Page 21 of Just One Chance
Avery could almost picture Shelley and David together.Almost.Shelley would agree to it, she was sure, but only because Avery had told her David was a doctor. That kind of thing had always impressed Shelley.
And that didn’t sit right in Avery’s mind. David wasn’t just a status symbol or a six-figure income. He was a real guy who had a lot more to offer than his paycheck. But then, he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy that had dates lined up at his front door. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing if status got the girlonthe date, as long as it wasn’t the only reason she stuck around. Avery grunted in frustration. Why did she care so much in the first place?
She didn’t.
Sheshouldn’t.
She wasn’t going to think about it anymore.
“Should we just keep standing here staring at each other?” David said.
Avery brought her focus back to the moment. “Sorry, let’s walk,” Avery said quickly, heading off again down the beach. She kept her eyes trained on the ground, looking for signs of the smooth, white sand dollars she knew they’d find hiding in the sand.
“You seem like you’ve got a lot on your mind,” David said as he fell in step beside her. “I can see you thinking.”
“Yeah?” As long as he couldn’t seewhatshe was thinking, they might make it through the rest of the night. “I guess I do. Work stuff, and Tucker stuff. Family stuff.” She reached down and pulled a sand dollar out of the sand, rinsing it in the surf that swirled around her feet. She held it up. “See? The bottom is completely smooth. No little purple hairs. That’s how you know it’s already dead.”
“Got it,” David said. “What sort of family stuff? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Nothing big,” Avery said. “My parents just keep pestering me to move upstate so I can be closer to them and my brother, Shawn. Shawn’s wife is from Greenville, and as soon as they had kids, my parents moved up so they could help out. I think my parents dream of perfect Sunday afternoon meals with all of us together.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” David said.
“Not at all. But, who wants to live in the Upstate? How could I when I’m used to this?” She held her arms out, motioning to the beach around her then spun around, her face tipped up to the sky. The first stars had appeared, twinkling next to the faintly red light she immediately recognized as Mars. “If you come out here in the wintertime, there’s an hour just before the sun sets when you can see four planets at once, stretching in an arc across the sky.” She pointed at Mars, then slowly traced a line across and down toward the horizon. “Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and then Venus.” She looked back at David. “Jupiter will be out later tonight, but . . .” She shrugged. ‘The winter sky is better.”
David studied her a moment. “You really do love it here, don’t you?”
Avery smiled. “As much as I’ve ever loved anything.”
David reached down and picked up his own sand dollar, holding it up for Avery to inspect. “This one’s good, right?”
She pulled it from his hand, her fingers grazing against his in a way that shouldn’t have made her heart skip but did anyway. “Yep. That’s a keeper,” she said before handing it back.
They walked a few more steps in silence before David spoke again. “I love that about you.”
Avery looked at him and smiled. “What?”
“That you feel so passionately about things. That . . . I don’t know. It just seems like everything you do, you do it like you really mean it. I wish I could be more like that.”
“But you are like that, aren’t you? You’re clearly passionate about your work.”
“My work, yes. But you’re like that with everything.”
Avery stifled a laugh. “It got me in trouble when I was a kid. My mother used to tell me I had the ideas of a genius, but the forethought and impulse control of a drunken teenager.”
“Sounds like a dangerous combination,” David said. “But seeing as how I’ve only lived here a couple of months and I’ve already stitched you up once, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Avery bumped his shoulder with hers. “Hey, now. Don’t be judging. There was nothing unsafe about pressure washing my roof. That was just bad luck.”
“Weren’t you pressure washing your roof whileonyour roof?”
Avery rolled her eyes. “Fine. Maybe I could have been slightly safer. But there was one corner that I just couldn’t reach from the ladder. What else was I supposed to do?”
“I really do admire your boldness. If anything, I had too much impulse control growing up. It seems like all I did was watch from the sidelines, calculating the likelihood that I might get hurt or that someone might laugh at me. I went to a pool party once and spent an hour and forty-five minutes sitting on the side of the pool watching everyone else swim. I finally found the courage to jump in fifteen minutes before the party was over. It was the best fifteen minutes I had all summer and I just remember thinking, why didn’t I jump in sooner? What was I so afraid of, you know?”
Avery shrugged. “I definitely recommend jumping in the pool, but . . . I don’t know. I think you’re pretty okay just the way you are.”
David smiled and Avery’s stomach tightened, some involuntary reflex that both thrilled and frustrated her at the same time. “Pretty okay, huh?” David said.
