Page 96 of I Can't Help It

I’m sure it’s mostly because of the latter reason though.

Maybe I’ll just grab some food, then disappear upstairs—

“Luke!”

Ava’s gaze meets mine, and she leaves the table to come this way.

“Hey,” she says, her voice hesitant as she stops in front of me. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to talk, but I hated how we left things yesterday, so I knew I had to at least try.”

While I’m glad that she doesn’t hate me, I’m still suspicious of Wyatt being here too. Would Ava actually trap me into telling Wy about us? However, before I can even ask her about it, she’s already putting my worries to rest. And I feel beyond stupid for assuming the worst.

“Wyatt came down for breakfast though, and asked if he could sit with me, so that changed my original plan,” she continues to speak. “But maybe we can talk after breakfast? Alone? Maybe in your room?”

Those words shouldn’t be used so closely together, and yet I find myself nodding in agreement. “Yeah, we can talk in my room after breakfast.”

“Good.” She graces me with a smile, one that’s bigger and brighter than the smile she gave Wyatt, and I resist the urge to draw her into a hug. “Now, go get some food, and I’ll grab an extra chair for you.”

Since I don’t want the two of them alone longer than necessary, I waste no time in going through the breakfast buffet. If there was a race for who could fill up their plate the fastest, I would be the winner.

“Morning, bro,” Wyatt greets me as I claim the chair that Ava placed at the end of the table. “How’s it going?”

I want to ignore him, but I know that’s not an option.

“Hungry as heck,” I say, stabbing a forkful of my scrambled eggs. “How was it with all of you sleeping in the same room?”

Look at that, I can be civil with my best friend even though I’m convinced we both want the same girl.

“Well, Trista snores and Carter kicked me in his sleep,” he replies with a sigh, “but then I had a dream that I was a spy working on a top-secret mission, and it was freaking awesome. Now I know why they make so many of those movies.” He drinks some of his coffee, and then looks at Ava. “I’m glad you’re feeling better this morning. Luke said you were pretty tired yesterday.”

Unfortunately, Wyatt was the first one to notice that Ava was gone last night. I tried not to make a big deal about it, but he was worried anyway. Which made me feel even guiltier because I was the reason why Ava went up to her room.

“Yeah, these last few days have just been really eventful.” Ava spreads some apple butter on her biscuit. “I guess everything kind of caught up to me.”

“Well, we’re supposed to be leaving tonight,” Wyatt drawls, using his free hand to tousle his messy hair, “and you guys are staying until Saturday?”

I swallow my food before correcting him, “Friday. We’re leaving Friday.”

Which means we have like, two and a half days left?

It’s hard to believe our on-site visit is almost over, it feels like we just got here…

Wyatt takes a few more gulps of his coffee. “So, what’s been your favorite part of the work trip? Besides getting to see me, that is.”

He offers a lazy grin, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

Freaking Wyatt. Of course, he’d say something like that.

“I think it would be hard to choose a favorite part,” Ava muses, tapping her painted nails against her glass of milk. “But one of the town locals suggested a gazebo for us to check out, and it was amazing.”

My pulse jumps at her reply because I know she’s not talking about the gazebo.

She couldn’t choose a favorite part, but she thought of our first kiss.

“Amazing?” Wyatt echoes with creased eyebrows. “Wow, that’s pretty high praise for a gazebo. How about you, Luke? What’s been your favorite part?”

Easy. Ava has been my favorite part about this work trip.

However, since that answer is taboo, I settle on something else.

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