Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
AVERY
Okay, so I hadn’t exactly been stood up. I’d received a phone call. But it didn’t change the fact that I was alone in Starlight Cove for the evening with no one to keep me company except this week’s book boyfriend.
Though that wasn’t all that different from what my life had been lately.
It was one of the reasons I’d decided to move back home to Maine following a yearslong stint in Mississippi. While I’d enjoyed my time there, and I’d made some amazing friends, the past few months, I’d started to feel…untethered.
It wasn’t that I didn’t love my friends there, but they were in a totally different place in their lives—married with kids or kids on the way—and I was out here fumbling through life, just trying to remember to put my clothes in the dryer before they became moldy.
Mississippi had never been in my plans. But I’d made the mistake of following a boy—yes, a boy and definitely not a man—right after college.
And while he’d dropped me as soon as his influential—read: snobbish—family got one look at me, I’d gone where the wind had blown me.
And it had blown me to Havenbrook, a picturesque small town in the heart of Mississippi.
I didn’t live my life with regrets. Boyfriends bailed on me—men bailed on me. Friends grew apart. Shit happened, good and bad. And I didn’t mind making mistakes—thank God, because I made a ton of them. But I learned from every single one.
And during my time in Havenbrook, I’d learned it wasn’t enough to be someone’s second or third…
or fourth…choice. I’d spent my entire life settling for exactly that, but I was done.
I didn’t begrudge my friends for slotting me into that space.
Of course they would choose their significant others over me.
Of course my closest friend there would choose her sisters over me.
If I were in their shoes, I’d do the same.
Or I would in theory anyway. But what did I know?
I was an only child, and my person happened to be my mom.
Following the shock of a lifetime, it had been just the two of us against the world. And I needed to get back to that. Needed that connection. Needed an anchor to ground me.
So when I had the chance to pursue what I’d always dreamed of doing—traveling the world as a flight attendant—I’d quit my job, ended my lease, and left Havenbrook behind.
I changed everything without a second thought when my mom said her boyfriend of the month could get me into flight attendant training almost immediately by bypassing the waitlist. But changing things on a dime was sort of my superpower.
Like when my dinner date canceled and I had to figure shit out…
Instead of checking in to my cute little boutique hotel and getting ready for a night of fun, I adjusted. No use in getting all done up to eat by myself when I could grab something quick and spend the rest of the night in my room with my book boyfriend and my favorite vibrator.
My phone rang as I pulled up in front of the only bar in town—which happened to be two buildings over from my hotel—and I glanced at the FaceTime request before answering.
“You really miss me, huh?” I said as soon as the video connected.
Willow, aforementioned Havenbrook bestie, huffed out a laugh as her face filled the screen. “Obviously. Was that ever in question? It’s not too late for you to come back, you know.”
Seeing her smiling face and hearing her sweet, Southern drawl made me homesick for a place I’d never really seen as home. It was quite the mindfuck.
“Speak for yourself. I just spent the past three days in a car, hopping from motel to motel and subsisting on Twizzlers and Dr Pepper. If you think I’m doing that all over again, the sleep deprivation is really getting to you. Tell Finn he needs to step it up and pull his weight.”
She laughed, her smile bright and eyes crinkling, and my heart squeezed. Fuck, I already missed her so much, and it’d only been a couple days. “I just wanted to make sure you got there okay. Are you home?”
“Not yet.” I flipped the camera around and gave her a quick view of the adorable downtown before switching it back to me.
“So cute! Where are you?”
“I took a detour through Starlight Cove to visit my best friend and roommate from college, but she had to cancel our dinner plans. Something about an implosion at work, and she had to clean up the mess.”
“That sucks. Are you staying there, or are you just gonna head to your momma’s?”
“Honestly, I’m dead tired and starving, so I’m here for the night. That way, Addison and I can get breakfast in the morning. I’m going to grab something to eat now and then lock myself in my room with a book and my vibrator.”
Willow propped her chin on her hand and let out a dreamy sigh. “Sounds heavenly.”
“Oh, don’t give me that. You have an actual dick you can use. Speaking of, what are the chances someone in this bar can decipher my shirt?”
“What shirt is it?”
“Buy me books and tell me to shut the fuck up and take that dick like a good girl…”
She snorted, and her husband’s head popped up in the background. “Ask Avery where she got that so I can buy you one, Willowtree!”
“Quit eavesdropping!” she said over her shoulder before bringing her attention back to me with an eye roll.
I laughed. “Oops, my bad. I didn’t know there were other ears around.”
“Those other ears don’t need to get any ideas,” she said, loud enough for Finn to hear. “My vagina needs a break from pushing out babies.”
Finn walked up behind her and leaned down to murmur in her ear, but he didn’t exactly whisper because I could hear every word. “But it doesn’t need a break from my di—”
“Oh my Lord, would you leave me alone, please?” She pressed a hand to his chest and shoved while he laughed. He slipped out of her reach, only to come back and plant a loud, smacking kiss on the side of her head. The two of them together were so damn cute. It made me sick.
“Anyway,” she said to me. “I think you’re probably in the clear. I’d say you have a slim to none chance of running into a book whore who knows the acronym while you grab a quick bite to eat.”
“Honestly, I’d welcome the conversation at this point. It’s been forever since I’ve had quality human interaction. I’m starting to get attached to the narrators of the audiobooks I’ve been listening to.”
“It’s been three days, you drama queen. And I told you to call me when you got lonely!”
“You’re working. And I’m fine.”
“Well, I’m not.” She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “I miss you like hell.”
A knot filled my throat, and my eyes stung from unshed tears. I pressed my lips together and nodded. “Me, too,” I said thickly. Just because I knew it was time to leave and move on didn’t make it hurt any less.
Before I could say anything else, her daughter’s cries echoed over the line, and I knew our time was up.
“Sounds like duty calls,” I said. “I’ll let you know when I get to my mom’s, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay. Be safe and I love you.”
“Love you, too, Will.”
I ended the call, closed my eyes, and rested my head back against the seat. I had no idea if my moving back to Maine was the right choice. Hell, I didn’t even know if I’d enjoy the career I’d been building up in my head since I was a kid.
I just knew it was time for a change.
Even though the sun was on its last legs, it was still exceptionally darker inside One Night Stan’s.
Without allowing my eyes time to adjust to the dimly lit space, I strode blindly toward the bar and dropped my bag next to an empty stool.
After partaking in a little small talk with the bartender and giving him my order, I glanced to my right to find the only other person at the bar sitting directly next to me.
I barely had time to register his dark, tousled hair that curled over his ears and the piercing blue eyes that nearly took my breath away before his gaze dropped to my shirt. His eyes widened a fraction…and then he promptly choked on his drink.
Fuck my life. Slim to none chance, my ass.
“Oh my God.” I slammed my forearm over the acronym, as if that would do anything now that he’d already read it except draw more attention to it. Then under my breath, I hissed, “You know what this means?”
Mr. Hottie was still coughing, his eyes dancing with something I couldn’t quite name, and I wasn’t sure if I should be mortified or proud. There were worse things than this hot-as-fuck man knowing I wouldn’t mind being tossed on a bed and stuffed full of—
“Hadn’t been counting on that, huh?” he managed through a rough throat.
And jeezus, even his voice was hot as hell, all rumbly and deep and in the exact tenor that made my nipples tighten.
I huffed out a laugh and shook my head. “You’re definitely not the person I pictured who’d know it. I thought for sure it’d be a fellow smut slut.”
His lips twitched, and the barest hint of a dimple peeked out beneath a close-cropped beard. Honestly, it was just getting obscene now. “What makes you think I’m not?”
I lifted my brows, propping my chin on my hand as I gave him a once-over.
I couldn’t tell how tall he was, but my bet was well over six feet.
Tattoos ran up both arms, interspersed randomly from mid-forearm and disappearing beneath the T-shirt sleeves stretched tight over well-defined biceps.
The ink was hot as hell, but it was his eyes that held me captive, blue and bottomless and so fucking intense.
“Are you telling me you’re a proud member of the smut slut club?” I asked.
He glanced to the back of the bar where the bartender chatted with a group of people before returning his gaze to mine. “I’m not sure I’d categorize myself as that, but I get around.”
“Do you?” I didn’t bother to hide the interest in my voice. Talking about books was quite possibly my favorite thing. Talking about smutty books with this book boyfriend come to life? Fuck me running, my shitty night had taken a sudden turn for the better.