Page 60 of Reaching Avery
“They’re paranoid,” Ben answered as his cheeks reddened. “My mom is a mortician, and she sees alotof crazy crap. So she just likes me to—”
“Wait. Hold up.” Mav studied him with a serious expression. “Your mom is a mortician? Like she works with dead people?”
I gaped at Ben too. I mean, I knew someone had to do that job, but just the thought of it gave me goosebumps. He’d never told me what his mom did for a living.
“Guys, it’s not that big of a deal. Damn.” Ben cracked a smile as he looked between us. “You two look like you’ve just seen a ghost. I have before, by the way. I went to work with Mom before when I was younger, and one time, I was playing in the hall at the funeral home when I saw this little girl walk past me.” His brown eyes widened. “She had long, blonde hair and looked a few years older than me.”
I listened to his story, feeling the goosebumps spread farther.
“Well, I said hi to her,” he continued. “And she just looked at me with this blank expression before walking downstairs where the bodies were kept. I chased after her, but when I got down there, she was gone. Mom was at her work table, and I asked if she saw the little, blonde girl that just walked in there. The one with the red dress. And Mom’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.” Ben leaned in closer to us. “Turns out, a little girl had just been brought in earlier that day. Car accident. And Mom had her body on the table.”
I shuddered, thoroughly creeped the hell out, but I busted out laughing when I saw Maverick’s face. His expression was one of pure terror.
“You’re shitting me,” Mav said. “Man, I’m gonna have nightmares tonight.”
Ben looked at me and winked. The guy was an evil genius. And creative. He should be a novelist one day. “I for real need to head home, though.” He looked at me. “You ready?”
Before I answered, Maverick spoke.
“I can take him home,” he said to Ben before moving his gaze to me. “That is, if you’re not ready to go yet.”
I was definitelynotready to go.
***
After Ben left, Maverick and I played one more game of pool—he won—and then we let another group of people have our table. It was almost ten o’clock, and instead of getting slower, business had only picked up as a bunch of college students trickled in. Maverick paid for all the drinks and multiple baskets of fries before turning to me.
“You wanna take a walk?”
“Sure,” I said.
We exited the pool hall, and I breathed in the outside air. After having been in the stuffy, over-crowded building for a few hours, the fresh air was much appreciated. The whole place was growing on me.
Port Haven was a special kind of haven, somewhere I was beginning to think I could settle into and feel safe for the first time in my life.
The night was cool, and I shivered before crossing my arms. I’d forgotten to grab a jacket before Ben picked me up earlier.
Maverick stopped walking, and I did too. He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. A protest was on my lips, but he shook his head.
“Don’t argue.” He grabbed his shirt and pulled it down from where he had it bunched at three-quarter sleeve. “See? I’m good.”
“Thanks.” I slipped my arms through the jacket and tried to ignore how his amazing scent drifted upward and surrounded me. The jacket engulfed me too, which I liked for some reason. “I didn’t know it’d get so chilly tonight or I would’ve brought mine.”
“It’s cool.”
“Where are we going?” I asked as we walked down the sidewalk, away from the pool hall and toward… nothing.
Everything was behind us and we were going into the unknown.
“You’ll see,” he answered, still with that smile on his too-perfect face.
And hewasperfect. His teeth were probably a dentist’s dream, and his sharp jawline, perfectly positioned brow, and his straight nose, made him look like a model instead of a high school student.
But what truly called to me wasn’t his appearance, but the guy beneath it. The one who willingly gave up his jacket without hesitation, one who had the most sincere smile I’d ever seen, and one with highly expressive eyes that always told the truth, even when he was silent.
Deciding to trust him, I walked with him to wherever it was he was taking me.
Even if it was to my death.
