The Magnolia Sisters (Magnolia Sisters #1) - Michelle Major Page 0,91
makes a special recipe for Josie. You should try them. They’re the best.” Oh, shut up, you idiot. He was babbling like a madman.
“I’m going to go,” Avery said slowly. “Please explain to Violet that I needed to check on Spot. She should stop by the carriage house when you get home. I have a gift for her. A little something to congratulate her for the performance.”
“You didn’t have to—”
“Have her stop by.” She took a step back, away from him. He felt the distance like it was the Grand Canyon that separated them. “By herself,” she clarified. “It’s a girl thing. And I...I need a little time.”
“Avery.”
“It’s fine, Gray.”
It was anything but fine yet all he could do was nod and watch her walk away.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“HE OFFERED YOU PUNCH?” Carrie smothered a laugh.
Meredith didn’t bother to hide her loud cackle. “As in... ‘I love you... Want some watered-down punch?’”
Avery dropped her head to her hands, elbows perched on the dining room table in Niall’s run-down antebellum home later that night. “Something like that, only way more awkward.”
“You should have taken a cupcake for the road,” Meredith advised, her expression solemn. “Sunnyside Bakery makes the best. Everyone agrees.”
“She can buy her own cupcakes.” Carrie placed a mug of tea in front of both Avery and Meredith and then slid into a chair at the head of the table. “We can all buy as many cupcakes as we want. No one needs a man to buy them a cupcake.”
Meredith and Avery shared a look. “As much as I appreciate the girl-power sentiment,” Meredith told Carrie, “sometimes a cupcake is just a cupcake. You’re reading too much into it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Besides,” Avery couldn’t help but add, “Josie provided the cupcakes. Gray just offered one to me.”
Meredith tapped her palm on the glossy wood. “We’re getting off topic here. Grayson Atwell, one of the finest male specimens Magnolia has to offer, is in love with our Avs.”
“Stop calling me Avs,” Avery protested automatically but there was no heat in the words. She liked that Meredith said the annoying nickname with affection. Both of her sisters were taking a sisterly amount of interest in this new development with Gray.
Carrie had asked them to meet at the house to sort through several boxes of photographs and mementos she didn’t want to tackle on her own.
After leaving the recital, Avery waited for Violet to come knocking on her door, which the young girl did as soon as she arrived home. Avery had bought an antique brass kaleidoscope that seemed perfect for Gray’s daughter, then found herself uncharacteristically nervous about how Violet would react to the gift.
Turned out there’d been no reason to worry.
“It reminded me of you,” she’d told the girl as Violet unwrapped the carefully packaged box. “It’s colorful and ever changing and kind of a pain in the butt to get to move the right way.”
Violet had turned the apparatus over in her hands, then walked to the window to hold it up to the light.
Wait for it, Avery told herself, grinning when Violet sucked in a sharp breath. Avery knew a rainbow of colors exploded when the light hit the lens as the barrel turned.
The girl stood at the window for several minutes, and emotion spilled through Avery. Gray had said he loved her, and she loved him right back, just as she loved his daughter.
But that didn’t stop her fears from trying to claw their way out of the box where she’d locked them up tight. What if she hurt them? What if she was left with another broken heart?
What if she never wanted to leave Magnolia?
Could she truly make a life in this town?
“It’s okay,” Violet had said when she finally turned around. “I mean, thank you and stuff. I didn’t ask you to come to my recital so you’d buy me something.”
“I know.” Avery moved forward until she could tug on the girl’s braid. “I wanted to, and you were really great in the routine.”