I absolutely loved the sound of that.
CHAPTER 30
Brandon
“Moment of truth.”The words were soft as I said them to myself, my hand slightly jerky while lining up the key to the ignition.
It slid in like butter, the grooves of the key clicking pleasantly when it pressed flushed to the lock cylinder.
I wasn’t sure why I was nervous to be doing this. It wasn’t like I was some wannabe mechanic and this was my first fixer upper. I had plenty of cars under my belt at this point, from beaters to the occasional luxury model that rolled through town with an out-of-state license plate.
What made Avery’s classic so damn nerve wracking?
Maybe because you don’t want to disappoint him.
The thought had me rolling my eyes. Even if there was a sliver of truth to it. If it turned out his cars were better off laying in a scrap yard, I doubted he’d care. It would be one less thing on his plate he’d need to juggle in terms of finding and selling the vehicle off to a collector. Not to mention the pain it was to get all of the stickers and paperwork up to date.
Though at the same time, failing would guilt me immensely. Especially, when he’d spent the last four months paying my damn shop’s bills.
I had to remind myself over and over again that to a billionaire, a couple of thousand dollars worth of expenses a month was a drop in the bucket. If that. Actually, it was probably a misting.
Getting used to being spoiled by Avery was kind of a funny thing. Back when we were kids, I was adamant about not taking a dime from him, regardless of how many times he begged me to let him.
As clever as he was, after a while he’d come to figure out other ways to spoil me that I wasn’t so easily able to refuse. Bus fare to our favorite hangout spots, bringing me lunch every day at school, being the sole filler of gas for his car that webothdrove.
Added up, they were all a culmination of Avery’s care for me. Shown through his generous heart and desire to make me happy.
Now that we were older and I had my own income, I’d made it harder for him to revert back to those old ways. Yet even still, his cleverness never ceased to amaze me.
Case in point, my shop’s bills. So far he’d behaved himself and wasn’t going too overboard with taking me out after work. Though, I had a feeling if left to his own devices, I’d soon be eating those words.
It felt strange to be taking advantage of him like that, even if I wasn’treallydoing so. Seeing as he was my?—
My... boyfriend?
Leaning back from the steering wheel while letting the key go, I sunk back into the seat to cover my rapidly heating face with my hands.
Boyfriend.
That word had been echoing in my head for the past few weeks. Since we’d slept together the first time, actually.
With the fiasco involving Ana and her lawyer-turned-baby-daddy still ongoing, Avery had enough on his plate to deal with without me adding to the mix with a ‘what are we?’ conversation.
I’d reveled in the peace we’d had since they were thrown into the back of two police cars and booked for jail, regardless of their stay only lasting two days before they were both bailed out. Since then, no one had come around to try and slap another bogus subpoena on the McAllister’s front door, demanding some kind of fucked up version of eminent domain.
I hoped this reprieve lasted. At least for a little while. Avery deserved some fucking time to himself where he wasn’t dealing with crisis after crisis. How he still had a head of thick blond hair with no grays intermingled throughout the strands, I’d never know.
But it was rather impressive.
“Taking a break?”
I jumped, slamming my knees against the steering wheel hard enough to pull a pained grunt from my throat.
Goddamn it. Of all times to sneak up on me...
Avery let out a sympathetic hum before ducking and reaching through the window to settle his hand over my knee. He worked his thumb along the bone, helping to rub out the pain.
“You come for a test drive?” I joked.
