Page 38 of Forever & Always You
I move toward him, closing that gap I created. That smirkis so gorgeous, it makes me feel dizzy, like the ground under my feet is unstable as I bring myself to stand in front of him. I think I’m severely crushing on Austin Pierce in a way I have never crushed on anyone before. There goes my racing heartbeat again, and the goosebumps, and the nervous tremor in my hands .?.?.
Austin cups my cheeks and tilts my face up. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, grazing his lips over mine, “for this morning.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper back, “for everything.”
“You better be.” He presses his lips to mine, sinking us both into a kiss that’s so soft and simple, just his mouth and mine for a moment in time I want to memorize forever. Austin draws back, his smile reaching his eyes. “Now be a good girl today, and you’ll get more later.”
I throw my head back to the sky, Austin’s hands still cupped around my jaw. “Lord, please. Take this man away from me.”
Austin laughs and angles my head back down again so he can plant one final peck on my lips. “C’mon, loser. Start walking.”
And the walk isn’tthatbad. We stick to the shade beneath buildings and trees as the industrial park gradually eases into residential neighborhoods, and the conversation with Austin is justsoeasy that time passes quickly. Around him, I don’t need to think before I speak. There are never any unnatural pauses in our chat. We bounce off one another, and I haven’t had this much social interaction with another human being inmonths.It’s been pretty damaging to my mental health to keep to myself as much as I have been the past few years, and being around Austin is lifting my mood an immeasurable amount. We even exchange our phone numbers, finally.
And as we approach Austin’s parents’ house, I’m too happy to even be nervous.
It’s a lovely neighborhood. Not a private gated community with extravagant homes like Austin’s neighborhood, but a verydown-to-earth street with cute Colonial homes and kids’ bikes left out in front yards. It’s a huge step up from the projects they once lived in and I’m so glad they found their way out of there.
“This is really nice,” I say as we step up onto the porch. There’s even a car on the drive, and Austin grew up without his parents ever owning one. It seems things have really turned around for all of them, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s thanks to Austin taking care of them. “Did you help them out?”
“No,” Austin says. “They moved pretty soon after I left for college. Dad’s still a trucker and on the road half the time, but Mom finished her studying and climbed from custodian to nurse to now practitioner. And my grandmother passed, so there was a little inheritance there, too.”
“Oh,” I say. “I’m sorry about your grandmother, though I’m glad things got better for all of you.”
“I won’t lie. With their schedules, I had no idea either of them would even be home.”
I narrow my eyes. “You made me walk twenty minutes on the off chance they would be?”
“Sun’s out, Gabby,” he says, smiling. “Appreciate it.” He raps his knuckles against the door before pushing it open, calling out, “Mom? Dad? It’s me.”
I follow him through the door, nervously toying with the ends of my extra curly hair. Thanks, humidity. Austin’s right—I’ve met his parents before, many times back when we were kids, but I haven’t interacted with them at all since my friendship with Austin blew up. Whether or not he ever told them the full extent of how I treated him, I have no clue, but I’m walking in here braced for hostility.
No one calls back to him. No one comes running through the house.
Austin furrows his eyebrows as he advances through the house with me close on his heels, and I note that it feels exactlyhow their old apartment in the projects used to feel. Honestly, kind of a cluttered mess. Belongings scattered everywhere, photo frames stuck haphazardly on the walls, the kitchen countertops covered in mail and cables. The complete opposite of the perfectly manicured home I grew up in, so spotless it was like no one lived there at all. Austin may have grown up in a cramped apartment, but at least it breathed life.
“Oh, they’re out back,” he says, pulling open the door to the yard.
Outside, his parents relax in lawn chairs, coffee mugs in hand, and I think of my mom sitting in the yard all by herself, drinking wine and reading her books, when once upon a time she would sit outside laughing with Dad.
“Austin!” Caroline exclaims, sitting upright from the lawn chair in surprise. “I didn’t know you were stopping by.”
“And by some miracle, you’ve caught us both for once!” Mike adds, and I’m impressed that I still remember both their names. He dumps his mug on the small glass table—triggered—between the lawn chairs and gets to his feet. “How’s it going, bud? Who’s this?”
Mike looks at me curiously, and I feel myself wishing to shrink away behind the safety of Austin’s tall figure, except Austin takes a giant step to the side to fully reveal me, and I’m left exposed with no place to hide.
“You guys remember Gabrielle,” Austin says, but there’s the slightest hint of nerves in his voice. Maybe he has no idea what to expect, either. “From across the street?”
“Oh,” Mike says flatly, and the polite smile on his face immediately rearranges itself into a frown. He exchanges a look with Caroline, who scowls in response before casting a scornful look in my direction.
Yep, they hate me, which is to be expected and is no less than I deserve, but which now makes this very awkward.
“Hi,” I say sheepishly, but neither of them even replies. It’s absolutely mortifying, being ignored with such contempt. Austin bringing me here was a terrible idea.
Caroline stands from her lawn chair and treads warily toward us. She places a hand on Austin’s arm and studies him thoroughly. “Honey, what’s going on? Why is she here?”
“We’re working some things out,” Austin says, checking in on me out of the corner of his eye. Perhaps he’s regretting this idea, too. Maybe he’s regrettingeverything,but I don’t want him to regret giving me a second chance. I don’t want his parents putting doubt in his mind, so despite the absolute look ofdeathhis father is currently giving me, I bravely shuffle closer to him.
“Now why the hell would you be so stupid as to get in contact with her again?” Mike asks, shaking his head in disapproval as though I’m not standing right here in front of him. Mike’s a rather intimidating man—tall just like Austin, but built like a wrestler, with broad shoulders and muscular arms covered in decades-old tattoos that have seen better times.
