Second Opinion (12 page)

I thought about what to text back, the schedule in front of me completely forgotten. I wanted to say something witty and clever, something that would tell her I wanted to see her again without scaring her or pushing her away.

Based on the few things I’d heard about her both from my sister over the years and from Veronica at the reception, I was fairly certain she wouldn’t want to get into a relationship.

A stab of regret pierced my abdomen at the thought.

I was turning into such a fucking pussy over this bullshit.

I finally texted back, deciding to keep it short and sweet.
Me too. –G

Okay, so it wasn’t a super witty response, but it was a response.

I watched my phone. I saw my message had been delivered. That meant she saw it.

I saw the little bubbles appear. That meant she was writing back.

I waited.

And waited.

The bubbles stopped.

And there was no response.

I finally pulled the schedule back out. I was getting paid to work, not to stare at my phone waiting for a text from Avery.

It was four hours later when the text finally came.
I can’t stop thinking about you. –A

I grinned at my phone. Ironic, considering she hadn’t left my mind for even a second.

I want to see you tonight. –G

Her reply came quickly:
You think I don’t already have plans? –A

You’ll break them for me. –G

It’s Monday Night Football. –A

I didn’t know another woman who put such a high priority on football. I liked it.
Record it. We can watch it after and skip the commercials. –G

I liked how we watched commercials last night. –A

Me, too. We don’t have to fast forward through halftime if you don’t want to. –G

I could be on board with that. You don’t have plans? –A

I chuckled.
I might. If the girl I want to see says yes. –G

Yes. –A

I was an idiot smiling at my phone. I heard voices in my periphery, but I couldn’t pay attention when I was focused on my text conversation with Avery.

“What the fuck are you smiling at?” Lucas’s loud voice boomed into my thoughts.

I glanced up at him and slid my phone to the side. “Fuck off, dude.”

“Gus never showed.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

“I can’t get ahold of him, either.”

“Not my problem.”

“We’re partners on this, Carpenter. I need you to hold up your end.”

“I fucking did, Lucas.” I felt the blood pounding in my ears. I wanted to pummel Lucas’s face into the fucking ground with his insinuation that I hadn’t correctly done my job.

My phone started ringing.

I glanced at it, hoping it was Avery, but it wasn’t. It was Gus.

“Speak of the devil,” I said, and then I answered my phone.

It was obviously a Monday for Gus, too. He explained his flat tire and dead cell phone, and I relayed the message to Lucas.

“Whatever,” was his response.

The asshole could never admit when he was wrong, but at least it got him the fuck out of my office so I could get back to my texts with Avery.

I’ll pick you up at seven. Dinner and a surprise. Wear shoes you can walk in. –G

Her reply came quickly again.
Deal. I’ll be the hot one wearing hooker heels. –A

I’ll be the lucky one with the hot date. –G

My date will be pretty hot, too. And he’s got that python in his pants. –A

Jesus. Just her fucking texts gave me a hard-on.

* * *

I pulled up to her apartment right on time, tugging down on the bill of my baseball cap nervously. It struck me as odd that I was nervous. I was always confident around women, but Avery was different. Plus, this was an actual date.

When she opened her door to me, I was tempted to skip our date. Kissing Avery was quickly becoming one of my favorite hobbies.

But we had plans, and I wanted to start building something with her aside from the animal attraction we suddenly shared.

God. Something was seriously wrong with me.

I wondered if it had always been there and I’d just ignored it. How could I have been so blind to her?

I kissed her because I’m human, after all, and right when it passed the point of a little too hot, I pulled back.

“If we keep this up, we’ll never make it.”

She shrugged as a wicked smile took over those gorgeous lips. “Then maybe we miss whatever it is.” She winked at me, and then she headed over to her counter to grab her keys.

“No purse?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Phone in one pocket, wallet in the other.”

“Low maintenance. I like it.” She didn’t look low maintenance, exactly; she looked like she put in effort to look good for our date, but she still looked natural. It was just one more thing I liked about her.

I reached into my pocket and produced the earrings and bracelet she’d left in my hotel room. I figured it was time to return them. I sort of thought I could handle things on my own without the insurance.

She looked at me with curiosity as I held them out to her. “You left these in my hotel room,” I explained.

“Thanks,” she said. She gave me a strange look, as if she was wondering why I hadn’t handed them over sooner, but she let it go.

On the way to our destination, I felt her hand on my thigh. I was doing seventy-five on the highway.

“Does this make you nervous?” she asked as she inched her hand up my leg.

I chuckled. “Nervous isn’t the right word.”

“What’s the right word?” Her hand slid up slowly, and she leaned toward me over the center console.

“Horny.”

She laughed, and then her hand located what she was looking for. “I can’t stop wondering if there’s somewhere quiet and private wherever you’re taking me.” Her voice was low as she cupped my cock through my jeans.

“There’s somewhere quiet and private in my backseat,” I muttered.

We pulled into a parking lot at San Tan Regional Park, and I grabbed a cooler out of the trunk. The sun had almost completely set, and the dusk cast a tranquil glow over the picnic area. I pulled out the pre-packaged salads I’d bought at the grocery store on my way to pick up Avery along with two plastic bottles I’d filled with wine.

“A picnic in the park?” she asked. She seemed surprised this was our date, but not in a bad way.

“A picnic in the park followed by a guided moonlit walk.”

“Romantic, Grant. I didn’t expect that from you.”

I grinned. I was glad I was able to surprise her, because she was continually surprising me. “What were you expecting?”

“You said walking would be involved, so I figured dinner and a walk around the mall or something.” She poured the salad dressing over her salad and mixed it all together.

“I work better magic than a mall, Peaches.” I took a bite of my salad.

She laughed. “Peaches? Again?”

“It’s your new nickname.”

She took a bite of her salad. “This is nice. I haven’t been out on a real date in a long time.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “Seems like I tend to meet guys and it goes kind of like our Saturday night did. Then I move on to whatever’s next.” Her voice was quiet, like she was confessing something to me she wasn’t proud of.

“Why do you move on so quickly?” The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it.

She stared down at her salad for a moment, and then her eyes locked on mine. “I could ask you the same question.”

“My answer is simple. One woman fucked me up.”

She chuckled. “Just takes one. That girl who you mentioned on Saturday?”

So she remembered. I had wondered if she’d been lucid enough to recall the things we’d said to each other in our quiet confessional in the dark. I nodded.

“My story goes back to high school. God, it’s been ten years since I graduated,” she said.

We talked about nothing while we talked about everything, skirting the real issues as we stopped for sips of wine between our easy conversation. I found Avery to be intelligent and beautiful. We weren’t close enough to confess the real darkness of our pasts, but I knew we were on the path to discovering why we both were so afraid to let others in.

I’d been to this very park with friends, other women, and family members. I’d gone by myself for a hike or to bike through the mountains. And as I thought about it, I realized I was having more fun with Avery than I had ever had with anyone else there.

It was just one more piece of evidence that pointed toward the fact that I was ready to let someone in, and I wanted it to be her.

The question was whether or not she was ready to let me in, too.

We finished eating without confessing our secrets. I’d known since Saturday night I wanted to tell her about Rachelle, and I wondered if she had that same urge to tell me about whatever happened to her.

It was completely natural to grasp her hand in mine after we cleaned up our meal and saw people gathering for the hike. The wind rustled her hair, and I caught that flowery scent I’d come to associate with her. It did something serious to me. I shook my head to clear it, confused about these mysterious, unexpected feelings for a girl I’d known for years.

Our tour guide informed us we’d be starting the hike in five minutes. I glanced around at who would be walking with us. Three older couples, maybe in their sixties or seventies. A couple of families with small kids. A couple about our age. And that was it. We wandered away slightly from the group so we were out of earshot but close enough to hear when the hike was starting.

“Do you come here a lot?” she asked.

I shrugged. “A few times a month.”

“Have you been on this moonlit hike before?”

“Nope. I always wanted to, but I never had anyone I wanted to go with.”

I looked down at her and caught her looking up at me. I smiled, and she did, too. Her smile knocked the wind out of me. I wanted to see more of it. I wanted to be the cause of it.

She shook her head. “You tend to say things that I have no idea how to respond to.”

My smile widened into a grin. “Like what?”

She glanced away. It was dark, so it was easy for her to hide her real feelings. “I don’t know. I just know your reputation, and you say things that are so opposite of everything I thought I knew about you.”

“My reputation?”

“You play the field.”

“I’ve heard the same about you.”

“One minute!” We heard the loud yell of the tour guide over our quiet conversation. We both looked down at the ground as we headed back toward our group.

“Look, Avery, I like hanging out with you. I don’t care about reputations.”

“I like hanging out with you, too.” Her voice became shy, a far cry from the confident vixen who had answered her door naked the night before.

I squeezed her hand as if to let her know I was sincere, and I felt her squeeze back. Maybe she
was
ready to let me in.

And maybe it was exactly where I wanted to be.

The hike started. It was a two mile hike on a mostly flat trail through the desert. The guide began with a short talk on desert hiking safety at night, and then he started walking. The kids in the group all ran to the front with their flashlights, and the older folks followed them.

As much as I enjoyed the outdoors and the park ranger’s information about desert plant life, it just didn’t seem as important as my quiet conversation with Avery, so we hung toward the back of the group.

“How’s fall break going so far?” I asked.

“Well, I spent a lonely night in my bed last night, and then I spent all day thinking about this guy who won’t leave me alone.”

I chuckled. “I believe you texted me first, Ms. Peterson.”

“Just to let you know I had a good time with you over the weekend.”

“Nice try. It was an opener and you know it.”

“You caught me. No denial here.”

The tour guide stopped to talk about a cactus, and we stayed toward the back, whispering to each other.

“It worked.”

“Yeah, it did,” she giggled. “Don’t pretend like you weren’t going to call me.”

“I’d have probably waited a day or two.”

“You still invited me here tonight.”

“No denial here, either.” The tour guide stopped talking and resumed walking. We followed along, careful along a steep hill that dipped down, our hands still twined together. “So what other plans do you have for the rest of the week?”

“I’ve got some research papers to grade. Other than that, nothing special. Catching up on sleep and soap operas.”

We heard some coyotes howling in the distance, and Avery stepped in a little closer to me. I let go of her hand and tossed a casual arm around her shoulders. I felt her arm slip around my waist, and I couldn’t help but notice how well we fit together.