She’s quiet for a minute, but I think it’s a good kind of quiet. At least it feels like it. “I’ll text you my address,” she says. “I’m going to hang up now so I can get ready.”
I smile. “See you soon.”
When I pull up to her address, there’s only one car in the driveway, and it’s the one she told me about last night over text. The car she shared with her mom that’s broken down. I breathe a little sigh of relief. That means maybe her parents aren’t here? I’m already doing a lot of firsts today—opening myself up to a relationship is a pretty big deal. I’m not sure if I can handle meeting a girl’s parents right now. What would I say? What would they think of me?
I’ve never been so nervous as I pull into her driveway and walk up to the door. On the track I am confident and in the zone. During TV interviews, I’m fine and laid back because the cameras aren’t that big of a deal. But now, standing here on the porch of a girl’s house, I am so terrified I feel like I could puke.
I knock on the door.
Avery opens it. She’s wearing a blue jacket and jeans, and her hair falls loosely around her shoulders. Her suitcase is next to her. She smiles up at me and all my fears slip away.
“I can’t believe you did this,” she says.
“I can’t believe it either,” I say.
Even now, as I’m looking at her beautiful face once again, there’s all this tension in the air. All this worry and insecurity and nervous,nervousenergy. In this moment it feels like there’s only one thing I could do to make it better.
I lean down and kiss her.
It’s soft and quick, just a slight kiss on the lips. But it makes everything better.
When I pull away, Avery smiles up at me. “So is this how it is now?”
I nod. “If you want it to be.”
She shrugs one shoulder. “I only want it if you want it.”
“Looks like one of us has to show our cards,” I say, giving her a flirty grin. She peers up at me, a smile tugging at her lips. I know all of our history is stacked between us, making it difficult to open up and trust each other. We’ve been pushing ourselves apart for so long now. How do we come back together?
Her eyes flit downward. “You show your cards first.”
I slide my hand around her waist and pull her close. When her eyes meet mine, I bend and kiss her forehead. “This is how I want it to be,” I whisper against her forehead. “You and me.”
“What about all the reasons we shouldn’t be together?” she says.
I peer into her eyes so she knows I’m telling the truth. “I don’t give a damn about those reasons. I want what I want, and that’s you.”
She wraps her arms around me, and I hadn’t realized just how good a woman’s touch can feel until now. “Okay then, you have a deal,” she says with a cute smirk. “This is how I want it to be, too.”
Chapter 24
I am so glad my parents decided to go shopping at the exact time Clay came over. I told them a friend was coming to pick me up for the party and they didn’t question exactly who this friend was, just that I would be home in time for Christmas. Thank God for little blessings. I’m not ready to tell them about Clay just yet. My parents don’t freak out when I date someone, but they’ll want to meet him and all of that. I’m just not ready for that kind of awkwardness. I need to figure out how Clay and I will work before I introduce anything else into the relationship.
There’s a shiny car in the driveway, red, which is my favorite color for a car. Clay pops the trunk and I put my suitcase in next to his. I peer up at him. “Exactly how old are you?”
He smirks. “Why do you wanna know?”
“I’m only eighteen,” I say. “I thought you were like…. twenty-one.”
What I don’t say is that I know he’s twenty-one. It’s all over his biography on the Team Loco website. “Don’t you have to be twenty-five to rent a car?”
He rolls his eyes as he starts the engine. “Yes, isn’t that the stupidest thing ever?”
I give him a look. “So where’d the car come from?”
“I bought it,” he says, flashing me a grin as he backs out of my driveway. “I figured it could be my Dallas car.”
“You don’t live in Dallas,” I say.
