Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Brody
T he tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife as Avery's finger hovered over Rebecca's number.
She finally pressed call and put the phone on speaker. The ringing echoed through the courtyard, making me want to crawl out of my skin.
“Avery,” Rebecca's voice crackled through the speaker, sounding crisp and professional. “Thank you for calling back.”
I leaned in closer, my shoulder brushing against Avery's. Her warmth was comforting, but it also made me want to pull her onto my lap and forget this whole mess.
“Rebecca,” Avery replied, her voice steady even though I could see her hands shaking. That's my girl, always so fucking brave. “What's going on? Your message sounded pretty urgent.”
There was a pause, and I could almost picture Rebecca on the other end, taking a deep breath. When she spoke again, her tone was softer.
“I'm afraid I have bad news. Despite the success of your articles—and they truly have been phenomenal—the magazine is folding.”
The color drained from Avery’s beautiful face. Shit, we'd been so caught up in our own drama that we hadn't even considered this possibility. Talk about a fucking curveball.
“But… how?” Avery stammered.
God, I wanted to wrap her in my arms and shield her from all this crap.
“I thought our pieces were bringing in more readers?”
“They were,” Rebecca sighed, sounding defeated. “Your work with Brody has been everything we hoped for and more. But I'm afraid the broader financial issues facing the company were too severe. The board made the decision this morning.”
As Rebecca droned on with more corporate bullshit than I cared to understand, Avery and I exchanged worried glances. I grabbed her hand, giving it a firm squeeze. Whatever happened next, we were in this together.
When the call ended, we sat in silence for a moment. I watched a storm of emotions play across Avery's face, wanting nothing more than to kiss away her worries.
Finally, she spoke, her voice soft and hesitant. “I can’t say this is a total surprise,” she said, sighing.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, putting my hand over hers, the gesture not even close to enough, but I had no idea what else to do.
She leaned back, looking defeated, lost in her own thoughts for a while.
But then her eyes shifted to a look I'd come to know well—the one that usually meant she was about to say something either brilliant or crazy.
“I've been thinking about contingency plans for a while now. You know, what I'd do if things changed and… I did have this one wild idea.”
I raised an eyebrow, curious where she was going with this. “Yeah? What kind of idea?”
She bit her lip, and fuck me if it wasn't the sexiest thing I'd seen all day. This woman could make me hard just by breathing, I swear.
“Well, I didn't really know how I'd pull it off…” Her voice trailed off, her cheeks flushing pink.
“Okaaaay,” I said, her elusiveness killing me.
Avery took a deep breath.
“I was thinking about moving in a totally different direction. And now, with us getting closer, and you becoming increasingly frustrated with the way things are going in your life, maybe—I don't know… maybe we could work on something together.”
The thought of our days together being numbered had been eating at me like acid. This prospect of more time with her, of making something ours, made my heart race like I was in a street fight.
“You know I love working with you,” I said, my voice rough with anticipation. “So please, for the love of God, can you tell me what you're talking about?”
She paused, then added reluctantly, “What if... what if we start our own couples’ travel company?”
I wouldn't have been more surprised if a goddamn unicorn had pranced through the room shitting rainbows. “Our own company?”
Avery fidgeted in her seat, her body language screaming uncertainty. “I mean… I think we probably have the skills and connections, but?—”
I leaned in, drinking in every detail of her gorgeous face. “But what, Spark?”
She sighed. “But it's risky as hell. And who knows if we could actually pull it off?”
For the first time in ages, a thought about work sent a jolt of excitement through me. Yeah, the idea was risky as hell, but wasn't that what made life worth living? The thrill of the unknown, the possibility of failure or success hanging in the balance.
And doing it with Avery? Fuck me. That wasn't just the icing on the cake—it was the whole damn bakery.
The prospect of building something with her, watching her brilliant mind at work every day… this wasn't just a job opportunity. This was a chance at a whole new life, with the woman who'd been driving me crazy since day one.
I grinned like I didn't give a shit if I looked like a damn fool—too fired up to care.
“That’s not a bad idea at all, Spark. In fact, I think it's fucking brilliant.”
Her eyes widened, hope replacing the doubt. “Really? You do?”
“Hell yeah,” I said. “We're both damn good at what we do, and together? We'd be unstoppable.”
A smile spread across her face, lighting her up like a supernova. “You really think we could do it?”
“I think we could take over the whole fucking world if we wanted to.”
We spent hours throwing ideas back and forth like we were in some kind of foreplay before we had to start packing for home.
As we headed back to the States, we used our flights and layovers to work on our business idea. Boring airport waits and cramped plane seats became our office, our excitement way more noticeable than the smell of the guy next to us who clearly thought deodorant was optional.
“Maybe I could negotiate some special rates and itineraries with some of the places we’ve already been,” Avery said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Fuck, she was gorgeous when she got all fired up. “I can start building a website with the content we already have.”
I nodded, my mind racing. “And we could add some of my adventure stuff too. Like couples' rock climbing or kayaking through sea caves like we did in Croatia. I’m pretty sure at least some of my followers would eat it up.”
“Won't your manager be pissed if you change everything?” Avery asked, concern creasing her forehead.
I shrugged, a grin spreading across my face. “You know how you've been thinking about making a change for a while?”
She nodded.
“Well, I've been thinking too. A whole hell of a lot about how good it's going to feel to fire that useless prick.”
Avery grinned, and I swear my heart skipped a beat. “But what about your sponsors?”
“Fuck 'em,” I said, the thought of being truly free making me feel ten feet tall and bulletproof.
“If they don't want a piece of the new business—although I suspect some of them might actually jump right in—they can see themselves out the door. I've got all I need right here,” I said, pulling her in close.
“Brody,” Avery said softly, looking at me with those big eyes of hers.
“Can we talk about us? I mean, we're about to start a business together, but we haven't really talked about what's going on between us. Are we business partners? Friends with benefits? Or just two people who can't keep their hands off each other?”
My chest tightened like I was about to jump out of a fucking plane. “Yeah, we should.”
“I know we're taking a big risk here,” she continued, her voice a little lower than usual. “Mixing business with… whatever this is. But I can't help feeling like it's worth it. That we're worth it. I mean, have you seen us? We're pretty damn great together.”
Her words warmed me from the inside out.
“I feel the same way,” I admitted, my heart pounding like a war drum. “I know it won't be easy, but I've never felt this way about anyone before. You challenge me, you inspire me. You make me want to be better. Hell, you make me want to be the kind of guy who actually folds his laundry and eats fucking vegetables.”
Avery's eyes got all soft, and for a second, I thought she might cry. Instead, she leaned in and kissed me like she meant it.
“We can do this,” she said against my lips. “Together. And if we fail, at least we'll know we took a damn risk as the ship goes down.”
A couple days later, I was standing in front of this fancy-ass old hotel that Avery's family called home. It looked like something out of a movie, but it had nothing on the chaos inside.
As we went upstairs, Avery gave me the rundown of the hotel. “We each have our own floor,” she explained. “Mom and Aunt Vivian are at the top. Try not to get lost, or I'll have to put your handsome mug on a milk carton.”
Her floor was exactly what you'd expect from Avery—neat but cozy, with travel stuff everywhere. Like a travel magazine had a wild night with a really nice library.
As we sat down to look at her research, I felt weirdly at home. It was like slipping on a well-worn leather jacket—familiar and comfortable as hell.
“So, I've been checking out some romantic spots in Switzerland,” Avery said, pulling up a map on her computer. “I think it could be great for our first trip. Snowy mountains, cute little houses, and enough chocolate to keep us up all night.”
She gave me a sly wink that made my blood rush south faster than a bobsled on an ice track. I grinned back, my mind already racing with the possibilities.
“Sounds perfect,” I said, leaning in close. “I hear chocolate's quite the aphrodisiac. We might need to pack some extra energy bars to keep up.”
Avery's cheeks flushed pink, and she bit her lip in that way that drove me wild. “Well,” she said, “we'll have to treat it like a real romantic getaway, won't we? For the business, of course.”
“Of course,” I agreed, my voice rough with desire. “Can't recommend something without extensive testing. It's just good business practice.”
As she talked, I found it hard to focus. She was sitting so close, and she smelled so fucking good. It was like trying to do homework next to a really hot teacher. We looked at each other, and I thought about kissing her, family be damned?—
Then someone knocked on the door, loud as hell. “Avery, honey?”
Avery turned to me and mouthed, “My mom.”
“Why don't you two come down and meet everyone? Don't worry, we've hidden all the embarrassing baby photos. Mostly.”
Dinner with Avery's family was like being in the middle of a tornado. The dining room was so loud and crazy, it made a rock concert look tame. I met aunts, sisters, cousins, and even a shaggy dog named Chewbarka (who looked as embarrassed by his name as I felt).
I tried to keep everyone straight, but it was about as easy as nailing Jell-O to a wall.
“So, Brody,” one of Avery's cousins—Quinn, I think—said with a grin that spelled trouble. “How's the 90-Day Relationship Challenge going? Is Avery as good at romance as she is at packing a suitcase?”
I grinned, squeezing Avery's hand under the table. “It's been a hell of a ride. Avery's not just good at romance; she makes me look like a bumbling idiot at it most days.”
“Well, it's too bad it has to end soon,” Shelby, another cousin, said with a dramatic sigh. “You seem like such a great match for Avery.”
My heart skipped a beat. End soon? What the fuck?
I glanced at Avery, expecting her to jump in and set things straight. To tell her family that we'd already decided to keep this thing going past the 90 days. That we were in this for the long haul.
But she didn't. She just sat there, suddenly fascinated by the pattern on her dinner plate.
My mind started racing. Had I misunderstood everything? Were we not on the same page after all? Was I just some guy Avery picked up for a family bet?
Feeling like I needed to say something, anything, I blurted out, “Well, no matter what, we're still going to be working together for a while. You know, planning romantic trips for other people while we… uh… figure out everything else.”
As soon as I said it, the room went quiet.
The only sound was the dog's tail thumping on the floor, probably thinking, “Nice going, dumbass,” as I wondered what in the hell I had done this time.