Page 32 of Merry on the Mountain
“Hi, and yep, this is her. She’s never met a stranger she didn’t instantly love.”
Maya, never one to shy away from attention, presses her entire wiggling body against Ava’s legs for whole body contact and love. You’d never know she spent the entire day in the employee lounge getting loved on by at least a dozen people by how she acts with the attention from a new person.
“It’s mutual.” She pulls her chair out and sits down. “How was your day?”
“Good. It was mostly lessons today, which I don’t usually mind, but I had some exhausting students.”
She gives me a wry grin. “Preach girl. That’s this entire year for me, but I love those little assholes anyway.”
I chuckle. “Can’t relate. I only have mine for a few hours tops. Not even long enough to like them usually.”
“Except for Drew and Izzy.” She pulls out a bottle of hand sanitizer and squirts a dab on her hands.
“Only a cold-hearted monster could spend a minute with Izzy and not be utterly charmed. She’s the cutest kid I’ve ever met.”
“Doesn’t hurt that her dad is hot as hell, too.” She wiggles her brows.
“Is he? I never noticed,” I joke.
“Have you gone on your date yet?”
“No, but it’s okay. We hung out all weekend while Izzy was gone.”
“Hung out? I hope that’s literal.”
“Maybe,” I answer coyly.
The server comes by to take our drink order, giving me a little reprieve from going in depth about the weekend.
“Has Ben taken you out, yet?” I ask once we’re alone again.
“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m not holding my breath, either. He’s a grouchy ass on a good day.”
“Why’d you bid on him?”
“Because I’ve been in love with him since we were kids and he asked me to. I bullied the guys into participating, so when Ben came to me the week before the auction and asked me to bid for him, I couldn’t say no. He has this weird perception that he has to be perfect and above reproach for the entire town. It’s only gotten worse since his divorce.”
“Was it messy?”
She nods. “His ex is honestly horrible. I’m the last person to talk shit about another woman, but she’s just awful. Misses her custody weekends and last summer she didn’t take the kids at all, which she’s supposed to have them for.”
My heart aches for the kids. That has to be so hard for them, I can’t imagine my parents not wanting to spend every waking minute possible with me and my brother that they could. In fact, as a teenager, I desperately craved space from them.
“Does Aiden know you have feelings for Ben?”
“I’m sure he has his suspicions, but I haven’t ever confided in him about it. He was protective of me when we were younger, always threatening to beat up any guy I dated. In fact, the guy who took my virginity came to school with a black eye the Monday after it happened. Made it really hard to date anyone until he went off to college.”
“He doesn’t strike me as the type to get physical. What’s the age difference between you two?”
“We’re two years apart.”
“Wait.” I start putting things together. “How old were you when you lost your virginity?”
She winces. “Fifteen. The guy who I lost it to definitely deserved the black eye in hindsight. He was a senior, and I was a freshman. The whole situation kind of gave me a scarlet letter around school.” She shakes her head. “Enough of that shit though. Have you heard anything from the mechanic about your van, yet?”
“No, I checked in last week to see if anything had changed, but the part hadn’t even been shipped yet. At this point I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier to buy an entire new van.”
“Is that an option?”
