“Maybe,” I said. “I’ve got six weeks, then my agent will be hunting me down. If I don’t have an answer for her, she’ll fly out here and drag me back to Minnesota. And I don’t want that. She scares me.”
Austin snorted. “She can’t be that bad.”
“She is. Robin terrifies me. That’s why she makes so much money.”
Not to mention, at the end of the day, she did hold my best interests at heart. If I decided to take a break from hockey, she’d figure out how to get me into other doors.
“We have a free yoga class on Sunday mornings at the park,” Austin said. “Avery, Evie, and June usually go. Mateo and I sometimes join if they bully us into it.”
“I don’t know about doing yoga in this heat.”
He laughed. “Hey, it’s under the pavilion. It’s not too hot in the morning. I mean, I always end up drenched. Even holding that tree balancing pose or whatever is fucking hard.”
“It’s definitely too hot for that. But, I’ll think about joining. I have to do something active while I’m here or else I’ll turn into stone.”
“In theory, I should also try to do more. What is it about turning thirty and your entire body starts hating you?”
“It’s bullshit.”
“Agreed.” Austin shook his head as he dug into his pancakes. I smiled to myself, feeling an easiness wash over me that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
So long as I stopped thinking dirty thoughts about Avery and Mateo, maybe being back in Whynot would be good for me.
CHAPTER TEN
Avery
I brushed the pastel pink acrylic paint over my cotton canvas, working in broad strokes as I covered the entire piece. Rock music blasted through my studio and I hummed along, completely zoned out as I focused on my art.
This was my favorite place to be in the world. In my studio, listening to music, and painting a piece I’d been planning for a couple weeks.
This one was going to be a massive bright landscape with cacti in bloom and a couple at the center, I just wasn’t sure who the couple would be yet. It’d be awhile until I got to them though.
For now, I had the shapes blocked out in pencil beneath the glaze layers and worked the pink around them. Usually, I was totally caught up in painting while I worked, but today my mind wandered to a place it shouldn’t.
Mateo and Levi.
Especially Mateo, at least at the moment.
Since we spoke yesterday, his words had yet to leave me. We hadn’t texted each other since then, which made things feel worse. I chatted with him almost as much as I did June and Evie. Not texting him to tell him about my burned dinner last night orhow I’d found a scorpion in my shoe had been excruciating, but I wanted to hear fromhim.
It’d been a long time since I’d had sex. Even longer since I dated someone. Since moving back to Whynot, my love life had been nonexistent. Getting over Kevin and healing from that heartbreak had been important. But then, pining over Mateo while telling myself he was just a friend had become my default state of existence.
So, what the hell was I supposed to do now?
Kiss him?Take him on a date?Roll around in bed with him? Tell him I want him to tie me up and put me on my knees with a ball gag?
This wasn’t aget him out of my systemsort of attraction, though. I knew if we started something, it would either be the greatest thing in the world, or we’d fuck up and I’d have to live with that mistake for the rest of my life.
Taking the chance felt too risky. Not to mention, my brothers would lose their minds. Hell, everyone would. We’d be picked apart by the whole town of Whynot. I didn’t like the idea of being scrutinized in that way.
The fact that Kevin had been Austin and Dallas’ friend certainly didn’t help anything. If Mateo and I started dating, they would have issues with us. It wasn’t fair to Mateo to put him in that position.
You’re getting ahead of yourself.
I wrinkled my nose as I dipped the brush in paint and spread more on the canvas, drawing in soothing breaths and releasing them as if I were meditating.
The plan had been to forget about the world and make art for the next few hours.
