6. Sam
SAM
The day was brutal.
With summer on full blast, this was the kind of thing that was to be expected. AC systems glitching or breaking down. People needing their units serviced. It was the bread and butter of my business.
I should have been happy.
Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful. But mix that in with the long sleepless nights as I sat on my recliner facing Avery’s house for a mere late-night glimpse I was ninety-nine percent certain wasn’t going to happen, I was exhausted.
Yet yesterday after work, I did what any sane man trying to get the attention of his pretty little neighbor would do. I mowed my lawn. Shirtless. And Mrs. Whitfield’s lawn after Avery went for her run just to have a reason to stay out there a little longer to make sure she got back safe and sound.
The day before that, I washed my truck. If I kept this up, I would end up with a great tan by the time fall rolled around, but no girl.
And the girl was the most important thing.
Anytime Avery saw me, she’d wave and give me a polite smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes and was filled with the same kind of longing I felt deep in my chest. I had no idea where these intense feelings were coming from, but I wasn’t going to question it.
In my book, it was what made it real.
I scratched the back of my head as I drank water while facing out my window then rolled my neck.
“You should just go over there and bring her back. Demand she give you a chance,” I muttered to myself like a fucking lunatic. I shook my head with a half-grin. My phone chose that moment to ring, and by the ringtone, I knew exactly who it was. And she’d decided to freaking videochat.
“Hey, squirt,” I answered, putting a smile on my face I wasn’t too sure was all that convincing.
“What’s wrong with you?” my youngest sister immediately asked. I fought the urge to sigh. She was too fucking observant for her own good.
“Why would anything—“
“You have that look,” she said, her head tilted just as her scrutinizing dark brown almost black gaze narrowed. “Wait, I’ve never seen that look.” I opened my mouth to say there was no look when, of course, she cut me off.
“Oh my god! Is this about a girl? Are you seeing someone? Wait.” She lifted a finger. “What did you do?”
“Squirt—“
“No, seriously, what did you do?”
“Nothing.” And that was the problem. I’d been sitting around, hoping that her catching me with my shirt off would be enough to get her attention.
I had to do something more. Something bigger.
The problem was, short of kidnapping her from her place or sneaking in there, which would technically count as breaking and entering, I wasn’t sure of what to do.
“Who is she?” my baby sister asked.
“There is no…” I couldn’t lie. There was no way I could ever deny the existence of my princess.
“I met the girl I’m going to marry.” The words slipped out easily, genuinely.
And I wished I’d had the foresight to snap a picture of my sister’s face.
“You there?” I asked, thinking that maybe the video call had frozen on us.
“The girl you’re going to marry?!” she exclaimed and started to jump up and down. “Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Who is she? Does Mom know her? Do the girls know?!”
“Can you calm down? You’re going to hurt yourself in that little postage stamp you call an apartment.”
“It’s a studio.”
“It’s a shoe box.” I rolled my eyes. “When are you leaving LA and coming back home?” This earned me a well-deserved eye roll, but anything to have her calm the hell down worked for me.
“I like it here.”
“Mom would like it if you were here, though.”
“I bet.” She smiled. “So, I’m the first one you’ve told.” I sighed and looked at her.
“Don’t make me regret it.”
“Holy crap!” she whispered. “I told you I have psychic abilities.” This was something Stella swore up and down she had since she was a kid.
“I think you’re just a good listener and keenly observant.”
“Anyhow…” She shook her head and smiled because she knew I was never going to agree she had some kind of ESP powers. “So, who is she?” I was just about to tell my baby sister about my heart-stealing neighbor when the doorbell rang. “Oh! It’s her!” my sister said, making me chuckle.
“I doubt that,” I mumbled. I walked to the door and peeked through the peephole. “You’re creepy when you do that,” I said quietly, and she snickered.
“It is?! Damn! I should go to Vegas right now!”
“You should,” I muttered. “Talk to you later.”
“Okay, sounds good, and just…”
“What?”
“Listen. And apologize,” she coached.
“For what?”
“I don’t know, but you’re a boy, and if she’s upset at you, it’s probably because you did something.”
“Are your psychic abilities telling you this?”
“No, it’s a lifetime of living with you and knowing you,” she teased before saying, “Tata,” and ending the call.
I opened the door, and fuck me, I’d just seen Avery through the peephole, but I swear every time I laid eyes on my girl, I was never prepared.
“Hi.”
“Hey.” I leaned on the doorjamb. “How’s it going?”
“Good. Good.” Avery bit down on her bottom lip. Her eyes rose, and fuck me, she could have asked me for anything in that moment as I finally stared down at those big beautiful blue eyes. “Busy?”
“No,” I shook my head, slipping my phone into my back pocket. “Wanna come in?” I offered, and she nodded slightly.
Suddenly, that thing in me, the animal just being around her brought to life, was taking the wheel of my every action.
I opened the door wider, but since I was part asshole, I didn’t move.
I loved how her body felt brushing up against mine.
That whisper of a touch coiled the thing up inside of me so damn tightly I knew it was ready to pounce.
I shut the door behind me but didn’t move.
I watched as she walked into the middle of the living room, her eyes taking in my home again before meeting my stare.
“Hi,” she whispered and immediately winced. “I said that already, didn’t I?”
“I don’t mind.” And it was the god's honest truth. Hell, I wanted to say hi to her a million times a day, every day for the rest of my life.
“I think…” She crossed her arms over her chest and then uncrossed them. It was clear she was nervous. “I think I should explain.”
“About?”
“Why I was so quick to brush off… whatever this thing between us could possibly be.”
“This thing between us?” I asked but didn’t give away the fact this thing between us, like she put it, was fucking inevitable.
“I mean...” Her face fell. “I’m probably too late now, huh?”
I couldn’t stay away. I rushed to her side, cupping her face with both my hands.
“Too late for what, baby girl?” She blushed and slowly exhaled.
“To see where maybe this could go?”
“Never too late for that, princess,” I said like a goddamn vow.
“Really?” I swallowed down the way that hope reflecting in her stare made me feel.
“Yeah, really,” I rasped, pressing my forehead against hers. For a moment, time stood still. Breathing was easier just being around her, and a sense of calm streamed through my veins. Until she pulled away.
“I still want to explain.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I owe it to you.”
“You don’t.”
“I know,” she said softly, “but I want to.”
“Okay.” I nodded and picked her up like she already belonged to me. Like I had the right to carry her around like my own little doll. Not that she complained. Fucking hell, if anything, her legs immediately wrapped around my waist and she just held on, trusting me to take care of her.
I took us to the couch and sat down, making her straddle my lap with her thighs tossed over mine. It was probably too much too fast, but I was a greedy bastard, and it had been forty-eight hours since I’d been in her presence.
“Hey, gorgeous.” I smiled. Unable to keep my hands to myself, I ran my fingers through her blonde tresses, amazed by the silky golden strands.
“Gorgeous. Princess. Baby girl. All these nicknames,” she noted, “a girl could get used to this.”
“Good. You should.”
“Hmm.” Her eyes sparkled. “But I don’t have one for you.”
“I’m sure my good girl can think of something,” I rasped, leaning forward to nuzzle my nose against hers. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Oh, umm…” She blinked adorably, almost like she was lost in the moment. She shook her head, and I could feel the anxiety roll into her like a Mack truck.
“What is it, baby? Talk to me.”
“I like you,” she blurted, and somehow, I managed to hold back a smile.
“I like you, too, Avery. A lot.” More than was reasonable since we’d just met, but she wasn’t ready to hear that. Just yet.
“When… when I sent you away and I said it was me?”
“Yeah?”
“Before we take this any farther…” Her eyes dipped to my mouth, and I knew she wanted a kiss, but she wanted to tell me something first. Something she thought might change the way I saw her.
She didn’t know that wasn’t possible.
“You can tell me anything you want, Avery. It won’t change the fact that I want to be here with you. I’m not going anywhere, baby girl.”
“I never had a family,” she blurted. I blinked, letting her words settle in.
“Baby—“
“Not really. Not like regular people do. I mean, my mom was… Have you ever heard of the term dumpster fire?” I nodded, and she gave me a sad half-smile. “I’m pretty sure my mom was the inspiration for it.”
“Princess—"
“Just let me, please…” My arms wrapped around her to help remind her she wasn’t fucking alone. “I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen. Moving around, not really staying anywhere for too long because I felt like I couldn’t really… connect with people.”
Almost half her life floating around. Alone. The thought of her not having anyone felt like an arrow to the chest.