Page 140 of Camera Shy

Her eyes instantly fill with tears, and I’ll admit that it hurts to see her cry. I’m not a dick. I loved this woman for a long time, and I don’t like seeing her pain. I hate that I’m causing it. But for once I have to put myself first.

“Things with you and Avery are going to fizzle out, Finn,” Nora says with a new tone. “You freaked her out.”

She’s baiting me. “What did she say to you? Where is she?”

I went over to Dex’s house to make sure Nora wasn’t lying to me. Avery is indeed gone. Even the back door is locked, which is the smart move if she’s leaving Dex’s house unattended. But I also know Avery would never let a job go unfinished. Dex won’t be home for a few more weeks. I know she’s coming back.

“She said Las Vegas is overwhelming and she doesn’t like it here. She went to go get her best friend who just lost her job…Polly something—”

“Palmer,” I correct.

“Yeah, she’s just flying out to Albuquerque to meet her, then they are driving back to Vegas together. They’ll stay here for a few weeks, and then she’s going home, Finn. She wants to go home. She didn’t tell you any of this?”

I’m not sure what hurts more. To officially hear this news from Nora, or the fact that Avery told Nora all this in the first place.

“No, she didn’t.”

“I can wait until things settle down, after summer so you and Avery can have a clean break, and then we can pick up where we left off.” She looks around and chuckles. “I can fix this place back up because you’ve turned it into a man cave. Where are the curtains I picked out?”

“Nora, whether or not Avery and I work things out—which let me be clear, I really want to work it out with her—you and I are done. It’s not that we can’t fix what we broke. It’s that I don’t want to. I know what it feels like to connect with someone in a new way now, and I can’t go back.”

“No.” She sniffs as she wipes her nose with the back of her hand. “I’m not giving up on us.”

I tap the counter with my fingers as I watch her tears drip from her face to her lap. Tears that have controlled me for too long. “I’m about to go on a run, so I think we need to wrap this up.”

It’s a lame excuse, but it’s better than get the fuck out of my house.

I grab Avery’s phone from the kitchen counter and slide it into my pocket just as a safety precaution. I know I just hurt Nora’s feelings. Who knows what she’s capable of? It’d take one picture of her in my home while Avery is away to give the very wrong impression of what this is.

I don’t even bother grabbing my headphones. I don’t need them. I just need a brutal run in this heatstroke weather to melt away my frustration at the moment. I pause at the entry closet after retrieving my running shoes.

“Nora,” I say as she passes me, lacing up my shoes, “I promise you, the minute you let the idea of us go, I mean really let it go, someone so much better for you is going to come your way. You’re going to be happy again. I know it. Take care, okay?”

She walks out the door without a response, likely shocked that she didn’t get her way.

37

Avery

“We have to make a pit stop,” I say to Palmer as I scour my email. We’re making the most out of the continental breakfast at her extended-stay hotel. There’s nothing like mass-produced hotel biscuits and gravy. This I can actually make. Gravy isn’t that far off from dip.

“Pit stop where?”

“Cancun,” I mumble as I read Mason’s panic-ridden email about how the presentation got bumped up and why the hell I haven’t been answering my phone. I quickly email him back, letting him know I lost it, and that I will meet him at Legacy Resorts by tomorrow. I don’t bother telling him Palmer will be with me. There’s no need for him to spaz out even more.

“How the hell is that going to work?”

I blow out a breath in frustration. I am so exhausted. It’s been the longest twenty-four hours of my life and not to mention not having my phone threw a real monkey wrench into things. I must’ve left it in the ride-share or dropped it at the Las Vegas airport. I’m not sure. All I know is when I got through airport security, I couldn’t find it anywhere. Luckily, I had my laptop with me, meaning I was able to effectively message Palmer with the airport’s Wi-Fi to tell her when and where to pick me up.

To my great shock and surprise, my Jeep is still perfectly intact. I was expecting at least a broken taillight judging by Palmer’s reckless driving.

“I’m going to have to call in a favor with Royalty Airlines, yet again.” It’s a perk from Dr. Ruth, my mentor, that I try not to abuse, but desperate times, desperate measures. She’s still able to fly anywhere, anytime for free, courtesy of her prior position with the company, and she extends this privilege to me whenever I want. “We park the Jeep in long-term parking at the airport, fly five hours to Cancun, do the presentation, fly back to Albuquerque, and drive back to Las Vegas.”

“Well, that sounds fucking miserable.”

“Yeah, it will be. Ready? Go check out at the front desk. We have to go.”

Palmer’s phone chirps in her annoying ringtone and she screws up her face when she snatches it off the table and checks the caller ID. “Hey, you’re calling me.”

---