“Uh-huh…”
Carter scuffed the toe of his sneaker across the pavement like he’d been doing since the day she met him. “Um…I was wondering if…”
“Yes?”
He took a deep breath and said on the exhale, “If you’d like to come with me.”
“Withyou?”
His face colored. “Yeah.”
“As in…like a date?”
“Um…yeah. If that’s what you wanna call it.”
Ava rocked back on her boot heels, shocked. “I thought you were dating Ainsley Millcott.”
He shook his head.
“But…you didn’t mean to ask me, did you? Youmeantto ask her.”
His crestfallen expression told her she’d blundered. “Imeantto get kicked in the nuts, I guess,” he muttered. “I shoulda known you’d just be…” Shaking his head again, he turned away.
Shit. “No, wait, Carter. Hold up a sec.”
He gave her a wary sideways glance.
She forced a smile. “I just didn’t think you’d ever do something like that is all. Ask me out. Guys like you–”
“Are stupid?”
“ – go for girls who are –not me. I’m surprised.”
He twitched a wry half-smile. “Surprised, but still kicking me in the nuts.”
“No…” Ava sighed. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t like Carter inthat way, no, but she hadn’t counted on that mattering – not to him, of all people. In the moment, she found herself, more than anything, caught up in a desire not to hurt his feelings – and a need to distance herself from Mercy’s hurtful indifference. Mercy didn’t want her. That was plain. So what was to keep her from seeking succor somewhere else? Maybe if Carter threw his arm across her shoulders and bent to kiss her in the party lights of Hamilton House, it wouldn’t shatter her heart the way just looking at Mercy did.
She wasn’t a girl who made snap decisions, but that’s what she did. “Sure,” she said. “I’d love to go with you.”
Now it was Carter’s turn to be surprised. “You would?”
“Yep.”Smile, smile at him, she reminded herself.See, you’re not just a scary biker chick.
He studied her a moment, making sure she was serious. Then: “Great.” His shoulders lifted; his face brightened. “I’ll pick you up around eight?”
“Sounds good.”
What did they do now? Feeling awkward and foolish, she shook his hand, and tried to force herself to see him differently as he walked to his Mustang. Nice wide shoulders, narrow hips; nice ass. Blonde-and-blue and worth more than a few fantasies.
Carter Michaels had everything going for him.
Except he wasn’t Mercy, and Ava didn’t how else to measure a man.
Twelve
Five Years Ago
“I think it’s great.” Maggie was using her fake-cheerful voice, the one she used to mask her anxiety. “You need to start spending some time with boys your own age, instead of the club boys.”
