Reaching to the back, I grabbed the bag I packed. As I took the contents out, I noticed she pulled up her jeans and already had her bra on.
“You don’t have to put your shirt on, ya know?” I said, then chuckled. “I like how you look in that lacy thing in the moonlight.”
She sat back with a shy smile, complying with my wish.
“As long as you keep your shirt off, too,” she said.
I laughed and went back to my bag.
“It doesn’t look like we’ll need the blanket right now,” I joked, considering we were both still covered in sweat. “But I brought some food and drinks.”
On the bench between us, I put a spread together of cheese, grapes, salami, crackers, fig jam, and a bottle of sparkling cider. Complete with plastic flutes.
Ava’s eyes went wide, and her hand covered her mouth as she looked at the spread in front of her.
“Logan, when did you put this all together?”
The other day I’d gone shopping for all of this, hoping there’d be a time we could do a “picnic” at the house. But there never seemed to be an opportunity. Once I was done with the dishes, I packed the bag, knowing tonight it would come in handy.
“A man has to be prepared.”
“Well, this is amazing, thank you.”
We dove into the food, feeding each other grapes and cheese. She poured the juice into the flutes, and we clinked the plasticbefore taking a sip. It was nice, but it would’ve been nicer to not have to do it in my truck.
“I’m not going to pressure you, Ava. We’ll do what we need to for now to make this work.” I reached across the plate of food to kiss her on the nose. “And I understand about tonight, I do. But I’m not going to stop being friends with the other girls, either.”
She nodded.
“I know, I want you to be friends with them, I do. It was a gut reaction I had, and not a good one. But it was hard to see it.”
We continued eating, listening to music and laughing together.
She was more relaxed than she’d been in days. Leaning against her door, she appeared thoughtful as she held a grape to her lips, her eyes lingering on mine.
“As sexy as this was, and don’t get me wrong, Logan, this was sexy as fuck,” she said. “I don’t think we can maintain a relationship by fucking in your truck every time.”
“Well, no, we can’t, but we’ll figure it out.”
She leaned across this time, kissing me.
“We will.” She cleared her throat while staring at a ring she fiddled with on her thumb.
But she had me wondering, too, if we would make this work.
CHAPTER 22
Ava
My earbuds were hidden under my hat as I walked across campus. It was still so damn cold even though the calendar said spring was essentially here. The past couple days had been torturous in the house. Everyone was around since it was Saturday, so I left and went to the library just to get out. The music blasting in my ears soothed my nerves a bit, but the words of the song haunted me.
I tore my hat off and packed my earbuds in their case. Looking around campus, I was surrounded by fellow students rushing to their dorm, the cafeteria, or their cars. Couples huddled together as they walked to shield one another from the cold. Groups of friends talked and laughed as they met up on the paths.
I had a group of friends. A good group of friends, ones who loved me, and I loved them.
And I had a guy who seemed to like me. I mean, he put together a fucking truck picnic for me after mind-blowing sex.
God knew I more than liked him.
