Page 22 of Just One Chance
“Can I try something?” Avery stopped, turning David to face her. “Just for a minute.”
David raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. The look in your eye makes me think I should maybe say no.”
She bit her lip. “Just trust me.”
The look on his face said hedidtrust her. He nodded slightly, permission to move forward with whatever it was she had planned. Slowly, Avery reached up and gently slid David’s glasses from his face. She folded the glasses and hooked them over the collar of her shirt then reached for David’s hair, running her fingers through the front, lifting it at the roots and mussing it just enough for him to look a little more casual. Finally, she unbuttoned the top button of his collared shirt. “There,” she said, her voice soft. “Now you look like you’re dressed for the beach.” Her hands lingered on his chest for a beat longer than necessary, long enough that she could feel the pounding of his heart through his shirt.
David cleared his throat. “Dressed for the beach but too blind to actually see it.”
Avery’s eyes widened. “That bad, huh?”
“Definitely that bad.”
“Fine. You can have the glasses back. But first, give me your phone.”
David pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked the screen then handed it over. Avery turned so she and David faced the same direction, then leaned in before holding up the phone and snapping a photo of the two of them together. She returned the phone, then returned the glasses.
David put the glasses on before pulling up the photo. He studied it closely, Avery leaning over his arm to look too. “I hardly look like myself,” he said.
“You look exactly like yourself,” Avery said. “Just a slightly more relaxed version. Will you text it to me?”
David nodded, and quickly sent her the photo. “Remember a few weeks back, when I told you my friends tried to make me over?” he asked, his tone a little sheepish. “They told me I didn’t need to button my shirts all the way up, not unless I’m wearing a tie. I guess old habits are hard to break.”
Avery suddenly worried she’d done a bad thing in changing the way David looked. He definitelylookedmore relaxed, but it was more important that hefeelrelaxed. And that meant he ought to be able to dress however he wanted. She wasn’t shallow enough to care more about how he looked than how he felt.
“You know what? I think I messed up,” Avery said, willing to own her mistake. “You should wear your shirts however you’re most comfortable.”
David laughed softly and shook his head. “That’s just it. Thisismore comfortable. I like it. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but social anxiety messes with your head in weird ways. Dressing the same way, like I always have, feels safer. If I make a change, then I’m creating something new to worry about. Do I look okay? Am I pulling it off? Do people think I’m trying too hard? Logically, I know people don’t think about me near as much as my anxiety tells me they do. But it’s hard to always realize that in the moment.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense,” Avery said. “My brother dealt with some pretty intense anxiety growing up. That doesn’t sound all that different from the things he used to tell me.” Memories of the conversations she used to have with Shawn filled her mind. He’d always turned to her for reassurance, which she’d willingly given. He’d always said she’d kept him grounded.
“If it matters,” Avery said, stopping in her tracks. An extra big wave washed up over her feet before she could continue, threatening to soak her shorts. She danced out of the waves, dragging David with her. “If it matters,” she said, trying again, “I think youcanpull this off. You do look okay, great even, and you definitely don’t look like you’re trying too hard.” She smiled up at him. “You shouldn’t worry.”
He smiled in a way that warmed her all the way to her center. “Thanks, Avery.”
When they reached the lighthouse, they turned back the way they had come and returned to Avery’s house to finish dinner. The longer they talked, the less Avery worried about whether or not she actually liked David. Whether or not sheshouldlike David. There was something about him that calmed her, that made her feel steady and sure of herself.
She’d been surprised when she met him to learn that he worked in an ER, but the more she got to know him, the easier it was to imagine how good he was at his job. He had a certain deliberateness that she admired. He was the kind of man she couldn’t imagine angry—the kind that measured his words before speaking them, that thought about consequences, that cared about respect. When he forgot to be nervous, she found him utterly charming. And hedidforget. And that made Avery happy.
***
“I’m not sure I understand what the problem is,” Melba said, her arms tucked securely around Jasper’s middle. “It sounds like you like him and he likes you. Isn’t that the point?”
Avery pulled Cheerwine out of the refrigerator Melba kept plugged in on her screened in back porch. She didn’t need to ask. She’d been pulling Cheerwine out of Melba’s fridge since she was old enough to hold the bottle by herself. Her certainty that the rounded vintage fridge with the worn silver handle wouldalwaysbe stocked with the tall glass bottles full of the South’s favorite soda was as unyielding and permanent as her certainty that the moon influenced the tides, and that shrimp and grits was unequivocally the best seafood dish of all time. “But I don’t like him.” Avery dropped back into her rocking chair and used the hem of her shirt to twist off the top of her soda. “I mean, I do like him. As a friend. But this thing with Tucker…”
Melba scoffed. “Tucker can take his fancy deck shoes and go back to the yacht club where he belongs.”
“Be nice, Mel. I loved him,” Avery said. “Maybe still love him.”
Melba stared out toward the water, her jaw set in a firm line. “And I love bourbon,” she finally said. “The way it smells, tastes, the way it warms me from the inside out. But it almost killed me so I gave it up thirty years ago and I haven’t looked back since.”
Avery rolled her eyes. She’d known Melba since she was three years old. The woman had a right to speak her mind without filtering, without worrying about hurting Avery’s feelings. But comparing Tucker to alcoholism? That was pushing it. “Fine, I get it. We can love things that are bad for us. But what makes you so sure Tucker is bad for me? He’s a nice guy, Melba. He was good to me.”
“Maybe he was good to you.” Melba watched as Jasper jumped off her lap and walked to his water bowl in the corner. “But I don’t think heseesyou. Not in the ways that matter. And that’s a shame because you’re something special, Avery. Inside and out.”
“What makes you so sure David is any better than Tucker? What if he doesn’tseeme either?”
Melba shot her a knowing look and shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve been around a long time, sugar. I’ve got good instincts. Plus, I see the way you light up when you talk about him. Your words might be telling me one thing, but your eyes are saying something else altogether.”
