they made him. He’d assumed by her polished appearance that she was like his ex-wife, but this woman constantly surprised him with her heart and the way she cared, even when she didn’t want to.
He followed her toward the noise of Summer Fair, reminding himself to keep his thoughts on the moment and nothing more.
* * *
FOUR HOURS LATER, Avery was hot, sticky and her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Really smiling, not the forced push of muscles that had become her go-to in most social situations.
Her earlier wariness felt like an overreaction now, a conditioned response that had more to do with her past than the present in Magnolia. Or perhaps the fun she’d had today was a result of Gray. As she’d guessed, he seemed to be friends with almost everyone in town. His acceptance of her smoothed things over in a way Avery could have never accomplished on her own. Even when she was with Carrie and Meredith, people remained suspicious of her motives. She was the interloper who wanted to abandon the town to strangers.
Gray simply didn’t allow that to be an issue. He introduced her as his friend, an odd term given their short, combustible history together. No one contradicted his assessment, and Avery slowly slid into the role, finding it fit like a comfortable pair of slippers. She might think he was hot as all get-out. Her body practically hummed with appreciation when the fabric of his T-shirt pulled tight over his chest, but she still managed to relax around him. And Avery typically wasn’t great at relaxing.
“One more try,” he told her as she turned from the glass milk jugs positioned in front of a backdrop painted to look like a snowy mountain scene. They’d been playing arcade games on the fair’s midway for the past half hour. Gray had easily won three prizes in a row at the ring toss. Spot seemed as excited as Avery at the new stuffed animals, but Avery wanted to win something for herself, caught up in the adrenaline of Gray’s victory.
“It’s hopeless,” she said with a sigh. “I have no skill.”
Gray put another dollar on the counter and the high school kid working the booth placed four more plastic rings in front of Avery. “You just need to get the right motion.”
She stifled a laugh and glanced up at him. “Clearly you’re an expert.”
“As a matter of fact...” He gave her an exaggerated wink. “Face forward.”
She turned toward the back of the booth, where the milk jugs had been lined up in neat rows. The object of the game was to flip the ring over a bottle’s neck. A group of preteen boys played next to her, cheering and egging each other on as their plastic rings clattered to the ground. So far only one of them had managed to place three of the four rings over the necks of the bottles in a single turn in order to win a prize. One athletically inclined looking boy and Gray. He’d won at every game she’d challenged him to, and his easy confidence was both appealing and annoying as hell.
He grabbed the four rings in one large hand and stepped closer to her. His front pressed against her back. The scent of his soap and minty gum enveloped her and her body heated for a reason that had nothing to do with the heat and humidity of the day.
“You can’t possibly think this is going to help me concentrate,” she said, her voice unnaturally husky.
He chuckled into her ear. “It’s all in the wrist action.”
“So says the master,” she murmured.
“Focus,” he whispered, which felt impossible with his warm breath tickling her neck.
He dropped a ring into her hand, then encircled her wrist with two fingers. “Stay loose and make the toss gentle.”
Avery was too busy trying to keep her knees from buckling to worry about anything else at the moment. He showed her the motion he wanted her to mimic. Sparks zipped along her skin at the feel of his calloused hand covering hers.
“Now, toss,” he said.
She released the first ring and it arced through the air with far