Page 68 of That Kind of Guy

“Emmett, help me lift this table, would you?” Scott asked, and together we carried folding tables into the supplies room. When we were finished, I glanced around the gym for Avery.

“You two can get out of here.” Miri appeared at my side. Scott walked by with a punch bowl. “Scott, honey, that goes in the car. Thank you.” She turned back to me. “Thank you so much for helping out.”

“Miri, the pleasure was all ours.”

“It sure was,” Avery said at my side. Even in the ugly gym lighting, she was pretty. Her skin glowed from the dancing. She looked up at me, smiling softly. “Hi.”

“Hi.” My arm came up around her shoulders easily. “Ready to go?”

She nodded.

I shot Miri a grateful smile. “Bye, Miri.”

“Bye, Miri,” Avery echoed. Her arm went around my waist as we strolled out the gym doors. “Was prom everything you wanted?”

I thought back to the teenaged version of myself, playing video games alone on prom night while my friends got all dressed up, danced, and rode in the limo. What would have happened if Nat hadn’t broken up with me? I probably would have had a decent time, but not like this. Nat and I didn’t click the way Avery and I did. Nat and I were never silly and carefree the way Avery and I were. Besides, Will would have been off to the sidelines, watching the girl he liked dance with another guy. He had once confessed that he felt awful for going to prom with Nat the next day, knowing she had broken up with me, but I was quick to assure him that things had worked out exactly as they should have.

They did, I realized as I looked down at the woman tucked under my arm.

“Everything and more.”

Avery energized me. I had always been happy being alone. I prided myself in being unattached, but my body wanted to be connected to hers at all times. I had discovered the other side of things. This feeling in my chest was foreign to me, and I didn’t have a clue what to do with it.

I knew two conflicting truths: I wanted Avery, and I wasn’t the kind of guy who settled down.

I swallowed, studying her eyes, such a deep dark blue—like the ocean when I was out on my morning run.

She could crush me, I realized. She could snap me in half with a flick of her little finger. My chest tightened. How had I found myself in this situation? I wasn’t that kind of guy to fall like this, and yet, here I was.

I told her the truth. “This time, I went to prom with the right girl.”

16

Avery

We were just aboutto exit the school when a thought struck me.

“Your class photo. I want to see it.”

He scoffed. “No way. I’m way better looking now.”

This time, I went to prom with the right girl, he had said to me moments before. I kept replaying it in my head, ignoring the curls of delight in my stomach.

I gave him a sidelong look, standing there in his suit, dashing and handsome. It had to be custom-made, the way it fit his broad shoulders perfectly. When I walked into my living room this evening and saw him sitting there, looking like the lead of one of those old movies I loved, I could barely restrain myself from hopping into his lap and rubbing myself against him like a cat.

“Good god,” I snorted. “Your cockiness knows no bounds. I want to see your photo, even if you look like a dork. I want to know you.”

I want to know you?Did I really just say that? Jeez, that was a bit intimate.

He watched me with a funny look, and I scrambled.

“Tell you what. If we ever go to Vancouver, I’ll show you my picture at my high school. I wore glitter eyeliner so you’re in for a treat.”

The side of his mouth tugged up but he still watched me with a peculiar expression. “Why would we be in Vancouver?”

Fantastic, so I had dug myself further into the hole.Dig up, Avery. I made it sound like we would be taking a trip there together. Like we would continue this whatever-we-were-doing longer than the arrangement. My heart twisted.

“I mean, ifyouare ever in Vancouver.”

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