Page 27 of Perfectly Imperfect Us
That made me smile even as I blushed alone in the stock room.
Ava:Your fantasies are not true. He kisses even BETTER.
Kadee:*squeal*
Lacey:So have you changed your Facebook status or is it not quite there yet?
Ava:Not quite there yet. So, keep your blabby mouths shut, ladies. This is just a secret between us. And my mom. And probably Aldi who saw us kissing goodbye this morning.
Kadee:*squeal*
Ava:Video chat tonight with all the details. Meanwhile, I gotta go deal with Virgie.
Lacey:Good luck with that. She’s meaner than Skylar when you steal her last dark chocolate bar.
Skylar:Hey! Served you right, you little thief.
I barked out a laugh, pure joy making me feel light on my feet, and shut my phone off, grabbing the first cart of groceries that needed to get on the shelves. As I lined up the bottles of coffee creamer on the shelf in the cooler, I tried to hold on to the magic from our date. I’d felt like I was in a dream, one where a guy like Ryder was enthralled with little old me. The girl with mismatched skin and a job stocking groceries in a run-down pit stop in a tiny town.
A bit of the joy dimmed as my thoughts raced. Was I setting myself up for disappointment by letting my heart trip over itself whenever Ryder was nearby? If I got involved with him now, would I be able to survive the inevitable breakup? Because I knew without a shadow of a doubt, every man I dated after him would pale in comparison.
Could I handle dating male perfection knowing I’d have to settle for imperfect later down the line?
11
Ryder
“You know this doesn’t count, right?” I squeezed Ava’s hand, making sure she stepped over the tree root sticking up in the path as we walked to the open clearing in the forest where we were meeting friends for a tailgating party.
“What do you mean?”
“This doesn’t count as our second date.”
She breathed out a laugh. “You picked me up and drove me here, didn’t you?”
“Fine. It’s date one and a half.” I stopped and spun her into my chest. She wore a yellow tank top and jean shorts, her sandals with the red glossy bow on them not at all cut out for a walk through the forest. I wanted to press her against a tree and not come up for air for an hour or two. Maybe then I’d have gotten enough of her lips to let her go.
Probably not.
“Will you kiss me goodnight when you drop me back off?” She smiled so coyly I couldn’t resist dipping my head and tasting that sassy mouth.
“Of course I will,” I grunted. I’d take every chance she gave me. Ava had become my catnip after one date and I was powerless against her charms.
She smiled and wiggled her way past me, calling over her shoulder, “Better hurry or there’ll be nowhere to sit.”
Max somehow never brought the right amount of chairs to these things, with one or more of us having to stand. He groused that none of us ever brought our own chairs, relying on him instead to set it all up, so we really couldn’t complain. The guy made a good point.
I jogged to take her hand in mine again, lacing our fingers together almost defiantly. We’d be walking into the party together where everyone could see the way I held her to my side, staking my claim in the most caveman of ways. It was funny really. I’d spent the last twelve years covering up any of my real relationships, hoping the media wouldn’t catch wind of anything until we’d already been together for months. This time though, I wanted to shout it from the treetops after one date, letting everyone know Ava was with me. We hadn’t talked about announcing anything or what we even were officially, but she didn’t pull her hand away, stepping confidently into the ring of light around the campfire.
“Hey! They made it.” Max bellowed our arrival from his camp chair, a beer in hand and Skylar in the other.
Kadee jumped out of her chair and came over to hug Ava and then me, her face scrunching into a ridiculous smile when she took in our clasped hands. Heath rolled his eyes at Kadee’s antics, simply lifting a longneck beer bottle in greeting.
As predicted, there was only one chair left, so I walked over to it and had a seat, pulling Ava onto my lap. Her arms came around my neck and I could feel all eyes on us.
“So…” Skylar drawled in the silence, the twang of a country song and the popping of the fire the only thing to be heard over the silence of their unasked questions.
I raised my eyebrows at Ava and she lifted a shoulder, giving me the floor.
