Page 64 of The Small-Town Seduction Plan

“Why not?” Avery’s arm tightens around me possessively, her voice still sugar-sweet. “It’s like Duke says, ‘quality lasts'. You’d have to be a fool to give up on a classic and go chasing after some flashy imitation.”

Rachel’s cheeks redden. “Anyway, it was good to see you,” she says hurriedly. “Tell your mom I said ‘hi’.”

“You too,” I nod. “Send my best to Percy.”

We walk away. “Percy?” Avery exclaims, the minute we’re out of earshot. “She married a man named Percy?”

“Cartright-Forsyth. The third.”

Avery howls with laughter. “I’m sorry,” she says through the giggles, “I know she broke your heart and all, but Percy?!”

I have to grin. “It gets worse. You know what they named their kid?”

“Oh God, tell me.”

“Percy the fourth… and she’s a girl!”

We wander the festival a while longer, then hit the road back towards Blackberry Cove. The sun is setting, and the heat has mellowed off now. Avery stretches out in the passenger seat, propping her bare feet up on the dashboard – while I try to keep my eyes on the road, and not her long, tanned legs.

Be a damn gentleman, I repeat in my head. But then she wriggles her toes, painted cherry red, and all I can think about is what I could do to make them curl with pleasure–

“Are you OK?”

I snap my head around. “What?”

“Running into Rachel like that,” Avery explains. “You can be over a relationship, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t weird, coming face-to-face with all your past hopes and expectations like that. One of my exes showed up at my wedding, and… well, let’s just say, it wasn’t great.”

I exhale. How do I tell her, Rachel has been the last thing on my mind all day?

“I’m really fine,” I tell her honestly. “After everything I went through with her, all the fighting and drama, it feels like something that happened in another life. To another person.”

“Well… you don’t have to worry,” Avery adds with a smirk. “You win.”

“What?”

“You win the break-up,” she explains.

I chuckle. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Oh no, it really does, at least for us,” Avery insists. “We can pretend not to care, and wish them well, and all that healthy, healed stuff, but someone’s always the winner, and now Rachel knows it’s you. I mean, you’re the one with a thriving business, and, oh yeah, a gorgeous movie star on your arm.” She gives me a playful smile, and I can tell, she’s still trying to make me feel better.

She doesn’t realize, I’ve never felt better– and not because I won some petty scorekeeping, getting one over on my ex.

No, I won because I’m the man sitting beside Avery right now, watching her hum along to the radio, and smudge up my damn window with her bare toe prints.

Right where she’s supposed to be.

I shake it off. “Hey, you want to see something?” I ask suddenly. We’re just a couple of miles from my new project, and for some reason, I find myself wanting to show her.

“Does it involve lobsters?” Avery asks, with a groan.

I chuckle. “No shellfish, I promise.”

“Then I’m in.”

I turn off the main highway, and follow a winding road through trees and shrub grasses until I reach the main estate– or, what used to be one.

“Oh wow,” Avery scrambles down from the truck, taking in the sprawling, overgrown ruins set overlooking a quiet curve of the bay. “Is this a new project of yours?”

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