Page 63 of Avenged

And that was the truth. The drawings I made were for all the people I’d loved over the years. There were pictures of Dad from before Mom’s death. There were pictures of Skip when I’d loved him the most. There were pictures of Leena and Mandy and their little grandbaby. There were even pictures of Travis I’d sneaked in when he didn’t know it.

My heart squished again.

They were drawings of the people I loved.

? ? ?

The next morning, I woke as the sun was just lighting up the water. The first thing that came back to me was joy. Joy and happiness. A beautiful, magical day that I’d keep in my heart and soul and bring out when the days were dark. When life was dark. Di Felix’s and Violet’s words came back to me. I put my hands to my cheeks and flushed again, thinking about it. I looked over at my sister, her breathing slow and steady, undisturbed. She’d given me a beautiful day. I felt like I needed to give her something back. I needed to show her I believed in her as much as she believed in me.

I rolled quietly out of bed, my body objecting as I did so, the pain reminding me I’d done too much the day before, reminding me my body was still broken. But I couldn’t dwell on it. I wouldn’t. The pain was just one bad thing, and I had Amy Harmon’s five good things to guide me. I had Violet, Mandy and Leena because they were always a pair, a roof over my head, a job that kept us going, and my life. For today, I also had Travis. I wouldn’t always be able to have him. He would leave, and I’d still be here. But for today, I had six good things. I’d take it.

I pulled on a pair of old shorts and a T-shirt I only used to clean in. I moved as quietly as I could past Travis, who was asleep on the couch with a blanket falling from his midsection and showing his muscled torso. I had to stop and catch my breath.

He was magnificent.

He was his own work of art. Inside and out. Skin to core, just like I’d said Ana Perez had been. I was very sure I hadn’t earned him coming into my life. I hadn’t earned him helping me…us. But I was grateful for it. It was hard to swallow, having more people in my life I could never pay back, but I’d just focus on the gratitude and not the rest.

I forced my eyes and my body to turn away and quietly left the house. I popped open the hood of the Civic, grabbed my small toolbox from the trunk, and got to work on removing the battery. I’d done it before. Several times before. I was sure there was something wrong with the car that it went through batteries like people went through shoes, but I couldn’t afford to take it to a mechanic, so this was going to have to do the trick for now. A new battery.

I had just gotten it out and set it on a cardboard box that I’d pulled from the shed when the front door opened. Travis came out in a pair of workout shorts and a T-shirt. His hair was getting just long enough that I probably could have run my fingers through it, and it changed his look somehow, softening it.

“You’re up early,” he said.

I nodded. “I couldn’t sleep.”

He joined me at the hood of the Civic. “You’ve already removed the battery?”

I nodded.

His eyes took in my face, my lips, my beat-up T-shirt, and then back to my lips. “It’s kind of sexy.”

I snorted. “What?”

“That you know how to work on your car.”

I couldn’t help a laugh escaping me. I showed him my hands that still had grease under the nails from taking the battery out and said sarcastically, “Sure, this is a real sexy look.”

He looked down at my hands and then back to my eyes, swallowing hard. “It is. Believe me.”

“I think you’re crazy.”

He nodded. “There have been a lot of moments these days that I kind of have to agree with you.”

His hand moved to my face, rubbing a thumb on my cheek, and my entire body came alive. His voice, when he spoke, had gone down a whole notch. “You have some grease here, too.”

I pulled up the bottom of my T-shirt to wipe the smudge, and his eyes traveled to my exposed skin. I dropped the shirt. Heat filled me, my body reacting to his look and his nearness as it did every time we were together. Like it had multiple times the day before when he’d been at my side at the convention.

It was like the kiss we’d shared had opened up a new door in my heart that I was having a hard time shutting. Even when I reminded myself that his time in New London was temporary, or that my twisted body wasn’t going to be good for anyone long term, it still refused to stay closed.

Violet was the priority. I took a step backward, away from him.

“Can I ask you for another favor?” I asked.

“Whatever it is, yes,” he replied.

I smiled. “You need to be careful answering like that. You have no idea what I’m going to ask you.”

He shrugged. “You barely let anyone do anything for you as it is, so I seriously doubt you’re going to ask me to hand over my savings account so you can run away to Tahiti.”

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