Page 131 of Memories By the Shore
“Oh, and Arizona?” he whispers, caressing the thin cotton barrier between us.
I swallow hard, bucking into him. “Yes?”
“Take off your clothes,” he growls, diving a crooked finger into the wet heat between my legs.
“It would be my pleasure, Mr. Collins.” I smile.
I’ll never be alone again.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Jasper
“Don’t tell me how to decorate the tree,” Avery plays, adding another ornament too close to a group of others.
Wrapping my arms around her, I reach over and remove the shiny red ball from her hands. “How about you go make us some drinks, and I’ll finish the tree.”
“Mr. Collins.” She clicks her tongue. “I never would have suspected you to be one ofthosepeople.”
I furrow my brow, leaning in to kiss the soft tip of her nose. “Who arethosepeople?”
She giggles, tucking herself under the crook of my arm. “People who take tree decorating very seriously. You know, the ones who get bothered if the ornaments are clustered together when other parts of the tree are empty?”
“You mean basic symmetry?”
Avery rolls her eyes, ducking her head underneath my extended arm. “It’s supposed to be fun. There shouldn’t be order to it.”
“You feel very passionately about it, don’t you?” I smile.
She shrugs. “Growing up, we always had professionals come in to decorate our Christmas trees. I was never able to do it.”
Now I feel shitty. “Well, when you put it that way. Go crazy.”
She laughs, spinning on the balls of her feet. “I love telling you stories of my childhood that make you feel guilty.”
“You’re good at that, aren’t you?”
“It was normal life for me,” she plays.
Avery slowly starts to accept herself and her childhood for what it was. I love that we can now tease each other about it. It brings light to a situation that wasn’t ideal for her. We’re now replacing all she was missing. I will continue doing it for the rest of my life.
“Not anymore,” I reply.
Avery smiles warmly. “I’ll go make us a drink.”
“Perfect.”
I continue evenly placing the red and white ornaments on the tree that sits in the main living room of my beach house. Now that Avery has officially moved back to Coconut Grove, we’re searching for a larger home. Her good friend, Piper, convinced her to keep her high-rise apartment like she did, so we’ll have a place when we visit Arizona.
We’ve been back once a month since she moved here. She can’t stay away from those girls.
“Hey, babes!” I hear Avery’s excited voice from the kitchen.
They’re probably Facetiming again. I'm happy Avery found her circle. I’ve always had the support of Easton, Bodhi, and Riley—my brothers whom I grew up with. But Avery didn’t have that as a child and now, to experience this type of friendshipas an adult, it’s irreplaceable.
Avery pops back into the room a couple of minutes later with two old-fashioneds in her hands.
