Chapter Seven
Holden
I returned home from walking Oscar, fed him breakfast, and then went for a run. He was too small to run with me, so I let him sleep in.
I hurried out of the house as the sun rose high in the sky. The snow that brought Virginia’s highways to a standstill had barely dusted the streets of Baltimore. It was cold as fuck, but there was no ice to deal with, which was a blessing.
It was the Saturday after Christmas, and my mind wandered back to Avery Langhorn without my permission.
To be honest, he hadn’t left my mind since he’d gotten out of my truck the previous night, but I had no way to contact him.
If he reached out to me, I’d do whatever he asked, which was a stupid thing to commit to since I’d only talked to him for about an hour the previous night.
Why the hell did some guy I didn’t know have me turned inside out? I had no idea if I’d ever hear from him again, and that thought dragged me down as I ran toward the trail near my house.
The kid looked young—maybe I shouldn’t call him a kid. He couldn’t be more than twenty-five, and I was closer to forty than I wanted to admit.
What was appropriate when it came to an age gap? Hell, Shelby had admitted to dating women fifteen years younger than she was. Would I be robbing the cradle if I dated a guy in their mid-twenties?
“What the hell are you worried about? He’s never going to call you.” I actually said it out loud as I ran the trail, but there was nobody around to hear it because it was too fucking early.
When I circled back to my house in the Cedars neighborhood just outside of Baltimore, I cleared my mind of everything. I was on call until New Year’s Day for emergencies, and I didn’t have anyone covering for me.
I had no plans for New Year’s Eve or Day, so it was only right that I should field emergency calls so everyone else could have the holiday, not that I expected many calls. With the big jobs shut down until January, things should be quiet.
After I took off my shoes on the back porch, I went inside to find Ossie sitting on the rug in the kitchen waiting for me.
“Hey, buddy. Why aren’t you in your bed?”
Ossie barked at me until I heard my phone buzzing on the kitchen counter. I walked over and picked it up, finding a text from a number I didn’t recognize.
Hi Holden. It’s me, Avery Langhorn. I wanted to thank you again for bringing me home.
Is it too much to ask for a ride out to the place where my roommate’s car is wrecked?
I’ll pay for your gas and your time. I hate to ask, but my roommates aren’t coming back until next week.
If you’re too busy, I understand. Avery.
“That’s interesting, Ossie.”
I grinned for no apparent reason.
Hi, Avery. I’m more than happy to take you out there. We could go on New Year’s Eve or Day. You just let me know. I’ll be here. Holden
A response came as if he was waiting for it.
If you’re going out on New Year’s Eve, we can go later New Year’s Day. I’ll let you choose what works best for you. And I’ll pay you for your gas. A
I chuckled. “Well, Ossie, you wanna go for a ride on New year’s Eve morning?” I had no plans to do anything except cover emergency calls, so if we drove down to Virginia in the morning, I could still be ready for anything that came up.
How about I pick you up at 8 AM on NYE?
A thumbs-up emoji came back right away.
I glanced at Ossie. “Looks like we’ve got a date.” I laughed as he cocked his head left and right, staring at me as though I’d lost my mind. “I know. It didn’t feel natural coming out of my mouth, either.”
I wasn’t sure why I felt funny about the concept of dating Avery Langhorn. Something inside made me want to get to know him better, but he seemed a bit standoff-ish. I thought he was gorgeous, but he’d really shown no interest in me…though he had been in an accident.
Having that discussion with a stranger wasn’t easy—"I’m gay. How about you?” Not a great ice breaker when you find a guy dazed from a car accident.
“Okay, not a date. If you think it’s best, Ossie, friend zone it is.”
That didn’t feel right either.
The passenger’s side door opened to reveal the handsome smile of Avery Langhorn. “Hey, doggy. May I sit with you?”
I reached for Ossie to put him in the back floorboard in his dog bed, but Avery nabbed him first, pulling him to his chest before climbing in.
“Is it okay if I hold him or her? What’s its name?” Avery held Ossie up and smiled as my dog licked the tip of Avery’s nose. Ossie’s tail was going a million miles an hour at the attention. It was cute.
“Avery, meet Oscar. Ossie, boy, this is Avery.”
Oscar settled into Avery’s lap as I pulled away from the curb of his house. “You need me to stop for coffee or anything?”
Avery sighed. “I’d love it if you did. I didn’t sleep well last night. I can’t thank you enough for driving me to the accident scene, and please let me know when you need to stop for fuel. Is this a hybrid?”
“Uh, yeah, it is. My work truck isn’t, but it’s much larger than this one. That thing eats up the gas.” I pulled into the drive-thru lane of a coffee place on the way to the highway. “What would you like?” I powered down my window to check out the large lighted menu board.
“I’ll have a mocha latte with an extra shot of espresso. Get whatever you want. This is definitely on me.” He pulled a small wallet out of his coat pocket and handed me a debit card. I ignored him.
I ordered our drinks and gave the guy cash at the window as he handed over the two lidded cups and a blueberry muffin. I pulled over to a parking spot so we could check that our orders were right. I opened the muffin, taking a chunk. “Help yourself. These things are damn good, but they’re huge.”
Avery took a pinch off the muffin and moaned, which went straight to my groin. Thank god I was sitting in the truck and had a little room in my work jeans. The guy did crazy things to me.
“So, you were coming back from where, exactly, that night? How’d you end up living in Baltimore?” Might as well start with the basics.
“Uh, to be honest, the cost of living is better in Baltimore. I’m business partners with my roommates and friends, Kyle and Brooke.
We’re a start-up, so we need more bang for our buck than we can get in DC or Virginia.
How about you? You mentioned you were going home from your folks’ house the night of the accident. ”
“Yeah. They live in Manassas.” I glanced at Ossie chilling in Avery’s lap, the happy little fucker.
“Huh?” Avery said, though I didn’t know why.
I glanced over to see him staring out the front window as his hand softly glided down Ossie’s back.
“Were you, uh, did you play football in high school?”
I laughed. “Not even close. I played because I was big and the coach hounded me, but I wasn’t good enough and hated the game. It wasn’t like I would get a college scholarship or anything. Good guess.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” He stared at Ossie and grinned as the pup spun onto his back so Avery could scratch his belly. I was jealous of a fucking dog.
We drove in silence for a while and finally I couldn’t take the quiet anymore. “Traffic is surprisingly light for a weekday, though I guess with it being New Year’s Eve, it figures.”
“Do you have plans tonight? I mean, I’m not trying to be nosey, but if you have plans, I can call the tow truck now to get him to meet us. I still haven’t talked to Brooke about the car. She’s going to kill me.” Avery appeared to be quite nervous as I glanced at him.
“Well, it might not be as bad in the light of day as you think. Let’s wait until we get there to see how much damage was done. As far as going out, I’ll be hanging out with Ossie tonight. How about you?”
“No. Not doing anything. My roommates are gone until Sunday, probably. What? I can’t—” He appeared to be confused, but I had no idea why.
For an instant, he frowned. “No. I won’t.”
“Are you okay? You won’t what?” Suddenly, Ossie started to bark and jumped across the console into my lap, turning toward Avery and growling. “Hey, Ossie. Stop that.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m sure he sensed me getting upset. Anyway, I’ll take your advice and wait to call a tow truck until we get a better look.”
I took the exit beyond the crash site and doubled back on the northbound side of the highway. When I saw the little silver Prius still in the snow to the right of the highway, I turned on my flashers and pulled off the shoulder into the grass.
I moved Ossie into the floor in the back seat and glanced down to see Avery was wearing snow boots. “You ready?”
Avery glanced up to see we’d arrived. “Uh, sure.”
We got out of the truck and walked over to the stranded Prius. The driver’s side was worse than I thought, so I turned to him. “It’s a wonder you’re alive, Avery.”
That semi had sheared the metal on the driver’s side of the car and even cut through the inside of the driver’s door. It was a wonder it hadn’t cut him in half.
“You must have a guardian angel, Avery. This could have been so much worse than I believed when I found you.” God, that was no lie.
Avery’s soft smile would be the death of me. “I’m just glad you found me.”
So was I.