Page 11 of Perfectly Imperfect Us
“Who’s Tucker and why are you mad at him?” I hollered to her as I walked down the sidewalk to her truck.
Her head whipped up and something turned over in my chest when I saw her. She immediately smiled and I felt twelve inches taller for having wiped the frustration off her face. She hopped out of the truck and slammed the door, not bothering to lock it. Internally, I laughed at myself. I’d forgotten over the years how no one locked anything here in Nickel Bay. I hoped that would never change.
“Ol’ Tucker is my truck and he’s decided he wants a new battery and nothing I say will change his mind. Which means I need to call one of the girls to hitch a ride or I’ll be late.” She stepped up onto the curb and took out her cell phone while I wasted precious time gawking at her bright yellow sundress. Her skin was so tan already I wondered if summer had started early this year in Nickel Bay. Ava was beautiful on any given day, always showing up fully made up like she had a catwalk to get to. I’d spent my whole career around models, yet no one even came close to Ava Mendez. She had a classic beauty and energy that could light up a room that no model had ever matched.
I lurched forward as she put the phone to her ear, seeing my chance rapidly passing me by if I didn’t get my head screwed on straight. “I can take you. I’m headed to the carnival right now actually.”
Today was the start of the annual Nickel Bay Carnival. Eighteen-year-old girls would either be parading around in fancy dresses, hoping to win the Poppy Queen crown or they’d be in short shorts and barely there crop tops, hoping to catch the eyes of all the hungry boys. Us Nickel Heads had spent many a long school year just waiting for class to get out so we could cruise the carnival and find us some girls to flirt with. I could only assume Ava was heading in that direction. The entire town was set to be there like every year.
Ava smiled and took the phone away from her ear. “That would be great, thank you.” She stood there smiling at me, and like I had nothing better to do, I stood there smiling right back.
“Don’t forget a lunch, sweetheart!” Mrs. Mendez waved a brown paper bag from the front porch of Ava’s house. “Oh hey there, Ryder. I heard you were back home.”
Ava groaned, but Mrs. Mendez ignored her by coming down the walkway in a matching pajama set with alpacas all over them and her hair wet. When she reached us, she bundled me up in a hug like all the mothers in Nickel Bay do when they see a kid who needs one.
“Hi, Mrs. Mendez. It’s nice to see you again.” Her eyes were the same green I saw in the ring around Ava’s eyes.
She swatted at my arm playfully. “Oh, you get better looking every year, don’t you? You can call me Julia, sweetheart.”
“Mom. Please.”
I glanced at Ava and liked the way her cheeks were a bit pinker than her makeup called for.
“Thank you, Julia. I was just about to take Ava to the carnival.”
Mrs. Mendez smiled so wide I knew where Ava got her charm from. It was muted a bit in Ava, having equal parts sass to counter the sweet, but maybe that was just with me.
“Oh good! Make sure she eats while she works. She forgets sometimes, you know?”
“Okay, thanks, Mom. We’re good.” Ava grabbed the brown paper bag and hurried off to my SUV. She grabbed the handle, found it locked, and looked back at me with raised eyebrows and a toe tapping out a rhythm on the concrete sidewalk.
See? Sass.
“Goodbye, Julia.”
Ava’s mom gave me another smile and a wave, watching me as I unlocked the car and got in after Ava.
“Your mom’s still watching us,” I said quietly as I pulled on my seatbelt.
Ava buried her face in her hands with a teenage-worthy groan of embarrassment. “I know. You have to drive away and once we turn the corner she’ll go back inside. She’s just like that.”
Though I was charmed by the parental concern, I changed the subject, hoping that would put Ava at ease. “I brought a snack for you too.”
Ava looked up, and when I tossed my head, indicating she look in the backseat, I hit gold.
“Ryder! You actually brought me the flaming hot kind?” She grabbed the bag of Cheetos onto her lap and looked like a kid at Christmas. Funny how a cheap bag of chips could make her smile more genuinely than some of the women I’d gone out with who’d come on vacation to exotic locales with me for my photoshoots.
My cell phone dinged several times, but I ignored it in the cup holder between us. Probably my agent calling with something else he wanted me to do and I’d have to refuse. I wanted today to be fun. Just a day spent at the carnival with my friends. Like old times.
“You gonna get that?” Ava asked after the fifth ding.
I tossed my hair out of my face. I should really get a haircut soon before I was mistaken for Justin Bieber. “Nah. Not important.” She was quiet, so I looked over, seeing her bite her lip. “What’s wrong?”
She spun in the leather seat to face me, her face so beautiful I wanted to stare at it and forget about the road in front of me. “Seeing as how we’re friends now, I need to apologize for what I said to you at Skylar and Max’s wedding. I, um, assumed things based on what I saw on social media and that was wrong of me. And besides, whatever you do with your lady friends is none of my business.”
My gaze went back to the road, not because the road I’d driven a thousand times before needed my undivided attention, but because Ava’s apology didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t like her pushing me away, saying my business wasn’t her concern. Nor did I want to get into that date with Kyly Stone the paparazzi had crashed a few months back. The whole thing wasn’t what Ava—or anyone else—thought. But that secret wasn’t mine to tell, so I’d have to keep my mouth shut.
I cleared my throat. “It wasn’t like that. I don’t treat women like an accessory to get my face on the gossip websites.”
