Chapter 17 Avery
Avery
The huge fallen limb from the beech tree carved a splintered crater through the roof of Avery’s workshop.
On the plus side, the damage had happened overnight, so she wasn’t in there at the time. But it wasn’t super easy to focus on the positives as she stood a safe distance away with Bel and took in the devastation.
“Holy frickballs,” murmured Bel.
Avery couldn’t muster any words at all.
Up until now, the old thirty-foot tree had put on a good show of being a healthy specimen, but the jagged bough currently bisecting her workshop showed clear signs to the contrary.
Wood and glass surrounded the crushed exterior and Avery couldn’t get close enough to see if anything inside was salvageable.
It took the whole day for a hurriedly summoned arborist to clear the wreckage. By the time he packed up and left, Avery knew more than she’d ever wanted to about the phenomenon of “summer branch drop” and the need for routine tree inspections.
All very helpful. All too late.
How was she going to work now? She had orders, commitments. Bills to pay. Her head throbbed. Her stomach swirled.
Dumbass tree. Fucking summer branch drop.
YouTube videos could only get a person so far. She was going to have to do what her dad did best and call in the experts.
A quick call to Sam Archer gave her the number for a local building contractor. When Luke Farley arrived at the end of the afternoon to assess the damage, Avery recognized him immediately as the brother-in-law of the police chief and a regular at the Rusty Barrel.
“We’re going to need to take the whole thing down.
It’d be far harder to repair it than rebuild it.
More expensive, too,” Luke said, unloading some steel props from the back of his pickup.
“I’ll put these up to temporarily support the ceiling so you can get it stripped out, and then we’ll make a plan from there. ”
With a promise to put together a quote for a new workshop, he left just in time for Avery to grab her keys and hightail it over to the Barrel for her evening shift, the wretched balance of her bank account running on a loop in her head throughout the brief drive.
Her phone rang as she pulled into the lot and Avery winced when she saw it was her mom.
“I tried you earlier and got your voicemail.” Her mother’s words tumbled over each other as soon as Avery picked up. “Why didn’t you answer? Where have you been? You didn’t tell me you’d be out of touch.”
“Just busy, Mom. Nothing to worry about. My workshop got—”
“Only, you always answer and then I started to think something might have happened. And I didn’t know who to call to check if you were OK.”
Avery sighed as she climbed out of her car. “That’s why you have Bel’s number, just in case I’m not available.” Which barely ever happened. “You can always try her, but you have to remember she might not be able to answer either if she’s working.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t like to bother Bel,” her mother said quickly. “She has a proper job.”
Yeah, that hurts a little. Avery rolled her shoulders against the slight that her mom hadn’t realized she’d delivered. “Talking of work, I’m just about to start my shift so I can’t chat now. What did you need me for?”
“Oh.” There was a brief pause as her mother searched her memory. “Well, I can’t really recall what it was right now, but I know it was important.”
Avery bit back a sharper retort, saying instead, “I’m sure it was.
Jot it down if it comes back to you and I’ll call first thing tomorrow for a longer chat.
Got to go now, though. Bye, Mom.” Jogging the rest of the distance to the main door of the Rusty Barrel, she called out “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” to Kai as she stepped inside, though she was barely five minutes late.
Dumping her purse onto a shelf beneath the bar, Avery shoved the worries of the day aside and jumped straight into work.
It was a live music night so she knew it would be a busy one.
For the next hour and a half, there was no break in the throng of customers who swarmed the bar.
It was hot, noisy, and frantic and, though Avery still felt queasy whenever she thought about her workshop, there was no time to dwell on it.
The band was four songs into their set when she looked up to find that the next trio waiting for drinks were Tanner, Sam, and Jackson.
Three good-looking men, and Avery was alarmed to find she only had eyes for one of them.
Wiping a sheen of sweat from her forehead, aware of how the lank strands of her bangs were sticking to her face, she drew on her shallow reserves of resilience to greet them with a friendly smile.
“Hey, guys. What can I get you?”
Their order was simple—beers all around—and, though there was a brief argument when Jackson and Sam wouldn’t let Tanner pay, none of their comical insults packed any heat.
“Did you get hold of Luke?” Sam shouted to be heard above the tumult of music and chatter.
“I did. Thanks for giving me his number. All sorted.” Shooting him a grateful smile, Avery moved straight on to serve another group of customers.
Out of the corner of her eye as she pulled beers and poured mixers, she watched the boys take seats at the end of the bar.
Tanner’s head bent close to Sam’s, and Avery guessed from the frown that pulled at his eyebrows that he was hearing about her workshop disaster.
Dammit, Sam. The phone number had been helpful but couldn’t a girl keep her fight with nature to herself?
The steady stampede of patrons gave Avery no time to stop.
The noise level increased as people continued to swarm into the bar and one order blended straight into the next.
She only remembered when her stomach started grumbling and her head swam a little that she hadn’t taken any time to eat since that morning.
Her t-shirt grew damp, her neck even more so.
Avery refixed her ponytail and pushed on.
As she collected some empties between customers, grabbing a handful of glasses from near Tanner’s elbow, he turned away from his conversation and leaned over the bar.
“Sorry about your workshop,” he said. “Anything I can do to help?”
His mouth brushed her ear and Avery found herself recoiling from Tanner’s fresh cleanliness like a vampire from a crucifix.
Urgh, why did he have to smell so good when she was so sweaty!
“No, I don’t think so. It’s beyond life support. There’s just the burial to go and I’m handling it.”
She tried for flippancy but Tanner’s mouth tightened where that scar bisected his lip. “No need to do it alone.”
Avery forced a smile. “Thanks, but I’ve got it. It’ll be fine.” And she moved away to take another order.
An hour went by with no letup in the swell of customers.
It was so damn airless in the bar and the music was making her head pound.
Chugging water in an attempt to cool down, Avery kept on moving, serving drinks with careful concentration and a fixed curve to her lips.
More than once, as the evening crawled forward in slow motion, she was aware of Tanner’s tawny eyes on her face while Sam and Jackson talked across him.
Eventually, when she made one more pass close by the end of the bar where the boys were sitting, he called her over.
“More drinks?” Avery asked, dragging her sticky top away from her stomach in a surreptitious movement.
“Yes, please.” Tanner’s sneakers bounced on the footrest of his stool as he leaned closer. “You look washed out. Have you eaten?”
“Washed out” was probably kind. Avery tried not to take offense.
“I ran out of time.” She pulled them another three beers and rang the sale into the cash register. “It’s been a day.”
Handing over some crumpled bills with one hand, Tanner dragged his phone from his pocket with the other as she moved on again.
Eventually the evening began to wind down.
The band played their last couple of songs and set about packing up their equipment. As Kai switched to the speaker system for more chilled background music, the crowd thinned a little and the frantic pace slowed. And Avery found a chance to breathe as the bar slowly emptied.
“Sorry it’s been so mad.” Kai wiped his brow with the swipe of a wrist and grimaced. “Got let down at the last minute—Nina was sick and no one else could cover. You’ve been great tonight.”
“No problem.” His appreciation went a long way to making up for the hectic shift.
Giving a wave to Tanner, Sam, and Jackson as they headed for the door, Avery continued to clear up until the bar was orderly again and the last load of glasses was in the dishwasher. She was grateful that the restock and sticky surfaces were a problem for tomorrow’s cleaning crew and not her.
With a final goodbye to Kai, she grabbed her purse and turned exhausted feet toward the door.
In the darkened lot, her car sat among a scarce handful of others left by conscientious patrons. It stood out only because of the hefty hockey player leaning against the fender with his bulky arms crossed, and Avery’s stride faltered.
“I thought you’d gone,” she said, though the evidence to the contrary was right in front of her.
Tanner smiled and gestured at two pizza boxes propped on the hood of her Honda. “Found these and thought I’d stick around to share.”
“You found them?” She would have raised an eyebrow if she’d had the energy.
“I know. What are the chances?” When he opened the top box, the scent of herbs and dough had her stomach growling and Avery’s feet carried her forward of their own volition. She found herself with a slice of pepperoni-laden pizza in her hand before she could blink.
God, she was hungry!
“Eat,” Tanner encouraged, his eyes a golden gleam in the blanket of night. “That was a crazy shift. You didn’t stop all evening. And it sounds like your day sucked, too.”
With no energy or desire to argue, Avery took a huge bite with a heartfelt moan.
It was heavenly, even without her usual dollop of hot sauce.
She’d resigned herself to having a quick grilled cheese at home before falling into bed, but this was so much better—and so much faster.
With the hefty clean-up mission awaiting her tomorrow, she’d need all the strength she could get.
“Thanks, Tan,” Avery mumbled around a mouthful of cheese and carb heaven. His thoughtfulness plucked at an unfamiliar cord in her chest and some of the tension went out of her shoulders.
“My pleasure, Stretch.” Tanner’s dimple deepened as he snagged a slice of his own from the box. “Got to be some perks of a lifetime loyalty card for Jerry’s Pizza.”
As they stood side by side in the dark, Avery wasn’t sure anything had ever tasted quite so good as this unexpected midnight feast in the lot of the Rusty Barrel.