Page 95 of You're So Vine
He laughs. “Happy to take my chances.”
“Wow, them’s fighting words,” I say. “Maybe we’re not so different after all?”
“We are,” he says, “but that’s good. If you were too much like me, we’d never have met. We’d both be hiding behind a bush somewhere.”
I’m all warmed through now. I wriggle free of the blanket and do a one-eighty turn so I can straddle his lap and face him.
“I know one thing we’re perfectly in sync with,” I say.
The hurricane lamp light is low, but I can see his eyes darken. He slides his hand up under my T-shirt and I shiver again, this time with pleasure. I kiss him, my tongue tasting his, little bursts of flame with every touch. His thumb brushes my nipple, and the flame engulfs me. I can feel his erection pushing at his jeans, and it would be the work of a moment to unbutton his fly and guide him inside me. But this armchair … it’s not built for two.
“If I can’t walk in the morning, I want it to be for good reasons and not because I got a cramp,” I tell him. “So, snuff out that lamp, pardner, and let’s hurry on upstairs.”
ChapterThirty-Two
CAM
After sex like that, I should be sleeping like a satisfied log. Ava fell immediately into dreamland, and I can feel her breathing steadily beside me, her arm crooked on my chest, palm resting on the spot directly above my heart.
I should be sleeping but my brain won’t shut up and let me. Now that I’m committed to making it work with Ava, I can’t stop thinking about how. What needs to happen, and when? My thoughts start small, with the idea of extending my house so we’ll have more living space. Pretty soon, I’ve designed us a three-bedroom mansion with en-suite bathrooms, a country-style kitchen and open plan living/dining space, and a double garage for both our vehicles. Then I move outside, where I build stables and an exercise yard for Ava’s horses, a swimming pool for the summer, and a vegetable garden complete with potato patch.
Of course, then I realize I’ve only been thinking about the two of us. What if Ava and I have kids? We haven’t talked about having a family, and to be honest, I’d never even remotely considered I could be a father. But now Ava and I are together, I’m letting the idea in, turning it over, testing it … and finding that I like it very much. I want to be a dad. I want kids and dogs and chickens, maybe bees. Could buy some goats from Blair, start the Flora Valley arm of her business…
Rein it in, Hollander, before you’re certified as insane.Your income is enough to keep you in decent boots and real coffee. It’s not enough to afford even a fraction of the above. And a mortgage is out of the question. You don’t have a decent credit rating because you’ve never taken out a loan and never had a credit card. Your barrel customers cover the payments to your suppliers. Even though you’ve never missed a rent payment, you are what’s known as subprime. Can’t even get a stupid loyalty card from Old Navy.
Billy would have vouched for me to the bank. But I have too much pride to ask Shelby and Nate, my current employers. I’d say the same applies to Ava when it comes to her family. Not that her dad seems like the kind of guy who showers his kids with cash. A bootstraps man is my impression of Mitchell Durant. Expects his children to make their own way in life. Ava had a good job in Kentucky but if she does have chronic fatigue, she’ll only ever be able to work at a job that’s undemanding and with limited hours. Neither of us will be raking in the big bucks.
So where does this leave me and Ava? I can’t see the two of us living in my tiny house long-term. Guess we’ll have to look for a bigger place. If we can find one we can afford…
I’ve been out here, alone in the woods, for almost ten years. Surrounded by the smells of wood, fire and smoke, and the hot metal tang of machinery. Outdoors, the scent of pine and leaf mold. Breeze bringing the occasional musk of fox and the last few grapes fermenting on the vine. Birds nesting in the branches. Black-tailed deer cropping between the trees.
It’s home, is what I’m saying.Myhome, when for a long while, I thought I’d never have one again. It’s hard to picture being happy living anywhere else.
Go to sleep, Hollander. This line of thinking is unproductive.You’re in love, you and Ava are a team, so make the most of it. Don’t fall at the first set of obstacles. Take on the world together. You know that’d be Ava’s attitude, so even though you are her opposite, why not try being more Ava? Channel her fierceness and drive. See where that takes you.
As if she senses she’s on my mind, Ava stirs and mutters something that sounds like, “But the parrotlikesblack.” For a crazy moment, I imagine her in a black wedding dress. It would be just like Ava to…
Wedding. Why didn’t that thought enter my head earlier? Got crowded out by the dogs and bees and goats, I guess. And the kids. Not the goat kind. I leaped ahead to a settled life before I considered what might come well before that.
I test this new idea, too. And I’m good with it. As long as we don’t invite too many people. I’m not good with crowds.
Go.To.Sleep.
Careful not to disturb Ava, I stretch out my arm, feel around for my phone. Roll my head so I can check the time. Five-fifteen. Only an hour or so until the alarm goes off. Guess that’s better than no sleep at all.
Ava stirs again and slides her hand down to rest on my hip bone. Close enough to make part of me stir. I have the dumb idea to wake her. At least, I’d know it was dumb if all my intelligence didn’t now reside in my erection. That’s giving the idea a double thumbs-up.
But just as I move to gently shake her shoulder, the sound of my phone pealing makes me leap like a startled cat. Ava bounces off me as she’s jolted awake, and she scrambles to sit up just as I fumble for my phone.
“What, what?” she says, breathlessly, at the same time as I answer.
“Hello?”
“It’s Jackson,” is the distracted-sounding reply. “Sorry to call this late. Or early—”
“Jackson, what…? Are you okay?”
Ava is fully alert now, kneeling next to me, seated on her heels.
