Page 32 of Reaching Avery
I left out that it was hard for me to trust people, which was one reason I’d never had real friends. I cut people out of my life before they could get close enough to hurt me. However, I’d made some progress in the past week with Ben. He and I got along great.
“You fit in with me,” he softly said.
And I wasn’t sure if there was a double meaning in that statement.
We passed the railroad tracks, and I gazed out the window, seeing the blur of trees and occasional light from a house in the woods. It was my favorite area, and I’d snuck out and walked there several times since moving to Port Haven.
Then the trees lessened and more houses came into view, as did rundown buildings, and a small grocery store that had graffiti marking one side and a boarded up window at the front. Liquor stores were scattered throughout, as well as the strip joint my mom worked at. The smell wasn’t the best either because there was a chicken plant not too far from my neighborhood that always stunk up the whole area.
The picturesque and nautical feel of Port Haven was lost out there in the land of the undesirables, seeming like a completely different town. We didn’t have the seaside views or the charming storefronts near the harbor.
“Thanks again for dinner,” I said once he pulled up to the curb by my house. As I reached for the door handle, he gently grabbed my wrist to stop me.
“You’re not a charity case for me, Avery,” he said with sincerity in his tone. When I met his eyes, I saw it reflected there too. “I want us to be friends. Not just guys that occasionally say hi in the hall, but real friends who do things together.”
“Why?”
It made no sense for him to want me. I had nothing to offer him.
“Honestly? I have no damn idea,” he said before releasing my wrist and sitting back in his seat. “I just like the way I feel around you.”
“You have a boyfriend,” I pointed out, and my voice was snappier than I intended.
Maverick’s eyes widened a little, and his gaze turned deeper, as if looking past all the eyeliner and barriers I put around myself, and seeing the self-conscious and untrusting guy beneath it all.
My skin tingled at the intensity of his eyes, and I had the urge to look away, but I held his stare.
“Does that bother you?” he whispered.
I knew what he was really asking.
Heat spread to the tips of my ears and the tingling moved to my scalp and to the back of my neck. Just one word could possibly change the course of what happened next with him, and I didn’t know if I was prepared for it.
“Goodnight, Maverick,” I said, finding the door handle and sliding out of the car, taking my food with me. “See you tomorrow.”
