all the decisions you’ve been making without me and you would’ve acceptedmydecision to take the lifeline we were offered.”
“It wasn’t a lifeline.” He scowled. “It was charity.”
I shook my head. “Save it. I don’t need another lecture about pride or how people like Theo don’t just show up and fix things for free.”
“There’s always a catch,” he said firmly. “I know you don’t want to think that there would’ve been one with him, but we’ve never relied on anyone else and we don’t need to start now.”
“Except that he wasn’t anyone else. It wasTheooffering his help, yourfriend, who only wanted to make things easier because he knew how hard it already was for us after Dad’s diagnosis. We could’ve relied on him. Weshould’ve. You should’ve just said thank you instead of acting like he’d committed some heinous crime.”
A gust of wind moved through the yard and Avery looked up at the trees on the other side of my house, watching the drying leaves rustle before he shook his head. “I’m not doing this with you. I’m here to talk about the shop. That’s it.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
That place was barely holding itself together and Avery had made it crystal clear that he’d run it into the ground rather than take my advice or Theo’s money. Meanwhile, Dad couldn’t help either. He was worse on the bad days and better on the good ones, but nobody knew what to expect from him on a minute-to-minute basis. His mental condition could change at the drop of a hat.
I inclined my chin toward the truck. “Leave, Avery. Go do whatever it is you’ve been doing while you convince yourself that you’re doing anything at all. You can spin your wheels all you want, but that’s all you’re doing. Spinning your wheels and snapping at everyone in sight.”
His eyes flashed. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“I saidleave.” I stared him down, but he didn’t move a muscle, just standing there next to his truck with his arms folded and his jaw set.
“No,” he said simply. “We’re not doing this like that.”
“What you mean is that we’re not doing thismy way, even though we’re onmyproperty and you came here without invitation or permission?”
“What are you going to do?” He scoffed. “Call the cops on me?”
“I might just.” I shrugged as I started backing toward the door. “I have work to do and I don’t want to talk to you. Leave. Or hang around. I don’t care. Just stay out of my way.”
Before I could take another step to head inside, he called out, stopping me right in my tracks. “I’m not the one you should be mad at, Raquel.”
I spun to face him. “Oh, you’re not?”
“No.” He took a few steps forward, his jaw still set in that stubborn way that let me know this wasn’t going to be easy or painless. “I’m not the one who left. If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at him.”
