Chapter Two.
AVERY
She heard his question and barely managed to keep herself from answering him with a slow, drawled, “I wish I knew. I’ve been managing it so far on my own, but this time?”
Avery hated to admit it to anyone, but the man standing in front of her was the head coach of a major sporting team in Center City. His truck shone like a proverbial penny. The man certainly didn’t have the kind of issues she did when it came to her Jeep.
“My baby has been running for a good long time. I feel like I should have retired it about two or three years ago, but...” she let out a slow exhale, “I’m too stubborn for my own good.”
She reached out a hand and laid it on the part of the siding that ended abruptly beside the engine.
“I’ve been avoiding even the idea of a new car for far too long, but... I guess, I’m going to have to really look into it now.”
With a shake of her head she turned around and headed for the back of her car. She heard the sound of footsteps behind her almost immediately. She smiled at the sound. He looked fit, too. Oh, more than fit.
When they’d met at the high school in a meeting about her son who was slated to become an integral player on the football team, the coach had been wearing his Carvers’ polo and a pair of slacks that made his ass look like she could sink her teeth into it, but she’d only thought about it later that night when she’d been getting ready for bed.
This?
Being close to him when no one else was around was a different problem. She didn’t have her son’s principal breathing down her neck, but trying to get a look at him without him noticing?
That might take some doing.
But she giggled at the thought, and the word, it would be worth the effort. She spent her time at the firehouse surrounded by a bunch of fit men. Her son was a football player with a real chance at going the distance. So she knew what it took to keep fit.
And Wayne Reynolds? He might not be an active player, but even as a coach, he had the muscle and size that made her mouth water.
She opened up the trunk and leaned back while the door went up. She hit a wall of warmth she hadn’t expected and lurched forward the moment her brain registered the issue.
“Careful.”
She opened her mouth to utter a snarky retort, but she was suddenly reminded that she wasn’t at the firehouse where they acted a little like a frat house at the best of times.
And the man at her back wasn’t one of her coworkers.
Anything but. She didn’t deliver an elbow to his ribs, but she also didn’t know what to do instead.
“Let me step back.”
He stepped to the side and when his body moved away from her back, he placed his hand on her back.
It felt... nice.
His hand was big and strong. And the way he had it placed against her back was supportive. Almost gentle.
The feelings that ran through her body were confusing.
“Okay,” she took a step to the side and slid a quick look at him. “Sorry.”
He shook his head. “My fault.”
She reached in and picked up two trays of water and turned to see that he had his arms out to take it.
She tucked her chin down and gave him a little smile. “I’ve got this.” She tipped her head toward the trunk. “Grab what you can.”
Avery moved around him and up onto the sidewalk toward his truck.
She smiled when she recognized what he was driving.
“Nice.” She got to the back and heard him call out to her.
“Wait! I’ll put down the tailgate.”
With a shrug, she lifted the trays and set it down over the tailgate.
She heard him half-jog up to her side and she turned to look at him. “No need to rush. I’ve got it.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, not angry. Confused, maybe? “I... I should have put the tailgate down before grabbing these.”
She looked down at the small stack of cardboard trays of chicken noodle soup cans.
She smiled at him. “Here. Give it to me so you can open the tailgate.”
There was a moment of hesitation, and she tensed a little wondering what he was about to say.
When he spoke it was indeed a shock. “Okay. Thanks.”
He transferred the trays into her arms and turned to release the tailgate. As he set it down, he turned to look at her, and she smiled at the way he lifted a single brow.
She put the trays in the truck bed and looked back at him. “What?”
He touched his hand to the tailgate, just the tips of his fingers. “I could have let you do this.”
She shrugged. One shoulder.
“Yeah, but some guys are pretty temperamental about someone else touching their cars.”
“I’m not like those guys.”
She smiled at the emphasis that he’d put on that word. Since she’d met Wayne at the High School she’d done a little bit of online research on him.
Little...
Right.
There were a lot of articles about him on news sites. There were thousands of thirsty posts about him on social media. The man was... hot. And she would bet that he didn’t know it.
“Good to know.”
With that, she turned and walked back to her Jeep to grab more of the donations and found Wayne on her heels. The man wasn’t competing with her like some of the men she knew.
The firefighters treated supply runs like games. Who could carry more? Who could walk faster? Those were intense competitions at Twenty-Nine.
But it only took a few minutes to empty the supplies from her vehicle to his and while they worked, they talked. A comment here. Another one there. Nothing pushy or pointed.
Just conversation.
By the time they’d emptied her trunk she found herself more than a little disappointed.
Her normal attitude that drove her to get things done was apparently working against her.
She walked back to her Grand Cherokee to close the back door, disappointed that she was about to be left ruminating over her hunk of junk.
When the door closed, she turned around to find Wayne Reynolds just a few feet away smiling at her.
Smiling.
She swallowed and lifted a hand to touch her hair. It was still pulled back out of her face, likely messy at the back, but she wasn’t someone who did more to her hair than just that.
“Uh... thanks for stopping by to pick up the food and stuff.”
He shrugged and nodded at her. “No problem. Happy to help.”
Ohhhkay.
She reached out and put her hand on the back of her car. “There isn’t anything super perishable that I was bringing.”
He nodded and she felt a little like something under glass that he was observing. It didn’t make her feel bad, just... strange.
“Okay, then... I think I need to get back to the mess under my hood.”
She started to walk around the back corner of the Jeep, but he stopped her with a word.
“Wait.”
Wait?
Avery looked up at him and hated how handsome he was. Her brain was turning mushy just looking at him.
“I have,” his gaze looked off toward the front of her car for a moment before he looked back at her, “I have an idea. I have a great mechanic that I use and he’s a Jeep fanatic.”
By the way Wayne said the word ‘fanatic’ made her think he really meant it. She smiled at that.
“He’d probably get a little... giddy about your Grand Cherokee. If you want, I can call him and ask him to tow your car to his shop.”
Avery tensed a little.
“He’s got a kind of specialty shop?”
She heard the way her voice lifted up at the end.
If her expression didn’t give away her reservations, she had a feeling that Wayne heard it in her voice.
Wayne shifted on his feet and the movement drew her gaze down to his hips.
A gaze she lifted up a half-second after.
She really didn’t want him to know that she’d take a quick look at his-
“I can call Triple A,” she cleared her throat, “I don’t think I can afford a specialty shop.”
She turned to walk past him and drew up short when he put his hand on her arm.
“Avery-” He lifted his hand away like he’d been burned. “Can I call you, Avery?”
She nodded, loving the way his teeth grazed against the back of his bottom lip on the V of her name. “Sure.”
“He’s a friend. Would you let him take a look at it? He won’t force you to let him work on it before he gives you a quote.”
He held up his hand to promise her, and she smiled at the Boy Scout salute he’d made.
“If there’s anyone I’d trust to give you a real assessment of any problems it’s Ken. The man is magic when it comes to engines.”
She wanted to accept it. Who wouldn’t? But as nice as Wayne Reynolds seemed, she was worried that he’d end up having a flaw that she wouldn’t see coming.
“Were you really a Boy Scout?”
Wayne’s posture relaxed a little and the hand he’d held up in the salute moved to the back of his head. He looked a little uncomfortable before he answered. “I was, but I didn’t go all the way to Eagle.”
She smiled then, hearing the tension in his voice. “I bet you were busy with football.”
He lowered his hand to his side and looked up at her. “You guessed it.”
She shrugged. “Things change. Priorities change. Or maybe they’re just refocused.” She laid her hand on her car and let out a soft sigh. “I believe you.”
His expression changed then, relaxing and then lifting into an almost-smile. “So, I can call Ken to come and get the Jeep?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Go ahead.”
She watched Wayne pull out his phone from his back pocket and while he was scrolling through something on his phone, she spoke again. “I can catch a ride with him to his shop, right?”
Before Wayne could answer, she continued.
“Aidan’s staying over at a friend’s house tonight so I don’t have to rush home to cook.” After she said the words, she wanted to snatch them out of the air and shove them back in her mouth.
He didn’t need to know that. No one needed to know that.
And, really, she was likely distracting him from what he had to do.
He lifted the phone near his ear, and she heard the sound of someone’s voice from the speaker.
“Hey, Wayne! What’s up?”
“Ken.” The Carvers’ Coach grinned. “Nothing much on my end, but I have a friend here-”
A friend?
She smiled at that, brighter than she wanted to admit.
“She’s got a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a prob-”
“What’s the address? I can tow her to the shop and look at it right now.”
Right now?
Well, that was quick.
She stood here while Wayne gave an address to the man on the other end of the call. Ken? That was his name.
“This is great, Wayne. Oh, wait. I forgot to ask. What year is the GC?”
Avery saw Wayne lift his head but before he could ask her the question she leaned in and answered it. “It’s a two thousand model.”
“Holy shit! Really?”
Avery wondered if they were trying to punk her. “Yes, really.”
“Oh my god! I can’t wait to get my hands on this car! Bye.”
The call ended. How she knew that, she really didn’t know. Maybe it was the absolute silence of noise from the phone in his hand. Then, it didn’t really matter. He lowered the phone to his side while he looked at her. Directly at her.
“Come with me to drop off the donations, Avery. Come with me to the food bank and then let me take you out to dinner.”
Wow. That was... direct.
As a girl, Avery had felt the weight and disappointment when people around her hand changed the way they said things, trying to soften some of the blows. She’d taken in those words and wondered how weak she was that people had to mince words to make them feel better about speaking to her.
This? This direct request?
“Okay.” She nodded. “I’d like that.”
Then she looked down at her clothes, she looked like she’d rolled out of bed to deliver the food donations to the food bank and... she had.
“I might need to go back to my apartment and change first.”
“Sure.” His comment came quickly on the heels of her own. “That’s not a problem.”
Avery opened her mouth to say something. Maybe to give him an out or change his mind, but she didn’t want to.
The last thing she wanted to do was to give Wayne an out after he’d asked her to dinner with him.
“Great,” she nodded and reached into her pocket for her keys. “As soon as your friend gets here, we can go drop off the food and then head over to my place.”
“It’s a date.”
Wayne’s eyes widened just a hint as soon as he’d said the words, so Avery had a feeling he’d surprised himself.
Which was just fine for her. She was doing a bit of surprising herself and finding out that she liked this kind of crazy. She liked him, too.
“So, tell me,” Wayne leaned a little closer, “what kind of food do you want to eat?”
Avery was used to a lot of home cooking. It was rare to find a mealtime where she felt like going out with her son or have enough extra money that she splurged on take out.
It might sound strange to people outside of her life with Aidan, but it was what it was.
“I’m good with anything,” she answered him and felt herself swagger a little. “Surprise me.”
Later she’d realize that the slight lift of his chin and way his eyes narrowed a bit were all good.
He just didn’t know how to read her reaction. Or her answer. Maybe he’d had some of the same problems with the opposite sex that she’d had on her own.
“All right,” he nodded, “I will.”