“I’m not ready.”
It takes a moment, but he brings my face back to his. “What did he do to you?”
I shake my head as a tear gathers in my eyes. It spills over, and he wipes it away.
“If I could go back in time, if I could turn back the time, I’d find your brother sooner so that I could find you. Then I’d have you, and you’d never have to go through the heartache your ex put you through. You wouldn’t be in pieces with me trying to put you back together. It’s a task I’m willing to take on, but I could have stopped it from ever happening to you.Thatis how much you mean to me, Avery.”
“Yeah?” I ask with a sniffle.
He nods. “Your brother’sforbid me notand everything.”
I chuckle under my breath, and he smiles a little. “There’s my girl,” he adds.
“Your girl?”
He nods again, the smile never leaving his face. “If I have anything to say about it, you’re off the market.”
I don’t tell him how the sound of that makes me want to kiss him and kiss him hard. I don’t tell him that no one has talked to me the way he is. In this moment, I feel cherished, and I justwant to feel that feeling a little longer before the movie is over and our little bubble is burst, and we go back to reality where I can’t let him in—because I know it’ll happen. As soon as the lights come back on, the walls will resurrect.
So instead, I rest my head against his shoulder, and he plants his lips on top of my hair, periodically kissing there throughout the rest of the movie.
And I can’t help but think…I like the way he helps me escape. How it feels to be here, right now, pretending. How it feels to pretend that Neil never existed and that this is exactly where I was always meant to be.
CHAPTER 16
REID RATHE
I can’t payattention to the movie. She’s curled against me, chuckling at the funny moments and snuggling in deeper during the cute ones. I continue to hold on to her hand because I know that I’m lucky to do such a simple act. But slowly—and I know this with certainty—she’s getting used to me. She’s thinking about letting me in. She’s thinking aboutus.
A part of me wonders how much her ex did to her. I get the feeling it’s worse than what Dustin has portrayed. What girl wouldn’t give in by now? He had to have damaged her, maybe beyond repair. Maybe a piece of her that he took is something I’ll never have. It kills me to know that, and if I could, I really would turn back time because we deserve to share all of our pieces. Together.
I just have to reassure her that I’ll take any pieces she has left.
The movie comes to an end, and the lights come back on. I clench my jaw when she lets go of my hand, but I know we can’t be caught holding them. She stretches and gathers herself to her feet. I follow and watch as she pulls at her fingers. “Thanks for letting me use you as a pillow.”
“It was more than that, and you know it.”
She ignores me and tries to fix her hair. “Is it sticking up in all the wrong places?”
I pinch a strand and tuck it behind her ear. “You look perfect, Avery.”
I can feel her closing off again, and I start to panic. I can’t show my panic though because it’ll just make her close off even more, so instead, I let her walk past me and down the stairs to meet Dustin and Ivy.
We throw away our trash in the can inside the theater, and Ivy turns to us, creating a little circle just inside the dim hallway. “I really have to pee. Can I meet you guys in the lobby?”
Avery nods at the same time Dustin says, “I’ll walk you there.”
“I can walk myself,” she harrumphs.
“Not at this time of night, you’re not.”
“He’s right, Ivy. You should let him go with,” Avery chimes in. Hell, if it was Avery needing to go to the bathroom, I’d follow her too. We live in a big city. Anything can happen, and knowing that it could riddles me with fear. I can only imagine Dustin has the same fear when it comes to protecting his girl.
She wrinkles her nose at him and says, “Fine.”
They push through the door and disappear, leaving me with Avery. She blows out a breath and turns to me, opening her mouth to say something, and that’s when I advance on her. I grab her around the waist and yank her to me. My lips crash down on hers, and at first, she stiffens, but it takes less than a second for her to melt against my chest and kiss me back.
The world fades away, and I kiss her with everything I have. Everything I’ve been trying to tell her put into action. I can’t stand that she’s pulling away, and knowing that, when we step out that door, we go back to being a secret and me trying to convince her that I might be worth it anyway. Thatwewould be worth it.
